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‘Hold on, Tehol! The plan was to bring about a collapse! But now you’re going back on it You must be a fool to think the Edur would win this ithout our help No-one wins against Lether Never have, never will But if we strike now…’

‘All very well, Shand For myself, however, I am not convinced the Edur will prove ideal conquerors As I said, what is to stop the everyone? What’s to stop thee? It’s one thing to bring down an econo of values and all that It’s entirely another to act in a way that exposes the Letherii to genocide’

‘Why?’ Rissarh deenocide of their own, have they? How round? How many children of the Nerek and the Faraed were spitted on spears, how ed into slavery?’

‘Then you would descend to their level, Rissarh? Why emulate the worst behaviours of a culture, when it is those very behaviours that fill you with horror? Revulsion at babes spitted on spears, so you would do the same in return?’ He looked at each of theh his hair ‘Consider the opposite A hypothetical situation, if you will Letheras declares a war in the naht of the round Hoould you respond?’

‘With disgust,’ Hejun said, relighting her pipe, face disappearing behind blue clouds

‘Why?’

‘Because it’s not liberty they want, not the kind of liberty that serves the people in question Instead, it’s the freedom of Letherii business interests to profit froenocide and tyranny, Hejun?’

‘Then no round at all, for they have coenocide As for tyranny, tyrannies are only reprehensible to the Letherii when they do not operate in collusion with Letherii business interests And, by that definition, they make their claims of honour suspect to everyone else’

‘All very well Now, I have considered each and every one of those argu: the Letherii, in that situation, are damned if they do and damned if they don’t In other words, the issue is one of trust In the past lies the evidence leading one to mistrust In the present may be seen efforts to reacquire trust, whilst in the future awaits the proof of either one or the other’

‘This is a hypothetical situation, Tehol,’ Shand said wearily ‘What is your point?’

‘My point is, nothing is as sie as a consequence of chaos, in stu over a threshold, and all that is er to invade and so give shape to the reforging of order It falls to every one of us to be mindful’

‘What in the Errant’s na about?’ Shand de, Shand, is that we cannot in good conscience trigger a collapse of the Letherii econo to play out’

‘Good conscience? Who cares about that? Our eThe Letherii are poised to annihilate yet another people And I want to get them !’

‘Do not disht now must be the secret evacuation of destitute and Indebted Nerek, Faraed and Tarthenal Out to the islands To my islands The rest can wait, should wait, and ait Until I say otherwise’

‘You’re betraying us’

‘No, I’hts I areed upon which hteous destiny and unassailable integrity’

‘What ht succeed where everyone else has failed?’

‘Succeed? That word ht they prove a difficult and at ti enemy? I think they will Their civilization is old, Hejun Far older than ours Their golden age was long, long ago They exist now in a state of fear, seeing the influence and oing unofficial war of cultures To the Edur, Lether is a poison, a corrupting influence, and in reaction to that the Edur have becoust at what they see ahead of them, they have turned their backs and dream only of what lay behind thelories Even could the Letherii offer a helping hand, they would view it as an invitation to surrender, and their pride will not permit that Or, conversely, that hand represents an attack on all they hold dear, and so they will cut it and dance in the blood The worst scenario I can iine, for the Edur, is if they win this war If they somehow conquer us and become occupiers’