Xe set her cork mug down. Dark still eyes and pads of fat over swimmer’s muscle. Like a long sleek otter. Of late, Baru’s luck had been exceptional in this one respect: from Iscend Comprine’s choreographed grace to Shao Lune’s viperscale composure and now Ulyu Xe, she had met some fearsomely striking women. More than any attraction, though, Baru felt a stupid cowish tenderness toward Xe. She wanted to make everything all right for the priestess.

“I just can’t believe—” Baru waved in frustration at several abstract concepts, including loyalty, hope, and vendetta, her wave accidentally getting the bartender’s attention, which she had to dismiss with an apologetic shrug. “I can’t believe you’re calling me Majesty.”

“You were acclaimed queen. On the Henge Hill after the battle. It was made known to us.”

“But then I … what I did to your people…” Baru shook her open hands before Xe: here, do you see what I have done? “What I did to you, I mean, you left your great-family to fight with us. And I betrayed you.”

“You remember,” Xe said, without gratitude, but with satisfaction, as if fitting a missing piece into a puzzle.

“Yes, I remember—I remember you told me that you’d been a diver, and a midwife, and that your great-family had spared you to come fight for me. You told me your story. And I lied to you.”

“You told me the truth.”

“How?” Baru hissed. “How did I—”

“You told me that everything you did was for Taranoke. I didn’t understand then. But I do now.” Ulyu Xe looked at her and Baru saw in her a power like a river, the power to wait and course and watch, certain that in good time she would find the proper course, full of all that she required.

She said, “Tain Hu told us what you’d done.”

Baru drank deeply. The fucking beer was too weak. She wanted Svir’s vodka. “And what had I done?”

“You wanted a post in Falcrest. You sold us to buy power to help your own home. The bargain would have destroyed you. You would have done Falcrest’s work, and died alone.” Xe’s legs trembled beneath the table. She had been at her morning swim before she came to Baru’s hotel. “My lady the duchess was determined to go back to save you.”

“From the Throne?”

“From yourself.”

Damn you, Hu. Damn your maps of me, and damn their accuracy. Baru drank the rest of the tepid piss-water and then, unsatisfied, traded her empty mug for Xe’s. “Why were you traveling in her company?”

“You exiled her at Sieroch. You sent her away.”

“I wanted to save her,” Baru rasped.

“At first she thought you’d decided to marry the Necessary King. She wanted me to come along and teach her Wydd’s acceptance.”

“What did you want?”

“I like traveling with her.”

“You were friends?”