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edenfallingI wanted to start posting "Heritage," my Gormenghast fic, but the library computer is refusing to read that file off my disk. It likes the others just fine, though, which is nice for printing resume copies, but somewhat baffling in figuring out what's wrong with the one file.
Anyway. Here's some more original stuff instead. Is please to remember is rough draft, yes?
---------------------------------------------
Chapter Two: The Widening Gyre, Parts I and II
---------------------------------------------
Ranna folded her hands and waited as the three members of her private war council filed between Karsket and Moloshet's drawn swords and into the meeting room in her chambers. Cole was trustworthy. Danil was mostly reliable, though focused on the west to the occasional exclusion of other potential problems. Tharidan, her Lord Martial -- her own appointment, though confirmed by the Inner Council -- was dedicated to his duty but had little personal experience of war on a large scale. She called these three for consultation and planning before she took any military matters to the Council, since her grasp of war was admittedly limited to the surface level: hit them before they hit you, and hit them hard.
"What news from the Watches?" she began as the three men took seats around the lion-clawed table and her guards swung the heavy door closed, one staying inside and one out. "My reports are nearly two weeks old -- do you have anything more recent?"
Cole nodded and laid a sheaf of papers on the table. "I received these yesterday, my lady, and I'm afraid the news is worrying at best. The Talergau Gate reports nothing unusual, only light skirmishes beyond the mountains. The Watch-masters of Ress and Cole Watch have asked for more soldiers as usual, to deal with the summer increase in the barbarians' raids, but I think we can safely ignore that.
"The Sath Gate reports an increase in the size of raiding parties, in one case forcing the remnants of a borderland village to abandon their homes, but no other change from the usual patterns. The Telvar Gate, however, has been suspiciously free of attacks for the past month now. Also, the Watch-master of Gom says that his scouting parties have seen unusual numbers of traveling camps, all heading southwest."
Cole looked solemnly around the table. "The barbarians are gathering for war. The only question is whether the hordes will sweep west, or toward us."
Danil laughed, an unpleasant wheeze punctuated by a bitter grin. "Toward us, Cole, toward us. They fear the west, you know that; they want the protection of our mountains." He spat sideways onto the mosaic floor; the other men frowned at this lack of manners. "May the Gates open wide to the west if the barbarians ever win. They'll get no help from our land."
"Be that as it may," Ranna said, "I'd prefer it not come to that extreme. If the barbarians do come east, I'd like to stop them." She looked at Cole. "They probably won't be attacking through Talergau, right?"
Cole nodded. "Right. And I suspect not Sath, either. The clans in that area are either acting as a distraction, to draw our attention away from Telvar, or they've broken with the others and recalled their fighters from the forerunners' society in order to strengthen their raiding parties."
"Unless they mean us to think Sath is only a distraction, and when we focus on Telvar, they'll take advantage of our weakness in the south," Tharidan said. He spread his hands. "The barbarians are cunning, my queen. I think we shouldn't discount either of the southern Gates, though I agree that Talergau should be safe this year."
Ranna sighed and rubbed her forehead, allowing herself this gesture of humanity among people she was fairly certain wouldn't betray her or pounce on any sign of weakness. "I see. So we don't need to send extra soldiers to Talergau, but we should be heavily reinforcing the Watches at Telvar and Sath, probably with more strength at Telvar. Is that your consensus?"
The three men exchanged glances and slight gestures, coming to an agreement. Finally Cole spoke: "Yes, that's our consensus, my lady."
More soldiers. Where was she supposed to find more soldiers? The Brotherhood of the Sword would send their students west if she asked -- they were sworn to defend the Eastern Lands from the barbarians, among other things -- but their numbers weren't enough to withstand a full invasion.
"Can we take any companies from the Dorinian or Halo borders?" she asked, depressingly certain she already knew the answer.
"No," Tharidan said flatly. "Dorin Rhae is waiting for any sign of weakness; 'bandit' attacks have been increasing for nearly a decade and the southern border lords will be up in arms in the Assembly if you remove their protection. And Halo is Halo. We need more soldiers in the north, if anything, and at least ten new warships."
Danil's face twisted into an unpleasant smile. "Your lands, of course, Lord Tharidan, are near Halo."
