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  “I’d like to think so,” Kaeritha agreed with a small smile. “On the other hand, I was already headed this direction before Bahzell ever came along. Not that I knew exactly why then, either, of course. But one thing I do know, Milord, is that He doesn’t normally leave His champions sitting around idle. Swords don’t accomplish much hanging on an armory wall. So it’s time I was about figuring out whatever it is He has in mind for me next.”

  “You’ve no clue at all?” Bahzell asked.

  “You know Him better than that,” Kaeritha replied. “He may not have actually discussed it with me, but I know that whatever it is, it lies east of here.”

  “With all due respect, Dame Kaeritha,” Tellian pointed out, “three-quarters of the Wind Plain ’lies east of here.’ Would it be possible for you to narrow that down just a bit more?”

  “Not a great deal, I’m afraid, Milord.” She shrugged. “About all I can say is that I’m probably within a few days’ travel—certainly not more than a week’s or so—of where I’m supposed to be.”

  “While it would never do to criticize a god,” Tellian said, “it occurs to me that if Iattempted to plan a campaign with as little information as He appears to have provided you, I’d fall flat on my arse.”

  “Champions do require a certain … agility,” Kaeritha agreed with a wry smile. “On the other hand, Milord, that’s usually because He’s careful to avoid leading us around by the hand.” Tellian quirked an eyebrow at her, and she shrugged again. “We need to be able to stand on our own two feet,” she pointed out, “and if we started to rely on Him for explicit instructions on everything we’re supposed to be doing, how long would it be before we couldn’t accomplish anything without those instructions? He expects us to be bright enough to figure out our duty without His constant prompting.”

  “And Himself is after having His own version of a sense of humor, as well,” Bahzell put in.

  “And that.” Kaeritha nodded.

  “I’ll take your word for that,” Tellian said. “You two are the first of His champions I’ve ever personally met, after all. Although, to be honest, I have to admit I harbor a few dark suspicions about how typical the pair of you are.” Bahzell and Kaeritha both grinned at him, and he shook his head. “Be that as it may,” he continued, “I’m afraid I can’t really think of anything to the east of here—within no more than a few days’ travel, at least—that would seem to require a champion’s services. If I did know of anything that serious, I assure you that I’d already have been trying to do something about it!”

  “I’m sure you would, Milord. But that’s frequently the way it is, especially when the local authorities are competent.”

  “I’m not sure I’d consider someone who could let that idiot Redhelm come so close to succeeding ’competent,’ “ Tellian said a bit sourly.

  “I doubt anyone could have stopped him from making the attempt,” Kaeritha objected. “You could scarcely have stripped him of his authority before he actually abused it, after all. And once you discovered that he had, you acted promptly enough.”

  “Barely,” Tellian grumbled.

  “But promptly enough, all the same,” Bahzell said. “And, if you’ll pardon my saying so, I’m thinking that betwixt us it’s been effective enough, as well. So far, at least.”

  “It certainly has,” Kaeritha agreed. “But my point, Milord, is that champions frequently end up dealing with problems which have succeeded in hiding themselves from the local authorities’ attention. Often with a little help from someone like Sharna or one of his relatives.”

  “You think whatever it is you’re here to deal with is that serious?” Tellian sat up straight in his chair, his sudden frown intense. “That there could be another of the Dark Gods at work here on the Wind Plain?”

  “I didn’t say that, Milord. On the other hand, and without wanting to sound paranoid, Bahzell and I are champions of one of the Gods of Light. Tomanak doesn’t have that many of us, either, so we tend not to get wasted on easytasks.” She grimaced so wryly that Tellian chuckled. “Of course, a great deal of what we do in the world requires us to deal with purely mortal problems, but we do see rather more of the Dark Gods and their handiwork than most people do. And the Dark Gods are quite accomplished at concealing their presence and influence.”

  “Like Sharna in Navahk,” Brandark agreed grimly.

  “Well, yes, but —” Tellian began, then stopped. His three guests looked at him expressionlessly, and he had the grace to blush.

