Every sentence that described her parents acting out of character contained a hint. The code was not cryptographic but steganographic, meaning that it hid the truth behind secret shared meaning, rather than mathematics.

When mother wrote, Solit and I fought today over who missed Salm more. We tried to hide it from our neighbors, but what’s fought in the home quickly spreads: no, they would never fight over who’d missed Salm the most!

They were part of an armed resistance. The fight was growing.

Solit wrote, The shipyard work is very boring, and sometimes I think I find a new man to my left every third day. It’s hard to see others promoted in the favor of our overseers while we work down here to bend Masquerade steel. I guess they say the right things.

The blacksmith Solit bored by the chance to work with steel? Utter nonsense! He was saying that many people had given up, and some had turned traitor, obeying their elders as they had been taught—even when those elders were Falcresti bureaucrats.

“A new man to my left every third day…”

Was that a fact? Had Taranoke lost more than a third of her native population? Census and Methods would know for certain … maybe Solit had gone and looked it up …

Baru bit at the silk sutures in her cheek. Cold tears sprang up.

Her parents wrote, Today was the customary beginning of the Iriad market, although lately we see no Oriati ships. We hope to entice them back once we can remove the protectionist clauses from our treaty of federation. We have learned much from the Masquerade, medicines and shipbuilding, doctrines of discipline and profit, and I hope that Falcrest will soon let us reopen our markets to the Oriati and reap the benefit of free trade with those less fortunate.

They’d been bargaining with the Oriati. They’d offered what Taranoke had always offered to the Mbo: a port for their traders and explorers. But now Taranoke also knew how to build Masquerade ships and deliver Masquerade inoculations. Taranoke could be an ally to Oriati Mbo in the war to come.…

Baru read the rest in a rush, and oh, it moved her to the choking edge of tears that she could still tell exactly when her parents broke character—

They wrote,

Of course the Oriati are bitter about losing our market, and not eager to risk such losses again.

They meant, the Oriati remembered the Armada War, and many of them would not dare to fight Falcrest again.

But at least one of their bolder merchants has begun to reach out to Taranoke, seeing new opportunities. We’ve sampled a few of his wares, and spoken to a few of his factors, and we find his offers enticing. He says that he knows old, old business concerns, long-lasting and quietly powerful.…

That was the last letter they’d sent.