"And yours are near Sath," Tharidan returned calmly. "I'm responsible for the defense of all Kanos, not merely Auvern and the borderlands."
"True," said Ranna, breaking in before Danil could escalate this into an argument. "You're all responsible for the defense of my country, and I thank you for your admirable performance in such a difficult undertaking. Your impartiality does wonders for my peace of mind."
She looked significantly at Danil, who subsided.
"It seems to me that we need soldiers at Telvar and Sath, but we can't remove anyone from the other borders. Where are we going to find people, weapons, and supplies? How can we pay for increased garrisons at the Watches?"
"Taxes," Cole said ironically. "If you can collect the last decade's worth of back taxes, you could pay for an army three times over -- or hire mercenary companies, which might be simpler." He flipped absently through his papers. "Come to think of it, we may be able to lure a few companies with promises of loot -- the barbarians wear foolish amounts of jewelry into battle, and the victors can claim the spoils."
Ranna tapped her fingers against the table, thinking. "Mercenaries only as a last resort," she said eventually. "I don't want to set a precedent for the other lords to shirk their tax and military obligations more than they already do. The Brotherhood will provide all they can -- Blade-master Shvikur should have copies of the same Watch reports and he's no fool. I'll be speaking to him personally when I next visit my brother.
"But that won't be enough. We need to pry taxes out of the Assembly -- that or force all the greater and lesser lords to lend me their private armies. And the Lords of the Heavens themselves will come down riding lightning before that happens." Ranna turned up her hands in helplessness.
Cole stretched across the table to touch her hand. "Something will turn up, my lady. We'll hold the Gates -- in over two hundred years, Kanos has yet to falter against the west."
"And never will falter, either," added Danil with a sharp jerk of his head. "I can rouse Auvern, call out the people who remember the last great invasions. We have long memories there -- the people will fight even if their lords and ladies want to hide their heads in the dirt."
"Thank you," Ranna told him, feeling a sudden trickle of affection for the old man. He might be focused almost to the point of mania and he might have no manners worth mentioning, but she could rely on him to hold at least one of her borders. "Tread softly, though," she added. "If you pull too many workers from the fields and the towns, the Assembly may grow restive."
"Blind fools, they are; they'd argue over seats on the cart hauling them to the gallows," Danil muttered, but he nodded his understanding.
Ranna smiled, and then laid her hands flat on the table, calling for undivided attention. "Now, the Assembly and the Council will be in spring recess for the next month. Danil, I'm asking you to return to Auvern and begin enlisting support from the minor lords and sending fighters to the Watches. Tharidan, keep an eye on the other borders and the ambassadors from Halo and Dorin Rhae; tell me if anyone even so much as hints that they might take this invasion as a sign of weakness. Cole, I'm asking you to help Danil, but don't leave immediately. I have a few other things to discuss with you, and I want you with me when I talk to some of the other Council members before they leave Arre-Lus.
"Are we clear?"
"Yes, my queen," the three men said, Cole and Danil nodding and Tharidan bowing slightly from the waist.
"Good. Thank you for your advice and support. I give you leave to go."
As the men filed out of the room, once again passing between Karsket and Moloshet's drawn swords, Ranna allowed herself a deep sigh. She hated meetings, hated them with the burning passion of the nether hells; it would be much easier to simply make her own decisions and hand out orders. But meetings were a necessary evil, and she was beginning to have glimmers of ideas for cajoling or intimidating the Council to her side. She'd had no chance over the past year and a half, no crisis point to shock them out of their preset patterns -- she could see that now.
The coming war would either bring her victory or send her country crashing into ruin. It was a challenge, the greatest challenge she'd ever faced.
"I don't lose," Ranna whispered, baring her teeth at the empty room. "Come hell itself, I'm not losing."
---------------------------------------------
Twelve lords and ladies in the Inner Council. Most were against her -- how to win them to her side?
Cole was the easiest, Ranna thought as she paced in the privacy of her chambers, her unfastened court robes swirling around her. Cole already supported her, worried about the growing fragmentation of Kanos, and longed for the days when the people of Auvern had pushed west beyond the Gates rather than being forced eastward into their own heartlands. There were certain points past which he wouldn't go -- dissolving the Council, or revoking the veto, that cherished right of the Assembly -- and if she were ever caught dealing in the shadow world, he'd repudiate her in a second, but up to those points she could trust him.
