"Safe? Mistress? Are you certain? What are the legalities? Is there no mechanism for extracting fugitives from convention territories?"
"We shall see." Gradwohl flung a curt gesture at the rest of the council. "Come."
"If there is no mechanism, I will make one," Marika said softly.
The most senior gave her a narrow look. "I believe you would, pup." A few paces later, "Take care, Marika. Take care. Sometimes this world will show a toughness that is different from that of the Ponath. Sometimes losing can be the better path to winning."
"You didn't let me know you were coming," Bagnel complained. "How come you're back already? You usually stall around." He looked abashed. He also looked as if he was under a strain.
"Official business this time." Marika glanced at the clipboard she carried, though she knew the names and numbers by heart. She turned it so he could see the list. "These meth, all fugitives from the law, were seen entering this gate yesterday."
His lips peeled back in an unconscious snarl, and she knew the cause of the strain that had him so edgy.
"I have brought the orders necessary for their removal from the enclave. They have a future in the mines."
"There must be some mistake."
"None whatsoever, Bagnel. Each of these meth has been convicted in court, on evidence presented by confederates. Sentence has been passed. Each was seen entering here. Would you like photographs of them doing so? I will have to send to the cloister for them." She ran a spur-of-the-moment, inspired bluff with that remark. Photo surveillance had occurred to her only in retrospect.
"Holding the job you do, by now you have heard about the ruckus in town. I presume your staff were involved in this behind your back." Give him a ready-made excuse. "The males on this list fled here. They are here still. No airships have left the enclave. You have two hours to deliver them to Grauel and Barlog. If you do not, you will be considered in violation of the conventions and your charter."
Bagnel looked aghast.
Grauel and Barlog waited outside with a dozen armed huntresses.
"Marika ... " Bagnel's tone was plaintive. "Marika, that sounds like a threat."
"No. Here I have a copy of the charter negotiated before your brethren assumed control of this enclave. I have added a map for your personal information."
Bagnel examined the map first. "I do not understand." He couched his speech in the formal mode.
"You will note that it shows your enclave surrounded entirely by land belonging directly to the Reugge Community. At the time they assumed control, the Brown Paw Bond had no aircraft. Now they do. You must know that the conventions say that no aircraft of any sort may be flown over silth lands without direct permission of the sisterhood involved."
"Yes, but-"
"The Brown Paw Bond have never obtained that permission for the Maksche enclave, Bagnel. They have never applied. The enclave is in violation of the conventions. Overflights will cease immediately. Otherwise sanctions will be applied."
"Sanctions? Marika, what in the world is going on here?"
"Any aircraft or airship attempting to leave this enclave will be destroyed. Come." She led him to the doorway, showed him three darkships slowly circling the enclave.
Bagnel opened and closed his mouth several times, said nothing.
Marika presented a fat envelope. "This contains a formal notice of the Reugge Community's intent to cancel all Brown Paw Bond charters that now exist within Reugge territories."
"Marika ... " Bagnel began to get hold of himself. "These fugitives. You really want them that badly?"
"Not really. Not personally. It would not matter now if you did sneak them out. They are dead. Bounties have been posted on them-very large bounties. As you once noted, the Reugge are a very wealthy Community. No. What is at stake is a principle. And, of course, my future."
Bagnel looked puzzled. She had come at him hard, from unexpected directions, and had managed to keep him off balance.
"I have reached a position of substance within my sisterhood, Bagnel. I am very young for it. My age alone has made me many foes. Therefore I have to consolidate my position and fashion a springboard to a greater future. I have chosen to do that in my usual way, by taking the offensive against enemies of the Community. My opponents inside the sisterhood are unable to fault that." A pause for effect. "Those who get in my way can expect the worst."
"You intend to climb over me?"
"If you get in my way."
"Marika, I am your friend."
"Bagnel, I value you as a friend. I have treasured your friendship. Often you were the only one I could turn to."
"And now you are so strong you do not need me anymore?"
