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beginning. That is the way those witches are. You have been preparing for the
scramble for the spoils. But suppose we could short-circuit the process?
Lovely technical term, short-circuit. Suppose you did not have to deal with
the Serke at all? Suppose I offered you a Reugge license allowing you access
to all the pitchblende you want? Without your having to sneak through the
wilds outside the law, hoping you can survive the malice of your accomplices."
The males exchanged looks.
"There? You see? I have been perfectly obvious, and yet I have given you much
on which to think. Why not get what you want the cheaper and safer way? I
understand you better than you think. I know what moves you." She shifted her
gaze to the silth. "You, though, remain enigmas. I do not know if I will ever
fathom your motives for committing such hideous crimes."
She settled into the one chair standing on her side of the room, waiting. A
shaken Bagnel hovered in no-meth's land. He sped Marika a look of appeal.
"I am waiting," she said after half a minute of silence.
They had found their strategy wanting, though they took its failure well. One
of the males finally said, "Not long ago you placed the brethren in a tight
position. You tied us up so we had no choice but to do something we considered
despicable."
"That is just beginning, old-timer. If you persist in arming, training,
sending out criminals to attack silth, you are going to find yourselves in
even tighter places. You will find the Reugge have so many criminals under
sentence we will be selling their sentences to Communities that have a
shortage of condemned laborers."
Her confidence rattled the male for a moment. But he recovered, held
unswervingly to what had to be a prepared line of argument. "We have decided
to do unto you as you did unto us."
"Really? Why do I get the feeling I am about to witness the unfolding of a
grand delusion?"
"We do not delude ourselves!" he snapped. She could almost hear him thinking,
You silth bitch.
"Arrogant silth bitch," she corrected aloud. "Come ahead, then. Try me."
For the first time the Serke looked genuinely uncertain. The appearance of
confidence becomes confidence, Marika reminded herself.
The male who had not yet spoken did so now. From several glances he had thrown
Bagnel's way, Marika inferred that he must somehow be her friend's superior.
He said, "Some time ago you ambushed a joint force in the Ponath. You once
threatened to make the circumstances public. We would like it noted that the
same event can be used to your detriment. If you refuse to cooperate with us."
Marika was not surprised. She had expected that Kublin would come back to
haunt her eventually. But she had let the matter float, hoping she could do
the right thing intuitively when he did.
The male suggested, "You might want to send your guards outside."
"I might not. There are two Serke of exalted status here. I might not be able
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to kill both of them quickly enough to keep you from sticking a knife into me.
Go ahead with your threats."
"As you wish. You allowed a littermate to escape that ambush. Surrounding
circumstances suggest that you did more than that to assure his safety.
Suppose that were made known?"
The one thing Marika had done about the matter was to send a group of
huntresses, picked by Grauel, to Critza. They were under instructions to lie
low and capture any snoopers. So she controlled the physical proofs. "Go
ahead. If that is your best."
"What we have in mind is presenting the evidence to your most senior. She, I
believe, is your principal anchor within the Reugge Community."
Marika shook her head, honestly less worried by the moment. "Go with it. See
what it gets you. While you are at it, though, why not up the stakes? Why not
try to buy me somehow?"
That caused more consternation.
"We will present Most Senior Gradwohl with the evidence."
"I said go ahead. You will have assembled a fair file on me by now. You know I
do not bluff."
"We know your bluff has not been called. We know you are young. A
characteristic of youth is that it takes long risks, betting that older, more
cautious heads will not hazard stakes as dangerous."
"Play your stakes," Marika said. "Grauel, our presence here seems pointless.
Tell the bath to ready the darkship."
"Wait," one of the silth said. "You have not heard what we want."
"To tell the truth, I do not care what you want. It would not be anything in
my interest, or in the interest of the Reugge Community."
"You could become most senior of the Reugge if you cooperated."
"I have no wish to become most senior. That is a job that would distract me
too much from those things that do interest me."
"Is there any way to reach you?"
"Almost certainly. We all want some things so badly we will befoul ourselves
to get them. Witness yourselves. But I cannot think of anything that is within
your power to offer. At least nothing I cannot take for myself. I suggest you
stop trying to steal the Ponath. Accept the fact that the Reugge control it.
Deal for the petroleum and pitchblende. Frankly, I find it impossible to
comprehend your frenzy for outright control."
Marika looked at the tradermales, hoping they would understand that she
actually had no trouble at all understanding. "I will go now. You four
squabble over the ways you may have planned to stab one another in the back."
With Grauel and Barlog covering her, she backed to the doorway. She paused
there, added, "The most senior is away this month, as she often is. You will
not be able to contact her for some time. However, she will return to Maksche
for a two-week period beginning the fifth day of Biter-if you feel compelled
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to present your evidence. My own proofs are held by a trusted sister at
TelleRai, under seal. She is under bond to break the seal in the event of my
death or prolonged disappearance." She left. But after she had taken a few
steps, she turned back to add, "After me, my fine thieves, the end of the
world. At least for you and yours."
Her feet flew as she dashed to the darkship. She had gotten away with yanking
their whiskers. Very nearly with yanking them out by the roots. She had left
them completely at a loss. It was wonderful.
It was the sort of thing she had wanted to do to some of her elders almost
from the time she had grown old enough to reason.
She took the darkship up, on a long flight, pursuing the rogue orbit of a
small retrograde moon. She pushed hard, glorying in the cold air's rush
through her fur.
After the crude joy began to fade, she halted, floated high, where the air was
thin but cut like knives of ice. She looked southward. Far, far down there
were the great cities of the world. Cities like TelleRai, which spawned the
Gradwohls and silth like the Serke she had faced tonight. And thousands of
miles farther still lay the equator, over which orbited many of the tradermale
satellites.
The ice was advancing because the world had cooled. The world had cooled
because not enough solar radiation impinged upon it now that it had entered [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]