Book 2 - Warlock by Glen Cook Page B

not help push.”
    “Why not? The Brown Paw Bond suffered more than we did, if
you do not count the packs. Posts all along the
Hainlin . . . ”
    “Orders, Marika. I do not pretend to understand. Politics,
I guess. Little one, you picked the wrong sisterhood at the wrong
time. Strong forces are ranged against the Reugge.”
    “The Serke?”
    “Among others. They are the most obvious, but they do not
stand alone. That is off the record, though. You did not hear it
from me.”
    “You did not tell me anything I did not know. I do wonder
why, though. No one has bothered the Reugge since they split from
the Serke. Why start now?”
    “The Reugge are not strong, Marika, but they are rich. The
Hainlin basin produces a disproportionate amount of wealth.
Emeralds out of the Zhotak—those alone might be reason
enough. We Brown Paw Bond traders have done very well trading junk
for emeralds.”
    Marika harkened to younger days, when tradermales had come into
the upper Ponath afoot or leading a single rheum-greater,
exchanging a few iron tools, books, beads, flashy pieces of cloth,
and such, for the clear green stones or otec furs. Every year
Dam’s friend Khronen had come to the Degnan packstead,
bringing precious tools and his easy manner with pups, and had
walked away with a fortune.
    The Degnan had been satisfied with the trades. Emeralds were of
little value on a frontier. Otec fur was of more use, being the
best there was, but what it would bring in trade outweighed its
margin of value over lesser furs.
    Junk, Bagnel called the trade goods. And he was right from his
perspective. Arrowheads, axe heads, hoes, hammers, rakes, all could
be manufactured in bulk at little cost in Maksche’s
factories. One emerald would purchase several wagonloads here. And
books, for which a pack might save for seasons, were produced in
mass in the city’s printshops.
    “Is that why the Ponath is kept savage?”
    Meth, with the exceptions of tradermales and silth, seldom moved
far from their places of birth. Information did not travel well in
the mouths of those with an interest in keeping it close. How angry
Skiljan would have been had she known the treasures she acquired
for the pack cost the traders next to nothing. She would have
believed it robbery. Just another example of innate male
perfidy.
    “Partly. Partly because the silth are afraid of an
informed populace, of free movement of technology. Your Communities
could not survive in a world where wealth, information, and
technology traveled freely. We brethren would have our troubles. We
are few and the silth are fewer still. Between us we run everything
because for ages we have shaped the law and tradition to that
end.”
    They walked around the fighting aircraft. Marika found its
presence disturbing. For that matter, the presence of
Dawnstrider
was unsettling. Trade in and out of Maksche
did not require a vessel so huge. There was more here than met the
eye. Maybe that explained Timbruk’s hostility.
    “The Sting’s main disadvantage is its limited range
when fully fight-loaded,” Marika said, continuing with the
data she had given earlier.
    “You are right. But where did you learn all that, Marika?
I would bet only those of us who actually fly the beasts know all
you have told me.”
    “I learned in tapestudy. I am going to be a darkship
flyer. So I have been learning everything about flying. I know
everything about airships, too.”
    “I doubt that.” Bagnel glanced back at
Dawnstrider.
    “But those craft . . . ” Marika
indicated several low, long, ovoid shapes in the shadow of a
building on the side away from the city. “I do not recognize
those.”
    “Ground-effect vehicles. Not strictly legal in a Tech Four
Zone, but all right as long as we keep them inside convention
ground. You came close to catching us using them that time you
first met me.”
    “The noise and the smell. And Arhdwehr getting so angry.
Engines and exhaust. Of course.”
    “Every brethren