Not absolutely -- there were never any absolutes -- but enough. One for her side.
Danil next. He was an odd one.
"Horrible man," Ranna muttered, falling back into her childhood habit of thinking aloud. "He wheezes, he drones on and on about the barbarians, he doesn't respect anyone... and as long as I don't neglect Auvern he'll follow me through hell. I'm thinking he wouldn't care if I lost half the country to Halo or danced naked on the palace roof."
She shook her head. "I will never understand that man. But we both want to hold the Gates, so he's mine. He'll vote what I tell him. And that's two."
Vanulie, Gamona, and Celed were lost causes -- anyone who wanted to actively break up her country would never be getting her trust, not even for a temporary truce. They might be discredited, though.
"There's a thought. Ya, if I had proof that Celed lets the 'bandits' over the border from Dorin Rhae... or that Gamona's making deals with Halo..." Ranna grinned, feeling her face stretch into the expression that had always made her family and friends walk warily near her. "I'll set Garin to digging. Even Olek can't stand up for them if they're traitors, and whoever replaces them can't possibly be worse."
That was five. Two for her, three against.
Olek she'd never win; it was a point of pride for him to dominate her. He'd played queen-maker at her election and he'd never admit she had either the wit or the strength to choose a wiser course than he could.
"Eburek, though, he might be threatened. Na, na, let's be polite... persuaded, with proper inducement." Mother of Mercy, she loved the double-speak of politics. And people thought the shadow world was wrapped in impenetrable murk? She'd seen both worlds; at least in Garin's court they were honest about their backstabbing.
But did she want Eburek on her side? Ranna considered, pausing to tap her fingers on the back of a throne-like armchair. He'd always be a weak point in her control, always prone to pressure from her enemies. Still, at this point any support was better than none.
Olek made four against. Two for her, and Eburek questionable. She needed six; as soon as she deadlocked the Council, her vote would break any ties and her word, effectively, became law.
She had two. She needed to win four to her side.
Marror might be persuaded -- not through force but through reason. That was his saving grace and most damnably irritating trait: reason. He examined every issue from as many sides as he could find, and voted by a system of reasoned and weighted priorities so complicated that he'd never successfully explained them to anyone.
Ranna thought keeping Kanos together and defending the people against war would outweigh any other priority, but you could never tell with Marror. He had some odd views on matters of principle and he didn't trust autocratic authority -- ironic, since he was an autocrat himself, but there it was. However, he'd been known to make the occasional compromise.
Put him under questionable. Four against, two for, two questionable.
Teluran was a lazy waste of flesh and air. So far as Ranna knew, he followed Olek's lead so as to avoid the effort of independent thought. The only things she'd ever seen him display interest in were fashion and his standing in court society. Unless she could terrify him into believing that a vote against her would deprive him of his wealth and indolent ease, he would continue living in his haze of happy denial and following Olek's every word.
Five against, Ranna decided. Teluran would simply be too much work for too little return.
Langard, on the other hand, had a mind. Not only that, he used it, if sporadically. He supported Olek because Olek spoke for decentralization and Langard's holdings were scattered all through Damiland, Alland, and Auvern. He didn't want the imperial provinces to become effective units of administration. But he was anything but foolish, and some of his lands weren't too far from the Halo border. Ranna thought he might be persuaded to throw his support behind a centralized and well-funded army, at least.
And she really had no objection to lords holding scattered lands. She just didn't think they ought to have sole dominion over them, particularly in matters of law, defense, and tax-collection. She might be able to compromise with Langard.
Five against, two for, three questionable. That made ten -- who was left?
Bethurika might also be persuadable; she was certainly worried enough about Dorin Rhae and Caermarin's advances toward her lands. Her grievance was taxes -- unfortunately, that was something on which Ranna couldn't compromise. She needed money, and she couldn't let Bethurika escape her obligations to pay.
Still, Ranna had a feeling about Bethurika. Call her questionable rather than against.
Last was Shae.
