"For all the backbiting that goes on, trust cements the Reugge Community. We know we are in no physical danger from one another. We know none of our sisters will willfully work to the detriment of the order. Our subordinates know we will protect and nurture them. But Marika believes none of that.
"Why? Because her hamlet and hundreds of others were overrun by savages the Reugge were pledged to repel. Because genuine attempts have been made upon her life. Because she has not been educated to see the good of the Community as paramount."
Gradwohl sounded like some windy Wise meth giving the convocation on a day of high obligation. The longer Gradwohl talked, the less closely Marika listened and the more she became wary. There was some silth game running and she was just a counter.
"About personal loyalty, few of you know a thing," the most senior continued in a hard voice. "Let us experiment. Moragan. Proceed."
Moragan got off her stool. She drew a long, wicked knife from inside her robe, presented it to Senior Zertan.
Gradwohl said, "Carry out your instructions, Zertan."
Zertan left her stool with obvious reluctance. She looked at Marika for a moment.
She flung herself forward.
Marika's response was instantaneous and instinctive. She ducked through her loophole into the ghost realm. A thought captured a ghost. A mental shout scattered the few others before any other silth could come through and seize them. She hurled her ghost at the vaguely perceived form plunging toward her.
She returned to reality while the bark of a rifle still reverberated through the chamber. Zertan was pitching forward, dropped knife not yet to the floor. Gradwohl was turning, spun by Barlog's bullet. Marika flung up a paw, restraining Barlog before she commenced a massacre.
The chamber door exploded inward. The guards posted outside tumbled through. Grauel leaped through with a Degnan ululation, shield on one arm, javelin poised for the cast. Behind her, a quivering Braydic menaced the guards with a sword she had no idea how to use.
Not one of the silth on the stools moved more than the tip of a tail.
Some silth game.
Most Senior Gradwohl recovered. The bullet had but clipped her shoulder. She met Marika's cold stare. "I seldom miscalculate. But when I do, I do it big." Her paw went to her shoulder, where moisture seeped into the fabric of her robe. "I did not anticipate firearms. Halechk! See to Zertan before she dies on us."
A silth with healer's decorations left her stool and hastened to Zertan.
Gradwohl said, "Personal loyalty. Even in the face of certain disaster." Her teeth ground together. Her wound had begun to hurt.
Zertan's knife had come to rest only inches from the tip of Marika's right boot. She kicked it across the floor to the most senior's feet.
Gradwohl's cheek began to twitch. She whispered, "Have a care, pup. Had it been real, you might have gotten through it by having surprise on your right paw."
"Had it been real, there would be only three meth alive in this room right now." Marika spoke with conviction. She broke eye contact long enough to glance at the knife. "We had a saying in the Ponath. 'As strength goes.' " She had to say it in dialect. Gradwohl did not react. Perhaps it went past her.
"When I am manipulated or pushed, mistress, I must push back."
Gradwohl ignored her. She surveyed the silth, still perched upon their stools. "This assembly has served its purpose. It is as I suspected. Someone has been remiss. Someone allowed prejudice to overwhelm reason. Listen! This pup ambushed and destroyed a ranking sister of the Serke Community. And I promise you, that House is giving that fact a lot more attention than this one has."
Gradwohl stared at Marika hard. Marika continued to meet her gaze, refusing to be intimidated. Beneath, beyond the test of wills, she sensed a kindred soul.
"This assembly is at an end," Gradwohl said, still holding Marika's gaze. "Go. All but you, pup."
Silently, silth began filing out. Two helped carry Senior Zertan.
Barlog and Grauel did not move.
Braydic, though, Marika noted, had disappeared. Ever cautious and timid Braydic.
Just as well, perhaps. Just as well.
Marika focused upon this meth strong enough to rule the fractious Reugge Community.
Chapter Sixteen
I
Gradwohl climbed onto a stool. "Sit if you like," she told Marika.
