'That old bitch-!' cried Kesh.
'Sheh!' The Hundred word cut like an edged blade. Shame! 'No man speaks so of the var's sister, a princess of the blood.'
'She had Mai killed!'
'So it seems. Nevertheless, if you insult her again, I must kill you for the sake of the captain's honor. I admit, it is not the Qin way to make a stab in the dark, but when her brother condemned her to a life in the Sirniakan palace, it must be expected she would learn to live as the locals do in order to survive. So must we all. Mai's power was considerable. A threat to her, coming to this land as a stranger to a son who did not know her well and who never liked his uncle, her brother. The var is a hard man to please. Sheyshi must have been the princess's agent all along. The princess's relationship with Beje and Cherfa was closer than we ever imagined. They must have been in communication all those
years. It was Beje who helped smuggle the young Anjihosh past the empire's border nineteen years ago. I was part of that effort, you know. I did not suspect Commander Beje might have been her agent still. Or perhaps he knew nothing, and she used Cherfa to place an agent into her son's troop. To protect him. It has only ever been her desire to protect her son.'
Kesh had no answer to this. 'What now, then, Tuvi?'
A soldier hung a lamp from a hook before retreating into the dusk.
'Tell me again, every word the emperor's brother said to you, every word the captain's mother spoke in your hearing.'
So Kesh told his tale again, pausing at intervals to help the chief drink. When partway through it came time for the chief to relieve himself, two soldiers helped him beyond the porch to the pits. He could walk, with assistance, although the effort left him exhausted. Yet afterward, returning to the pallet, he indicated that Kesh must go on. After Kesh had related everything he could recall, the chief wiped his eyes.
'We should have suspected the slave,' he said.
O'eki came in, eyes red from weeping. Priya walked beside him, carrying Atani, and Tuvi smiled as she settled the baby in the chief's embrace, the child so handsome and bright a face that a man might weep to think of what he had lost.
'If only I had agreed, I might have saved her,' muttered Kesh.
Tuvi laughed, the sound raw. 'Hu! You are no match for the captain's mother, Master Keshad. Mai was dead the instant Anjihosh said no to his mother.' He handed the baby back to Priya, who took his look as a command and retreated with O'eki.
'One last thing, Master Keshad,' said the chief, 'and then I must sleep. The sooner I can travel, the sooner I can bring this news to the captain. Let me assure you, in case you do not understand me, that the reeves who fly in and out here obey me. I must inform the captain, none but me. None can know outside us until he knows. I'll kill you if there is any question that you might attempt-'
Kesh flung up his hands. T want nothing! I have no plans!'
'You want something.'
Ah.
There it stood, between them.
'Miravia,' said the chief, 'is a fine, well-mannered, and intelligent young woman, if not particularly handsome.'
'Not handsome!' cried Kesh. 'She's the most beautiful woman I have ever seen!'
'Nothing compared to that girl Avisha,' continued the chief.
'Avisha! That spring-blooming flower, pretty for a season and then likely to wither? The hells! Are you blind?'
'The mistress wished me to marry her, because her family cast her out and Mai wanted to be sure that her dearest friend would always have the protection of a clan. It's a hard world for any person thrown without kin into the crueLpattle of life, is it not?'
'As I know! I lived twelve years as a debt slave.'
'And bought yourself free, which means you're an intelligent lad, if a reckless and irritating one. I will marry Miravia, Master Keshad, if that is what Miravia wishes. Because it's what Mai wanted. It would be the wise thing for Miravia to do. She'll never lack, as part of the captain's household.'
'You forget there's a war.'
'I don't forget it. But unlike you, the captain is not a reckless man. He has his plans laid well in place, a substantial army, and an additional five hundred Qin soldiers to back him up.'
'Commander Beje's men!'
'No. These are men who would have been placed under Anjihosh's command had he been allowed to take his army on the eastern frontier of the Qin empire, but either way, it does not matter. We Qin who are soldiers fight for the man who commands us, and when we are sent elsewhere, there we fight. For Anjihosh now. In time, for his son.'
'I thought you fought for the Hundred.'
Tuvi gestured, and Kesh handed him the cup of juice. It was, in fact, difficult for Tuvi to grasp the cup with his burned hands, but the man was determined to recover enough to travel. To serve his captain. To do his duty. To fight.
'I will marry Miravia if that is what she wishes, and I'll treat her well. Although,' he added thoughtfully, 'the visits to that garden will have to stop. What a cursed wrongheaded thing that is! Hu!' He held out the empty cup, and Kesh took it. 'But if she wants a different man, one who assures me she will not lack for any of the comforts and security Mai would have wanted her to have, then I will not raise my sword against that man, nor will I hold a grudge.'
'Do you want more juice?' asked Kesh.
'No. I'll sleep now.'
'Here. Let me help you with the pillows.' Kesh settled the pillows so they braced the chief comfortably. 'Do you want the silk over your legs?'
'No. The air cools the burns. Is that all you have to say?'
Kesh really looked at him, seeing a man of indeterminate years, forty or fifty, hard to say because the Qin hid their age so well with their weathered faces and easy smiles. An honest man, in his way, clear-eyed and clear- spoken. Brutal when he must be, but unexpectedly kind.
'You're a cursed road more generous than I could ever be, Chief Tuvi. She matters more to me than anything.'
'I'm not generous, lad. Don't make the mistake of thinking so. I have a wife back in the grasslands, a good woman I'll never see again. It would be pleasant to have a wife again, if it falls out that way. Nevertheless, I'm a soldier, and my loyalty was given long ago and completely, as it must be. I'm Anjihosh's man. He is my life. Now, go on. I suppose you will find her by the pool. It's where she goes to mourn.'
She had not taken a lamp, but he found her easily enough, kneeling beyond the waterfall and its ruins in the darkness of the cave where, so the tale had it, Atani had been born within a net of firelings. Kesh didn't believe the story, not precisely, because everyone knew firelings lived in storms, not in caves, but people would tell tales to fit what they wanted to believe. It made life easier.
'Miravia,' he said.
She knelt before plaited wreaths heaped upon a stone slab meant to be an altar. There were no flowers; this wasn't a season for flowers. She didn't look up. She must have seen the light. She must have guessed it was him.
'If only I had-' she began through tears.
'Will blaming yourself bring her back?'
She said nothing, lips pressing tight in that stubborn way he was coming to adore. The overhang smelled faintly of wet season storms, a memory of thunder. Water pounded at their backs in a constantly shifting curtain. Where the pool's edge lapped at the rim of stone, right where the water fell and had gouged out the deeper pool, waves stirred and sighed as if trying to speak.
'Mai is gone,' she whispered. 'How can I endure it?'
Each step brought him closer until he knelt beside her, careful
