Eavesdropping wasn't nice, and Le'esha frowned on it, but he sensed it would be worse to step out now and face these intruders. If they were angry enough, they might thrash him. What would they do to Ceera if she woke up and started crying or attacked them for hitting him?
How much longer would Le'esha be gone from her office? When would she come back, stop their rude talk, and send the strangers on their way again?
"And just why are the Noveni refugees? Because our land is poisoned, a little more every year. What poisons us?" the first man snarled.
"Star-metal," the Warhawk's man said. He sounded bored and made a face at the third man, turning his head so the first couldn't see him. Mrillis liked this man, whoever he was.
"Exactly. Star-metal falls on Lygroes just as much as it does on Moerta, but why aren't Rey'kil crops blighted? Why don't Rey'kil cattle fall sick? Why don't their women miscarry and their children die young? Why aren't their springs poisoned and the wild animals running mad?"
"The Estall loves the Rey'kil better than the Noveni?" the third man said. He slouched in his chair and closed his eyes, to all appearances ready to fall asleep.
Mrillis grinned, admiring his attitude toward the angry man. That still didn't excuse his feet on Le'esha's table.
"The Rey'kil have magic. That's how they keep their land clean and their homes and farms and people healthy. Why don't they use their magic to help Moerta?" He stomped over to the Warhawk's man and glared down at him, hands jammed into his fists. "Why doesn't the Warhawk demand answers? I know he must have the same thoughts, the same questions. Why don't the Rey'kil suffer the poison of the star-metal, when it falls on their land as much as it does on Moerta?"
"My royal brother has asked." The Warhawk's man stood, with his gloved hands clasped behind his back. Mrillis imagined his knuckles turned white from the effort not to strike the other man. "He has asked without anger, with respect for our allies who have made room for us. Our allies who have given up fertile farms and rich mines to our use, who have shared their knowledge, their skills, their magic with us. The wisest minds of my brother's court study with the leaders of the Rey'kil, seeking that very answer, and they have not found it yet."
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