Ice and Fire by David Wingrove

set his glass down on the table at his side. ‘You should call him back, Shai Tung. For once damn the House and its demands. Defy them. You are T’ang, and thus above their laws.’
    Li Shai Tung looked up and met Shepherd’s eyes. ‘I am T’ang, yes, but I am also Seven. I could not act so selfishly.’
    ‘Why not?’
    The T’ang laughed, surprised. ‘This is unlike you, Hal. For more than twenty years you have advised me to be cautious, to consider the full implications of my actions, but now, suddenly, you counsel me to rashness.’
    Shepherd smiled. ‘Not rashness, Shai Tung. Far from it. In fact, I’ve thought of little else this past year.’ He got up and went across to a bureau in the corner furthest from the fire, returning a moment later with a folder which he handed to the T’ang.
    ‘What is this, Hal?’
    Shepherd smiled, then sat again. ‘My thoughts on things.’
    Li Shai Tung stared thoughtfully at Shepherd a moment, then set his glass down and opened the folder.
    ‘But this is handwritten.’
    Shepherd nodded. ‘It’s the only copy. I’ve said things in there that I’d rather not have fall into the hands of our enemies.’
    He looked briefly at his son as he said the last few words, conscious that the boy was watching everything.
    Li Shai Tung looked up at him, his face suddenly hawk-like, his eyes fiercer than before. ‘Why did you not mention this before?’
    ‘It was not my place. In any case, it was not ready before now.’
    The T’ang looked back down at the folder and at the summary Shepherd had appended to the front of his report. This was more than a simple distillation of the man’s thoughts on the current political situation. Here, in its every detail, was the plan for that ‘War of Levels’ Shepherd had mentioned earlier. A scheme which would, if implemented, bring the Seven into direct confrontation with the House.
    Li Shai Tung flicked through the pages of the report quickly, skimming, picking out phrases that Shepherd had highlighted or underlined, his pulse quickening as he read. Shepherd’s tiny, neat handwriting filled almost forty pages, but the meat of it was there, in that opening summary. He read once more what Shepherd had written.
    Power is defined only through the exercise of power. For too long now we have refrained from openly exercising our power and that restraint has been taken for weakness by our enemies. In view of developments it might be argued that they have been justified in this view. However, our real weakness is not that we lack the potential, but that we lack the will to act.
    We have lost the initiative and allowed our opponents to dictate the subject – even the rules – of the debate. This has resulted in the perpetuation of the belief that change is not merely desirable but inevitable. Moreover, they believe that the natural instrument of that change is the House, therefore they seek to increase the power of the House.
    The logic of this process is inexorable. There is nothing but House and Seven, hence the House can grow only at the expense of the Seven.
    War is inevitable. It can be delayed but not avoided. And every delay is henceforth to our opponents’ advantage. They grow while we diminish. It follows that we must pre-empt their play for power.
    We must destroy them now, while we yet have the upper hand.
    Li Shai Tung closed the file with a sigh. Shepherd was right. He knew, with a gut certainty, that this was what they should do. But he had said it already. He was not simply T’ang, he was Seven, and the Seven would never act on this. They saw it differently.
    ‘Well?’
    ‘I can keep this?’
    ‘Of course. It was meant for you.’
    The T’ang smiled sadly, then looked across at the boy. He spoke to him as he would to his own son, undeferentially, as one adult to another. ‘Have you seen this, Ben?’
    Shepherd answered for his son. ‘You’ve heard him already. He thinks it nonsense.’
    Ben corrected his father. ‘Not