"I'd prefer to face my ignorance head on."

Ganfrion's dark, narrow eyes flickered toward Mikhyel in an unreadable assessment. "That could be arranged."

"Ride in the carriage with me."

"That an order. Suds?"

"Damn right it is. And the name's dunMheric."

The crooked mouth twitched, the dark eyes narrowed to black slits beneath shaggy brows. One broad shoulder lifted in acknowledgment.

Perhaps.

If he was lucky.

Chapter Eleven.

The quill tip caught on the parchment, and snapped free.

Fine specks of ink spattered across both printed page and the marble-topped desk Nikki had personally designed for his new office.

With a faint curse, Councillor Meri dunPendac dropped the pen in a flustered search for something to wipe the mess.

"It's all right," Nikki said soothingly as he produced a handkerchief to blot the desk, knowing better than to worry about the dots staining the contract itself. So long as they didn't smear, they'd do nothing to the document's legibility or, more importantly, viability.

"My apologies, Rhomandi," dunPendac muttered, and slid forward again on his chair to finish signing the docu- ment. A second search, this time for the pen, found a much larger stain penetrating the carpet beneath the Council- lor's chair.

DunPendac's face blanched. Nikki laughed, hoping to set the elderly statesman at his ease, and held out another pena modern capillary pen. "My fault, sir, for providing a defective, not to mention antiquated, tool."

A historical touch which he'd thought would make the moment memorable. Special. Well, it had at least half- succeeded. He doubted dunPendac would soon forget this moment.

His efforts to minimize the wealthy citizen's guilt fell on disapproving ears. "That's a two-hundred-year-old carpet.

Possibly a civic treasure. Certainly paid for by citizen taxes.

Aren't you the least concerned? Aren't you at least going to charge me for the cleaning? Replacement, should clean- ing prove impossible?"

"It's still a carpet. Meant to be used. Certainly, I'll have it seen to. If it would make you feel better to pay for the cleaning"

"Rings, boy" dunPendac broke off. "My apologies, m'lord. An expert is needed." He dipped the quill and signed the document with cursory efficiency, relaxed, Nikki thought sourly, now he could patronize the ex-Princeps of Rhomatum. "I'll send someone over."

"Thank you. Councillor," Nikki said, schooling both voice and face. "For your signature and your . . .

naniatancp. "

"Certainly." DunPendac stood up. "If that will be all?"

"Yes'i sir, of course. Thank you very much for your coop- eration'in this matter. All of Rhomatum will benefit."

"Yes, yes, we've been through all that. Good day."

"Good day, sir. Renfrii!"

But even as he called to the footman, the door to his office swung open and Lidye flowed into the room. In the months before Boreton, she'd have billowed or floated, de- pending on her childish mood. And she'd have burst in without ceremony, uncaring who or what she'd interrupted.

She still entered without preliminaries, but her timing was invariably exquisite, and her movements were slow without being languid, graceful without being insipid.

Even her style of dress had changed. Long, elegant lines that emphasized her height and made her seem subtly taller, subtly more matureand infinitely more alluring than the ruffles and lace and corsets she'd worn before.

Kiyrstin claimed it was vanity, to keep her from showing the child growing in her belly. But Nikki noticed that Kiyr- stin herself had adopted the look, when she deigned to wear women's clothes. When he challenged her on her hy- pocrisy, Kiyrstin only laughed and said good for him, and he was right.

Kiyrstin confused him.

Lidye, on the other hand, mesmerized him. He couldn't keep his eyes from her, her every move reminding him of that graceful body moving against his in the privacy of their bedroom.

Her bedroom. The Ringmaster of Rhomatum's suite.

Where Darius the first and his beloved Kharishia had slept.

And loved.

He shivered. Lidye smiled, a tiny, intimate smile just for him, then raised her hand to dunPendac.

"Patron Modhisharhi, a pleasure."

"Lady Rhomandi," dunPendac said flatly, most formal of her possible addressesas Lidye's had been formal to him.

He touched her hand lightly, dipping his head just low enough for propriety.

DunPendac, like so many in the Council, still resented and mistrusted the Southern-born ringmaster. Nikki stirred, wanting to object, but a flicker of eyelash, a slight tilt of Lidye's head, kept him silent, and, indeed, even as he watched, dunPendac relaxed and by the time he released her hand, his parting nod appeared almost pleasant.

"What did you do to him?" Nikki asked, when the door was securely closed behind dunPendac.

