Baru glances at the man. “When this little chore is through, I have business for the Throne. We sent a message to Pyre when we crushed their insurrection. The surviving duchies will be afraid—and that makes them compliant. Now is the time to buy their loyalty. Ease taxes, rein in labor conscription, take mercy on their little cults. Grant them a few freedoms more.”
“Causes you are familiar with, Lady Cormorant.” The Throne’s man draws his cloak about him. “We may listen. We may not.”
“Of course you’ll listen. We do not rule by the lash alone. I know what Pyre wants.” She stares coldly down at Tain Hu.
I wish you could see me, my general, she thinks. Unflinching. Unmoved. The hope of Pyre, giving them no yoke over me. You planned the battle well.
“Ironic, isn’t it?” she says. “She might have lived to see her people content.”
The Throne’s man has to shout above the whipping wind. “Why are you doing this? She could still live!”
You could still bind me with her, Baru thinks. If I just begged. If I just admitted what she was to me—I would be reduced.
“Do you know the Hierarchic Qualm?” she says. “The Throne does educate its spies, doesn’t it?”
A rising breaker crashes against the rocks. Tain Hu cries out into the dawn, trembling with effort. A frigatebird calls like a drum overhead.
Baru Cormorant sets her legs in a duelist’s stance, closing off the Throne’s man on her dead right, opening her left side to the dying woman below. She cuts at the air with a blade she does not have.
The tide comes in. The Throne’s man watches her, waiting for her to lift her eyes and make a census of the birds, as she is known to do.
Copyright © 2011 Seth Dickinson
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Seth Dickinson is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Alpha Writer’s Workshop. He can be reached at [email protected]. “The Traitor Baru Cormorant” is his first story sale.
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COVER ART
“Tower of Babel,” by Zack Fowler
Zack Fowler is an environment artist who has worked for computer gaming studios as a Lead Environment Artist and a Level Designer. His main focus is in 3D environment art, but he also works on environment concept art, high-poly 3D modeling (organic and hard-surface), texturing, materials lighting, and event scripting. See more of his work at http://www.zackfowler.com/.
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
ISSN: 1946-1046
Published by Firkin Press,
a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Literary Organization
Copyright © 2011 Firkin Press
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