Free Hellflower (v1.1) by Eluki bes Shahar

bread." An alMayne can live for quite some time without food: an alMayne who is doubted-disbelieved in-ceases to exist instantly.
    Their suicide rate is high, as might be expected; it is the index of stress on a nearly pre-technological, highly ritualized culture attempting to fit itself into the Phoenix Empire.
    The Azarine Coalition Council, of which Kennor Starbringer of AlMayne is president, decides policy matters for the Coalition at large. Its primary business is the ratification and modification of the terms of the Gordinar Canticles, the charter under which the Coalition operates. The Canticles cover, in broad, matters affecting the governance of hired armies, from the weapons they may carry, to the targets they may be used against, to the persons and organizations who may hire them. The key canticle is the matter of who may lawfully hire mercenary armies. As it currently stands, any sophont or entity may; the checks and balances arise from the Coalition defining the targets against which they may not be used, and the base price for a mercenary’s services.
    To construct an example: Naturally it is illegal to hire a mercenary army to oppose any of the edicts of the Emperor, the Throne, the Court, or any of the TwiceBorn-the Imperial bureaucracy. However, it is certainly legal to hire mercenary troops to overthrow a Corporation-the ruling entity of a Directorate. But a Corporation so menaced can appeal to the sector governor for aid, who can provide the Corporation with Imperial troops, which the mercenaries cannot legally oppose. But for a Corporation to do this is to invite Imperial attention, and the causes of the original war will go into arbitration. It is not unheard of for a Corporation to appeal for help against rebellious forces and have all its assets turned over to the rebels. Imperial justice, as the folk-wisdom goes, is obscure.
    One can see, therefore, that, for example, a modification of the Canticles to forbid Azarine troops to fight Corporation troops would be very much to the Corporations’ benefit. One can further see that there could be a great deal of special interest group pressure on the Coalition Council to make partisan changes to the Gordinar Canticles.
    At the moment the Coalition Council is evenly divided between those who wish to make major changes to the Canticles, including the List of Protected Groups, and those who wish to leave the Canticles as they are. Kennor Starbringer, as president, could cast a deciding vote either way. At the moment he is a strict Constructionist, and will not vote for change.
    Should he die or resign, his Council membership will go to the alMayne Morido Dragonflame, who favors complete revision of the Canticles.
    Seen in this light, Valijon Starbringer is a playing piece in a very high-stakes game indeed. Butterfly’s safety depends on staying far from the attention such matters bring, and she knows it. It is fortunate that Valijon Starbringer’s appearance on Wanderweb was an accident, and that no one knows where he is now.
    I wonder.
    Considering the money lost in the action, why would Wanderweb shut down its entire Port to prevent the escape of two relatively unimportant criminals?

4
Dead Heat On A Merry-Go-Round
    I was dreaming and I knew it, and part of me thought I ought to wake up and keep an eyeball on Tiggy, but I’d finished the second box of burntwine a while back because my backteeth and all of my bruises hurt and Tiggy could do me any time he got around his honor anyway.
    So I watched myself sleep, the way you do in dreams. I was back home on Granola, running off early in the morning to play hooky. The light was slanting rose-gold and silver through the trees and there was cooking-breakfast smoke rising off the housetops in the valley below.
    Nice place, Granola. I’d been this way before, in dreams.
    And just like the other times, this starship came sailing through the treetops to land in my da’s cornfield-a bolt of platinum godfire