Sandra smiled, with a faraway reminiscent expression of her own: ? The bearer has done what has been done by my authority, and for the good of the State. I always loved actually writing that… milady.? ?Tiph never had one stolen by a dashing Gascon musketeer, either,? the Count of Odell said.?And God knows she had enough of them pass through her hands-or did you just use the first and not bother having a fresh one made up for every job, d?Ath?? ?No, a new letter every time. I?ve still got all the old ones, stamped canceled in red ink.? ?You?re joking, right??

Delia shuddered and rolled her eyes.?No, she isn?t. A whole file of them, all on parchment and all tied up with ribbons.? ?That?s sort of sick, you know?? the Count of Odell laughed. ?We all have our hobbies, Conrad,? Tiphaine said, pouring herself a glass of the fizzy white wine, and taking a sip that tasted of flowers and almonds and oranges.?The Regent has her cats. You and Lady Odell are always on about those roses of yours. Delia loves babies.?

Sandra turned to Delia and asked politely:?And how is little Heuradys??

The younger woman brightened.?Teething, poor lamb, my lady. But?-she caught Tiphaine?s eye and abbreviated the details to-?still cute as a button.? ?Oh, cute as a puppy,? Tiphaine agreed.?She?s going to be fair, like Lioncel.?

And this is the last one!

Three was a smallish family these days, and Delia had wanted to try again for another daughter to balance the set, but…

We?re retiring that turkey baster, if I have anything to say about it! Which admittedly I may not. ?However, babies are much harder to housebreak,? she finished. ?Plus puppies don?t need to be found dowries or fiefs when they grow up.? ?And on that note,? Sandra said more seriously.?What do you make of the situation? Not the details-the larger picture.?

As always she was in combinations of gray and white, with silver gilt buttons down the sleeves and bodice of her cotte-hardi. A Persian kitten rested in a small basket on her lap, and dodged a paw out at the dangling trails of the wimple now and then. ?The enemy are still not pressing us very hard,? she added, reaching in a hand and running a finger down its head; the little beast turned on its back and began to wrestle with the digit as she tickled its stomach.?I expected them to be more aggressive.? ?The dance starts soon,? Tiphaine said, and went into the details.

Conrad nodded agreement when she?d finished.?It?s a persisting strategy. Subtle, for an alliance. The sum total of a whole lot of little fights is more predictable than one or two big ones where luck and generalship can overcome the odds.?

Unlike the older noble, Tiphaine reached for a second sandwich. Benefits of an active metabolism, she thought, as she marshaled reports and observations in her mind. Perks of running around wearing sixty pounds of steel half the time. Also good food makes me feel less pessimistic.

Sandra pursed her lips and tapped a finger on them.?I?m surprised our enemies are being so… farsighted. They?re both young men-Prophet Sethaz is barely thirty, and General-President Martin Thurston of Boise is younger still. In my experience, patience isn?t a quality of which men that age show any great fund.? ?Sethaz is… I?m not sure if he?s altogether human,? Tiphaine said.?He?s certainly mad and I wouldn?t rule out the stories of demonic possession.?

Conrad grunted agreement. Sandra raised one elegant brow; her brown eyes were a little surprised. ? Et tu, Tiphaine?? ?I?ve had too much contact with the CUT to doubt that something very strange is going on out there in the Valley of Paradise,? she said.?Strange and… unpleasant. You taught me to evaluate the evidence, my lady, not reject it because it conflicted with my assumptions. And you heard about Lady Astrid?s headache??

Sandra?s brow went up.?That was supernatural?? she said.

Conrad snorted.?Damned straight it was. I?ve seen Tiph draw, spin a hundred and eighty degrees, cut a dragonfly in half on the wing, sheath the blade and be back where she started in about a second,? he said.?Astrid?s just as good.? ?Just as fast, certainly,? Tiphaine said with hard-won professional detachment.

The Hiril Dunedain had killed her lover Katrina during the Protector?s War in the course of the botched first attempt to get Mathilda back from the Mackenzies. Tiphaine didn?t dwell on the memory; it was too stressful. ?Stress? is mostly the result of not being allowed to kill some asshole you really want to slice and dice. ? Something is going on,? Conrad said grimly.?And I lost my belief in the absolute reign of impersonal natural laws about twenty-four years ago. There?s something else at work in the universe. And it doesn?t seem to like us much.? ?A point,? Sandra said reluctantly.

She was that rarity these days, an atheist to the core, a complete materialist and rationalist. Tiphaine had been one herself, until recently, though they were both pious enough in public. As Sandra said, God was a myth but religion was as real as rocks and far more useful to rulers.

Now I?m… not sure anymore, Tiphaine thought. I?m still not sure about God, that is, but the devil is starting to look awfully convincing. I?m going to have to have a talk with Delia about aligning with some protective spook or other. Even if I?d rather pull out my own toenails with my teeth.

She went on aloud, her voice coolly neutral: ?And Thurston is just too smart for comfort. He is having riverboats built in Pendleton, with the locals and the CUT supplying materials. Sethaz lets him do that-the Cutters have those religious taboos about machinery. But as long as we hold the castles and walled cities along the Columbia we can strike north or south at the flank of any invader and we have superior water transport for our logistics.? ?Clear enough, then. Let?s not get bogged down in military details at this point,? Sandra said.?I leave that to you, my lady Grand Constable, and to the Chancellor. What?s the state of morale, Conrad?? she went on.

The thick-bodied man looked at the wineglass in his hand and said grudgingly:?Uneven. The older nobles are being effusively loyal-and will stay that way as long as we keep the enemy outside our boundaries. If they get inside and it looks profitable to start cutting deals…?

He shrugged, and Tiphaine mentally followed suit. Norman Arminger had built a feudal kingdom, albeit a strong one; his personal obsession had been the eleventh-century Norman duchy and its offshoots. Homegrown varieties of neo-feudalism without the PPA?s elaborate organization and terminology…

Or our spiffy boots and radical-cool costumes, she thought.

… were certainly common in other areas of the continent, and evidently overseas as well. But.

But while loyalty is the great feudal virtue, unfortunately treachery is the corresponding vice, Tiphaine thought; history had been a compulsory subject in Sandra?s Household. And the older generation had to learn about loyalty, while treachery was something they already knew very, very well indeed. All those gangers…

Sandra had never pretended to be any sort of soldier, and generally didn?t try to joggle her subordinate?s elbows-unlike her husband?s practice. At politics, however… ?I?ve looked over the list of tenants-in-chief you want to summon to the muster,? the Lady Regent went on.?It?s approved, with the following modifications.?

She reached into an attache case on the ground beside her and slid the typewritten schedules to them. Tiphaine took hers and her eyebrows went up. Tenants-in-chief held their land directly from the Throne on payment of mesne tithes-a share of their income-and service of knights, men-at-arms and foot soldiers of set number and equipment on demand. Part of the Grand Constable?s job was to see the troops were ready and call them up at need. The total numbers here were the same as her recommendations for the opening stages of the campaigning season, but some of those summoned were awkwardly placed.