His answer was a flirtations twitch of her mouth, half- hidden by her slim shoulder. She pivoted about to face him, halting her dramatic swirl of skirts prematurely, one fold short of the stain on the floor. She frowned at the stain, then glared at the innocent doorway.

"It was an accident, Liddi. My fault. I'm sorry."

The tension in her shoulders disappeared, and her smile was sweet. "Of course it was, darling. Don't worry, I know a solution that will lift the stain quite harmlessly. An old family recipe, you know. Just don't let the maids touch it for the next several hours. It must be perfectly dry."

"Is there anything you don't know, Liddi?" he asked, unable to keep the awe from his voice.

Her musical laughter filled the room. "Oh, many, many things, darling." She moved in behind his chair and wrapped her arms lightly around his neck, staring down at the contract. "Good meeting?"

"Very." Nikki's voice vibrated with excitement. "Two more, Liddi, that's all we need, and we'll be in business.

We'll have that dam halfway completed before Mikhyel returns!"

Her arms tightened. "Congratulations, darling. See? I told you, you could do it."

He twisted in her hold to look up at her, and covered her hands with his own. "Yes, you did. And I don't think I could have done it without you."

She smiled, a secretive, tantalizing bend of rose-tinted lips. "Now what sort of woman would I be to deny it? To say, of course you could have?" She slid her hands free, tracing his neck to cup his face, her fingers winding in amongst his hair, and leaned that fraction closer, until he had to close his eyes against her dizzying image. "Whatever help I've been, I promise you, it was my pleasure, sweet, sweet Nikki."

Her whisper brushed his mouth with warm breath. Eyes still closed, he strained toward the promised kiss.

(Deymorin? Nikki? Damn, if only you could hear} "Khyel?" Nikki whispered and his eyes opened. Lidye pulled back, became a sleek-edged woman again.

jKhyel? Is that you?} Nikk~S~ook his head. That was Deymorin.

{I'm Here, too!) he shouted into that brother-filled neth- erworld, and for a moment, it was as if they were all three pounding and bugging each other in greeting.

A confusion of images and words filled him. Deymorin, in a bedroom in the Tower of Mekh'narum near the coast.

Mikhyel, in an office at Moisaiidum on the sound. A rum- pled bed, a desk of papers. A letter Mikhyel had truly not wished to entrust to a courier's hands.

And a haze of speculations as to why they could hear one another, that settled on nothing except maybe because Mikhyel wanted it so badly and the stars were right, which made Mikhyel laugh in his head, in a way he never laughed on the outside.

(All right. Barrister, what's this all about? Why'd you wake me up?} (Napping again, Rags?} A mental growl from Deymorin, edged with humor and concern. And weariness. Deymorin was sleeping when he could, which wasn't often enough. {Don't waste time, Khyel.} {Right. The situation is rather more involved than we thought. Ganfrion has uncovered} {Who?} Nikki asked.

Anger from Deymorin. An image of the scar-faced Crypt inmate.

{He's with you, Mikhyel?} Nikki asked. {Why?} {I'll explain later. Just listen to me.} A blast of images flared inside Nikki's head, information flooding into him faster than words. A sense of borders far less secure than he'd always believed. Of factions Inside and Out, those with reason to prefer the status quo and those who fiercely desired change.

And at the center of those factions' differences: a deal made with Shatum, Lidye's home node. The secret at the heart of the Southern Crescent's agreement to aid in cap- ping Khoratumand that resonated with fears Mikhyel had harbored for years, that he was glad to finally have out in the open where he could deal with it.

Images of another node to the south, connected to Sha- tum through an already capped satellite. A node possibly comparable to Rhomatum herself. A node of which Anhe- liaa and her predecessors had been well aware; a node they'd refused to consider capping until the Rhomatum Web was secure.< A node that, when capped, could theoretically wreak chaos in the weather along the southern coast, while secur- ing a storm-channeled overland trade route right through Shatum.

{That should delight the Giephaetum buds.} Deymorin's grim thought referencing the seaside satellites of the north- ern node superimposed over Mikhyel's wordless images.

Those satellites' commerce depended on the sea-going trade.

{Not only Giephaetum.} That was Mikhyel. {According to Gan, the Varishmondi are livid. It will cut the bottom out of their shipping empire.) {No wonder Kharl looked ready to throttle you, brother.) Images from Deymorin: a meeting in Shatum, and Kharl Varishmondi, aloof and bitter, refusing to sit with the other leaders.

{According to Gan, Kharl believes we're party to Anhe- liaa's expansionist notions.) (This must have been brewing since Mheric's time. Kharl was always visiting back then.)

