Traitors' Gate by Kate Elliott

else in mind. And you, Keshad of no patronymic and Eliar son of Isar of the Ri Amarah, are the ones who will deliver our offer to our cousin. You will accept the assignment?”
    Kesh looked at Eliar. Eliar lifted a shoulder in a half shrug.
    â€œWhat choice do we have?” Kesh said.
    The prince lifted both hands. “You can be brought before the priests and accused and convicted of being spies. It is a choice. An honorable one in its own way, since an honorable man speaks truth at all times.”
    â€œWhat punishment would we then face?” Kesh asked.
    â€œA merciful one. A swift execution, rather than burning such as heretics and nonbelievers suffer. You, Keshad, in any case. I am not sure how the Ri Amarah would fare as those of his people who lived in these lands were banished from the empire one hundred and eighteen years ago because of their heretical beliefs. He might merit burning.”
    â€œYours is a cruel law,” said Eliar.
    â€œHsst!” Keshad kicked him.
    â€œMen are cruel,” observed the prince without heat. “The law binds them in order to mitigate their cruelty. Such is the wisdom of Beltak.” He folded his hands on his lap. He was as sleek and well groomed as any treasured gelding, a strong work horse, and a handsome person in his own way, better-looking than Anji if measured by symmetry alone. “So. I have found you, and made my proposal. Do you accept? You two, to carry our offer of peace across the Kandaran Pass to our cousin in the Hundred.”
    â€œThis is no trick, no hidden poison or sorcery meant to kill him?”
    â€œNo trick, no poison or sorcery meant to kill him. It is an honest offer, the best one he will get.”
    â€œWhat else can we do?” muttered Eliar.
    Kesh had spent too much time as a debt slave to trustmasters and merchants who, given a monopoly, did not exploit their advantage. But that didn’t mean a clever man couldn’t gain advantage for himself on the sidelines as the powerful wrestled. “Very well, Your Excellency, we’ll take your offer to the captain. What is it?”
    The prince nodded at the captain, who gestured. The guardsmen on the balcony backed up out of sight. The captain crossed to a door set on the far side of the chamber. He opened it and went through, leaving the prince—apparently unarmed—with Kesh and Eliar and their swords.
    â€œSo do you have horns?” asked the prince in a pleasant voice. “I’ve always wondered.”
    Eliar flushed.
    The door opened and a woman entered the room. She was veiled, perceived mostly as cloth obscuring both face and form, yet she walked with confidence and carried a short lacquered stick with a heavy iron knob weighting one end. She was short and, it seemed, a bit stout, but vital and energetic. As soon as the door was shut behind her by an unseen hand, she pulled off the veil that concealed her face and tucked it carelessly through her belt.
    The hells!
    She was an older woman, not yet elderly, and she had a face so distinctively Qin that Keshad at once felt he was back riding with Qin soldiers. She circled the two young men as a wolf circles a pair of trapped bucks as it decides whether it is hungry enough to go to the bother of killing them. Then she turned on the prince.
    â€œThese are fearsome spies?” The trade talk fell easily from her lips.
    â€œAn exaggeration, I admit,” the prince said with a careless smile that had something of a scorpion’s sting at its tip. “Do not trouble me with your contentious nature.”
    â€œYou will be glad to be rid of me.”
    â€œI need have nothing to do with you. From what I hear, the women’s quarter will be glad to be rid of you after all these years. My brother has thankfully decreed there are to be nomore foreign brides, only civilized women, admitted to the palace quarter.”
    â€œHe says so now. But wait until your brother, or his heir, or that