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

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"Very well,fessas , I shall allocate funds for one embassy strong-arm, which day do you want him?"
"Er… Honored Mahid… You must forgive me for not enabling you to understand what we're up against
here. By my estimation, it would take ten."
"Ten?"My professional God, an expression. Disapproval and contempt, of course . "You said they
were both women, did you not? And one is a Zak, a race with an average height of some four feet?"
How do I explain four feet plus about forty knives, including ten where normal women have
nails? Or the other one, six feet of solid muscle with breasts, her fighting skills of the calibre that
elite forces would covet. He remembered the challenge archery and climbing race that had been the talk
of the city a year and a half ago, Shkai'ra's show-off shot that had brought down a seagull from what had
to be a hundred and fifty paces straight up.
And then themanraug , this magic thing, that Megan's people could do… no. He wasn't even going to
try.
"These are…unusual women, Honored Mahid. Extraordinary, you might say. You of course know that
many barbarian lands train their womenfolk in the fighting arts. These two were exceptional students, shall
we say."
"It is among the worst excesses of savages to force the mothers and wives of their nations to be
spear-fodder," Eforas pronounced. "No female is capable of performing the exercises or trials of proper
war-training… and you claim you need ten men to restrain two women. Is there some other operation
you are planning without the permission of your superiors,fessas ?"
"Most emphatically there is not, Honored Mahid."I've served Irefas totally loyally and faithfully for
fifteen years as you know damn well from your briefing, you onyxine asshole; don't call me a
fikken liar . "I'll swear on my hope of Celestialis if you wish. I'll submit to a dose of truth-drug myself.
These women aredangerous ."
"I think I understand," the Mahid said. "It's an old merchant's bargaining trick, to ask at first for an
outrageous sum, isn't it, Matthas Bennas, fessas? Perhaps your cover profession is more suitable to your
true nature."
They're erecting new hitching posts at the Kremlview Inn, Matthas thought,perhaps you'd like to
apply for the job. Then again, perhaps Iwould . Eforas wrote out the papers allocating four men,
Arkans attached to the embassy. At least it was better than one. If they were fourgood men, with a good
enough plan…
"But you understand,fessas ," Eforas added, as he made the last signature required, his voice taking on a
pitch of claws on a chalk-board, "directing this many men for such an operation, I am taking as a
guarantee of success. If by some implausible chance it fails, you will be held personally responsible." The
blank eyes fixed on his, and their very emptiness suddenly became terrifying, like a bottomless pit into
which he was about to be dropped, a cavern of Hayel void even of air, in which sinners lived in the
instant in which holding one's breath becomes unbearable, stretched out to eternity… He felt a cold
sweat break out on his back and neck. "You had better not fail."
"I'm holding you personally responsible for this," the Mahid said, toeing one of the corpses.