Burning Tower by Larry Niven

massive. The servant puffed as he manhandled it aside. Sandry unobtrusively held his guests back until it was fully open.
    Tower let Green Stone take the lead while she tried to guess who was whom.
    A woman swept toward them with the power and mass of a wagon and team of bison. She moved slowly, for the sake of her elderly companion. Lady Shanda would have been formidable commanding a travel nest. She was formidable now. Her eyes raked the four merchants, judging.
    Tower felt herself dismissed, and Lurk too. Shanda extended her hands unerringly to Green Stone. “Welcome to Lord’s Town, Wagonmaster! This is your host, Lord Quintana.”
    Her companion didn’t have her strength, though he had certainly been a warrior once.
    Green Stone looked like a big Lordkin. He dressed in stiff leathers: armor. “Lady, my brother leads the main caravan this trip. These are Burning Tower, my sister…Twisted Cloud, our shaman…Nothing Was Seen.”
    Quintana’s eyebrow went up as his eyes brushed Lurk in his porter’s garb. Quintana introduced Lord Qirama and the wizard Egmatel, but not his two apprentices.
    Lady Shanda led them down into a…travel nest, Burning Tower guessed, though it looked very different. A rectangular pit three shallow steps below the main floor. Blankets, cushions and little tables, and a fireplace. A place to relax, talk, eat a variety of interesting little mouthfuls, drink tea, make deals, run civilization.
    Tower sipped a tea moderately rich in cannabis. She’d have to watch her tongue, she thought. Green Stone sipped, then proffered a small package. “Lady, Lord, we also brought tea. Would you taste something exotic?”
    Lady Shanda made to speak; Lord Quintana caught her eye. Instead she clapped her hands and gave quick whispered orders to the servant who appeared. The servant took Green Stone’s tea away to be prepared.
    There was to be no suggestion that a guest might poison his host.
    â€œI hope you like it. I’ve tried it myself, of course,” Green Stone said. “The Spotted Coyotes got it from halfway around the world. I was ordered—no joke, Blazes— ordered to buy it at the price they set, on instructions from Coyote himself.” He grinned at his sister but spoke for his hosts. “The Spotted Coyote tribe—that’s a few hundred people who live twelve to fifteen days north of the Firewoods in a wild place ordained for them by Coyote.”
    Lady Shanda asked skeptically, “That’s the god? Not the animal?”
    â€œThe god, yes, though he can act through the animal. The Spotted Coyotes sell hospitality to passersby, mainly to caravans. Well, Coyote commanded them to sell us an entire batch of tea that came their way via Carlem Markle, and told them what price we’d pay!”
    Lord Quintana asked, “Can they do that?” and didn’t ask, Can we?
    â€œNot often. If the Spotted Coyotes overstep, everyone regrets it. Remember the Toronexti? It would be like that.” Green Stone grinned. “But we paid. We don’t want to offend Coyote, and he doesn’t demand much.”
    Of those present, Sandry had met only Burning Tower and Nothing Was Seen. He asked after others he’d met. Some had been killed by wounds inflicted in the battle with the Toronexti. Others had recovered, had retired, or were with the main caravan. Had married…
    It was not a subject you could avoid. Roni’s amusement was evident. She asked Green Stone about marriage customs, and Green Stone spoke of dowries.
    My brother’s mind is never off money, Burning Tower thought. She said, “The caravans always keep a few bonehead ponies around—”
    Lady Shanda and Green Stone tried simultaneously to change the subject but got confused. Into the resulting silence they heard Roni telling Burning Tower, “Sandry isn’t spoken for. Believe me, I’d know. I’d hear it from my