Tears spilled, and she began to laugh as much as cry, for it was raining finally, a mist that smeared the dirt and pattered among the leaves, presaging a fiercer storm to come.
'You'll want a bath,' added Priya with a kind smile. 'Once you've gotten it all out.'
'I just didn't think-'
'There, now,' said Mai. 'I have to interview all those women. 1 ater, if you feel able, maybe you can point out to me the ones who were talking about coin.'
'O-Of course.' She gulped several times and found she could swallow, she could breathe, she could think. She fixed her jaw, braced herself. 'I'm so grateful. B-But I'll need a contract. So I have
a chance to choose a husband from among the s-soldiers-' Or Keshad, if he would have her. Thinking of him made her skin scald with heat because she was so stupid, but she was alone, the only one the little ones had left. She had to proceed as she knew Nallo would, by being forceful and bold. '-and that I'm assured n-no one will change his mind and throw me out. The children have to come with me and be treated as full kin, not debt slaves having to work to offset the expense of keeping them.'
Mai laughed. 'I do like you. Is there anything else?' To think of her father was to yearn for him, to wish the gate might open and he, with his gentle smile and with a half-braided cord in hand, would walk in to greet her. The grief of knowing he was truly gone had not lifted, and she supposed it never would. Yet she had hope she could raise the children, and honor their father's memory by doing so.
'It's just a small thing, and I don't think it would be too hard… it's just… I would like know how Nallo is faring.'
'I don't like you,' said Nallo. 'So quit bothering me.'
'Eiya! I was just trying to be nice.' The young reeve took his bowl of soup and his inane banter, obviously meant to impress her, and walked over to another table in the eating hall where he was greeted with friendly cheers.
She thought herself shed of them, able to eat the spicy cawl-flower soup in peace without a bunch of chattering pleasantries, when another cursed reeve plopped down beside her.
'I don't like Siras either,' said this man. 'All that glad-handing talk, like a cursed entertainer.' He placed his bowl on the table, nudged it to the right, and stared at the dumpling floating in the center surrounded by limp cawl petals and specks of bright red pepper. 'Did they replace the cook? This looks more appetizing than the last meal I ate here.'
'1 wouldn't know. I only got here yesterday. And I plan to leave tomorrow.'
He chuckled. 'Don't you remember me? I'm Volias.' 'Yes, 1 remember you. You made me leave the children I'm responsible for and come here to Argent I Iall, where I don't want to
be. And since I'm not planning to stay, I don't see why I should have to remember anyone's name.'
'You're very irritating and rude,' he said appreciatively. 'Will you promise me you'll be this rude to the marshal?'
Nallo wasn't used to people smiling at her. It made her suspicious. 'Why do you want me to be rude to him?'
'Because I don't like him. Not enough people are rude to him, just because he's charming and good looking. How like them not to see past his handsome face to the insufferably smug and self-righteous man beneath!'
'Will being rude to him help me get out of here?'
He laughed. She wasn't a good judge of laughter. She couldn't tell if he was laughing sympathetically, or if he was laughing at her, and that made her bristle.
'Why are you so ill-tempered?' he asked.
'I didn't say anything!'
' 'A look's as good as a hundred words', as it says in the tale. Have you always been this way?'
'So they tell me!' She turned her attention back to her soup, sipping cautiously, but it had just the right sting of pepper to really make your eyes open as you swallowed the rich broth.
He tried his own.
'This is good,' he added, as if she weren't ignoring him. 'Listen, Nallo. The gods marked you the moment that eagle chose you, or the eagle chose you because the gods marked you. It's hard to know how that works. You can no more walk away than you can expect to see your dead husband walking among the living. Keep your ill temper and your rudeness if you wish. It'll intimidate people, once you get out into the world as a reeve. But the sooner you accept that you can't leave, the better it will be for you. Although why I bother to tell you, I don't know. I'm leaving tomorrow anyway, to return to Clan Hall. I won't have to deal with your sulks and outbursts, although I'll miss them. I like you.'
She was finding it hard to breathe because the air had gotten so thick and the pepper in the soup was stronger than she'd realized, making her eyes water. 'No one likes me.'
'That sister was bawling her eyes out when you took your leave of them-'
'She's my husband's daughter, not my sister. I don't have any obligation toward them now their father is dead.'
'Which is why you are mad at me for taking you away from them. Hrm, that makes sense. Anyway, presumably your husband liked you.'
'He tolerated me. He needed a second wife quickly because the first died in childbed. I'm the prize he got!' Her voice had risen. Folk seated at other tables looked at her and quickly away when she glared at them.
'Here, now,' said Volias with a sneer. 'If you feel a little more sorry for yourself, even I might begin to dislike you despite your wonderful ability to say cutting things to people deserving of a cut like that idiot, Siras, who fancies himself a future marshal just because the fawkners here pet him so and signed him up to run errands for the marshal. So how many people do you suppose are dead already, and how many more do you suppose are going to die, with the way things are these days? Maybe we need reeves right now. Maybe we need the work reeves can do. Maybe the gods are desperate enough to touch you, or maybe you're just someone who could be a good reeve. Think about it.'
Now he did ignore her, working at his bowl in silence. The hum of other conversations surrounded them. The hall had windows open to a courtyard. Rain pattered on the pavement outside. Lamp flames trembled under the breeze raised by the twilight rains. The hall easily sat two hundred; truly, Nallo had never in her life been under a roof so large because not even Sapanasu's temple in her village had been anywhere this big. She might as well be outside as inside because there was so much loft hidden by darkness up in the open rafters. And yet it did smell like indoors: the shavings that covered the floor to keep down dust and mess had been mixed with herbs to sweeten the air. The scent reminded her of home.
Home.
Not the house where she had grown up, which had smelled of goats, but her husband's house. His was not a violent or expansive temperament. He was quiet and kind, and he liked things to be tidy and pleasant, and yet unlike the landlady, he didn't fuss unnecessarily to make a point that it must be done his way or not at all. He was a good ropcmaker, a true artisan, because he had an eye for
detail and a real love for doing things right just because that's what satisfied him. She had respected him, but she had never loved him.
Overcome with feelings she did not understand and could not explain, she slumped forward with her elbows on the plank table and covered her face with her hands.
'Making the women cry again, Volias?'
'I'm the only one she'll talk to. She probably saw you coming. It's enough to make me weep.'
She lifted her head. Volias lifted his bowl to his lips and slurped down the last of the broth. The marshal was standing behind him, holding the short staff carried by all reeves. He was a good-looking man; you just couldn't help noticing that every time you set eyes on him. When he saw that Nallo had looked up, he smiled, a look calculated to melt people's hard hearts.
She scowled. 'I don't have anything to say to you.'
Volias set down the bowl with a clunk. 'My heart, have I told you recently that I love you?'
This was not worth replying to, nor did her harsh words have the effect she hoped for.
'You two are well matched,' said the marshal in such a genial way that she wanted to slap the good humor off his handsome face.
