Serving women in black-and-gold curtsied as she passed, but she did not respond. She kept her eyes fixed straight ahead, and did not see them.
At the door she sought, she paused for a quick gNoyesce up and down the hall. The only women in sight were servants; there were no men, of course. She pushed open the door and went in without knocking.
The outer room of the Lady Amalisa’s chambers was brightly lit, and a blazing fire on the hearth held bac
k the chill of the Shienaran night. Amalisa and her ladies sat about the room, in chairs and on the layered carpets, listening while one of their number, standing, read aloud to them. It was The Dance of the Hawk and the Hummingbird, by Teven Aerwin, which purported to set forth the proper conduct of men toward women and women toward men. Liand