Ranna frowned. "I'll never understand her either," she muttered. "Actually, I'm thinking I'd understand Danil before I'd understand Shae. She never helps anyone -- just waits until someone's gathering support and pulls the rug out from under them, smiling.
"And I hate her eyes," Ranna added, grumbling. She'd never been able to shake the feeling that Shae's perpetually staring eyes were going to pop out of her face -- that and a nagging suspicion that Shae was straining her face to keep herself awake after spending her nights furthering nefarious plots.
Shae wanted something. Ranna was dead certain of that -- as with Bethurika, she had a feeling -- but she had no idea what that something was. Not independence, she thought, nor power as such, but it could as easily be dangerous as not.
"Still, the only way to know is to find out," Ranna told herself. She frowned, pacing faster. "And she's not the sort to be writing her secrets for anyone to find. Na, I think the only way to know what Shae wants is to ask her."
Was it worth the risk? Exposing her plans -- or at least the existence of plans, of something that needed Council support -- and giving a hint of her true weakness?
Then again, Shae was no fool. She already knew Ranna's position was weak. And judging by the timing of her even-handed disruptions, timing that required knowledge of what her victims were attempting to do, she also knew that Ranna had plans of some sort.
Yes, Ranna decided, it was worth the risk to approach Shae.
Five against, two for, five questionable.
She had to make overtures to Shae, Langard, Bethurika, Marror, and Eburek. Eburek would have to wait until Garin brought proof of whatever Olek was doing to keep him in line. Marror would have to wait until she had more evidence of the gathering invasion. The other three, though... they could be approached now.
"I'll be dealing with Shae myself," Ranna decided. The only question left was who to send after Langard and Bethurika, and how they should present the deal. She couldn't do it herself -- there wasn't time, and after nearly two years of doing everything herself she was willing to accept a bit of help. But who did she trust enough to know her plans?
She ran the short list of trustworthy people through her mind, and groaned. She'd have to call another meeting.
Ranna rang the bells to summon Pazun and Mabriel. Best to get this over as soon as she could.
---------------------------------------------
I only have one more completed part of this story, in which we see the meeting Ranna calls at the end of this excerpt. Then it's back to Talin and Bren and the action scene I've been avoiding. What on earth made me think writing a story about war and swordplay was a good idea???
Anyway. Here's some more original stuff instead. Is please to remember is rough draft, yes?
---------------------------------------------
Chapter Two: The Widening Gyre, Parts I and II
---------------------------------------------
Ranna folded her hands and waited as the three members of her private war council filed between Karsket and Moloshet's drawn swords and into the meeting room in her chambers. Cole was trustworthy. Danil was mostly reliable, though focused on the west to the occasional exclusion of other potential problems. Tharidan, her Lord Martial -- her own appointment, though confirmed by the Inner Council -- was dedicated to his duty but had little personal experience of war on a large scale. She called these three for consultation and planning before she took any military matters to the Council, since her grasp of war was admittedly limited to the surface level: hit them before they hit you, and hit them hard.
"What news from the Watches?" she began as the three men took seats around the lion-clawed table and her guards swung the heavy door closed, one staying inside and one out. "My reports are nearly two weeks old -- do you have anything more recent?"
Cole nodded and laid a sheaf of papers on the table. "I received these yesterday, my lady, and I'm afraid the news is worrying at best. The Talergau Gate reports nothing unusual, only light skirmishes beyond the mountains. The Watch-masters of Ress and Cole Watch have asked for more soldiers as usual, to deal with the summer increase in the barbarians' raids, but I think we can safely ignore that.
"The Sath Gate reports an increase in the size of raiding parties, in one case forcing the remnants of a borderland village to abandon their homes, but no other change from the usual patterns. The Telvar Gate, however, has been suspiciously free of attacks for the past month now. Also, the Watch-master of Gom says that his scouting parties have seen unusual numbers of traveling camps, all heading southwest."
Cole looked solemnly around the table. "The barbarians are gathering for war. The only question is whether the hordes will sweep west, or toward us."
Danil laughed, an unpleasant wheeze punctuated by a bitter grin. "Toward us, Cole, toward us. They fear the west, you know that; they want the protection of our mountains." He spat sideways onto the mosaic floor; the other men frowned at this lack of manners. "May the Gates open wide to the west if the barbarians ever win. They'll get no help from our land."
