Might this not have something to do with the info that would have embarrassed the Dzur? That Mellar had bred with a high-profile Dzur daughter??? An interesting multi-breed there just waiting for a plot... bear >annnnd this is a magical world. it is entirely possible that if you are in >the dzur house while not being a dzur, and then breed with a dzur, that the >genes of the house become dominant and wipe out the halfbreed.. only the >stev... err only the shadow knows.. andy > I did get the idea that the fact that he was a half-breed and a Jhereg > was at least slightly embarassing to the Dzur--at least the fact that > someone of that background could get into the house, and would then > throw it away, seemed likely to embarass the dickens out of them. At > least, that's how I read that part of Mellar's scheme in _Jhereg._ > > I suspect that on the whole, though, someone who earns his way into the > house and comports himself with the dignity (or perhaps the bravura) > expected of a Dzur would be fully, or at least sufficiently, accepted by > them that he could marry one of their daughters and attend their social > functions. After all, why let someone earn his way in and then treat > him as if he didn't? Surely that would be beneath the House of > Heroes--if nothing else, they can't admit that someone who beat them > isn't worthy of being treated as an equal; if their inferiors can beat > them, they're in the same fix, more or less, that the Jhereg are if > peoplpe know someone can lift the Council treasury and escape. > > At least, that is how I see it. I could be wrong. It's a big and > complex world, and I sometimes feel as simple as an Easterner. > > bonham15 wrote: