Glasswrights' Master by Mindy L Klasky

Author:Mindy L Klasky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Published: 2003-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Hal listened to Rani sigh again and say, “I don’t know how I misjudged him so badly.”

He barely kept his irritation from smothering a reassuring tone. “You’ve spent a lifetime bargaining with merchants, and you struck the wrong balance with a nobleman. Eat your pie.” He blew on a steaming bit of kidney to make his point, refusing to speak more until Rani had placed a bite in her own mouth. “The man is not free to act. If he could, your arguments would have swayed him.”

“He did not listen at all.”

Hal raised a pottery mug to his lips and swallowed some surprisingly good ale. “You might as well have made your arguments to a father whose son was held at knifepoint. His decisions are not his own.”

“I’m a trader, though.” Hal raised an eyebrow at her elevated tone, and she hissed, “I am supposed to be better than that! I should have found a way to offer a deal that he could accept.”

“That he could accept? Or that his electors could?” Hal darted a glance about the tavern common room. They were alone now; no one could overhear his using the word ‘electors.’ Nevertheless, he lowered his voice to a bare whisper. “Rani, you could not structure a deal to meet everyone’s needs–not his, not … the nobles’, not our own, all bound together.”

“I might have–”

“You might have done nothing! There was no way to bring him to our side!” He forced himself to calm down, to swallow more ale. Why was he so angry with Rani? She had only tried to build an alliance with Sarmonia. How could they have guessed that the electors held Hamid on such a short lead?

Short lead. Men bleed. Crows feed.

Hal pushed aside the whispers of defeat, smothering them with false bravado. “Rani, you’re no use to me if you lose faith in yourself.”

“I’m not losing faith!” She slammed her hand down on the table. Together, they glanced toward the motherly woman who stood at the far end of the room. The proprietress of the tavern had looked up from her task of trimming tallow candles with a short, sharp knife. Rani lowered her voice and repeated, “I’m not losing faith. I’m the one who thought to come here, didn’t I?”

“Aye,” he agreed, hoping that she could not discern how much the admission cost him. Even as they had left Hamid’s palace, she had devised yet another plan to save him. She had figured out where they might find one last ally in Sarmonia, where they might forge a final bulwark against their rising tide of enemies. “But are we sure that you were told the truth?”

“They’ll be here,” Rani said, easily abandoning her guilty irritation to comfort him. “This is the fourth day after the full moon.”

“Full moon,” he muttered. “Superstitious, trust-in-magic claptrap. Why a group of–” But he never completed his tirade. The Sisters arrived before he could finish his rant.

Rani had argued that the Morenians must stave off the Fellowship, first and foremost.

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