Wind Rider's Oath

for all our difficulties!'

'I've read your report, Soumeta,' Yalith said. 'It's . . . unfortunate that you excluded Theretha from your meeting with the market master.'

'Are you accusing me of misrepresenting what Manuar said?' Soumeta demanded harshly.

'I'm saying a second viewpoint on the conversation would have been useful.' Yalith held the younger woman's angry eyes with her own. 'And I'm suggesting that Theretha, who knows Manuar personally, might have been able to prevent the conversation from getting so out of hand so quickly. And, frankly, Soumeta, I'm also suggesting that intransigence is often in the eye of the beholder. You went into that meeting with blood already in your eye-and don't pretend to me, or to yourself, that you didn't-and that's hardly the way to evoke a cooperative atmosphere.'

'I went into that meeting determined to be just as reasonable as Manuar allowed me to be,' Soumeta snapped. 'You and the Council had sent me as our official representative-was I supposed to just stand there and let him lie to me about Jolhanna without calling him on it?'

'Yes, we sent you as our official representative. We also stressed the importance of being reasonable. Of bending over backward, if that was what it took, to make it abundantly clear that we aren't the ones provoking the problems.'

'And letting him shuffle all the blame off on Jolhanna would have made us look 'reasonable'?' Soumeta barked a sharp, angry laugh. 'It would have proved to him that we were weak enough to let him get away with a barefaced lie!'

'What you ought to have done was to tell him that you could not believe Jolhanna would have deliberately or knowingly provoked problems between us and the Thalar merchants. You should never have accused him of lying about it. Instead, you should have assured him that both I, as Mayor, and the Town Council would look into his allegations most carefully. And you should have pointed out to him that while we were looking into them, it remained his responsibility to ensure that the Thalar market, as opposed to the individual merchants in it, abided by the terms of our charter.'

Soumeta muttered something under her breath and looked rebellious, and Yalith suppressed a sudden burning desire to snap the other woman's head off. She settled for glaring at Soumeta for a breath or two before she continued in that same, meticulous tone.

'You should also have listened to Theretha. She wanted to stay, to look for Herian. For that matter, to speak to Manuar herself. Instead, you bustled her back off to Kalatha.'

'The Council charged me with responsibility for her safety,' Soumeta grated through clenched teeth. 'In my judgment, her safety was at risk in Thalar.'

'But it's the soundness of your judgment which is really in question here, isn't it, Soumeta?' Yalith asked softly.

'If you didn't trust my judgment, then you shouldn't have sent me in the first place!' Soumeta shot back.

'You weren't my choice,' Yalith told her flatly. 'I didn't object to it, which I probably should have. But I didn't choose you for the job because, frankly, I was concerned that something just like this might happen.'

'It's time we stopped being afraid of them!' Soumeta said fiercely. 'It's time we pushed back instead of just letting them push us! If you can't see that, then others can! We're just lying down for them, reacting to every fresh infringement with one more tearful protest instead of kicking them in the balls, and that's not being reasonable! It's spreading your legs for them and inviting them to-'

'That's enough!' Yalith slapped her desktop so hard her hand stung, and Soumeta's mouth snapped shut in shock. The mayor leaned over the desk towards her, her normally mild eyes crackling with anger, and the younger, taller war maid shrank back in her chair.

'You're young,' Yalith told her icily. 'Older than Theretha, perhaps, but that's not saying all that much, is it? You're impatient, you're angry, you're not terribly smart, and you're just spoiling for a fight. Well, unless we're luckier than we have any reasonable right to hope, you may have found us one. I don't expect you to understand just how serious the problems you've helped create really are, because you're too busy patting yourself on the back and congratulating yourself on having 'taken a stand.' But I do expect you to obey the instructions you're given. I also expect you to keep a civil tongue in your head when you address the Mayor of Kalatha. And you'd better remember both of those things, girl, because if you can't at least pretend to the most basic courtesy or obey the instructions your superiors give you, then I will discuss with Balcartha whether or not you are fit to be trusted with any responsibility, including your position as an officer of the Town Guard. Is that perfectly clear, Fifty Soumeta?'

Soumeta stared at her, more terrified and cowed by Yalith's freezing cold precision than she would ever have been by any shouted confrontation. Yalith held her eye for another handful of heartbeats, then nodded very slightly.

'You may go, Fifty Soumeta. And the next time you tell my assistant you have an appointment to see me, you had better have an appointment. Because if you don't, you will never have one again. Is that also clear?'

Soumeta nodded quickly, and Yalith snorted.

'Then go,' she said, and Soumeta seemed to levitate up out of her chair. She disappeared through the door much more rapidly than she'd entered, and it closed behind her.

It opened again after a moment, and Sharral stuck her head back into Yalith's office.

'I thought you said we couldn't step on her?' the assistant said mildly.

'No, I said you and Balcartha couldn't step on her.'

'Isn't that more or less the same thing?'

'Not even remotely.' Yalith grimaced. 'What I just did was to personally counsel and reprimand a junior officer because I was dissatisfied with the fashion in which she'd carried out the instructions I'd given her. Well, I did smack her for insubordination, too, but that was on a personal level. What I did not do was to have one of my subordinate minions-that's you, Sharral-whack her, nor did I overreact by having one of her military superiors- that's Balcartha-give her the same reprimand.' The mayor shrugged. 'Not even her sponsors on the Council can suggest that anything that just transpired in this office was remotely improper on my part. Or that she didn't just give me ample justification for the hammer I did bring down on her.'

'And just which member of the Council do you expect to be fooled by all of this dancing around the point?'

'I don't expect to fool anyone,' Yalith said. 'You know what sort of juggling act I'm already doing with the Council. The sides are pretty clearly drawn, but as long as I stay within the bounds of custom and usage, Saretha's clique doesn't have a pretext to call for an open vote of censure.'

'Do you really think it's that bad?' Sharral looked at the mayor, her expression both dismayed and surprised.

'Do I really think that? No.' Yalith shook her head. 'But that doesn't mean I'm right. And it also doesn't mean the situation can't change. So until I'm positive about exactly what it is Saretha wants-and that I can keep her from getting whatever it is-I'm not planning on taking any chances.'

She shook her head again.

'This thing has been building for a long time now, Sharral. I don't like the way the intensity has suddenly started climbing over the last year or two, either. And, to be honest, I'm just as angry as Soumeta or Saretha could possibly be. But right this minute, the situation is hanging on the very brink of going out of control. We don't need some silly confrontation-or anything!-to make things even worse.'

Chapter Sixteen

Bahzell Bahnakson stood on the battlements of Hill Guard Castle, gazing off into the distance and worrying. Brandark Brandarkson stood at his left elbow and helped him do it.

'Why do I have the feeling this was a really bad idea?' the Bloody Sword hradani murmured.

'Coming up here?' Bahzell looked down at him and cocked an eyebrow, and Brandark shook his head with a