Table of Contents
The finest in Fantasy and Science Fiction
by TANYA HUFF from DAW Books:
THE ENCHANTMENT EMPORIUM
THE WILD WAYS
The Confederation Novels:
A CONFEDERATION OF VALOR
Valors Choice|The Better Part of Valor
THE HEART OF VALOR (#3)
VALORS TRIAL (#4)
THE TRUTH OF VALOR (#5)
SMOKE AND SHADOWS (#1)
SMOKE AND MIRRORS (#2)
SMOKE AND ASHES (#3)
BLOOD PRICE (#1)
BLOOD TRAIL (#2)
BLOOD LINES (#3)
BLOOD PACT (#4)
BLOOD DEBT (#5)
BLOOD BANK (#6)
The Keepers Chronicles:
SUMMON THE KEEPER (#1)
THE SECOND SUMMONING (#2)
LONG HOT SUMMONING (#3)
THE QUARTERS NOVELS, Volume 1:
Sing the Four Quarters|Fifth Quarter
THE QUARTERS NOVELS, Volume 2:
No Quarter|The Quartered Sea
WIZARD OF THE GROVE
Child of the Grove|The Last Wizard
OF DARKNESS, LIGHT, AND FIRE
Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light|The Fires Stone
Copyright 2011 by Tanya Huff.
All Rights Reserved.
DAW Book Collectors No. 1564.
DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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First Printing, November 2011
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For Heather Dale,
who sang about Selkies and inspired the whole thing.
ONE
A MELIA CARLSONS OFFICE was large and the wide window overlooking Halifax Harbor kept it well lit in spite of the traditional dark woods of the paneling and furniture. Nothing in the room screamed money, but everything said it quietly, well awaregiven the quality of the furnishingsthat shouting wasnt necessary to make the point.
All right, Algoma Hill , the Lauren Harris painting hanging across from her desk, screamed money but only because the price paid during the So-thebys auction, while unfortunately not a record, had been high enough to make the front page of even the American papers. Shed purchased it anonymously, of course, but the people it had been bought to impress recognized it and exhibited the expected sticker shock. So much easier to attract investors when her personal salary allowed her to purchase a painting by one of the Group of Seven.
And they said that when her father died, the company had died with him. She may have been a competent Vice President of Exploration and Development, but they didnt hesitate to announce that a fort... thirty-six -year-old woman with a twent... fifteen -year-old engineering degree couldnt run the second largest oil company in the Maritimes. She wasnt a member of the old boys club and she wasnt a hot, young Ph. D whod picked up an MBA on the way to a petrochemical doctorate. Worst of all, at least to those running the largest oil company in the Maritimes, she had no extended family to help her. They said shed run the company into the ground in two, three years at the most. Several of them had offered to take the company off her hands.
A year later, a year of betting everything on one roll of the dice, and she was on the verge of gaining the rights to one of the biggest fields in the North Atlantic. After that debacle in the Gulf, no one else had the balls to try for it, to spend three hundred and sixty-five days quietly working behind the scenes convincing the decision makers to make the right decision. And they all had. The moment the Minister of the Environment stopped faffing about, appearing to weigh the potential of spilled oil against jobs and tax income, and issued the drilling permit, the barges would be out of Sydney Harbor so fast theyd look like jet skis.
Granted, even given near guarantees of five hundred million barrels accessible of a three billion barrel potential by the best geophysicists in the business, there was no oil at all until drilling replaced science. Which was why the drilling platform had to be in place as soon as possible. Once they started production, theyd quickly surpass Hibernias fifty thousand barrels a day.
The board of directors had given her until the end of the year to get the permit. Shed been promised it by the end of the summer.
They could shove their sexist, patronizing, dumbass...
When the door opened, she raised her head, her expression neutral, and met the worried gaze of Paul Belleveau, her executive assistant.
Its happened, he said, just like she told you it would. The Ministry of the Environment is being pressured by Two Seventy-five N , the same Hay Island group that stopped the seal hunt.
Nice to have so much free time, she muttered. Two Seventy-five N were a group of crazy environmentalists run by an old Cape Breton family. The name referred to life jacket buoyancy. Measured in newtons, one newton equaling one kilogram of flotation, a two seventy-five newton life jacket was intended for extreme conditions. Amelia admitted it was a clever name and despised the anti-development, anti-growth rhetoric the group clung to. Until recently, shed believed the groups successes could be laid at the door of deep pockets and an underemployed membership with time to meddle, but new information had revealed they were so much more.
Were front page in the Herald , Paul continued. Theres articles in both the Globe and the Post , and their objection to the well was the lead on Canada AMs business report. Mr. Conway isnt returning my calls, but his aide...
The chatty one?
Yes. He says that the minister is talking about a class two environmental assessment or even asking for a Royal Commission on offshore drilling, so he doesnt actually have to make a decision.
Royal Commissions could take years and were the traditional way politicians avoided handling hot topics while still looking like they gave a shit. With the investment Carlson Oil had already made in this well, theyd never survive the delay. She could feel the edges of her very expensive manicure cutting half moons into the equally expensive wood of the desk.
