Jagi was standing by the small gate painted with a winged horse. He touched his forehead, saluting her. She flushed. 'All right,' she muttered. Jerad dashed off without replying, cutting so close past the new supplicants that they halted, trying not to look fools and yet also chuckling to see a child so free to run about the garden, which
was a reassuring thing when you thought of it: a local boy at ease among the fearsome soldiers.
Chaji was not in the garden, maybe because he had already chosen her. A few matches were already being spoken of, and one girl was supposedly pregnant, a thing that had infuriated Chief Tuvi so much he had beaten the soldier who admitted to the act and demanded the girl be sent away for being a bad influence. Mai had intervened, though, and instead the pair had been carted off to the settlement in the Barrens to begin married life together.
The Barrens did not sound like a nice place, dry and brown, but they could be no more barren than a place where both her mother and father had died and where she had no hope of building a home for herself and the children no matter how much she missed the ash swales, the song of water rushing over the pebbled river shore, the call of the larks that nested in the third lintel over the gate to the temple of Ilu. She did not want to go back without her father braiding cord in his shop and telling her the tales of the Hundred, which he so loved.
'That's done,' said Chief Tuvi. 'Will you rest now, Mistress?'
Mai walked down the garden to the porch and, pausing in its shade, accepted a cup of tea brought on a tray by Sheyshi. The stupid girl had a smudge on her nose.
'Thank you, Sheyshi,' said Mai, more kindly than the ill-tempered little tramp deserved.
As Mai moved into the house with Sheyshi padding at her heels like a devoted dog, Priya touched Avisha's arm. 'Sheyshi has not a lively spirit, as you do, Avisha. It is not surprising the mistress prefers your company to hers. That does not mean she cannot feel excluded. For so long she and I were the mistress's only female companions. She feels the loss of that intimacy. If you make an effort to be kind to her, it would speak well of your nature.'
Avisha hung her head, too shamed to reply, and Priya was too wise to keep beating that stake into the ground. They followed Mai into the spacious reception chamber with its mirrors and its painted rat screen, a lighthearted series of scenes of taloos- or jacket-clad rats at work counting coin and at play flying kites.
'I'm going to the livestock market,' said Mai to the chief.
He looked resignedly at Priya, and Priya shrugged. Caught by the
reflection in one of the mirrors, Avisha saw Keshad standing behind the others but looking at Mai. Avisha shivered. If only he would look at her in that way!
But he did not.
'Will you come, Avisha?' Mai asked.
She hesitated.
'Keshad, I would like your opinion as well. The sheep market is today, is it not?'
'It is, verea. This late in the day the best animals will already be sold.'
'I'm not buying,' said Mai. 'I want to see what the lesser quality of animal looks like.'
'I'll go.' Avisha glanced at Sheyshi's sour expression. 'Maybe Sheyshi would like to go, too.'
So it was arranged. Avisha went back into the garden to tell Zianna she was going out, but the little girl was napping. A contingent of guards was assembled, the big man pulled from his counting frame to accompany them, and another of Anji's senior men, Chief Deze, left in charge of the compound in Tuvi's absence. Sheyshi brought straw sandals suitable for a trip to the market.
They left the house through the warehouse, where women and children sat on the long benches, waiting their turn to be interviewed. The supplicants carried baskets and bags with rice balls and se leaves to eat during the long wait. Children dozed on the floor. Women looked up as they passed, eager to speak, but the escort of Qin soldiers intimidated them.
The sheep market lay down the hill outside the gates of the inner city, on open ground untouched by the building that consumed Olossi's outer districts. Mai was fascinated by the sheep. She and O'eki asked interminable questions of the herdsmen and farmers who had brought their lots to market. Keshad stuck next to the mistress.
It was odd to walk in public accompanied by the Qin. Chief Tuvi had detailed a dozen soldiers, and while they did not swagger or push, they cleared a path for Mai simply by being armed and alert. Avisha dropped back to where Chaji walked as part of the rear detail. He smiled briefly and then ignored her as his gaze roved the crowds.
Many glances were cast their way, not all kindly ones. A pair of men garbed in the homespun of farmers bent close over a ewe. By the way their eyes watched the Qin, they might have been whispering about the condition of her mouth or they might have been muttering complaints. A woman dragged her daughter out of the path of the Qin, as if she feared they would kidnap the girl.
'A blessing on you, verea. A blessing!' A beggar wearing a greasy red cap and ragged kilt trolled for alms, holding out an offering bowl.
The forward group reached an intersection. Avisha hurried to catch up as Tuvi shouted an order. The soldiers halted, blocking the intersection. Mai turned. Then she smiled.
Captain Anji and four soldiers strolled up the other avenue, which was lined with pens and booths selling songbirds, chickens, crickets in miniature cages. The crowd melted away to give them room. Conversations faded to silence as the two groups met, and merged.
'Will you attend me, husband?' Mai asked with a smile that made the captain grin, even though he was in public, and caused Keshad to look away.
'Of course,' the captain said. They went back the way she had come while she described to him the characteristics of the local breeds and the wet season problems with foot rot.
'If I know something, it is about sheep. I was meant to marry into a sheepherders' clan.'
'Where you would have been wasted.'
'They were wealthy.'
'I assure you,' said Anji with a smile that made Avisha blush even though it was not directed at her, 'they did not have as many sheep as my Qin clansmen. That our estate will have, if we acquire the core of a strong herd.'
'I am interested in this herd.' Mai indicated an extensive pen mostly emptied by sales. They entered into a protracted discussion with a clan that herded extensive flocks near Old Fort.
Avisha sidled up next to Keshad. She glanced toward Chaji, to see if he was watching her, but like the other soldiers he was scrutinizing the passers-by, the farmers deep in conversation, a pair of
laughing laborers carrying axes on their shoulders, the skulking dirty children.
'That was well done of you to spot those spies that merchant wanted to place in the house,' she said to Keshad.
He flicked a glance at her, as if surprised she could talk. 'Eh. Yes.'
'Eh, do you know, if you and your sister hadn't helped us over the river, I don't think we would have survived.'
'Probably not,' he said without looking at her.
'Have I made a proper thanks?'
'A hundred times over.'
'Oh. Ah. Have you news of your sister?'
He made a brushing motion with his hand, as at a pesky fly. Abruptly, he stiffened, and she took a step back, afraid he was going to say something cutting, but he was looking past the soldiers into the crowd.
'Avisha.' Mai touched Avisha's arm. 'It's best if you return to the compound.' The company had re-formed, ready to move on. 'We're going now to take afternoon cakes and tea with the Ri Amarah in their compound. They'll tell me today their decision, if Miravia can visit me in my own house. But since you're not allowed in the compound, you would just have to wait outside, so you might prefer to go back home.'
Avisha wondered if this was what Sheyshi felt like, pushed to one side. 'Are you sure you want to go? The Silvers cover their heads to conceal their horns!' When Mai laughed, Avisha went on determinedly. 'That's what everyone says.'
'The women don't have horns.'
'That doesn't mean the men don't have them. Everyone knows they do!'
