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Show from the CloisterMews." "They would care not, in any case. Anywhere past Brighton-on-the- Plain we are safe-from the Bauercrats, anyway." Dr'Anya kept squinting ahead of her, watching the land running along far below. "But, my mother, what danger be there aside from the BauerNetwork?" "There is something amiss in the Four Kingdoms. Dr'Igor is full troubled. Went I ever armed with an animal stunner amongst them in disguise as a Provincial-and wot I well that I would have used it on any wight who attacked me, proscribed by the EarthColonySystem Accords or not. Because --thou seest-they are baseborn killers for the most part east of the Tartars and blench not at taking any wight's life. If the Four Kingdom knights and the Seljuk Warriors have decided indeed to attack the eastern Commendiums. . . ." "Good Saint Ida. . . !" "No defense have we against such behavior, thou knowest that, truly." "This is the Bauercrat's doing!" said Janni, red in the face. "The Four Kingdom folk should have been halted and tranquilized as soon as they started s u c h . . . " Janni spluttered iso a halt and saw, of a sudden, the bright side of the thing. A war! Awful, terrifying, obscene, but it might indeed p o s t p o n e . . . . She felt fair horrified with herself. Aye, and full selfish she was! "But Dr'Igor will not be buffeted in this enterprise. He will bethink himself of something," her good mother said. Janni took a deep breath and compressed her mouth. Never had she loved the good Dr'Igor, and never could she understand her mother's admiration of the man. Aye, full clever he was and witty, aye, he was forever witty 140 |