"Now I am so strong I do not need to blind myself to what you are doing. Nor was I ever so weak as to allow crimes to be committed simply because a friend was involved."
"Involved?"
"Drop the act, Bagnel. You know the brethren are backing the Serke effort to steal the Ponath from us. You know the brethren have been sponsoring the terrorism practiced by disaffected males. It is another ploy against us. You use criminals now that there are no more nomads to be your proxies. You even flew in males from outside because Maksche did not produce enough villains of its own. Now, is that something I should ignore simply because one of the behind-scenes movers is a friend?"
"You are mad, Marika."
"You will stop. Cease. Give me my prisoners and do nothing more. Or I will see the Brown Paw Bond torn apart like an otec rent by kagbeasts."
"You are totally insane. They have given you a taste of power and it has gone to your head. You begin imagining nonexistent plots."
"Phoo! Think, Bagnel. I struck near the mark, yes? Insofar as you know? Naturally, you have not been trusted with full knowledge. You deal with me. You traffic with silth. Can they trust you? When they hoard knowledge the way old Wise females hoard metal in the Ponath? You recall my great triumph up there, so called? Did you know that nomads had very little to do with it? Did you know that what I defeated was actually an invasion carried out by Serke and armed brethren, with a few hundred nomads along for show? If you do not know these things, then you have been used worse than I suspect."
Almost out of pity she stopped hitting him. She could see that he was hearing much of this for the first time. That, indeed, he had been used. That he did not want to believe, yet his faith was being terribly tested.
"Enough of that. Friend. When you report to your factors, as inevitably you must before you dare yield the criminals I want, tell them for me that I can produce thirteen burned-out ground-effect vehicles, with their cargoes and the corpses of their drivers and passengers, anytime I feel inclined to assemble delegates from the various Communities."
Bagnel composed his features, but could not help staring.
"You do not have to believe me, Bagnel. Just tell them what I said. Nice word, 'driver.' It is from the brethren secret speech, is it not? Not everyone aboard those vehicles died in the ambush."
"What is this madness you're yammering?"
He was innocent of guilty knowledge, she was now sure. A tool of his factors. But he had heard so many wild rumors that she now had him on the edge of typical male panic. Composed as he kept his face, his eyes glittered with fear. His hackles had risen and his head had dropped against his shoulders. She wanted to reach out to him, to touch him, to reassure him. To tell him she did not hold him personally responsible. She could not. There were witnesses. Any softening would be perceived as weakness by those who were not here and did not know them.
"The message will register once you pass it along, Bagnel. Tell them the price of silence is their desertion of the Serke. Tell them they can tell the Serke that if they want to do us in, henceforth they must come at us directly, without help."
He began to understand. At least, to understand what she wanted him to understand. He whispered, "Marika. As a friend. Not as Bagnel the tradermale or Bagnel the security chief of this enclave. Don't push this. You'll get rolled under. I know nothing of the things you have talked about. I do know that you cannot withstand the forces that are ranged against the Reugge. If you really have the sort of evidence you claim, and I report it, they will kill you."
"I suspect they'll be reluctant to try, Bagnel." She spoke in a whisper herself, and pointed to one of the circling darkships, to make those watching think she was talking about her threats. "Their force commander in the Ponath was the Serke number four. Stronger than anyone but Bestrei herself. She's dead. And I'm here."
"There are other ways to kill."
Marika rested a paw upon the butt of her rifle. "And I know them. They may have their way with the Reugge. But they will pay in blood. And pay and pay and pay. We have just started fighting, Gradwohl and I."
"Marika, please. You're too young to be so ruled by ambition."
"There are things I want to do with my life, Bagnel. This struggle with the Serke is a distraction. This scramble is something I want to get over early. If I sound confident of the Reugge, that's because I am. In the parlance of your brethren, I believe the hammer is in my paw. I'd rather you and your silth allies just went away and left us alone. I'd rather not fight. But I am ready to bring on the fire if that is the way they want it. You may tell them that we Reugge believe we have very little to lose. And more to gain than they can imagine."