DUMARIA, DUMAR.

Lord Ehara lifts the crystal decanter, lets the light from the window illuminate the amber liquid, then sets the decanter on the writing desk. He walks to the shorter bookcase and extracts a volume. The Art of War.

He replaces the leather-bound book. ''They never call it 'the profession of war' or 'the faith of war' or some such. It's always an art."

The rangy man in the white of a Sea-Marshal nods from the wooden chair across from the writing desk.

"War is conflict, like the conflict of harmony and dissonance. In conflict, nothing is certain. So warfare is an art. It is not like smithing a blade or plowing a furrow."

"Sturinn has been good at war."

"We deal always with the uncertain. The sea is our home, and it is never sure."

Ehara extracts another book, scans it, and replaces it on the shelf "Why are you here? Why a fleet of forty ships? Why not just replace me? I could not stand against Stunnn.

'You are perceptive," jerRestin says. "We prefer perceptive allies and friends."

'You talk of friendship, Sea-Marshal jerRestin," says Ehara easily. "1 have taken your tokens of friendship and your advice. Now, I have lost hundreds of golds, five companies of lancers, and the confidence of many of my officers. Southern Defalk lies in the b.l.o.o.d.y hands of that butchering sorceress." Ehara lifts a goblet of wine from the desk in a mock toast, then replaces it, untouched.

"You have taken our advice and our coins when it suits you," answers the rangy man with the tanned face. "And a few gems.

"That may be," Ehara laughs. "Rulers have that habit. What suggest you now?"

"Wait for her to come to you."

"Now you suggest this?"

"Had you not meddled in Defalk, she would have no reason to enter Dumar."

"Oh." Ehara lifts the goblet again in another toast. "A toast to mighty Sturinn. You have encouraged me to enrage my neighbor, knowing my efforts would fail-"

"You began those efforts before we came to offer friendship."

"I stand-corrected, mighty Sea-Marshal." Ehara takes a deep swallow of the amber wine. "You encouraged me to increase my efforts. That will encourage the sorceress of the north to invade poor Dumar. Because mighty Sturinn is my friend, Sturinn can then bring all her troops and ships to my aid, crushing the cruel and sorcerous invader. Then Sturinn will bring us trade, and more ships, and new customs. And before long, Dumar will join the Ostisles under the Maitre of Sturinn. Do I have that right?"

"Almost," admits jerRestin. "Except that Lord Ehara will be viceroy for Dumar and Defalk, high above all in Liedwahr."

"That is so you Sea-Priests can claim you have come but to help your friend and ally."

''Would you rather stand against the sorceress and the Liedfuhr of Mansuur alone? Who now knows of the Lord of Bultok or the Marque of Cealur? All those lords have vanished into the maw of Mansuur."

''A sad choice I face."

"A better choice than without Sturinn," points out jerRestin.

Ehara laughs and lifts his goblet. "Here's to waiting. May it not prove too costly."

The Sea-Marshal frowns momentarily.

III.

THEMA UND.

VARIANTE.

66.

The main guest chamber at Stromwer had two narrow stone windows, opposite each other in one corner, with a hot breeze, a bed, and a small bath chamber built into one corner of the narrow and deep room.

Rickel had located a small writing desk and had the servants move it into the room, along with three chairs.

Anna supposed she could have used the late Dencer's study, but she didn't feel comfortable with that.

That sort of thing seemed too presumptive, even if she had effectively conquered Stromwer. She ma.s.saged her forehead. The double vision had vanished after the last two days of rest, but she still had a slight headache.

With the thrap on the door, she turned her head. "Come in."

"My lady." Jecks wore a clean blue tunic, and had washed up. He looked more handsome than ever as he stepped into the guest chamber. Behind him stood a messenger bearing leather bags of some sort.

Anna had to make an effort.not to smile insanely. She was glad to see Jecks ... and his smile and twinkling eyes. She needed something positive in her life. "Lord Jecks."

"My lady. You have some. . . dispatches. . . from Falcor."

"Dispatches?" Anna offered a smile, hoping her smile wasn't too inviting, too forward. Idiot! You worry about being too distant, and you worry about being too forward. "I suppose it had to happen." She kept smiling, not exactly sure why; Hormones? Do I have any left?

"Put them there." Jecks gestured to the braided brown-and-white rug beside the wide bed.

"Yes, sire. Lady Anna."

As the messenger departed, the regent looked at the three bags of scrolls Jecks had escorted in.

The white-haired lord smiled broadly and lifted the largest bag. "Those are from Dythya." He stacked the scrolls on the foot of the bed behind the small writing desk.

Anna groaned.

Jecks held another bag and began to extract a second set of scrolls. "These are from Menares.'' A third and smaller bag followed. "These are from Himar."

"Wonderful."

"You are the regent, and some things about the business of Defalk must be handled by the regent."

"Scrolls are better than battles," she conceded.

"They offer less hazard to health."

Anna wasn't sure that administration, especially by horse-carried messages, wasn't hazardous to health and sanity. She took a deep breath and started with the scrolls from Dythya, opening and scanning them and putting them in piles on the bed-those where there seemed to be something she needed to do; those that were information she probably needed to go over; and those complaining about Menares. When she was done, over a gla.s.s later, the first pile held a half-dozen scrolls: the second a dozen; and the third, five.

She took a swallow of wine, dark purple and not nearly so good as that of Lerona, and picked up one of the to-do scrolls. "This one says that she and Himar have located a farm smith who's done knives and stuff. They think he could do blades. . maybe."

Jecks nodded. "How much?"

"A gold a season, plus a silver a finished blade. We purchase all the materials and the equipment." Anna shrugged. "We might as well try. Give him a season trial?''