"Be that as it may," Ranna said, "I'd prefer it not come to that extreme. If the barbarians do come east, I'd like to stop them." She looked at Cole. "They probably won't be attacking through Talergau, right?"
Cole nodded. "Right. And I suspect not Sath, either. The clans in that area are either acting as a distraction, to draw our attention away from Telvar, or they've broken with the others and recalled their fighters from the forerunners' society in order to strengthen their raiding parties."
"Unless they mean us to think Sath is only a distraction, and when we focus on Telvar, they'll take advantage of our weakness in the south," Tharidan said. He spread his hands. "The barbarians are cunning, my queen. I think we shouldn't discount either of the southern Gates, though I agree that Talergau should be safe this year."
Ranna sighed and rubbed her forehead, allowing herself this gesture of humanity among people she was fairly certain wouldn't betray her or pounce on any sign of weakness. "I see. So we don't need to send extra soldiers to Talergau, but we should be heavily reinforcing the Watches at Telvar and Sath, probably with more strength at Telvar. Is that your consensus?"
The three men exchanged glances and slight gestures, coming to an agreement. Finally Cole spoke: "Yes, that's our consensus, my lady."
More soldiers. Where was she supposed to find more soldiers? The Brotherhood of the Sword would send their students west if she asked -- they were sworn to defend the Eastern Lands from the barbarians, among other things -- but their numbers weren't enough to withstand a full invasion.
"Can we take any companies from the Dorinian or Halo borders?" she asked, depressingly certain she already knew the answer.
"No," Tharidan said flatly. "Dorin Rhae is waiting for any sign of weakness; 'bandit' attacks have been increasing for nearly a decade and the southern border lords will be up in arms in the Assembly if you remove their protection. And Halo is Halo. We need more soldiers in the north, if anything, and at least ten new warships."
Danil's face twisted into an unpleasant smile. "Your lands, of course, Lord Tharidan, are near Halo."
"And yours are near Sath," Tharidan returned calmly. "I'm responsible for the defense of all Kanos, not merely Auvern and the borderlands."
"True," said Ranna, breaking in before Danil could escalate this into an argument. "You're all responsible for the defense of my country, and I thank you for your admirable performance in such a difficult undertaking. Your impartiality does wonders for my peace of mind."
She looked significantly at Danil, who subsided.
"It seems to me that we need soldiers at Telvar and Sath, but we can't remove anyone from the other borders. Where are we going to find people, weapons, and supplies? How can we pay for increased garrisons at the Watches?"
"Taxes," Cole said ironically. "If you can collect the last decade's worth of back taxes, you could pay for an army three times over -- or hire mercenary companies, which might be simpler." He flipped absently through his papers. "Come to think of it, we may be able to lure a few companies with promises of loot -- the barbarians wear foolish amounts of jewelry into battle, and the victors can claim the spoils."
Ranna tapped her fingers against the table, thinking. "Mercenaries only as a last resort," she said eventually. "I don't want to set a precedent for the other lords to shirk their tax and military obligations more than they already do. The Brotherhood will provide all they can -- Blade-master Shvikur should have copies of the same Watch reports and he's no fool. I'll be speaking to him personally when I next visit my brother.
"But that won't be enough. We need to pry taxes out of the Assembly -- that or force all the greater and lesser lords to lend me their private armies. And the Lords of the Heavens themselves will come down riding lightning before that happens." Ranna turned up her hands in helplessness.
Cole stretched across the table to touch her hand. "Something will turn up, my lady. We'll hold the Gates -- in over two hundred years, Kanos has yet to falter against the west."
"And never will falter, either," added Danil with a sharp jerk of his head. "I can rouse Auvern, call out the people who remember the last great invasions. We have long memories there -- the people will fight even if their lords and ladies want to hide their heads in the dirt."
"Thank you," Ranna told him, feeling a sudden trickle of affection for the old man. He might be focused almost to the point of mania and he might have no manners worth mentioning, but she could rely on him to hold at least one of her borders. "Tread softly, though," she added. "If you pull too many workers from the fields and the towns, the Assembly may grow restive."
