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three meth alive in this room right now.” Marika spoke with conviction. She broke eye contact long enough to glance at the knife. “We had a saying in the Ponath. ‘As strength goes.’” She had to say it in dialect. Gradwohl did not react. Perhaps it went past her.
    “When I am manipulated or pushed, mistress, I must push back.”
    Gradwohl ignored her. She surveyed the silth, still perched upon their stools. “This assembly has served its purpose. It is as I suspected. Someone has been remiss. Someone allowed prejudice to overwhelm reason. Listen! This pup ambushed and destroyed a ranking sister of the Serke Community. And I promise you, that House is giving that fact a lot more attention than this one has.”
    Gradwohl stared at Marika hard. Marika continued to meet her gaze, refusing to be intimidated. Beneath, beyond the test of wills, she sensed a kindred soul.
    “This assembly is at an end,” Gradwohl said, still holding Marika’s gaze. “Go. All but you, pup.”
    Silently, silth began filing out. Two helped carry Senior Zertan.
    Barlog and Grauel did not move.
    Braydic, though, Marika noted, had disappeared. Ever cautious and timid Braydic.
    Just as well, perhaps. Just as well.
    Marika focused upon this meth strong enough to rule the fractious Reugge Community.
     

Chapter Sixteen
    I
    Gradwohl climbed onto a stool. “Sit if you like,” she told Marika.
    Marika settled crosslegged upon the floor, as had been the custom among the packs of the upper Ponath. Furniture had been unknown in her dam’s loghouse.
    “Tell me about yourself, pup.”
    “Mistress?”
    “Tell me your story. I want to know everything there is to know about you.”
    “You know, mistress. Through your agent Moragan.”
    Gradwohl seemed amused. “She was that transparent?”
    “Only looking back.”
    “Nothing substitutes for direct examination. Begin simply. Tell me your story. What is your name?”
    “Marika, mistress.”
    “Tell me about Marika. From her birth to this moment.”
    Marika sketched an autobiography which included her first awarenesses of her talent, her unusually close relationship with her male littermate Kublin, her troubles with one of the Wise of her dam’s loghouse, and all her troubles during her stay at the fortress Akard.
    Gradwohl nodded. “Interesting. But possibly even more interesting in complete privacy.”
    “Mistress?”
    “You have told me very little about Marika inside.”
    Marika grew uneasy.
    “Do not be frightened, pup.”
    “I am not, mistress.”
    “Liar. I met a most senior when I was your age. I was petrified. There is no need. I am here to help. You are not happy, are you? Honestly, now.”
    “No, mistress.”
    “Why not?”
    She thought she had made that clear. Perhaps their backgrounds were too alien. She rambled till Gradwohl lost patience. “Get to the point, pup. There are no ears here but mine. Even were there, your sisters would make no reprisals for what you say. I will not permit that. And do not lie. I want to know what the real Marika thinks and feels.”
    Irked, Marika tested the water with a few mild remarks. When Gradwohl did not explode, she continued till she had revealed most of her dissatisfactions.
    “Exactly what I suspected. An absolute lack of vision from the very beginning. I was not a feral myself, but I endured similar troubles. They sense strength and power, and it frightens them. In their way, silth have minds as small as any common meth. Those who might be surpassed want to stifle you before you develop the skills to command them. It is a severe shortcoming of the society silth have developed. Now. Tell me more about Akard.”
    Gradwohl spoke no more of Marika’s place in things, nor of her feelings. Instead, she concentrated upon a minute examination of events during Akard’s final days. “What has become of the other survivors? Especially the commtech and the tradermale?” She used the Ponath dialect word tradermale as though it was