her hands to touch first the twine, then the scrap-
And the bit of fiber shot across to the twine like an arrow loosed from a bow.
'Now you will see the key to entering a locked room-now that I have proved that this was the mechanism by which the trick was accomplished.'
She went over to the door to the seneschal's chamber. She wedged the hook under the bar on the door, and lowered the bar so that it was only held in place by the hook; the hook was kept where it was by the length of twine going over the door itself. The other length of twine Kethry threaded under the door. Then she closed the door-
The second piece of twine jerked; the hook came free, and the bar thudded into place. And the whole contrivance was pulled up over the door and through the upper crack by the first piece.
All eyes turned toward the seneschal-whose white face was confession enough.
'Lady Myria was certainly grateful enough-'
'If we'd let her, she'd have given us all the seneschal stole,' Kethry replied, waving at the distant figures on the keep wall. 'I'm glad you talked her out of it.'
'Greeneyes, what she gave us was plenty. As it is, we'll have to send a good chunk of it back to Liha'ir-den to bank with the rest of the Clan possessions. I'm not really comfortable walking around with this much coin in my saddlebags.'
'Will she be all right, do you think?'
'Now that her brother's here, I don't think she has a thing to worry about. She's gotten back all the loyalty of her lord's people and more besides. All she needed was a strong right arm to beat off unwelcome suitors, and she's got that now! Warrior's Oath-I'm glad that young monster wasn't one of the challengers-I'd never have lasted past the first round!'
'Tarma-'
The swordswoman raised an eyebrow at Kethry's unwontedly serious tone.
'If you-did all that because you think you owe me-'
'I 'did all that' because we're she'enedran,' she replied, a slight smile warming her otherwise forbidding expression. 'No other reason is needed.'
'But-'
'No 'buts,' Greeneyes. Besides, I happen to know you'd have more than repaid anything I did. Puzzle that one out, oh, discoverer of keys!'
A WOMAN'S WEAPON
These Tarma and Kethry stories are not in any particular order, since I didn't write them chronologically. This one was inspired by the rather sexist comment that 'poison is a woman's weapon,' when I believe that police records show a poisoner is more likely to be a man.
On the other hand, since most women are still physically weaker and smaller than men, they tend to take revenge in an indirect fashion. While it is true that very few men will sneak up on you when you're asleep and chop important anatomical parts off, it is equally true that most men taking revenge blow large holes in their opponent, rendering the use of those anatomical parts moot. Which may or may not prove that, as Kipling asserted, 'the female of the species is deadlier than the male.'
The weather was usually more of a plague to a traveling freelance mercenary than something to be enjoyed, but today was different. Such a bright fall day, warm and sunny, should have been perfect. As Tarma and her partners rode over golden-grassed hill after undulating hill, even the warsteeds frisked a little, kicking up puffs of dust from the road with each hoofbeat, and they were at the end of the day's journey. But Tarma shena Tale'sedrin suddenly wrinkled her nose as a breeze so laden with a foul odor it could have been used as a weapon assaulted her senses.
'Feh!' she exclaimed, jerking her head back so violently that one of her braids flopped over her shoulder. 'What in hell is--'
Her answer came as she and her partners, the sorceress Kethry and the great kyree Warrl, came over the crest of the next hill. The unsightly blotch on the grassy vale below them could only have been put there by the hand of man.