"Blind fools, they are; they'd argue over seats on the cart hauling them to the gallows," Danil muttered, but he nodded his understanding.
Ranna smiled, and then laid her hands flat on the table, calling for undivided attention. "Now, the Assembly and the Council will be in spring recess for the next month. Danil, I'm asking you to return to Auvern and begin enlisting support from the minor lords and sending fighters to the Watches. Tharidan, keep an eye on the other borders and the ambassadors from Halo and Dorin Rhae; tell me if anyone even so much as hints that they might take this invasion as a sign of weakness. Cole, I'm asking you to help Danil, but don't leave immediately. I have a few other things to discuss with you, and I want you with me when I talk to some of the other Council members before they leave Arre-Lus.
"Are we clear?"
"Yes, my queen," the three men said, Cole and Danil nodding and Tharidan bowing slightly from the waist.
"Good. Thank you for your advice and support. I give you leave to go."
As the men filed out of the room, once again passing between Karsket and Moloshet's drawn swords, Ranna allowed herself a deep sigh. She hated meetings, hated them with the burning passion of the nether hells; it would be much easier to simply make her own decisions and hand out orders. But meetings were a necessary evil, and she was beginning to have glimmers of ideas for cajoling or intimidating the Council to her side. She'd had no chance over the past year and a half, no crisis point to shock them out of their preset patterns -- she could see that now.
The coming war would either bring her victory or send her country crashing into ruin. It was a challenge, the greatest challenge she'd ever faced.
"I don't lose," Ranna whispered, baring her teeth at the empty room. "Come hell itself, I'm not losing."
---------------------------------------------
Twelve lords and ladies in the Inner Council. Most were against her -- how to win them to her side?
Cole was the easiest, Ranna thought as she paced in the privacy of her chambers, her unfastened court robes swirling around her. Cole already supported her, worried about the growing fragmentation of Kanos, and longed for the days when the people of Auvern had pushed west beyond the Gates rather than being forced eastward into their own heartlands. There were certain points past which he wouldn't go -- dissolving the Council, or revoking the veto, that cherished right of the Assembly -- and if she were ever caught dealing in the shadow world, he'd repudiate her in a second, but up to those points she could trust him.
Not absolutely -- there were never any absolutes -- but enough. One for her side.
Danil next. He was an odd one.
"Horrible man," Ranna muttered, falling back into her childhood habit of thinking aloud. "He wheezes, he drones on and on about the barbarians, he doesn't respect anyone... and as long as I don't neglect Auvern he'll follow me through hell. I'm thinking he wouldn't care if I lost half the country to Halo or danced naked on the palace roof."
She shook her head. "I will never understand that man. But we both want to hold the Gates, so he's mine. He'll vote what I tell him. And that's two."
Vanulie, Gamona, and Celed were lost causes -- anyone who wanted to actively break up her country would never be getting her trust, not even for a temporary truce. They might be discredited, though.
"There's a thought. Ya, if I had proof that Celed lets the 'bandits' over the border from Dorin Rhae... or that Gamona's making deals with Halo..." Ranna grinned, feeling her face stretch into the expression that had always made her family and friends walk warily near her. "I'll set Garin to digging. Even Olek can't stand up for them if they're traitors, and whoever replaces them can't possibly be worse."
That was five. Two for her, three against.
Olek she'd never win; it was a point of pride for him to dominate her. He'd played queen-maker at her election and he'd never admit she had either the wit or the strength to choose a wiser course than he could.
"Eburek, though, he might be threatened. Na, na, let's be polite... persuaded, with proper inducement." Mother of Mercy, she loved the double-speak of politics. And people thought the shadow world was wrapped in impenetrable murk? She'd seen both worlds; at least in Garin's court they were honest about their backstabbing.
But did she want Eburek on her side? Ranna considered, pausing to tap her fingers on the back of a throne-like armchair. He'd always be a weak point in her control, always prone to pressure from her enemies. Still, at this point any support was better than none.
Olek made four against. Two for her, and Eburek questionable. She needed six; as soon as she deadlocked the Council, her vote would break any ties and her word, effectively, became law.
She had two. She needed to win four to her side.
