compound at Olossi, but she only used it when negotiating a particularly hard bargain. Some rich people liked couches in the Sirniakan style, but Mai preferred the ease of handsome furnishings that could be moved, changed, or put away quickly and withjittle effort.
'Now that we are come to live in the Hundred, Honored Mother,' she went on stubbornly, with that same sweet voice, 'we have found it easier to adopt the local ways rather than cling to our old ones.'
'So say those who are weak-minded and lazy. Had I not clung to my Qin customs and ways in the long years I was trapped in the women's quarters of the imperial palace, I would be dead now. So would my son. A fact you should consider. I will not sit on the floor.'
'Then you must stand, Honored Mother. My apologies.'
She snorted. 'Sweetly wielded. A knife coated with honey.'
Mai let this pass. 'May I offer you refreshment, Honored Mother? Khaif or tea can be brewed. There is also kama juice.'
'What is your price?'
Mai smiled. Now they were walking on familiar ground. 'I offer you refreshment as I would offer any guest refreshment, Honored Mother. This is not the market, that such drink would come with a price.'
'Do not play this game with me. I am accustomed to female beauty. I have studied it over many years. Many beautiful girls and women inhabit the women's quarter in the imperial palace, some even more beautiful than you. But you are also intelligent, and more than that, you hold a piece of yourself aside. That is what lends savor to your beauty, although few men understand it is that quality they react to. I doubt my son understands it. He may believe it is merely your physical beauty and your intelligence he favors, but it is the particular quality of spirit which infatuates him so. He wishes to conquer all of you and knows instinctively that there remains yet a corner of your spirit which belongs to you only. How that must rankle him!'
Mai had learned to say nothing and show nothing long ago. Her market face had protected her many times. She found anger
surging in her breast, and she pushed it aside. Later she could rage. Now, she waited.
'What is your price? Your own household? Coin? Gold? Fabric? Horses? Slaves? A handsome husband to replace this one?'
'You believe I am someone else, Honored Mother. I have my own household. I am rich, through my own efforts. I run things as I wish. I am content.'
'Would you be as content if Anjihosh is murdered? They will come after him.'
'They might come after him even if he marries the emperor's sister. Have you any reason to trust they will leave him alone in exchange for a marriage?'
'The marriage will show them he means to honor the agreement to remain in exile. The Hundred means nothing to the empire. There is nothing here they could possibly want.'
'The giant eagles.'
'Ah, the giant eagles and their reeves, which I have seen. Yet they are a curiosity, poorly deployed and without purpose. In the empire, the reeves would be slaves who served the throne, sent as messengers on the emperor's behalf or to strike at his enemies. It is Anjihosh the empire cares about, not the eagles or the paltry trade goods.'
She took three steps toward Mai. Priya stepped forward as if to place her own body between the two women, but Mai put out a hand to restrain her. Anji's mother was only looking, studying Mai with a gaze not truly hostile but something Mai had no name for anc no experience with. She herself measured fabric in the market with such a gaze, trying discern which would best suit her uses and which was not worth her time or coin. But you did not measure people as you measured goods in the marketplace.
Eihi! Of course folk did.
They did it all the time.
She folded her hands in front of her and said nothing, only returned that gaze without flinching.
Anji's mother nodded, a flicker of a smile flashing. Was that a dimple, like Anji's? It was already gone.
'You are more formidable even than I had supposed. Let us speak bluntly, then. Have you a price?'
'Let us speak bluntly, then. I do not have a price.'
'Do you think it unreasonable of me to insist that my son make such an advantageous marriage?'
Obedience choked her. Duty choked her. Truth choked her. Powerful men commonly took two wives, multiple concubines. Clans made alliances for mutual benefit. In contracts, in business, love meant nothing.
'I see,' said Anji's mother. 'You understand perfectly well that it is not an unreasonable demand. But let us imagine that my son is too proud and stubborn to see you relegated to the status and rank of concubine, even if that is what you are in the eyes of any person born of noble blood and to high, rank. Such distinctions often mean a great deal to the common people. Let us say that for a merchant's daughter, status as a concubine would be seen as lowering, shameful, even dishonorable. Would you therefore object to a position as his second wife, for certainly an emperor's sister must be designated his chief wife? There is no shame or disgrace in standing as the second wife to a prince.'
Once she could have borne it in silence, let words wash over her and away. She had long ago determined to live life in her own way and on her own terms by holding a part of herself aside as a garden in which she could nurture a seedbed of personal, private happiness. In those days, she had been careful to hide her true feelings in order to never anger others, because if they were angry they might disturb the tranquil sanctuary she had so carefully constructed.
But now, it seemed, she no longer feared making other people angry. The girl she had been had passed through the Spirit Gate and become a woman whose voice she scarcely recognized as her lips opened and she spoke.
'You forget, verea, that in the Hundred Anji is not a prince. He is not an emperor's son, or an emperor's brother, or a var's nephew. Such titles mean nothing here. He is a militia captain, a man who works for coin just like everyone else. He is no greater or lesser than I am. If I walk first in his heart, why should I then agree to step back and become second?'
'To save his life. And the life of your handsome son.'
Priya gasped. O'eki gave an inarticulate exclamation.
The ground lurched beneath Mai, or perhaps that was only her hammering heart and dizzied head as she stumbled to the cot and placed her body between the baby and his grandmother.
Who smiled, not unkindly. 'Perhaps you now understand me. There is no abyss as fathomless as a mother's fear for her child. There is no beast who will fight more fiercely than a mother
defending her child. So understand me in this. Anjihosh's son is as precious to me as Anjihosh himself. I am not the one you need fear in the matter of the boy.'
'Then why do you threaten Atani?'
'I do not threaten Atanihosh. I am endeavoring to make you understand that with my aid and cooperation you can ensure the baby's survival.'
'If I relinquish my place as Anji's wife.'
'If you give way, as is proper, to a woman whose rank and birth lie far above your own. It would be best for you to leave the household entirely.'
'Taking my son with me?'
The woman had the audacity to look startled. 'Only Anjihosh and I can protect him!'
'Is this your argument? To abandon my son into the arms of a woman who speaks of his death?'
'Mistress,' said Priya warningly.
'I will never leave him with you!'
She expected anger in response, but in her fury and fear she had forgotten the way the Qin veiled their faces with a bland expression that concealed any and every emotion.
'Do not cross me, pretty girl, because you will discover I have survived far worse in the palace than you can possibly imagine. I offer you two choices: I pay you handsomely to depart, and you may walk free to establish yourself as you wish and where you wish as long as it is not beside my son. Or you accept a place in his household as second wife, accepting the primacy of the princess and my authority to rule over any disputes such as may arise within the household.'
'Mistress,' said Priya urgently.
