What Distant Deeps by David Drake Read Free Book Online

her tone. “Because I have no skill whatever at Human Intelligence, mistress. I have no skill at human relationships, one might say.”
    “My thought was that electronic security on Zenobia would be a great deal less sophisticated than it was on Pleasaunce,” Sand said calmly. “While there’s no evidence that the lady will be writing her memoirs, I’m confident that you will be able to penetrate all her files in short order.”
    Adele grimaced. “Sorry,” she said. “I’ve been on edge. As you know.”
    The room held three waist-high bookcases, one against each wall; the door took the place of the fourth. Two of the six hinged glass fronts had been replaced by wooden panels. Those must have been lovely when waxed and buffed, but they hadn’t received any care in decades.
    The shelved books were standard sets of the classics, published in the second and third centuries after society on Cinnabar had begun to rebound from the thousand-year Hiatus in interstellar travel. Old learning had been assembled and reprinted in lovely editions. Every prominent landholder and every tradesman with pretensions to culture had sets just like these.
    Adele had seen scores of similar collections when she haunted the libraries of her parents’ friends before going off to Blythe to finish her education. Most of them, like these at Bantry, appeared to have remained unopened throughout their long existence.
    Any unique items—journals from the settlement, handwritten memoirs; perhaps a list of flora and fauna by one of the first Learys to settle at Bantry—had been removed from this collection. They were probably in Xenos if they existed at all. How would Corder Leary react to a request from Lady Adele Mundy to view his library?
    Adele’s smile was terrible in its cold precision. Her honor didn’t require her to seek out Speaker Leary. If by some mutually bad luck she met him, she would shoot him dead unless his guards shot her first. She would bet on herself there: she had a great deal of experience in shooting people.
    “I   .   .   .   ,” said Mistress Sand and stopped. Adele would have thought that Sand had forgotten what she intended to say had she not kept her eyes focused on Adele’s. Sand finished the whiskey in her glass, poured another four ounces, and drank half of it. Adele waited.
    “You’re wrong about lacking skill in manipulating people, Mundy,” Sand said as she lowered the glass. “You’re remarkably good at it, simply by being yourself. I don’t think you appreciate how powerful an effect absolutely fearless honesty has on ordinary people.”
    She smiled, but the expression was unreadable.
    “It’s something many of them will never have encountered before, you see,” Sand added.
    Adele grimaced; the conversation was making her uncomfortable. “I’m afraid of many things, mistress,” she said. “And it’s easier to tell the truth than to lie.”
    “Of course it is,” said Sand. “If you’re not afraid of what other people will think. That’s where the rest of us run into problems, even—”
    She paused to drain her tumbler in two quick gulps. She wasn’t doing justice to what Adele supposed was very good liquor.
    “—when we’ve been drinking more than perhaps we should be.”
    Sand shrugged. She looked at the bottle but placed her hands flat on the table instead. “Regardless, I won’t ask you to use a talent that makes you uncomfortable. Not unless the safety of the Republic requires it.”
    Sand didn’t move except to tremble from the effort with which she pressed down on the leather. She seemed—not right. Adele was used to people showing emotion, but it was a new experience to see Mistress Sand showing emotion. Adele disliked it in the spymaster even more than she did in others.
    “You know I’ll use up my assets if the Republic requires it,” Sand said. “You do know that, don’t you?”
    “Yes, of course,” Adele said. She paused, then went on, “There are