Mingsley mistook her long silence for abashment. “I will tell you this. You have failed us twice, and badly. You must remember who your friends are. You can’t seriously intend to support the old charter. It offers us nothing. Surely you can do better for us than that.” He moved the cup on the saucer. “After all we’ve done for you,” he reminded her slyly.

Serilla took a slow sip of tea. They were in the drawing room of Davad’s house. The Chalcedean raiders had burned the east wing, but this end of the house was still habitable. She smiled small to herself. Her cup was not cracked. A small thing, but a satisfying one. She had stopped fearing to offend him. She looked at Mingsley levelly. It was time to draw a line. “I do intend to enforce the old charter. More, I intend to suggest it as a basic foundation for the new Bingtown.” She smiled brightly at him as if a brilliant idea had just occurred to her. “Perhaps, if you were willing to go upriver, the Rain Wild Traders might offer you the same status as they have offered the Tattooed. Of course, it would have the same requirements. You’d have to bring your true-born daughters and sons with you. When they married into Rain Wild families, they’d become Traders.”

He recoiled from the table, and snatched a kerchief from his pocket. He patted hastily at his lips. “The very idea is abhorrent. Companion, are you mocking me?”

“Not at all. I am merely saying that the so-called New Traders had best come to the bargaining table with everyone else. And they must understand that, like everyone else, they will have to meet certain terms to be accepted here.”

His eyes flashed. “Accepted here! We have every right to be here. We have charters granted by Satrap Cosgo himself, ceding us land and…”

“Charters you bought from him, for outrageous bribes and gifts. Because you knew that bribing him was the only way you could get such a charter. What he could not legitimately grant you, you bought from him. Those charters were founded on dishonesty and broken promises.” She took another sip of tea. “If they hadn’t been, you never would have consented to pay so much for them. You bought lies, ‘New Trader’ Mingsley.

“Now the truth has come to Bingtown. The truth is that the Three Ships Immigrants have a true right to be here. They negotiated it with the Bingtown Traders when they first came here. Last night, they negotiated further. They will be given grants of lands, and votes in the Council, in recognition of all they have done against the Chalcedean invasion. Oh, they will never be Bingtown Traders, of course. Not unless they marry into the families. However, I imagine the Bingtown Traders will become a ceremonial aristocracy of sorts, rather than a true ruling class anymore. Moreover, Three Ships families seem to cherish the distinction of being Three Ships. Those of the Tattooed who choose to remain in Bingtown rather than go to the Rain Wilds will have the opportunity to earn land of their own, by assisting in the rebuilding of Bingtown. Those that do will receive voting privileges with the land, and stand on an equal footing with every other landowner.”

“Ah, well, then.” Mingsley leaned back in his chair and rested his hands contentedly on his belly. “That is what you should have told me first. If voting and control of the town are to be based on land ownership, then we New Traders have nothing to fear.”

“Certainly, that is true. Once you legally acquire some land, you, too, will be allowed to vote on the Council.”

He went red, and then his face darkened until she feared he would collapse. When he spoke, the words burst from him like steam from a kettle. “You have betrayed us!”

“And how did you expect to be served? You betrayed the Satrapy once, luring Cosgo to issue grants to you that you knew were illegal. Then you came here, and further betrayed Bingtown, by dirtying its shores with slavery and undercutting its economy and way of life. But that was not enough for you. You and your cohorts wanted it all, not just the lands of Bingtown, but the secret trade of Bingtown.”

She paused for a sip of tea, and to smile at him. “And for that you were willing to betray the Satrap into death. You would have used his slaughter as an excuse to let the Chalcedeans kill the Bingtown Traders, so long as you could keep their wealth for yourselves. Well, you were betrayed once, by the Chalcedeans. How that astonished you! But you did not learn. Instead you sought to bend me as you bent the Satrap, not with wealth but threats. Well. Now you are betrayed again, by me. If betrayal you would call it, that I stand up for what I have always believed in.”

In a very reasonable voice, she continued, “New Traders who labor alongside the Three Ships folk and the slaves in helping to rebuild Bingtown will be granted land. That the Bingtowners themselves decreed, with no prodding from me. It is the best offer you will get. But you will not take it, for your heart is not here. It never was. Your wives and your heirs are not here. Bingtown, to you, was a place to plunder, never home, never a new chance.”