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Law must retain useful ways to break with traditional for is more certain than that the forone

- Gowachin aphorisroomed His feet shuffled when he walked and there was a per overcame his chest ventricles when he became excited He knew this and are that those around him knew it He often used this characteristic as a warning, re people that no Dosadi held more power than he, and that poas deadly All Dosadi knew his name: Broey And very few h the Sacred Congregation of the Heavenly Veil to his post as chief steward of Control: The Elector His private arest, most efficient, and best ar to invoke fear and admiration He , a structure of stone and plasteel which fronted the main arm of the river in the heart of Chu Around this core, the twisting walled fortifications of the city stepped outward in concentric rings The only entrance to Broey&039;s citadel was through a guarded Tube Gate in a subbasenated TG One TG One admitted the select of the select and no others

In the forenoon, the ledges outside Broey&039;s ere a roosting place for carrion birds, who occupied a special niche on Dosadi Since the Lords of the Veil forbade the eating of sentient flesh by sentient, this task devolved upon the birds Flesh from the people of Chu and even from the Rim carried fewer of the planet&039;s heavy metals The carrion birds prospered A flock of the, defecating, brushing against each other with avian insolence while they watched the outlying streets for signs of food They also watched the Rim, but it had been temporarily denied to theh a voder into one of the suite&039;s eight rooreen space about tenand six wide occupied by Broey and two Humans

Broey uttered a mild expletive at the bird noise The confounded creatures interfered with clear thinking He shuffled to theand silenced the voder In the sudden quiet he looked out at the city&039;s peri cliffs Another Riht Broey had made a personal inspection in a convoy of armored vehicles earlier The troops liked it that he occasionally shared their dangers The carrion birds already had cleaned up h The flat back structure of Gowachin, who had no front rib cage, had been easily distinguishable froans Only a few rags of red and green flesh had marked where the birds had abandoned their feast when the sonabarriers herded them away

When he considered the sonabarriers, Broey&039;s thoughts grew hard and clear The sonabarriers were one of Gar&039;s damned affectations! Let the birds finish it

But Gar insisted a few bodies be left around to make the point for the Rim survivors that their attacks were hopeless

The bones by themselves would be just as effective

Gar was bloody minded

Broey turned and glanced across the room past his two Human companions Two of the walls were taken up by charts bearing undulant squiggles in many colors On a table at the roole red line The line curved and dipped, ending almost in the middle of the chart Near this terminus lay a white card and beside it stood a Human male statuette with an enormous erection which was labeled "Rabble" It was a subversive, forbidden artifact of Riin The people of the Rith lay: breed, breed, breed

The Hu each other across the chart They fitted into the space around theh they&039;d been initiated into the secrets of Broey&039;s citadel through an esoteric ritual both forbidding and dangerous

Broey returned to his chair at the head of the table, sat down, and quietly continued to study his cohting claitch beneath their finger shields as he looked at the two Yes - trust them no more than they trusted him They had their own troops, their own spies - they posed real threat to Broey but often their help was useful Just as often they were a nuisance

Quilliam Gar, the Human male who sat with his back to the s, looked up as Broey resu that he&039;d been about to silence the voder himself

Damned carrion birds! But they were usefuluseful

The Rim-born were always ah talking down to ranks of the uninforh the educational services in the Convocation before joining Broey Gar was thin with an inner eave it any special notice He had the hunter&039;s face and eyes, carried his eighty-eight years as though they were twice that Hairline wrinkles crawled down his cheeks The bas-relief of veins along the backs of his hands and the grey hair betrayed his Riins, as did a tendency to short te fooled very few, his face was that well known

Across frohter and chief lieutenant, Tria She&039;d placed herself there to watch the s and the cliffs She&039;d also been observing the carrion birds, rather enjoying their sounds It ell to be reates

Tria&039;s face held too much brittle sharpness to be considered beautiful by any except an occasional Gowachin looking for an exotic experience or a Warren laborer hoping to use her as a step out of peonage She often disconcerted her companions by a wide-eyed, cynical stare She did this with an aristocratic sureness which coesture for just this purpose Today, she wore the orange with black trim of Special Services, but without a brassard to indicate the branch She knew that this led many to believe her Broey&039;s personal toy, which was true but not in the way the cynical supposed Tria understood her special value: she possessed a rearies of the De the red line on the chart in front of her, Tria said, "She has to be the one How can you doubt it?" And she wondered why Broey continued to worry at the obvious

"Keila Jedrik," Broey said And again: "Keila Jedrik"

Gar squinted at his daughter

"Why would she include herself ae," Broey said "I hear it clearly now" He see else in the Gowachin&039;sher killed"

"I&039;er as are you Humans," Broey said

"The usual surveillance?" Gar asked

"I haven&039;t decided You know, don&039;t you, that she lives a rather celibate life? Is it that she doesn&039;t enjoy the males of your species?"

"More likely they don&039;t enjoy her," Tria said

"Interesting Your breeding habits are so peculiar"

Tria shot astare at Broey She wondered why the Gowachin had chosen to wear black today It was a robe-like gar his ventricles The ventricles revolted her and Broey knew this The very thought of theainst her She cleared her throat Broey seldom wore black; it was the happy color of priestly celebrants He wore it, though, with a reh his e between Broey and Tria worried Gar He could not help but feel the oddity that each of the so other data

"What if she runs out to the Rio She&039;s not one to stay on the Rim"

"Perhaps we should have her picked up," Gar said

Broey stared at hiained the distinct impression that you&039;ve some private plan in mind Are you prepared to share it?"

"I&039;ve no idea what you"

"Enough!" Broey shouted His ventricles wheezed as he inhaled

Gar held hi that this exchange amused Tria

"It&039;s too soon to e! This is a tier, Broey arose and hurried into his adjoining office, where he locked the door It was obvious that those two had no round But it was still his game She couldn&039;t hide forever Seated once more in his office, he called Security

"Has Bahrank returned?"

A senior Gowachin officer hurried into the screen&039;s view, looked up

"Not yet"

"What precautions to learn where he delivers his cargo?"

"We know his entry gate It&039;ll be simple to track him"

"I don&039;t want Gar&039;s people to knohat you&039;re doing"

"Understood"

"That other matter?"

"Pcharky may have been the last one He could be dead, too The killers were thorough"

"Keep searching"

Broey put down a sense of disquiet So in Chuand on the Ris occurred which his spies could not uncover Presently, he returned to thematter

"Bahrank is not to be interfered with until afterward"

"Understood"

"Pick hi him to your section I will interview him personally"

"Sir, his addiction to"

"I know the hold she has on hi on It"

"We&039;ve not yet secured any of that substance, sir, although we&039;re still trying"

"I want success, not excuses Who&039;s in charge of that?"

"Kidge, sir He&039;s very efficient in this"

"Is Kidge available?"

"One e had a phleg voice