Shadow's Son by Shirley Meier, S.M. Stirling and Karen Wehrstein ...

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The servants had opened the windows again.Brahvnikians , he thought.Arctic seals . It was typical
spring weather in the Brezhan delta; raw, damp and chill, to an Arkan. He went to the windows and
latched them closed.
The panes were thick triangles of inferior local glass set in wood, appropriate for a merchant of his
standing. They looked down from the third story of a tall narrow house of half-timbering, above a narrow
cobbled street that smelled of fish and garbage and the river not far away. Rain started, beating at the
glass, streaking his vision like tears.
He went to the door and quickly checked the corridor either way; there was no way someone could
climb the stairs without making a loud creak, but it never hurt to be sure. He added a small shovelful of
blackrock to the tile stove, settled himself at the homely clutter of his desk and unlocked the bottom
drawer, with its secret compartment. From that he lifted a plain leather-bound account book, its pages
studded with rag bookmarks.
This was his real work: for Irefas, the Secret Service of the Arkan Empire. As far as he was concerned,
it was the best that one of his caste,fessas , artisan-professional, could get.The merchant's life, that so
many aspire to , he thought.The money's well and good, but the work's soboring . Besides, more
than one heroic spy in history had been elevated toAitzas , noble. Another nice thing: in foreign countries
there were no hair laws. His, blond like all Arkans' but silvering at the temples, was almost waist-long, as
none butAitzas were permitted, inside the Empire.
Item: prices. Mules and horses in the Aeniri towns upriver: up threefold since the spring herds had come
in. Tool-grade F'talezonian and Rand steel: upfivefold over the past six months. Significant increases in
the prices of woolen cloth, grain, leather, oil, medical supplies and drugs, bronze; the armorers working
overtime; the price of casual labor gone through the roof.Thirty-two ships of fifty tuinor more have
cleared the harbor already this season . The bills of lading as fictional asMarmori's Book of
Children's Merry Tales .
He looked at a copy his spy in the harbormaster's office had made. A seventy-five tuin two-master
carrying braided horsehair—catapult skeins—dried fruit, neatsfoot oil—for the maintenance of
harness—cured bullhide, glassfiber, resin—shields, body armor—miscellaneous metal goods. Shipping
to Haiu Menshir. His spy had gotten a good look at the "metal goods"; spearheads, broadaxe-blades,
brass-hilted swords from Rand. And Haians, as all the world knew, were absolute pacifists, under Arkan
control.If they're buying that, I'm the Queen of Hyerne .
Arko's taking of Haiu Menshir made him uncomfortable, actually, as he was sure it made many Arkans.
It was also a political blunder, to his mind;no better way to turn all the world against the Empire ,
he'd thought at the time. Now, plain as day, it was happening. What made it even worse was that the
takeover had taken two tries. The first time, the greatest Empire in the world, attacking a small island
populated entirely by pacifists, had beendefeated . A ragtag band of sailors hiding behind bales and
crates, led by a man who may now be proving himself one of the greatest generals of his time but then
had been an accreditedlunatic … he didn't like thinking about it.
In Yeola-e, Arko had taken all but those stubborn hedges of mountain in the north and southwest
corners of the barbarian nation. Now—how had thePages reports put it? "Strategic withdrawals and
consolidation of our overall position." In other words,the killer mountain boys are whipping our asses
. Last he'd heard, it was three-fifths taken back. Every major military power in the area had suddenly
allied with the Yeolis, lending them troops or attacking on their own fronts.
And the non-military powers are lending them money. How else could a country all but conquered