"He was, what, thirteen? Fourteen?"

"Ellora," Commander Allen said, and this time Valedan was certain The Kalakar would remain silent.

"He was fourteen," Serra Alina replied. "Fourteen is not considered unworthy of note in the Dominion. The Imperial laws govern the age of manhood; in the Dominion, there is no universal law. The Tyr'agnate saw fit to grant his eldest son command of an army upon the field. By his grant, he acknowledged that his son had come of age.

"But he did more, by such an acknowledgment; he surrendered to the field a boy that he valued more than he valued himself. By example, he offered his lieges proof that he was willing to meet, measure for measure, the sacrifices that he asked of them, in the name of the Tyr'agar."

"They chose his death," The Kalakar Commander said quietly. "He was offered his life; he chose to forgo that offer."

Alina laughed. She laughed, and it was a bitter, harsh sound.

"Had you offered him his life, in exchange for his surrender and the surrender of his men, that might have been true."

Her gaze at last broke from the tabletop, from the dinner that she had not touched. Her head came up, her chin sharp, her cheeks flushed.

Serra Amara was shocked.

She had heard laughter in her life; certainly from the wives she had chosen to grace her harem. But not one of them would be capable of this harsh sound, this grating accusation.

She would have said, had any asked, that such a sound was beneath the Serra Alina di'Lamberto. It was a Northern sound. No, worse, it was a man's laugh.

And a woman's duty was to ease the harshness of a room full of men; to offer those sounds-laughter, where appropriate, speech where not-that would bring peace and harmony. There were only three women in the room: The Kalakar, who by the roughness of her speech and the sheer folly of her ignorance, must be discounted, the Serra Amara, and the Serra Alina.

Has the North so scoured you of grace, Serra?

She turned to her husband; saw that his expression was entirely hidden behind the stiff mask of his face.

She knew what her duty was, then.

Knew it. "Serra Alina?"

The Serra turned at once, obedient, to face her.

"Did they not make the offer to the kai Lamberto?"

"Ah. No, Serra Amara, they did not."

Amara almost closed her eyes. Almost. But it was a weakness, with her: she had to see, to know, to h.o.a.rd the naked truth that she was certain she would not witness again.

"He was a boy," The Kalakar said quietly. "And it was clear, from the campaign, that it was not a boy's hand behind the commands that controlled that army."

"They delivered their offer to the General who stood by the kai Lamberto's side. They offered the General the safety of internment, in return for the kai's surrender."

Nothing that had been said this evening was as grave a shock to the Serra Amara as the Serra Alina's words.

"But-but-"

Serra Alina nodded bitterly.

Serra Amara turned to the barbarous woman of the North. "Had you demanded the General's surrender, in return for the safety of the kai Callesta, it would have been difficult, for the Northerners have no way of sealing their oath.

"But that would have been possible. Surely you must understand that no General could have acceded to the demands you did make?"

Ramiro's hand touched hers. She felt it as a sudden warmth and a sudden pressure.

"We understand it now," Commander Allen said quietly. He bowed, both to the Serra Amara and to the Serra Alina.

"And if there existed some method of changing the past, we would undo the damage we did, in ignorance, more than a decade past. Your ways are not our ways, Serra."

But Serra Amara's gaze was captured by the Serra Alina's face.

She had never understood the Mancorvan hatred of the North until this moment.

How can you sit by the side of that boy, she thought, clenching her husband's hand-the hand that had been offered in command and in warning. How can you sit across from these . . . these barbarians? How can you work with them when they murdered your nephew?

As if she could hear what had not been said, the Serra Alina spoke to the Serra Amara.

"The mercy of the North," she said softly, "has often been mistaken for weakness." She closed her eyes a moment. "I have spent twelve years in the Northern court. I have spoken to the Kings who rule it; I have conversed with their children. I have spoken to the men who serve it in capacity of war; who serve it in capacity of peace. I have seen . . . much . . . there to admire.

"But it was bitterly, bitterly galling to understand, in the end, that Ser Andreas died for the folly of their ignorance. They did not intend his death, Serra Amara. I know it. I understand it. But . . . I have returned to the Dominion, and the knowledge rests uneasily now that I am . . . home."

She bowed her head. "It is not a mistake that Valedan kai di'Leonne would make. Would ever have made."

As much an explanation as a woman could offer in such a terrible room as this.

"And you," Commander Allen said, into the moment's silence, "Serra Amara. What would you cede to your son's a.s.sa.s.sins, if indeed the Lambertans are the hand behind his death?"

She was shocked. He turned to her, spoke to her. It was a question not even the bold would ask of her husband, the answer was so obvious. The question was an insult.

And yet, the man who asked it meant no insult; his expression was clear of malice, and free also of the mask of neutrality that served Generals in good stead. She turned to look at her husband; met his gaze. She knew how to read the subtle lines of his face, the careful neutrality of his expression.

But this eve, he offered nothing.

"It is not my place," she said quietly. "It is not my decision."

He seemed to accept this.

But he did not speak again, and the silence grew awkward. She had wanted the company of these people; she realized her mistake now. They demanded the intimacy of the harem without even understanding the demands they made. They were shorn of grace, these men, this woman.

"We did not kill the kai Lamberto," she said at last. "And we will not pay the price of his death, if that is a part of their negotiations."

