another uncle, Uncle Shai, eh?'
He spoke pleasandy, but Chief Tuvi touched the hilt of his sword, and Avisha took a step toward Mai as if a change in the air impelled her motion.
'Aiyi!' Mai passed a hand over her eyes and seemed on the verge of tears. 'Probably dead, too. It's my fault.'
Priya tucked a hand under Mai's elbow and firmly settled her on a pillow.
'How so?' asked the envoy as gently as a feather brushes.
Tears began to fall, some captured in the cup held in her hands. 'There came a demon. A ghost.' She shook her head. 'A ghost turned into a demon, maybe. She rode into our compound in Olossi and killed two of the soldiers. Then I didn't mean to tell her but I did, so now she's gone after Shai.'
'North,' muttered the envoy.
'North,' she echoed, or maybe he had echoed her.
Avisha shivered.
'And then I heard some days ago — that very day I met you at the gate, Your Holiness — that Shai had been attacked by bandits.'
'Where did that happen?'
'Near the town of Horn. That's where the ring belonging to my Uncle Hari was found.' Her shoulders slumped. The cup rolled out of limp hands, and Sheyshi deftly caught it as Mai covered her eyes. 'What if Shai is dead?'
The envoy had the kind of cheerful modest demeanor that makes the day more pleasant when he walks into your shop and asks to purchase braid and rope. Yet beneath all lay a disquieting expression, hard to fathom.
He looked at Avisha, eyebrow cocked as if in a question.
Unbidden, words rose. 'I miss my father,' she whispered, but no one was listening. No one but him. His gentle smile lingered as he looked toward the door.
'Chief!'
Tuvi hurried outside. Mai looked up. Feet clattered on the walkway as male voices rose in greeting. The captain strode in, followed by guards and the handsome reeve, who halted to stare at the envoy of Ilu.
'Anji!'
The captain crossed to Mai, took both her wrists in his hands, and frowned as he examined her wan face. 'Tuvi sent word you were not feeling well.'
For a moment he matched gaze to gaze with the envoy, and his brow furrowed as if the captain was trying to place the man. Then he nodded at Tuvi.
'Everyone out,' said the chief.
The chamber cleared with a bit of confusion, people getting in the way, Sheyshi running out and then running back in for the tea things and impeding the exit of others as she fussed. Avisha retreated to the walkway, wondered if she should collect the basin and pitcher, and then saw the reeve — marshal of Argent Hall, a very important man! — beckon to her.
Biting her lower lip, she went to him.
'I can't recall your name. I'm Marshal Joss. We met in the Soha Hills.'
'It's Avisha, ver. I remember you.'
His smile warmed. Maybe he was old enough to be her father, not that he was anything like. Aui! He was a handsome man even as old as all that. 'There was an envoy of Ilu in there. Did you see where he went?'
'No, ver, but he can't have gotten far.'
'What do you know of him?'
'He came into the settlement about a week ago, at least twelve days. The mistress asked him to site altars for the gods, so marriages can go forward in the proper way.'
Thief Tuvi ambled over, his gaze sharp and his smile forced. 'Is there a problem, Marshal?'
The marshal raised a hand as if to beckon Tuvi in. An unspoken message passed between the men, but she wasn't sure what it was. 'See if you can find that envoy, Chief.'
'He's harmless. The mistress likes him, and she is a good judge of character.'
'If I'm not mistaken, the last time i saw that man was in Dast Korumbos. He was dead.'
Eihi! Maybe the marshal wasn't quite right in the head. Age took folk like that.
'You recognized him, too, eh?' said Tuvi, nodding. 'He walked with us over the Kandaran Pass, but I lost track of him before we reached Dast Korumbos. You say he was killed in the bandit attack?'
'He was dying.'
'But you didn't see him dead?'
The marshal ran a hand over his tightly cropped hair. 'I did not, it's true. It's hard to imagine he could have survived those injuries, though.'
Chief Tuvi shook his head. 'He's talked a few times with the mistress, ver, and I can tell you, he's no ghost. Ghosts don't drink tea, for one thing.'
'Hard to imagine how they could.' The charming smile flashed as the marshal's gaze shifted back to Avisha. 'If the altars are built, then I suppose marriages will go forward. You must have a line waiting for you, Avisha. Yet whose rice will you eat?'
She wrapped a hand in the fabric of her taloos, angry at him for embarrassing her in front of Chief Tuvi, who might not like to see her in the company of such a good-looking man. But the marshal was not truly interested in her, he was just fashioned that way, flirting with women the same way he breathed.
I must go, ver. I've work to do.'
And Zianna to check in on. Eiya! She'd neglected the children, so caught up was she in running after the mistress. She hurried off. Jerad was nowhere to be found, and Zi was in the kitchen yard with little ones her own age, picking pebbles out of a bin of rice, careful-handed despite their youth.
'Zi, I'm off to the garden. You want to come?'
Zi barely glanced at her. 'No.'
Zi had been angry at Avisha since the day Nallo had left, as if that was Avisha's fault. Anyway, Zianna didn't really understand that their father was dead, only that he wasn't around to dote on her and someone had to be blamed for a world cast into disorder.
With a sigh, Avisha caught the attention of one of the kitchen workers. 'I'm going down to my garden.'
'I'm hoping those melons you planted give fruit,' said the woman with a smile, tucking a strand of loose hair back into her kerchief with a sweaty hand.
Avisha trudged down through the growing settlement. Men expanded a second reservoir at the base of the irrigation channel. The main reservoir had captured a fair bit of water in the recent rains, which was routed into cisterns. Mai had extended credit for seeds, and Avisha had received a plot in one of the irrigated parcels. The soil was a fine-grained pale silt nothing like the black river-fed soils of her home. She hadn't much to enrich it with beyond peelings and scraps she composted with night soil, but while celestial star simply would not grow, she had coaxed along decent plantings of ginger, onions, pepper-heart, and various chilis. She watered and weeded the garden, then walked past the parade ground. Down by the shelter where folk could rest under shade after drilling, Jerad cracked sticks with another lad. Although she halted and waved, he did not notice her.
She wiped away a tear with a dirty finger and walked to the dry fields, where she had set up pot irrigation for her melons. She had also planted sapling figs, dates, and three ranks of precious woolly-plum seedlings; all but two had sprouted. Out here, all alone, she felt truly isolated. She did so badly miss her father.
Horsemen pounded into view in tight formation. She watched admiringly as the Qin soldiers pulled up, wheeled, turned again, and galloped away with dust spitting in their wake. Another group of ten raced up to attempt the same maneuver, the local riders awkward on their mounts while their black-clad Qin supervisor slashed his whip at those who fell out of line. A second unit of trainees attempted the drill, half of them hopelessly lagging on the first turn as the Qin soldier yelled at them and chased them back to the starting point. A third group came, holding together better at the first turn, but several fell off the line at the second turn and then
whipped their horses to catch up, only to get themselves in a tangle, pulling up short before the horses crashed into each other.
Jagi was in charge of this group. He rode through the ranks laughing, and pointed with his whip here, and then there, indicating where they had gone wrong. He had the riders work back through the drill in pairs before a shout from the starting point called his group back. They rode off in paired rows; some of the local men had their
