“I am putting my trust in you, Joron Twiner, to look after my people. Our people. They have been treated sorely here.” She came around the desk and put a hand on his arm. “What I must do is hard enough, do not make it harder.” She looked away from him, and did her voice crack when she spoke the next words? Did the cold grey facade of the shipwife fall away? “Obey my order, Joron. Obey it, please. For it is harder to give than you know.”
