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"You strove against us bravely," he said, turning his spear and grounding the point in sign of peaceful intent. "It's no fault of yours if the gods fought against you. And you're wise to offer us peace. It's a chief's duty to safeguard the life of the tribe."
The envoys relaxed a trifle, knowing that the Iraiina did not intend to grind their faces in the dirt further.
"Of the tribute you would give, we'll ask only half of a half," he went on. Their eyes went round in amazement. "That is, if you give your yes to our other offer."
"Offer?" one said suspiciously. "You've beaten us-we acknowledge it, may the Dead Walkers suck your blood and the Night Ones ride your dreams forever. Why do you speak of offers?"
Hwalkarz smiled. Daurthu
"The Tuattauna still have most of their warriors," he said. "If we take your tribute, their axes remain-and may strike at us some other time. So if you remain our foes, better that we grind you into nothingness. What we offer instead is that you become our friends."
"Friends! You take our cattle and horses, burn our steadings, kill our men, force our women, and we should become friends'?"
Hwalkarz's voice was soothing. "After war, peace may be made. No feud should last forever; else the kin die out and there are no living to make sacrifice for the spirits of the dead. The Iraiina have already made peace with the Zarthani, the Maltarka, many of the eastern tribes. Their chariots fight side by side with ours, and they share in our plunder-and in our new arts of war and making."
"They are your dogs, you mean, to run at your heel!"
Daurthu
"Who speaks of dogs?" Hwalkarz shrugged. "Speak of wolves, instead." He touched the fanged wolfs head that shone on the green-enameled steel of his breastplate. They had seen his wolf ba
"Run against who?" the envoy said dubiously.
"Against all who oppose us," Hwalkarz answered. "In another year, perhaps two, all the tribes of Sky Father's people in these lands will go to war behind Daurthu
Daurthu
"Then who will we go to war against?" the Tuattauna chief asked.
Hwalkarz's grin spread. "Against the Earth Folk of the west and north, of course," he said. "That will be a fat carcass big enough for us all to feast on. And in return for our friendship, we ask only a light tribute-every year-and that you make no war without the consent of our rahax. In return, you will share with us as comrades, and your chieftains will take council with ours."
Daurthu
This session of the Constitutional Committee's core group was fairly informal, a dozen people sitting around a table with notepads and plates of cookies, and Swindapa at the foot taking shorthand notes-she'd proved to have a natural talent for that.
Informal, hell, it's in my living room, Cofflin thought. The Meeting had given him and Martha a former boardinghouse-cum-i
On the other hand, it was just too convenient at times. This meeting around the long dining-room table was going to go on long past the di
"Look, let's stop squabbling about details for a minute, shall we?" Cofflin said, washing down a bite of oatmeal cookie with lukewarm sassafras.
Because otherwise I may strangle somebody. The dull roar of argument subsided along the long table.
"Most of you were here for the first meetings we had right after the Event. We worked together well enough when we were figuring out how to avoid starving to death, nearly a year ago. Let's apply a little of that spirit."
"Good point, Jared," Martha said. "Everything we do will have repercussions down the road; look at what happened with the original Convention, back in the 1780s. Let's stand on their shoulders and perhaps see farther. Concentrate on principles, and on making them clear as crystal."
"I still say the Meeting should be the final authority," Macy said stubbornly. "Remember the way Congress got, back up in the twentieth? Say one thing, do another, and their hands always out to whoever would give 'em the biggest contribution. Let the voters decide themselves."
"For now, that's fine," Ian Arnstein said. "What happens when it gets too big? It's awkward enough now, when we get a big turnout for a Meeting."
Oh, please, not more about ancient Greek city-states, please.
"How's this?" Doreen said. "We set a maximum size for Towns-say when their Meetings have five thousand members. Bigger than that, they have to split into two. Towns elect delegates to a, oh, let's call it a House of Delegates. With an automatic setup for admitting new Townships. We can put in a formula for how many delegates per voter, say a percentage of the total so the ratio automatically goes up as the number of voters increases. That way the House would always be a manageable size."
"Okay," Macy said cautiously. "I can see that. But changes in the constitution should still be referred back to the Meetings. And the Meetings ought to be able to recall their delegates, too."
"How about a two-thirds majority in two-thirds of the Meetings to approve a change the delegates propose?" Ian said.
"Okay. I can go with that. We need a way for ordinary people to propose changes too… say, the same two-thirds and two-thirds voting on a petition, what do they call it-"
"Voter initiative, we called… will call… would have called it out in California," Ian said. "Damn, those tenses trip you up. We could use the same formula for a recall."
Macy nodded. There was a group that generally followed his lead; they gestured agreement as well.
"All right," Cofflin said, trying hard to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "All in favor?"