"Thank you, Vitali. I appreciate your advice."

That afternoon, Teisiya pulls away from her two charges and alongside Teodor. "Have any more questions to ask me?"

"About you, yes. To you? Not so far."

"'What is she like as a boss?', 'Does she keep her word?', that sort of thing?"

"Things like that. Well, maybe one question for you. How many times have you killed a hostile subordinate, over how many years?"

"Three. Over twelve years. Four more where I offered to let them live if they'd work, and killed them when it was clear they'd refuse. Recruiting subordinates honestly, a few dozen times - not counting Maidens from the Court."

"How long have those two been working for you?"

"Katya, since the start of last winter. Inna, just this month."

"I trust you'll not be offended if I ask them questions about working under you?"

"Not at all. I'll pitch my tent separately tonight to give you the opportunity."

"Thank you."

And so when they make camp, he sits down near the two Storm Maidens.

"Do you mind if I sit with you a while?"

"Be welcome," says Katya, and then, "You have questions about Lady Kajetana."

"Well, I'm also curious about you and the Ice Court. But yes, mostly."

"Then ask away," says Inna, "We don't bite. Yet."

He blinks, but decides to ignore it. "I'd always heard Ice Witches are... well, cold. Hard. Unemotional. The kind to make big trades in lives and never think to flinch. But the three of you don't seem that way. Is it just the tzarina?"

Katya cackles, "Oh, don't say that at Court. But no. Ice Witches are really two kinds - the Mother's Lore of deep frost and winter that never ends, and the Father's Lore of the blizzard and winds that sweep the oblast. We are Storm Maidens, not Frost Maidens - stulents of the Father. Once we finish training and our maiden's vows are done, we are all Ice Witches, but we still know only one of the lores - to try both is to risk Dhar, the dark lore of Chaos, seeping into our minds."

"And Her Majesty mastered the Mother's Lore, and became cold-hearted, as the stories say? Then what happens to your hearts?"

"She did, yes. The greatest mistress of Frost since Shoika. Tempest witches still have a little ice in our hearts, but we are stormy - great temper, great affection, great sadness, and all of them changeable. Maidens less than full witches - I think that's a rule of magic everywhere, that the more you use the energy the more you become like it."

"Huh. That's probably why Hags are so mysterious, too, isn't it."

"Probably. They don't like us very much."

"True enough. So what's it like, being Her Majesty's problem-solvers?"

"Well, I don't know," says Inna, "I was only assigned here because I have Riding The Storm mastered and my teacher thought I was ready for battle-casting experience."

"We cover a lot of miles on horseback, sometimes even in winter," says Katya, "Responding when our investigators find problems they can't deal with. I rarely have any idea what to prepare for and she tells me what she knows on the way. Usually we're delivering a hammer-blow to the problem, but sometimes we're just an enormous threat that makes an organization break apart as they try to earn mercy by betraying each other. And occasionally I shed the robes and I'm a pretty girl charming men into confessing something that can damn them."

"And that last one works?"

"It does when Teisiya thinks it's a good idea to try it. One of the others who do this job told me she's much better at that trick than most witches."

"She's good at reading people, then?"