Lescari Revolution 03: Banners In The Wind by Juliet E. McKenna

the tale of the Triolle man who put a sign by the river saying "If you can't read this, there's a flood"?'
    Now she saw the women caught between instinctive agreement and embarrassment at this echo of their prejudices. Anilt wouldn't be raised with such lies, Failla had sworn it. She wouldn't let Lathi curdle her daughter's innocence with such bile.
    'The men of Sharlac are no better than brigands, so my mother told me. They share their beds with their dogs, and catch their fleas. Why else call Duke Moncan the Jackal? Marlier men grow fat as butter on their rich trade with Caladhrians, but no honest Carluse man gets even a stale slice of that loaf. Parnilesse is a byword for treachery. They'd sell their whole dukedom to Tormalin for a half-decent price. Year in, year out, Draximal steals a plough-length of good Carluse land here, a stretch of Parnilesse woodland there, thieves sneaking into the Triolle hills to steal Duke Iruvain's silver. Shake hands with them, my mother said, and you'll lose the rings on your fingers. But in Ensaimin they say the same of all Lescari.'
    Her blunt declaration silenced the aggrieved protests rising to the rafters.
    'I didn't know it, till I went to Vanam.' Failla shrugged. 'But no one outside Lescar gives a second thought to our rights and wrongs. No one cares a tinker's curse which duke should be High King. They think we're fools, worse than brute beasts. A fox caught in a snare might chew off its own foot but at least it does that to be free. Lescari tear each other to shreds for no one's benefit.'
    She swept the room with a searing glance. 'Since we're such fools, why shouldn't they profit by selling us the weapons to kill each other? Any Lescari with wits or skills has long since fled to civilised lands to make a more worthwhile life.'
    'That's wicked lies.' The dark-haired woman's voice shook with fury.
    'Quite so,' Failla agreed. 'But that's what children in Ensaimin, in Caladhria and in Tormalin all learn at their grandmother's knee. So I'm wondering what lies I've been told all my life. Because I've met men and women from Marlier and Sharlac and know them to be as honest and as good-hearted as any in Carluse. I've heard the tales of suffering and injustice in Triolle and Parnilesse, no different from our own. I've met Lescari in Vanam and in towns all along the highways. They don't care if their neighbour's mother was born in Draximal or their father's of Carluse blood. They scrimp and save and send coin and cloth and pots and pans to their beleaguered kin regardless.'
    'What of it?' rasped the pink-clad woman. 'What has that to do with you and your brave friends bringing mercenaries and uplanders and grasslanders to run roughshod over Ashgil?'
    'They saved your brothers and sons, your husbands and fathers from being drafted into Garnot's army to die.' Failla didn't yield. 'I've seen plenty of country folk here, seeking the safety of these walls. Ask them what happened, when Garnot's militiamen surrendered as he lost battle after battle. Honest men given no choice but to follow him were set free to go home and defend their families. The exiles' army has no quarrel with them.'
    She saw the ringletted girl exchange a glance with her neighbour and knew that shot had struck home.
    'The Soluran could have attacked in Aft-Summer and burned the standing crops, to make sure Garnot's army starved and let Saedrin save the innocent. But the captain-general didn't begin his campaign until all your harvests were safely gathered. There's been no looting, not in Carluse or Sharlac or Triolle. The Dalasorians who've defended you, they paid for whatever supplies they asked for, didn't they? Paid with good Tormalin coin, not the duke's lead-weighted silver. You'll pay no levy to Garnot at Solstice to dress Tadira in fine new silks. Your own Guild Council will decide what dues are needed to pave your roads and restore your town's gates.'
    Failla could see some of the women still wanted to protest but none