"Not even if the price we pay for the lack of those negotiations is the death of the rest of your clan?"

She was shocked again.

Silence reigned, but briefly, and when it was broken, it was broken by the kai Leonne. She would remember this.

"Commander Allen, enough." He raised a hand; there was, in his tone, a gentleness that did not belie the command beneath the words. "There are some prices that cannot be paid."

Commander Allen was, indeed, silent, but his gaze crossed the table like the sudden plummet of an Eagle in flight. She thought of their names, of their Northern names, and understood them completely.

"Do you not remember the Mother's judgment?"

Commander Allen said dryly, "The Mother judges many things. Of which judgment do you speak, Tyr'agar?"

"The story of Olivia and her children."

"Ah."

Serra Alina bent slightly across the table; she whispered a few words that did not travel the distance, and Valedan kai di'Leonne nodded.

"It is a Northern tale," he said quietly, nodding gravely to the Serra Amara. "And it is long enough that I will handle its telling poorly. I will say this: She had a son and a daughter. In the South, the tale might better be told if she had two sons. But . . . it is a Northern tale.

"A son and a daughter, and she loved them both. They were young. Her bloodline was found guilty of treason against the Baron of Estrican-one of the Blood Barons who ruled before the founding of the Empire. But because she was his kin, if distant, he decided against the destruction of her family.

"He desired that she remember the cost of her crime, however, and told her that she might choose among her children: one would live, and one would die."

"She loved her children. It was her greatest weakness."

He said nothing for a moment. Serra Amara watched his face carefully. "The rest of the tale, kai Leonne?"

"She could not choose; they were young, but not so young that they did not understand what she had been offered. They were terrified, but as children do, they both believed that they were best loved, and that in the end, their mother would choose to spare them.

"And she knew it, of course. She would have fled with her children, would have taken the Mother's oath, and forced it upon them. But the Baron was canny, and he understood her weakness well. He did not trust her.

"And he was wise. She accepted his offer, accepted his poison, and in the end, she told her children that the Halls of Mandaros awaited them all, and that she would never send them, alone, to the Lord of Judgment, although she told them he greatly loved children."

Serra Amara said, simply, "She killed herself, and her children."

"Indeed."

"And what is the point of this tale, kai Leonne?" A bold question. The Serra Amara, stripped of gentleness.

"The Mother came to her daughters in the lands of Estrican, after her brother, Mandaros, had told her this tale. And in the lands of Estrican, while the Baron ruled, no healing was done. His crops failed. His children were left to suffer the ravages of plague and illness without her aid or her blessing."

"Surely he did not allow this slight to go unpunished."

"Indeed," Valedan said gravely, "he did not. The Mother's temples, within Estrican, were pillaged and burned-but he had little satisfaction in that burning, for they were left almost empty; the sons and daughters who served the Mother hid themselves among the villages and the towns that he claimed.

"And the Barons on either side of Estrican understood the weight of this judgment, and they offered no similar insult to her, and in time, when the Baron of Estrican was overthrown, his sons rebuilt the Mother's temples, and did all that was in their power to placate her great anger."

"Ah," she said softly. "This Mother, this Northern G.o.ddess . . . she is not like the Lady."

"No. She is not. But she understands well the parent's heart, and she will not see it blasphemed."

Commander Allen coughed into the cup of his palm.

"Commander Allen?"

"The parable is, of course, a parable of value-but it is not a.n.a.logous. The kai Callesta is regrettably already dead, and his mother had no hand in the manner of his departure."

"It is a.n.a.logous," Valedan replied quietly, "in the Dominion. Do not ask her that question, Commander Allen. Do not ask it again."

"As you command, Tyr'agar. But I wish to point out that during the reign of the Blood Barons, it would have been acceptable to the Mother had he merely had all three put to death."

"Indeed."

"And in the end, it is the results that concern us."

"The ends justifying the means?"

"In the end, the dead are dead. It is to prevent more death that we have come."

Valedan's smile was a rare one: it was cold.

But the Serra Alina di'Lamberto looked across to the Serra Amara en'Callesta. "Do you understand, Serra Amara?"

Serra Amara bowed.

This boy, this man, this kai Leonne with his Northern fable, was a man that even she would be willing to serve.

She turned to her husband. "We have already lost the towns along the border."

He nodded quietly. "We have had no word, but our forces were there in no strength."

"How great is the loss?"

"That remains," he said softly, "to be seen. Alesso di'Marente is shrewd. He will not destroy the villages he has taken; he will use them to feed his armies unless he is forced to retreat. Retreat means that we will lose the villages entirely; he will raze them as he pa.s.ses back toward Raverra. But if he holds true to form, he will attempt to fight his decisive battle before his army reaches the foot of the valleys."

"Will he not attempt to take the valleys?"

"If he can, of course." Ramiro's smile was thin as blade's edge. "But taking the valleys will require him to move through the Northern armies. Commander Allen?"

"The armies are ready," the Commander said quietly.

"They can begin to move on the morrow."

"Send word, then. We will join them on the plains, if they can hold the forces of Marente upon it." He lifted his head. "Tyr'agar?" he said quietly.

Valedan nodded. "You know Raverra and Averda better than I; I will follow your lead in this."

CHAPTER TWELVE.