Marror might be persuaded -- not through force but through reason. That was his saving grace and most damnably irritating trait: reason. He examined every issue from as many sides as he could find, and voted by a system of reasoned and weighted priorities so complicated that he'd never successfully explained them to anyone.
Ranna thought keeping Kanos together and defending the people against war would outweigh any other priority, but you could never tell with Marror. He had some odd views on matters of principle and he didn't trust autocratic authority -- ironic, since he was an autocrat himself, but there it was. However, he'd been known to make the occasional compromise.
Put him under questionable. Four against, two for, two questionable.
Teluran was a lazy waste of flesh and air. So far as Ranna knew, he followed Olek's lead so as to avoid the effort of independent thought. The only things she'd ever seen him display interest in were fashion and his standing in court society. Unless she could terrify him into believing that a vote against her would deprive him of his wealth and indolent ease, he would continue living in his haze of happy denial and following Olek's every word.
Five against, Ranna decided. Teluran would simply be too much work for too little return.
Langard, on the other hand, had a mind. Not only that, he used it, if sporadically. He supported Olek because Olek spoke for decentralization and Langard's holdings were scattered all through Damiland, Alland, and Auvern. He didn't want the imperial provinces to become effective units of administration. But he was anything but foolish, and some of his lands weren't too far from the Halo border. Ranna thought he might be persuaded to throw his support behind a centralized and well-funded army, at least.
And she really had no objection to lords holding scattered lands. She just didn't think they ought to have sole dominion over them, particularly in matters of law, defense, and tax-collection. She might be able to compromise with Langard.
Five against, two for, three questionable. That made ten -- who was left?
Bethurika might also be persuadable; she was certainly worried enough about Dorin Rhae and Caermarin's advances toward her lands. Her grievance was taxes -- unfortunately, that was something on which Ranna couldn't compromise. She needed money, and she couldn't let Bethurika escape her obligations to pay.
Still, Ranna had a feeling about Bethurika. Call her questionable rather than against.
Last was Shae.
Ranna frowned. "I'll never understand her either," she muttered. "Actually, I'm thinking I'd understand Danil before I'd understand Shae. She never helps anyone -- just waits until someone's gathering support and pulls the rug out from under them, smiling.
"And I hate her eyes," Ranna added, grumbling. She'd never been able to shake the feeling that Shae's perpetually staring eyes were going to pop out of her face -- that and a nagging suspicion that Shae was straining her face to keep herself awake after spending her nights furthering nefarious plots.
Shae wanted something. Ranna was dead certain of that -- as with Bethurika, she had a feeling -- but she had no idea what that something was. Not independence, she thought, nor power as such, but it could as easily be dangerous as not.
"Still, the only way to know is to find out," Ranna told herself. She frowned, pacing faster. "And she's not the sort to be writing her secrets for anyone to find. Na, I think the only way to know what Shae wants is to ask her."
Was it worth the risk? Exposing her plans -- or at least the existence of plans, of something that needed Council support -- and giving a hint of her true weakness?
Then again, Shae was no fool. She already knew Ranna's position was weak. And judging by the timing of her even-handed disruptions, timing that required knowledge of what her victims were attempting to do, she also knew that Ranna had plans of some sort.
Yes, Ranna decided, it was worth the risk to approach Shae.
Five against, two for, five questionable.
She had to make overtures to Shae, Langard, Bethurika, Marror, and Eburek. Eburek would have to wait until Garin brought proof of whatever Olek was doing to keep him in line. Marror would have to wait until she had more evidence of the gathering invasion. The other three, though... they could be approached now.
"I'll be dealing with Shae myself," Ranna decided. The only question left was who to send after Langard and Bethurika, and how they should present the deal. She couldn't do it herself -- there wasn't time, and after nearly two years of doing everything herself she was willing to accept a bit of help. But who did she trust enough to know her plans?
She ran the short list of trustworthy people through her mind, and groaned. She'd have to call another meeting.
Ranna rang the bells to summon Pazun and Mabriel. Best to get this over as soon as she could.
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I only have one more completed part of this story, in which we see the meeting Ranna calls at the end of this excerpt. Then it's back to Talin and Bren and the action scene I've been avoiding. What on earth made me think writing a story about war and swordplay was a good idea???
