A Matter of Oaths Read Online Free

for her actions. If she wanted to invite somebody into Bhattya’ s web, she would,
conveniently forgetting that only Joshim, as Webmaster, had that right.
    Joshim sighed. He had not made that point at breakfast, as
he had not made hundreds of similar points in the eight years since he joined Bhattya , because it was rarely worth the
effort to argue with Rallya. Especially not when her hip was troubling her. The
surgeons talked about the inevitable effects of age, suggested drugs that would
keep her out of the web, and were surprised when she would not listen to them. Rallya
refused to acknowledge the pain that drove her out of bed in the mornings,
would have raised blue hell if Joshim dared mention that her performance in the
web was not what it had been eight years ago, and continued to behave as if she
owned Bhattya and would do so
forever.
    Blue hell would be a tame description for what would happen
if she found out what Joshim was looking for in their new First. Yes, Bhattya without Rallya was unthinkable,
but it was going to happen. In five years time, by the rate at which her
web-reflexes were deteriorating, and the Emperors only knew if she realized it
was happening. Joshim dreaded the day when he had to tell her that he could not
allow her in the web, but he intended to have a First ready to step into the
Commander ’ s place when it happened. A
First trained by Rallya; there was nothing wrong with her devious,
unprincipled, knife-sharp brain. Her tactical skill had brought Bhattya safely through forty years of
action; Joshim was going to ensure that she left a fitting legacy, a successor
who would make it easier for her to leave, somebody she liked and was prepared
to trust with the ship that had been her life.
    Chennya’ s Lina
would be ready for command rank too soon. She would move on again within two
years; she had a record of ship hopping. Somebody like Rafe would be ideal,
newly promoted to First but with obvious potential. The trick would be to get
Rallya to take him as her protégé. Without being seen to have anything to do
with it. Joshim smiled ruefully. At least not until Rallya had too much
invested in Rafe to be prepared to waste it.
    All this was assuming that Rafe wanted to be a patrolship
Commander; that was one thing that remained to be established. His record
showed no specialization in ship systems or the web, which suggested that he
had no inclination towards Captaincy or Webmastery, but he had no patrolship
experience, which was a pity, and he was too young to have gained any in the
New Empire before he came across. He could hardly have had his web for a year
when he was captured. Could anybody so young have such entrenched loyalties
that they would refuse to switch their allegiance from the New Emperor to the
Old? Joshim dismissed the question with an impatient shake of his head:
obviously they could.
    His audio-messager beeped in his ear; Fadir ’ s voice came through as soon as he
acknowledged the call.
    “ Second Officer
Rafell is here, sir. ”
    “ Bring him up to
the web-room, please. ”
    Joshim smiled indulgently at the excitement in Fadir ’ s voice. The Senior Apprentice had his
own ideas about the reason for Rafe ’ s
presence: if he was here for web-time, he must be the new First; Bhattya’ s web was so finely tuned that
no stranger would be allowed in. For Fadir ’ s
sake, Joshim hoped he kept his ideas to himself while Rallya was about or she
would chew him up and spit him out in extremely small pieces.
    “ In here, sir. ” Fadir opened the web-room door and
stepped aside deferentially for his companion.
    “ Thank you, Fadir. ” Rafe ’ s face twitched into a tired grin as Fadir bowed his way out. “ I hadn ’ t the heart to tell him he was wasting his time trying to impress
me, ” he commented as he made his own
belated bow.
    Or the energy, Joshim judged as Rafe straightened up. Curse
it, all the classic signs of