Marika settled crosslegged upon the floor, as had been the custom among the packs of the upper Ponath. Furniture had been unknown in her dam's loghouse.
"Tell me about yourself, pup."
"Mistress?"
"Tell me your story. I want to know everything there is to know about you."
"You know, mistress. Through your agent Moragan."
Gradwohl seemed amused. "She was that transparent?"
"Only looking back."
"Nothing substitutes for direct examination. Begin simply. Tell me your story. What is your name?"
"Marika, mistress."
"Tell me about Marika. From her birth to this moment."
Marika sketched an autobiography which included her first awarenesses of her talent, her unusually close relationship with her male littermate Kublin, her troubles with one of the Wise of her dam's loghouse, and all her troubles during her stay at the fortress Akard.
Gradwohl nodded. "Interesting. But possibly even more interesting in complete privacy."
"Mistress?"
"You have told me very little about Marika inside."
Marika grew uneasy.
"Do not be frightened, pup."
"I am not, mistress."
"Liar. I met a most senior when I was your age. I was petrified. There is no need. I am here to help. You are not happy, are you? Honestly, now."
"No, mistress."
"Why not?"
She thought she had made that clear. Perhaps their backgrounds were too alien. She rambled till Gradwohl lost patience. "Get to the point, pup. There are no ears here but mine. Even were there, your sisters would make no reprisals for what you say. I will not permit that. And do not lie. I want to know what the real Marika thinks and feels."
Irked, Marika tested the water with a few mild remarks. When Gradwohl did not explode, she continued till she had revealed most of her dissatisfactions.
"Exactly what I suspected. An absolute lack of vision from the very beginning. I was not a feral myself, but I endured similar troubles. They sense strength and power, and it frightens them. In their way, silth have minds as small as any common meth. Those who might be surpassed want to stifle you before you develop the skills to command them. It is a severe shortcoming of the society silth have developed. Now. Tell me more about Akard."
Gradwohl spoke no more of Marika's place in things, nor of her feelings. Instead, she concentrated upon a minute examination of events during Akard's final days. "What has become of the other survivors? Especially the commtech and the tradermale?" She used the Ponath dialect word tradermale as though it was unfamiliar.
Marika reflected carefully before saying, "Braydic was assigned work in the communications center here." Had the most senior noted the sword-carrying meth who had threatened the guards behind Grauel, keeping them from interfering? "They will not let me see her. Bagnel vanished. I assume he rejoined his brotherhood. They say there is a tradermale place here in Maksche."
"Presumably I could reach him through his factors."
"Darkship, mistress?"
"The flying cross. That was you in the tower, was it not? You touched Norgis just before we set down."
"Yes, mistress."
"What did you think?"
"I was awed, mistress. The idea of riding such a thing... . I rode one coming down from Akard, but most of that escapes me."
"You are not frightened by it?"
"No, mistress."
"You do not find those-who-dwell frightening?"
"No, mistress."
"Good. That will be all, pup. Return to your quarters."
"Yes, mistress."
"There will be changes in your life, pup."
"Yes, mistress," Marika said as she walked toward the doorway.
Grauel went through first, surveyed the hallway, nodded. Barlog backed out behind Marika, rifle still trained on the most senior.
Not one word about the confrontation passed between the three of them.
The changes began immediately. The morning following the interview, a silth the age of Marika's dam came to her cell. She introduced herself as Dorteka. "I am your instructress, detached from the most senior's staff for that purpose. The most senior has ordered an individualized program for you. We will get started now." Plainly, Dorteka did not like her assignment, but she was careful to avoid saying so.
Marika would soon note a cloisterwide shift of attitude toward one who had caught the most senior's interest.
That first morning Dorteka took her to a meditation chamber. They sat upon the floor, across a table of the same stone as the cloister, in the eerie light of a single oil lamp. On Dorteka's side lay a clipboard and papers. Dorteka said, "Your education has been erratic. The most senior wants you to go back and begin at the beginning."