'hold on, tehol! the plan was to bring about a collapse! but now you're going back on it. you must be a fool to think the edur would win this war without our help. no-one wins against lether. never have, never will. but if we strike now...'

'all very well, shand. for myself, however, i am not convinced the edur will prove ideal conquerors. as i said, what is to stop them from putting every letherii to the sword, or enslaving everyone? what's to stop them from razing every city, every town, every village? it's one thing to bring down an economy, and so trigger a reformation of sorts, a reconfiguring of values and all that. it's entirely another to act in a way that exposes the letherii to genocide.'

'why?' rissarh demanded. 'they've not hesitated at committing genocide of their own, have they? how many tarthenal villages were burned to the ground? how many children of the nerek and the faraed were spitted on spears, how many dragged into slavery?'

'then you would descend to their level, rissarh? why emulate the worst behaviours of a culture, when it is those very behaviours that fill you with horror? revulsion at babes spitted on spears, so you would do the same in return?' he looked at each of them in turn, but they made no reply. tehol ran a hand through his hair. 'consider the opposite. a hypothetical situation, if you will. letheras declares a war in the name of liberty and would therefore assert the right of the moral high ground. how would you respond?'

'with disgust,' hejun said, relighting her pipe, face disappearing behind blue clouds.

'why?'

'because it's not liberty they want, not the kind of liberty that serves the people in question. instead, it's the freedom of letherii business interests to profit from those people.'

'and if they act to prevent genocide and tyranny, hejun?'

'then no moral high ground at all, for they have committed their own acts of genocide. as for tyranny, tyrannies are only reprehensible to the letherii when they do not operate in collusion with letherii business interests. and, by that definition, they make their claims of honour suspect to everyone else.'

'all very well. now, i have considered each and every one of those arguments. and could only conclude one thing: the letherii, in that situation, are damned if they do and damned if they don't. in other words, the issue is one of trust. in the past lies the evidence leading one to mistrust. in the present may be seen efforts to reacquire trust, whilst in the future awaits the proof of either one or the other.'

'this is a hypothetical situation, tehol,' shand said wearily. 'what is your point?'

'my point is, nothing is as simple as it might at first seem. and paradigms rarely shift through an act of will. they change as a consequence of chaos, in stumbling over a threshold, and all that is most reprehensible in our nature waits in the wings, eager to invade and so give shape to the reforging of order. it falls to every one of us to be mindful.'

'what in the errant's name are you talking about?' shand demanded.

'what i am saying, shand, is that we cannot in good conscience trigger a collapse of the letherii economy right now. not until we determine how this war is going to play out.'

'good conscience? who cares about that? our motive was revenge . the letherii are poised to annihilate yet another people. and i want to get them !'

'do not dismiss the tiste edur just yet, shand. our priority right now must be the secret evacuation of destitute and indebted nerek, faraed and tarthenal. out to the islands. to my islands. the rest can wait, should wait, and will wait. until i say otherwise.'

'you're betraying us.'

'no, i'm not. nor am i having second thoughts. i am not blind to the underlying motives of greed upon which my civilization is founded, for all its claims of righteous destiny and unassailable integrity.'

'what makes you think,' hejun asked, 'the tiste edur might succeed where everyone else has failed?'

'succeed? that word makes me uneasy. might they prove a difficult and at times devastating enemy? i think they will. their civilization is old, hejun. far older than ours. their golden age was long, long ago. they exist now in a state of fear, seeing the influence and material imposition of letheras as a threat, as a kind of ongoing unofficial war of cultures. to the edur, lether is a poison, a corrupting influence, and in reaction to that the edur have become a people entrenched and belligerent. in disgust at what they see ahead of them, they have turned their backs and dream only of what lay behind them. they dream of a return to past glories. even could the letherii offer a helping hand, they would view it as an invitation to surrender, and their pride will not permit that. or, conversely, that hand represents an attack on all they hold dear, and so they will cut it and dance in the blood. the worst scenario i can imagine, for the edur, is if they win this war. if they somehow conquer us and become occupiers.'