Wind Rider's Oath

extent. And so is the question of their marriages. Their more diehard opponents argue that since their precious charter severs all familial obligations, it precludes the creation of new ones, which means no war maid marriage has any legal validity in their eyes. And there really is some question, I understand, in this instance. I doubt very much that Gartha had any intention of precluding the possibility of war maid marriages, but Baron Tellian's senior magistrate tells me some of the controlling language is less precise than it ought to be. According to him, everyone knows it's a matter of technicalities and reading the letter of the law, not its spirit, but apparently the problems do exist. And, to be perfectly honest, from what he said-and a couple of things he didn't say-I think the war maids have done their own bit to keep the waters muddied.'

'Why would they do that?' Kaeritha asked. 'Unless . . . Oh. The children.'

'Exactly. If war maid marriages have no legal standing, then every child of a war maid is technically illegitimate.'

'Which would take them out of the line of inheritance, unless there were no legitimate heirs at all,' Kaeritha said with a nod of understanding, but her expression was troubled.

'I can follow the logic,' she continued after a moment, 'but it seems awfully shortsighted of them. Or maybe like the triumph of expedience. It may prevent their children from being yanked away from them and drawn into a system they wanted out of, but it also prevents them from extending the legal protections of their own families to those same children.'

'Yes, it does,' Brandark agreed. 'On the other hand, their own courts and judges don't see it that way, and for the most part, the charters which create their free-towns extend the jurisdiction of their judges to all of the citizens of those towns. The problem comes with legal cases which cross the boundaries between the war maids' jurisdiction and those of more traditional Sothoii nobles.'

'Tomanak,' Kaeritha sighed. 'What a mess!'

'Well, it isn't after being just the tidiest situation in the world,' Bahzell agreed. 'Still and all, it's one the Sothoii have been working at for two or three centuries now. There's those as have some mighty sharp axes to grind, but for the most part, they've learned how to be getting on with one another.'

' 'For the most part' still leaves a lot of room for potential trouble, though,' Kaeritha pointed out. 'And somehow, I don't think He'd be sending me off to deal with a crop of Sothoii who were 'getting on with one another.' Do you?'

'Well, as to that,' Bahzell replied with a crooked smile, 'no.'

* * *

It was still raining when Kaeritha left Hill Guard . . . of course.

At least it wasn't a torrential downpour, she told herself encouragingly as she started down the steep approach road from Baron Tellian's ancestral keep. The Wind Plain was actually a huge, high plateau which, for the most part, was one vast ocean of grass and occasionally interspersed patches of ancient forest. The terrain might fairly be described as 'rolling,' but there weren't very many true hills on it, so, over the centuries, those which did exist had exhibited a distinct tendency to attract towns and fortifications. Hill Guard had come into existence in exactly that fashion the better part of eight hundred years ago when Halyu Bowmaster, the first Lord Warden of Balthar, had looked about for a suitable spot for the capital of his new holding. Now the city of Balthar sprawled out for several miles from the castle which brooded down over it from above.

The Sothoii weren't great city builders. For the most part, their people continued to follow their ancestors' pastoral lifestyle. While the Wind Plain remained the heart of their realm, they'd also acquired extensive holdings to the east, below the towering plateau. Those lower regions enjoyed a far milder climate, and a substantial portion of the vast Sothoii horse and cattle herds were wintered in those more salubrious surroundings. But the huge stud farms where the magnificent Sothoii warhorses were bred and trained remained where tradition insisted they must-atop the Wind Plain. And for whatever reason, the Sothoii coursers flatly refused to live anywhere else.

Horses-and coursers-required a lot of space, and the Sothoii population by and large was scattered sparsely about the Wind Plain, watching over its herds. That produced a lot of villages and small towns, but not very many cities. Which, conversely, meant that what cities there were tended to be quite large.

They were also well maintained, and Kaeritha moved briskly along the wide, straight avenue on the new mount Tellian had insisted upon giving her. She'd argued about accepting it, but not, she was guiltily aware, very hard. Any Sothoii warhorse was worth a prince's ransom, and the mare Tellian had bestowed upon Kaeritha was a princess among her own kind. Smaller and lighter than the heavier cavalry horses of other lands, the winter-hardy Sothoii warhorse was perfectly suited to the swift, deadly, archery-dominated tactics of the people who had bred it. Indeed, only the coursers themselves excelled its combination of speed and endurance.

And unlike Kaeritha, the warhorses seemed perfectly content with the Wind Plain's soggy spring weather.

She chuckled damply at the thought and reached down to pat the mare's shoulder. The horse flicked her ears in acknowledgment of the caress, and Kaeritha smiled. The mare's dark chestnut coloring, even darker at the moment thanks to the rain, probably accounted for her name, but Kaeritha still felt that naming such an affectionate creature 'Dark War Cloud Rising' was just a bit much. She'd promptly shortened it to 'Cloudy,' which had earned her a rather pained look from Tellian. His stable master, on the other hand, had only grinned, and from the readiness with which Cloudy answered to her new name, Kaeritha suspected that the stable hands had employed a similar diminutive before she ever came along.

A packhorse trotted along at Cloudy's heels. Even he, although far more plebeian than the aristocratic warhorse, was a magnificent creature. He would have been happily accepted as a superior light cavalry mount anywhere but among the Sothoii, and Kaeritha knew she had never been better mounted in her life. Which, she reflected, was saying something, given the care the Order of Tomanak took when it came to equipping their god's champions.

Despite Balthar's size, there was very little traffic as she approached the city's East Gate. The weather undoubtably had a little something to do with that, she thought, looking past the open gate to the rain blowing across the road beyond and rippling the endless spring grass of the Wind Plain. Sothoii roads were not, by and large, up to Axeman standards. Few highways outside the Empire itself were, but the Sothoii's efforts came up shorter than most, and Kaeritha felt an undeniable sinking sensation as she contemplated the one before her. It was straight enough-not surprisingly, given the unobstructed terrain of the Wind Plain-but that was about all she could say for the broad line of mud stretching out before her.

The officer commanding the gate guard saluted her respectfully as she passed, and she nodded back with equal courtesy. Yet even as she did, she wondered how the officer might have greeted her if not for the gold and green badge of the Order of Tomanak Tellian's seamstresses had embroidered across the front of her poncho.

Then she was through the gate, and the gentle pressure of a heel sent Cloudy trotting down the last bit of slope towards the waiting road.

Chapter Ten

'I apologize for intruding, Milord, but someone has arrived to see you.'

'Indeed?' Baron Tellian paused with his glass half-raised and looked up at his majordomo with a slight, inquiring frown. 'Who is it, Kalan?' His tone added another, unspoken question-And why is his arrival important enough for you to disturb my lunch?

'It's Sir Yarran Battlecrow, Milord. He says he carries an urgent message from Lord Warden Glanharrow,'the majordomo said, in a calm, unflustered voice, and Tellian's eyes narrowed. Then he nodded.

'Thank you, Kalan,' he said. 'Please have him shown into my study. See to it that he's offered a chance to wash up first, if he so desires, and that refreshments are available to him. Tell him I'll join him there as soon as I can.'

'Of course, Milord,'Kalan replied, then coughed gently. 'In fact, I'd already given those instructions.'

'You're entirely too efficient, Kalan,' Tellian said with a smile. 'Certainly more efficient than I deserve.'