"We have no other smiths," Jecks pointed out. "If you supply the hammers and anvils and wrought iron, blades will cost you half what you would purchase them for."

"We were talking a gold a blade..."

"Your own smith might cost the Liedstat as little as three or four silvers a blade."

Nodding, Anna pulled out some of the crude paper she'd taken from Dencer's study, and began to write on the small table, carefully, so carefully because the combination of quill and local ink meant everything took forever to dry. Then she laid the sheet on the bed to dry and picked up the second scroll.

"Lord Nelmor has sent his son Tiersen to Falcor for fostering." Anna snorted. "She's enclosed Neimor's scroll as well. Of course, it's because his sister Ytrude is so pleased. Right! It's because another company of Neserean lancers has been quartered in Elioch. Listen to this.

"... once you have dealt with the problems in the south, we look forward to your return to Falcor. We remain your obedient servant in all matters...."

Anna snorted. "All that matters is the danger closest to his lands. Maybe I should ensure there are dangers on all borders."

"Some rulers have done so. For a few years, it has worked. Then people disregarded the danger and the ruler, and so did those who threatened," offered Jecks dryly.

"Well..." Anna licked her lips. "I'll send Nelmor a scroll that says how I'm glad to hear that Tiersen has gone to Falcor. I'll rea.s.sure him that all holdings in Defalk are dear to me, especially his, given the deep and early friendship offered by his family." Anna paused and glanced at Jecks.

"You are a wicked woman. He will burn at that hint that you hold his sister so highly."

"Good. She was there, when all the male lords-except you-were still twiddling their thumbs. I'm still committing to saving his neck." Anna reached for another sheet of paper.

The third scroll was about taxes or tariffs. The merchants of Ealcor had requested that the lord's tariff be reduced to one copper on twenty, instead of the one on ten. Anna handed the scroll to Jecks, and looked at the next one.

"Lady Anna?"

She looked up from reading the next scroll-about the need to find golds to repair the street sewers in Falcor that had been clogged by the Evult's flood. "Yes?".

"Have you reduced the liedgeld for the lords?"

"No. I've let some pay late."

"Then should you allow the merchants to pay less?"

Jecks had a point. The liedgeld came from the peasants and holding workers, in effect. Why should one group get relief? Or, if she gave the merchants relief, how soon before every lord was at her door?

She sighed. "Can we suggest that we will review the tariff, but that, given the needs of Defalk, it must stand. Say that we will be looking into fairness for all those who pay tariffs in all forms?"

Jecks grinned. "You are indeed wicked."

Anna was just afraid she'd brought American politics to Defalk. She reached for another sheet of paper.

After drafting her political reply she went back to the sewer business, directing Dythya to spend another hundred golds to repair the sewers-and to enforce the rules requiring them to be flushed periodically. It might help reduce disease, but she wasn't sure by how much.

Then came the next scroll.

"We have another message from our friend Hadrenn. Like evelyone else he has a problem." Anna read selected pa.s.sages to Jecks.

"As last I wrote, we of Ebra must change with changing times, and we were most pleased with your recognition of Synek as a domain of Falcor, and with the aid you provided most graciously. I was most honored by your later elevation of the domain of Synek to the Thirty-three of' Defalk.

"...Bertmynn has received coins from the Liedfuhr of Mansuur, and blades for his armsmen as well. Now Gestatr has discovered that a ship from the Maitre of Sturinn has arrived in Elawha, claimed uujustly by Hertmynn when it should be a separate domain. From the vessel have come lances, blades, and golds ...

we of Synek. while not yet hard-pressed, must fear the worst....

"In short," Anna concluded, "'we're loyal; we're in trouble; and please send coins.'"

Jecks laughed.

"All I do is spend money." Anna glanced at the two piles of scrolls she still hadn't even sorted. "More coins than We really have."

"What will you take from Stromwer's treasury?"

"Some. What Wendella can afford, by my reckoning. More than enough to pay for this mess, if it's there."

"More than you reckon," Jecks suggested. "When all is totaled, you will have missed things."

He was probably right about that, too.

"How long before you think to return to Falcor?" asked the older man cautiously.

"I'm not sure we're finished here," Anna said slowly. "I don't want to stay in Stromwer, but Ehara's not exactly disappearing."

"You hold Defalk," Jecks said. "He cannot bring that many troops against you. He lost close to a hundred lancers who supported Sargol and Dencer."

"He has a few more to lose than we do. I don't like the Sea-Priests, either." Anna pursed her lips, thinking about women in dangling chains. "Ehara and his friends the Sea-Priests are still a threat. A big one." Anna gestured toward the wall mirror, and the ashes against the wall under it. Will everyone remember you as the sorceress-regent who destroyed every mirror in every chamber she slept in?

"You have perhaps twelvescore armsmen," Jecks pointed out. "The season is early summer, and still we have no proven weapons smiths, and few enough blades for the additional armsmen we need and do not have. You have more golds, but not enough."

Anna thought of the veiled plea for coins from Hadrenn, her newest va.s.sal or lord or whatever, pressed by Bertmynn. who was getting coins from both Konsstin and Sturinn, from what she could tell. That was designed to make life difficult for her and Defalk, nothing more. We should send a few hundred golds to Hadrenn."

Jecks nodded. "That is cheaper than armsmen, but you will have fewer golds"

"I always end up with fewer golds." Anna rubbed her forehead, then took another swallow of wine.

"Would you like some wine?" She filled the other goblet before Jecks could answer.

Ehara of Dumar bothered her. The Sea-Priests, if she could believe Hadrenn' s scroll, were pouring coins and arms into Ebra, and they were doing the same in Dumar, and Dumar, unlike Ebra, was neither prostrate nor divided. But what could she do about Ehara?