Book 2 - Warlock by Glen Cook

again. By all
means.”
    “Mistress? What do you want?”
    “I want you to cultivate him. The brethren are supporting
our enemies for reasons we do not understand. It is not like them
to compromise their neutrality. You have a contact. See more of
him. In time you might learn something to help us in our struggle
with the Serke.”
    “I see.”
    “You do not approve?”
    “It is not my place to approve or disapprove,
mistress.”
    “You have reservations then?”
    “Yes, mistress. But I cannot say what they are exactly.
Except that the thought of using Bagnel makes me
uncomfortable.”
    “It should. We should not use our friends. They are too
precious.”
    Marika gave the most senior a calculating look. Had she meant
more than she had said? Was that a warning?
    “Yet at times greater issues intervene. I think Reugge
survival warrants pursuit of any path to salvation.”
    “As you say, mistress.”
    “Will you pursue it? Will you cultivate this
male?”
    “Yes, mistress.” She had decided instantly. She
would, for her own purposes. For information
she
wanted.
If some also fell the most senior’s way, good. It would keep
the cloister doors open.
    “I thought you would.” The most senior’s tone
said she knew Marika’s mind. It said also that she was
growing excited, though she concealed it well.
    Perhaps she could read minds, Marika thought. Some silth could
touch other minds and steal secrets. Was that not how a truthsaying
worked? And would that not be a most useful talent for one who
would command an entire unruly Community?
    “I will tell Dorteka to let you out whenever you want. Do
not overdo it. You will make the brethren suspicious.”
    “Yes, mistress.”
    “There is plenty of time, Marika. We will not reach the
time of real crisis for many years yet.”
    “Yes, mistress.”
    Gradwohl again expressed restrained amusement. “You could
become one of the great silth, Marika. You have the proper turn of
mind.”
    “They whisper behind my back, mistress. They call me
doomstalker and Jiana.”
    “Probably. Any of us who amount to anything endure a youth
filled with distrust and fear. Our sisters sense the upward
pressure. But no matter. That is all for today. Unless there is
something you want to discuss.”
    “Why do we not make our own darkships, mistress? Why
depend upon tradermales?”
    “Two answers come to mind immediately. One is that most
sisters prefer to believe that we should not sully our paws with
physical labor. Another, and the one that is more close to the
honest truth, is that we are dependent upon the brethren in too
many other areas. They have insinuated tentacles into every aspect
of life. If they came to suspect that we were trespassing on what
they see as their proper rights, they might then cut us off from
everything else they do for us.
    “There is an ecological balance between male and female in
our society, as expressed in silth and brethren. We are
interdependent, and ever more so. In fact, I suspect an imbalance
is in the offing. We have come to need them more than they need us.
Nowadays we would be missed less than they.”
    Marika rose. “Maybe steps ought to be taken to change that
instead of pursuing these squabbles between Communities.”
    “An idea that has been expressed often enough before.
Without winning more than lip service support. The brethren have
the advantage of us there, too. Though they have their various
bonds and subbonds, they answer to a central authority. They have
their internal feuds, but they are much more monolithic than we.
They can play one sisterhood against another.”
    “
Find
ways to split them into factions,”
Marika said from the doorway. And, “We built our own ships
for ages. Before the tradermales.”
    Gradwohl scowled.
    “Thank you, mistress. I will visit Bagnel soon.”
     
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II
    Grauel and Barlog were beside themselves when Marika announced
another expedition to the tradermale enclave. They did everything
possible