  “Forgive me,” he said. “I was about to say that that was among hradani, not Sothoii. But I suppose that sort of ’It couldn’t possibly happen to us’ thinking is what does let it happen, isn’t it?”

  “It’s certainly a part of it,” Kaeritha said. “But infections are always hard to see before they rise to the surface.” She shrugged. “One of a champion’s functions is to bring things to a head and clean the wound before it gets so bad that the only alternative is amputation, Milord.”

  “A charming analogy.” Tellian grimaced, but it was obvious he was thinking hard. He leaned back in his chair, the fingers of his right hand drumming on the armrest, and distant thunder rolled and rumbled beyond the library while he pondered.

  “I still can’t think of anything that seems serious enough to require a champion,” he said finally. “But as you and Bahzell—and Brandark—have all just pointed out, that doesn’t necessarily mean as much as I’d like to think, so I’ve been trying to come up with anything that may have seemed less important to me than it actually is. If you can delay your departure for perhaps another day or two, Kaeritha, I’ll spend some time going over the reports from my local lords and bailiffs to see if there is something I missed the first time around. Right off the top of my head, though, the only ongoing local problem I’m aware of is the situation at Kalatha.”

  “Kalatha?” Kaeritha repeated.

  “It’s a town a bit more than a week’s ride east of here,” Tellian told her. “I realize you said you were within a ’few days’ of whatever your destination is, but you could probably make the trip in five days if you pushed hard on a good horse, so I suppose it might qualify.”

  “Why is it a problem?” she asked.

  “Why isn’t it a problem?” he responded with a harsh chuckle. She looked puzzled, and he shrugged. “Kalatha isn’t just any town, Milady. It holds a special Crown charter, guaranteeing its independence from the local lords, and some of them resent that. Not just because it exempts the Kalathans from their taxes, either.” He smiled crookedly. “The reason it holds a free-city charter in the first place is because Lord Kellos Swordsmith, one of my maternal great-great-grandfathers, deeded it to the war maids—with the Crown’s strong ’approval’—over two centuries ago.”

  Kaeritha’s eyes narrowed, and he nodded.

  “The war maids aren’t so very popular,” he said with what all of his listeners recognized as massive understatement. “I suppose we Sothoii are too traditional for it to be any other way. But for the most part, they’re at least respected as the sort of enemies you wouldn’t want to make. However much they may be disliked, very few people, even among the most convinced traditionalists, are foolish enough to go out of their way to pick quarrels with them.”

  “And that isn’t the case at the moment with Kalatha?” Kaeritha asked.

  “That depends on whose version you accept,” Tellian replied. “According to the local lords, the Kalathans have been encroaching on territory not covered by the town charter, and they’ve been ’confrontational’ and ’hostile’ to efforts to resolve the competing claims peaceably. But according to the war maids, the local lords—and especially Trisu of Lorham, the most powerful of them—have been systematically encroaching upon the rights guaranteed to them by their charter for years now. It’s been going on for some time, but there’s always something like this. Especially where war maids are concerned. And it’s worse in Kalatha’s case—inevitably, I suppose. Kalatha isn’t the largest war
maid free-town or city, but it is the oldest, thanks to my highly principled ancestor. I like to think he didn’t realize just how much of a pain in the arse he was going dump on all his descendants. Although, if he didn’t, he must have been stupider than I’d prefer to think.”

  Kaeritha had started to ask another question, but she paused almost visibly at the baron’s tone. It would have been too much to call it bitter or biting, but there was a definite edge to it. So instead of what she’d been about to ask, she nodded.

  “I agree it doesn’t sound like an earthshaking problem,” she said. “On the other hand, I have to start somewhere, and this sounds like it might very well be the place. Especially since each of Tomanak’s champions has his—or her—particular … specialties, call them.”

  Tellian’s brow furrowed, and Kaeritha chuckled.

  “Any of us are expected to be able to handle any duty any of His champions might encounter, Milord, but we each have our own personality traits and skills. That tends to mean we’re more comfortable, or effective, at least, serving different aspects of Him. For example, Bahzell here is obviously most at home serving Him as God of War, although he’s done fairly well serving Him as God of Justice. For someone who’s most at home breaking things, anyway.”

