To hear these words flow from the girl's lips surprised Mai. She had thought the local women who worked for her only came to listen to Priya lead the service in order to be polite to the employer who paid them. 'Why, that's right. That's part of the prayer.'
Wori said, 'Who ever says a thing like that? 'I go to the truth for refuge.' That doesn't mean anything.'
Voices raised outside: men were speaking vehemently in the warehouse. There came a shout, and then a hammering on the warehouse door. Chief Tuvi called out an order; footsteps pounded like a cloudburst as men raced across the entrance courtyard.
She rose, her own heart at a driving run. Would she never be free of the red hounds?
Priya hurried over and grasped her elbow. 'Quickly. Come farther inside.'
Soldiers appeared in the office door leading to the porch. 'Quickly, Mistress. Come inside.'
'Will this never end?' she cried angrily.
A rhythm rapped on the warehouse door, the signal giving the all-clear.
'Seren,' she said, more sharply than she intended. 'Open the door.'
The young soldier limped over to the door. His comrade drew his sword as Seren slid back the iron eye panel.
'Clear to open,' said Tuvi's voice from the other side.
Seren undid the bolts and bars, braced his crippled leg, then swung the door open. Chief Tuvi entered first, marking the occupants with his sharp gaze. An older man wearing the turban of the Ri Amarah strode in behind him.
'Master Isar!' said Mai. 'I am honored at your visit, but I admit I did not expect you-'
'Have you seen my daughter?'
She flinched, for his tone reminded her exactly of Father Mei in one of his tempers. So many months had passed since a man had spoken to her in that way she had almost forgotten how it felt, but of course she would never truly forget because it was the male voice she had grown up with. It angered her now more than it scared her. She cooled her voice to a pitch of such sincere gra-ciousness that she hoped her demeanor would scare him.
'Ver, will you sit? Priya, might you bring wine? Here is a pillow.'
He paced the length of the room and back again. She waited. Chief Tuvi watched through narrowed eyes. The two soldiers shut the door to the warehouse and stood with backs against it. O'eki loomed, and the clerks retreated to the cabinets.
Isar was a good-looking man somewhat older than Father Mei, a man of considerable influence and wealth, accustomed to deference. Because he was Ri Amarah — outlanders who had settled in the Hundred about a hundred years ago and yet had never come around to worshiping the Hundred's gods — he was also, it seemed, accustomed to being distrusted.
Still pacing, he spoke without looking at Mai directly. 'I have come to you, verea, because of your friendship with my daughter, whose name we do not speak in public spaces. This trouble began when she was allowed to visit you in this compound. Not that I fault you, verea, for certainly you cannot understand our customs. But she has become unruly and disobedient since that day-'
Mai wanted to protest that Miravia had spoken discontentedly of her fate and the restrictions placed on her on the very first day the two young women had met, many months ago, but she knew better than to try to stop his flow of bitter words.
'-and now it appears she has utterly cast all honor and duty and sense of propriety into the dirt and run away from home.'
Chief Tuvi looked at Mai, and she wasn't sure whether he was shocked, or ready to burst out laughing. Isar stared around the office.
'Must all these strangers stand here and listen?' he demanded.
Mai gestured. 'Adit. Wori. You are released for the day. We will see you at dawn tomorrow, neh?'
With relieved nods, they hurried out.
'Seren. Valan. Bolt the door, and wait outside on the porch for my signal.'
As the two soldiers left, Mai turned to Isar. 'Chief Tuvi and my advisors stay.'
'Your advisors? Your slaves, you mean!'
'Master Isar, surely you did not come to insult me, since you know perfectly well that my husband has supported your people. Your customs are not our customs.'
'My apologies, verea. I am distraught.'
'What has happened to Mi- to your daughter?' She was truly becoming anxious now, as dusk settled outside and the chamber darkened.
'She was to leave tomorrow morning.'
'Leave for where?'
'Leave for her wedding. To take her place in her new home.'
His words shocked her. 'To Nessumara? You can't possibly be sending her on the roads, Master Isar. Captain Anji has secured the roads in Olo'osson, but you know better than most that beyond Olo'osson the roads are not safe, not even for an armed caravan.'
'It has been arranged that a reeve will fly her there. A female reeve, I might add.' Surely his complexion was pallid more with anger than concern. Did he truly care for his daughter, or was she merely a piece of merchandise he could trade to benefit his family's wealth and position?
'The reeves aren't carters, hauling cargo for money. They enforce the law!'
'Master Esaf has repeatedly supplied foodstuffs for Clan Hall at no profit. Given transport to refugees likewise. He asked for one favor in return. Even a very pious man yearns for a wife when he has been without one for some time.'
As lecherous old goats lust after lovely young brides they've bought like animals at the market! she thought.
Something in her thoughts must have communicated to Master
Isar, because he plunged on. 'It's a substantial sum that he's forgone.'
As if coin answered all objections!
Yet, were Isar and his relatives any different from her own family? Anji had seen her at the market, and because he was a Qin officer in a town conquered by the Qin army, he had gone to her father to purchase her.
'I'm sure Master Esaf's wealth is considerable, ver. But this is your daughter. Toskala has been overrun by a marauding army. They are marching on Nessumara.'
'I have not forgotten the army's trail of bitter conquests,' he said, jaw tight.
'I should hope not! An army that burned High Haldia and laid siege to Toskala. Your own people have died!'
He wasn't willing to meet her gaze directly. 'You are remarkably well informed, verea.'
'Captain Anji makes sure I receive daily reports.' She tried to remember her market voice and her market face, but she could not hold on to them. 'Surely you can't intend to send your daughter into a city soon to be attacked? The young scholar she was originally engaged to was killed in the attack on High Haldia, wasn't he? Do you want to expose her to such risk just for coin and better trade opportunities?'
He was by now quite red in the face. 'What do you think your husband would say, to hear you speak such words to a man of the same age as your own father? Are you challenging our right to do what we must? What we know is right for our house? Are you so lacking in respect? A mere chit of a girl, accustomed to getting her way because folk pet her for her beauty which is exposed in the most unseemly manner-?'
Chief Tuvi interposed himself between Mai and the Ri Amarah merchant. 'I beg your pardon, ver,' he said in a voice the more threatening because he had not raised it.
In the silence, O'eki set down a sheaf of papers he had been holding all this time, its rustling like that of eavesdropping mice scattering away under the floorboards.
Isar swallowed. 'I am not myself, verea. I beg your pardon. I will return another time.'
He went to the door. Tuvi drew back the bolts. As Isar vanished into the warehouse, Tuvi glanced back with an evocative shrug as if to say Men! Daughters! Outlanders! How does one
make sense of them? Then he went out after the merchant, and Seren came back inside and bolted the door after him.
