'Yet you accepted a marriage not of your choosing.'
Mai looked up. Sheyshi shivered behind Priya, holding a burning lamp whose light spilled around them. 'Did you become a priestess at the temple by your choice, or of your clan's choosing?'
'A meaningless question, Mistress. I came to the temple because it was the will of the Merciful One that I offer prayers there. Who spoke what words means nothing.'
Lightning flashed, and thunder cracked right over them. They all jumped, and Sheyshi yelped in surprise, bringing Avisha running from inside.
'What happened? Sheyshi, what did you do} Here, let me take the lamp. You're shaking so hard you're going to drop it.'
'No!' Sheyshi jerked the lamp away, and oil spilled, hissing on the planks.
'You two go inside and see after the children,' said Priya sternly, taking the lamp from Sheyshi. 'The noise has woken them.'
Mai ate, listening to the anxious questions of children as rain pounded on the roof and spat in under the porch's eaves. Canvas thrummed, tugging on ropes.
'Does the storm frighten you, Mistress?'
'No. I like it. The rain will cut the dust. I'm so tired of tasting grit.'
'You wish the captain returns soon?'
'Of course. It was easier to wait in Olossi. Still, there is more than enough to do here. After all, I must build a thriving settlement so I can have a market to enjoy.'
Priya bent to kiss her cheek, lips cool on her skin, her breath smelling faintly of cloves. 'Will you eat a second portion?'
Mai handed her the empty bowl. 'Yes, I will. Do you think it is too early to allow those of the men who have particular women in mind to settle their betrothals?'
'The chief is having a difficult time keeping them in line, because the women here do not hesitate to have sex whenever they desire.'
'That's what I was thinking. Get them settled before they get restless, and into trouble.' As she shifted, the rice paper crackled, echoed by thunder rolling away over the water. 'Miravia hasn't such freedom.'
'You must accept that you cannot change certain things, Mistress, and bend your energy to those you can affect.'
Mai rose with dawn's bell, after sleeping with the canvas walls rolled halfway up to admit some breeze into the inner chambers which would otherwise become stifling. The breath of morning had a special beauty, the sun rising over the flat waters and the Spires glinting as light sparked on ice-clad peaks. The clouds had vanished, although there was a constant, streaming mist above the peaks and a smear of pink-tinged white along the eastern horizon. The air was for the moment moist and cool. Sheep and goats grazed beyond the berm under the watchful eye of young shepherds, the children of women brave — or desperate — enough to travel to this barren reach to attempt a new life under the suzerainty of outlanders.
With her usual escort, Mai walked down the track, dodging carts pushed up by workmen, into what was already being called the lower town, although it looked more like a camp with many square tents and larger barracks built of hempen canvas tied over scaffolding. In the Barrens, wood was precious, so most of the building was in brick, and those few structures whose walls reached full height had canvas slung taut for a roof.
This early, Qin soldiers strolled the market lane, many gathered by the noodle sellers to eat before they began their training or patrolling for the day.
'A little bland today,' she said as she and Priya sampled a cup from one of the stalls. She smiled at the young woman who wielded the ladle. 'Running out of spice again, Darda?'
'But there's plenty of fish!' replied the girl cheerfully. She was young, strong, with a wide smile that displayed a full set of teeth. Good health mattered. Mai had been careful to favor women who looked robust and energetic. 'I'm hoping the next boat brings more spice. Wish I could get shoots, but it's not worth the coin to ship them in, can't turn a profit, and they rot. The edible kind don't grow out here. That girl Avisha in your household told me she means to plant a garden when the fields go in. I've already told her what I'd buy.'
'Hear any news of your family?'
Her brows furrowed. 'It's kind of you to ask, verea, but I don't suppose I ever will. Even if they got away safely and made it to my kin, it's not likely they could go all the way to Olossi to ask after me. It's kind of you to think of keeping a list at the compound for those who do come looking.'
'I lost an uncle that way. It's hard not to know what happened to him.'
The girl sighed. 'It's my younger brother I worry about most. I suppose he is dead, that he might be better dead than suffering, but then I must hope he will walk up alive and tease me like he was used to do.' Her frown transformed abruptly to a brighter smile, lamp-lit as the songs called it. A Qin soldier, an older and very steady man, came up with his bowl to buy his morning's meal.
Mai retreated. 'I sense an interest there,' she said to Chief Tuvi as they paused to look in on a tailor's shop, a weaver's shed, a rope
and braid maker, and a pair of shops whose proprietors shaped household items out of clay.
'You have a talent for finding skillful women,' said the chief as he eyed a young woman who had thrown down a square of cloth beside the thoroughfare and, shading herself under an umbrella propped up between stacked bricks, was doing a brisk business with needle and thread repairing torn taloos, tunics, trousers, and other items of clothing. She was so intent on her mending that she did not look up as they passed, only paused as their shadows altered her light, then started up again with neat, even stitches.
'It's true I've favored women with skills, and ones who are interested in establishing shops. That way they can maintain their families and grow their clans, while leaving their husbands free to fight and herd. All of which suits Anji's purpose.'
Chief Tuvi nodded. 'It's a good site. Isolated. Hard for an invading army to attack us here without ruining their own supply lines and running out of water. We are scouting the routes up into the mountains, looking for fallback positions, a defensible refuge, better water sources.'
'Yet it will be prohibitively expensive to ship in all our foodstuffs, even with the trade in oil of naya. We can't flood the market with a commodity that is currently high-priced because it is so hard to obtain.'
'There's plenty of fish,' said Tuvi, and they both laughed. 'We'll run sheep and goats in the uplands. Its decent grazing land. If O'eki and the engineers can construct the conduit, we will have a steady supply of water and be able to maintain fields for the locals to work. Then the settlement will be viable beyond the spring in the gully. We could stay here a good long time.'
'I lave you picked out a wife, Tuvi?'
He sighed. 'I left a good wife at home. It's hard to think about taking a new one when I think of her wondering what's become of me. Still, that Avisha is a pretty girl.'
Mai shook her head. 'No, Tuvi. You'll get bored of her. And you intimidate her. Let her go to someone who will enjoy her chatter.'
'Hu! That's telling me! Do you have someone in mind for me, then? Or must I bide a bachelor for the rest of my days?'
'I'll keep an eye out. For you, Tuvi-lo, someone special only.'
He laughed.
The noodle-maker came out to greet Mai, her face whitened with flour dust. Mai nodded toward the laborers out in back, muscular men stripped to their kilts and wearing faded caps to protect their eyes from the sun. They were adding on a second room out of brick.
'Expanding already?'.
'I've had to hire on four more workers to keep up with the demand. But I've had some trouble with men drinking and fighting.'
'Bring your complaint to the next assizes.'
'I will, verea. As it happens, I'm hoping to send for my auntie and cousins. With your permission, verea.'
'I'll be pleased to see them here if they are as industrious as you.'
'You've offered us a chance to change our circumstances, verea. We won't forget it.'
Priya stayed behind to haggle over a delivery of noodles to the captain's house, while Mai and her escort walked on. At the lower gate, she stood in a patch of shade as she surveyed the alluvial fan that spread toward the