  She grinned at Bahzell, who looked back affably, with an expression which boded ill for the next time they met on the training field.

  “My own reasons for joining His service, though,” she went on, returning her attention to Tellian, “had more to do with a burning thirst for justice.” She paused and frowned, eyes darkening with old and painful memories, then shook herself. “That’s always been the aspect of Him I’m most comfortable—or happiest, anyway—serving, and my talents and abilities seem best suited to it. So if there’s a legal dispute between this Kalatha and the neighboring nobility, it certainly seems like a logical place for me to start looking. Can I get a map to show me how to find it?”

  “Oh, I can do better than that, Milady,” Tellian assured her. “Kalatha may hold a Crown charter, but Trisu and his neighbors are my vassals. If you can wait until the end of the week to depart, I’ll make some additional inquiries and provide as much background information as I can. And of course I’ll send along letters of introduction and instructions for them to cooperate fully with you during your visit.”

  “Thank you, Milord,” Kaeritha said formally. “That would be very good of you.”

  Chapter Six

  “So, there you are, Leeana.”

  Leeana’s not quite stealthy progress along the passageway stopped as she paused and looked over her shoulder. Although the dark-haired woman in the open doorway behind her leaned heavily on the silver-worked, ebony cane under her right hand, she also stood very straight. Her left hand held a book, closed on a place-marking index finger, and a pair of gold, wire-framed, dwarvish-made reading glasses had been pushed up onto the top of her head to get them out of the way. It was subtly apparent, despite her full gown, that her right hip was carried higher than her left and her right leg was frailer, less well-muscled and thin. Yet despite that, and despite the faint traceries of silver in her dark hair, she was still a beautiful woman, with a well-formed, high-bosomed figure Leeana had both admired and envied for as long as she could remember. She was taller than Dame Kaeritha, although not quite so tall as Leeana, and her eyes were exactly the same deep, jade-green as Leeana’s. Not surprisingly, perhaps.

  “Good afternoon, Mother,” Leeana said with a slight smile. “Ah, I don’t suppose I could convince you to go back to your book until I finish sneaking into my room and change, could I?”

  “No,” Baroness Hanatha said thoughtfully. “I don’t believe you could.”

  “I was afraid of that,” Leeana sighed. She turned and walked back towards her mother, still carrying her dripping poncho over one arm.

  “Did you enjoy your ride?” Hanatha asked politely as she stepped back through the doorway to her private sitting room and let her daughter past her.

  “Yes, I did.” Leeana crossed to the wrought iron fire screen in front of her mother’s hearth and hung the wet poncho across it to dry. Then she turned back to face Hanatha, who gave her head a small, smiling shake and sank into a pleasantly overstuffed chair under the comfortable chamber’s rain-streaming skylight.

  “Where did you go?” she asked. The fire’s soft noises and the patter of rain on the skylight formed a soothing backdrop for her voice, and Leeana rubbed her hands, holding them out to the fire’s warmth.

  “Down to the river and up the bank to Highwayman’s Height.”

  “I remember,” Hanatha said. She leaned back in the chair, eyes dreamy with memories. “Down that hollow by Jargham’s Farm. Are the crocuses still blooming along the bank above the farm?”

  “Yes.” Leeana paused and stopped herself before she cleared her throat. “Yes, they are. Purple and yellow. Although,” she smiled, “it looks as if the rain is trying to wash them away.”

  “I imagine so. And I imagine the river’s running quite high, as well. Do tell me you weren’t foolish enough to attempt the ford below the Height.”

  “Of course I wasn’t!” Leeana gave her mother a slightly indignant look. “Nobody would be crazy enough to try that with the river a good twenty yards out of its banks on either side!”

  “No?” Hanatha gazed at her daughter for several seconds, then cocked her head and smiled. “Your father and I were, the year before we were married. Although, now that I think about it, it was only about fifteen yards out of its banks when we did it.”

  Leeana stared at her mother in disbelief, and Hanatha looked back calmly.

  “I can’t believe you twowould have done something like that!” Leeana said finally. “Not after the way both of you go on at me about the risk to the succession if anything should happen to me. Father was the heir to Balthar, not just the heir conveyant, you know!”

  “Yes,” Hanatha said thoughtfully. “I believe I was aware of that, now that you mention it. Although, to be fair, there was your Uncle Garlayn, at that point, so he wasn’t precisely the only heir. And he did have several sturdy, healthy male cousins who might have succeeded him. But, yes, despite that, it was incredibly foolish of both of us. And, by the way, Leeana, it was my idea.”

  Leeana sank onto a footstool, facing her mother’s chair, and stared at her. She’d heard stories all of her life about her mother’s youthful, headstrong defiance of stifling convention. Given the way both her parents fussed over any minor infractions on her own part, she’d always secretly assumed most of those stories were exaggerated. After all, they’d all come to her second- or third-hand, through servants’ gossip, and she was only too well aware of how the family retainers tended to embroider the family’s adventures. More than that, Hanatha was deeply beloved by all of the Duke Tellian’s household. That gave all of them, and particularly the older ones, who remembered the laughing young noblewoman Tellian Bowmaster had brought home, a tendency to emphasize what an outrageous, perpetually racing about handful she’d been. Especially since she would never go racing about again.

  But if her mother—the same mother who was constantly suggesting that perhaps Leeana might want to moderate her own lifestyle just a bit—had been crazy enough to talk her father into swimming their horses across a river in full springtime flood—!

  “Yes,” Hanatha said wryly, “I was that foolish, dear. And I was three years older than you are now. Which, I suppose, probably does make it seem just a little unfair for me to complain about your own high jinks, doesn’t it?”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Leeana began, and her mother laughed.

  “Oh, I should certainly hope not!” Her dark green eyes danced, and she leaned back in her chair. “You’re much too good a daughter to throw my own youthful misdeeds into my teeth. But we both know you’re thinking it, don’t we?”

  “Well … yes, I suppose I am,” Leeana admitted, unable not to smile back at her.

  “Of course you are. And I oft
en thought your grandmother was dreadfully unfair when she took me to task for some dreadful lapse on my part. And to some extent, I imagine she was—just as I realize that I’m applying something of a double standard when I upbraid you. Unfortunately,” she continued to smile, but her voice became more serious, “this business of being a parent sometimes does require us to be a bit unfair.”

  “I never thought you were really unfair,” Leeana told her. “Not like Aunt Gayarla, for example.”

  “There’s a difference between unfair and capricious, dear,” Hanatha said. “And worthy as your father’s sister-in-law is in many ways, I’m afraid she’s always alternated between tyranny and overindulgence where your cousins are concerned. And it’s gotten worse since Garlayn died. Indeed, I’m often surprised Trianal managed to turn out so well, although Staphos and— Well. Never mind.”

  She shook her head and returned to her original thread.

  “No, Leeana. What I meant is that sometimes—more often than I would prefer, really—I find myself telling you not to do things since I know just how … unwise they are because, when I was your age, I did those very same things. I’m afraid it truly is a matter of experience and the burned hand teaching best. The way parents discover the things their children shouldn’t do all too often turns out to be that they did the same things, made the same mistakes, they’re trying to prevent their children from repeating. It’s messy, and not a very organized way to go about things. Unfortunately, it seems to be the way that human beings’ minds are arranged.”

  “Maybe it is, Mother,” Leeana said slowly, after several seconds of careful consideration, “and I know I may be prejudiced, but I happen to think you turned out pretty well.” Her mother snorted softly in obvious amusement, and Leeana smiled. But she also continued in the same serious tone of voice. “You and Father, more than anyone else I’ve ever met, seem to know exactly who you are and exactly what you mean to one another. And you don’t just love each other—you laugh with each other. Sometimes just with your eyes, but I always know, and I love it so whenever you do. If making the same ’mistakes’ makes me turn out just like you, I can’t think of anything I’d rather have happen.”