And after Mheric died, he never came back.} I'd abdicated to you . . .} And I was Anheliaa's. Rings, Deymorin, we've been

fools.) (Don't dwell, Khyel. *'** handle Kharl. I'll leave tomor- row} {I was counting on it.) (But! . . .} Nikki interrupted, frantically. (The Varish- mondi are Shatumin. You said Shatum wants the expansion.) {Not all of Shatum, Nikki.) {Then who} And then, he realized: {Tarim.} Lidye's father.

Agreement. Sympathy.

jMikhyel?} Nikki asked hesitantly. {Did you hear any- thing yourself. Not just in Shatum, I mean. If they had a contract with Anheliaa, why didn't they press it before?) (She couldn't have done anything for years after Khora- tum anyway. I imagine they've been dealing with Anheliaa for some time. More recently, well, perhaps they said noth- ing because they knew Anheliaa would die and someone else, someone hopefully more amenable to their cause was go ng to be in charge of the Rhomatum rings.) Lidye'.} Deymorin's thoughts tasted grim.

Lidye won't do anything wrong!} Nikki's head hurt with the force he put behind that mental scream.

{No one's accusing her, Nikki. But her supporters in Sha- tum are expecting her to act in their behalf. They will con- sider the right thing to be capping that node. She might agree. But the Syndicate must discuss it first. But tempers are rising. There are Kirish'lani who insist they have proof that Shatum agreed to assist the Khoratum expansion only on the agreement that their node would be capped. Lidye may feel forced to comply. She may be in danger if she does not.) She could be in danger either way, Nikki realized in some horror, and remembering that capping nodes was very dan- gerous: even a small, willing node like Barsitum had forced Darius II into bed for months afterward. A large node, with only one controlled satellite . . .

He shuddered.

(She might try anyway, Nikki, and we can't let her.} Deymorin's thought came to him. {Such a decision must be a web-wide agreement. Anheliaa had no right to make pri- vate guarantees of that nature. And Anheliaa chose Lidye.

And Lidye's family is Shatum! Lidye's father owns a ruling interest in Shatum Tower!} {Lidye will do what's best!} Nikki shouted into that pessimism.

{I hope you're right, Nikki.} Calm thoughts. Mikhyel.

(But watch her. Remember whose guards took us to the prison, and watch your back.} {You're a fine one to be giving advice, brother. Look what you've got at your back.} {And I'm damned glad he is! We'd know nothing about this, if it weren't for him. But we don't know how thor- oughly she's involved, Nikki. Don't accuse her. Be care- fulfor both your sakes.} {How do you know? Are you certain about Tarim?} He needed to have the details, in case Lidye didn't know. In case she didn't believe her father was involved.

More images, then, of the scar-faced felon gathering hints in several dark and filthy places; suspicions only until an overheard conversation in the baths of Baristum. Talk of a meeting in Shatum, a meeting he raced cross-country to attend, killing a horse in mid-stride to get there and back before Mikhyel left Barsitumand then missed him any- way, which had made Mikhyel angry and suspicious.

It was all very tangled.

{What meeting!} Nikki shouted into the mental clamor.

{Sorry, Nik. The Southern Crescent alliance against Rho- matum. There are factions who believe that if they combine forces, they can force Rhomatum to cap that node. There's Kirish'lan money in it, you can bet your future on that.} {Why?( {The Kirish'lan plan to occupy the node. They've made the noises, greased the proper palms} (How does this Ganfrion know all this? How did he get into the meeting?} Images of death, of a guard replaced. Of standing in shadows and hearing everything.

{Murderer.) {Would you rather ignorance?) No, he wouldn't, and Mikhyel knew that. Still: (And Tar- im's involvement?) (Sironi gorTarim was in charge of the meeting.) Which meant Tarim himself might as well have been.

{Do you think the Northern Crescent nodes are aware of all this?) Deymorin asked.

{I'm virtually certain of it. Governor Haulsini here has

been dancing about the point quite deftly.)

U'm coming up there) {Why?) {To help explain1

(Don't be ridiculous. This new development doesn't ne-

gate the need for the border patrol. Besides, you need to talk with Kharl. Make certain he knows nothing precipitous is about to happen regarding that southern node. I'm going directly to Giephaetum} {Changing schedule again?) {I want to speak with Nethaalye, get her down to Rhoma- tum as soon as possible. Anything to offset this growing rift. I've got Pasingarim's signed agreement to aid in re- pairing the Khoratum line, which is to everyone's advan- tage. Pasingarim carries the entire Southern Crescent.