“Oh, you can’timagine.”He started counting with his fingers.“He said it was entirely hisfault.He called him a fool for thinking himself special.He told me how myfather always used to rush through their lessons.He would tell me storiesabout his brother sticking his hand into hexes and beehives and other women andnever thinking about the consequences.”
“Other women?”Zariaasked.“Ain’t he married?Is this one of them lichen things?”
“Lichen things?”
“Well, like.”Shescratched her long neck.“Lichen-ess?Something?”
“Oh.”He gave her asuffering look.“Licentious.Not like that, no.This was before mymother.There was no infidelity.”
“Aw.Shame.”
“Does everythinghave to be about sex with you?”
“When it makes youblush, sure.”
Isaac frowned, butsaid nothing.
“Well,” Zaria said,“I can’t say I know much about wizard politics, but I ain’t surprised to hear agood soul like your father never made it too far.From my experience, theDiet’s more greedy than a dock bird at tide.”
For the first timein a while, Isaac glanced at her.“What, pray tell, would you know about theDiet of Nine?”
She shrugged.“Iknow they take bribes.”
“What?”
“I know they—”
“What do you mean,”Isaac said, interrupting, “they take bribes?”
“Just what it soundslike.”
Isaac blinked ather, momentarily ignoring the sun.“Who is taking these bribes?”
“I told you.”
“No, no, you—” Themore he thought about it, the more upset he became.“Who, exactly, istaking these bribes?Was it a customs agent?A border patrol?A judiciary?”
“All of ‘em,really.”
“I highly doubt it’sallof them.”
“Well,” Zaria said,“no, but it’s enough that it makes no matter.I’ve been around most of theNine, and it’s the same most place you go.Coins makefor passage.Even for pirates.Problem is, the Diet always made us pay out thearse if we didn’t open cargo.Something about ‘peace of the land’ and such.”
“Yes,” Isaac said,still frankly bewildered.“It is for the peace of the land.The Diet of Nineregulates all magic in the region, from artifacts to people.They’re supposedto be very strict about what passes for trade.”
The hyena blew araspberry.“Buncha rubbish, you ask me.They’d take our gold, same as anyother.In fact, I’d see ‘em rob folk worse than we did, half the time.They’dthrow a man in irons just for lookin’ funny, and they’d rush to strip hiscarriage down to the plank.”
“It’s for a reason.”
“What reason’s that,exactly?”
“Could you imagine,”Isaac said, “what would happen if I had free passage into any of the Nine?Yousaw how easily I destroyed your ship.I could do the same anywhere.To anyone.”
“That weren’t myship.”
“Even so.”
She glanced at him.“You plannin’ on acting the dragon?Swooping down and breathing fire?”
