WARRIOR AND WITCH by MARIE BRENNAN

Author:MARIE BRENNAN
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 978-0-446-61697-3
Published: 2006-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

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PART TWO

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Chapter Twelve

Edame waited until the heavy, carved door had swung shut and they were alone in the room before she turned to Mirei and raised one eyebrow wryly. “Well,” she said, “that could have gone better. But it also could have gone worse.”

Mirei dropped bonelessly back into the plush embrace of her chair. “I know.”

The Fire Hand shrugged philosophically. She wasn’t much older than Mirei—surprisingly young to be a domain-level adviser—but her experience here in Haira, working with Lord Iseman and Lady Terica, meant that meetings like the one just concluded were old, familiar territory for her. “Don’t be too discouraged,” she said, her face re-assuming much of the cocky cast it usually wore. “The ministers may be giving you squint-eyed looks, but you have Iseman and Terica on your side, and that’s what counts. They can work on the ministers for you. Or just step on them, if it comes to that.”

Rubbing her eyes in weary silence, Mirei tried to take encouragement from the words. She did have the Lord and Lady of Haira on her side, and that was no small thing. A deft bit of diplomacy—mostly Edame’s work and Satomi’s, but Mirei had done her part, too—had turned some of their most inflexible opponents into their strongest allies.

The married couple who ruled this domain were staunch Avannans, followers of a sect that was strong in Haira. Avannans honored a form of ceremonial Dance as the highest form of worship. The body in motion was the domain of the Warrior. Therefore, Avannans revered the Warrior particularly. A neat little chain that had, in the past, made them not particularly friendly—though not actively hostile—to witches, for the Warrior was by far the most neglected Aspect among Starfall’s people.

Edame had used that very dislike to get her Lord and Lady on Satomi’s side. Or rather, on Mirei’s.

Mirei was not only a former Temple Dancer herself; she was a correction of the very imbalance that had set Avannans against witches. Once that was made clear, Iseman and Terica had seen it almost as a divine duty to help the witches make this change. In other words, to oppose the dissidents under Shimi and Arinei.

Mirei would have taken more comfort from that knowledge if she weren’t so tired. Haira was not the only place Satomi had been sending her over the last few months, since she brought the doppelgangers to Starfall. In fact, she’d ricocheted all over the land, going to every domain but Kalistyi. She was both the strongest advocate they had for the new way, and the only one who could get herself to wherever she needed to be without losing weeks in travel. Not all the places she went, though, were success stories like Haira.

This domain was on their side. So was Eriot, the other major center of Avannan worship. Kalistyi, on the other hand, was solidly with Shimi’s people. The rest were a patchwork of political battlegrounds, and Mirei was not cut out for politics.

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