Jaran

forward to stare at the sky where a flock of birds wheeled and drove, chattering, for the sun. His lips moved. She knew enough khush to recognize that he was counting under his breath. 'There is a dyan called Doroskayev,' he said aloud, settling back into his saddle and starting forward. 'He wants to prevent me from uniting the jaran. This was his jahar, or part of his jahar, that rode this way. That means we are near each other. I had hoped to avoid anyone so far north this early in the year.'

Tess urged Myshla after him. 'If you meet him, what will happen?'

'We will fight, his riders and mine.'

He said it matter-of-factly. Tess felt as if a stone had dropped into her stomach. They would fight-and where would she be? Lord, and what would Cha Ishii do, faced with such a battle? 'I've been a fool,' she muttered under her breath.

'I beg your pardon?'

'I just wondered,' she said quickly. 'You said before that you'd gotten these horses to make war. Is this the war you meant?'

'Not at all. Doroskayev, and a few other men, are simply obstacles in my path.' The flock of birds, still screaming, swept back over them, low, their tiny shadows dotting the earth. His eyes followed them again, and he smiled to himself. 'My war is against all the khaja. All the settled people. I mean to sweep them off the plains forever. And once they are driven off the plains, once all the khaja lands bordering the plains are subject to us, then we need fear the khaja no more.'

'Do you fear them now?'

'My people fear them.' He glanced at her. 'But I do not. I have been to Jeds, and I have seen that even the best and the wisest of the khaja are no different than us. What they have, we can have as well.'

That night no fire was built, and double guards were posted. Tess and Yuri watched the Chapalii putting up their tents, and caught the tail end of an exchange in which Bakhtiian attempted to convince Ishii that speed and stealth necessitated no tents at all. The tents went up, but when Bakhtiian left, Tess thought he looked more thoughtful than annoyed. She strolled over and greeted Ishii in formal Chapalii. Yuri tagged at her heels.

Ishii bowed. 'Your endurance is commendable, Lady Terese.'

'I welcome your compliments, Cha Ishii. But I am surprised that you set your tents under such circumstances.'

He bowed again. ' 'We cannot sleep in this open air, Lady Terese. Surely you appreciate the physiological differences that demand we maintain some period of rest in atmospheres altered to suit our metabolism.'

'Within those tents?' Tess asked, suddenly acutely curious to go inside one. The four tents looked common enough-a heavy cotton or canvas, something unremarkable to the natives-but what had the Chapalii built into them?

It was too dark to see what color his skin flushed, though she thought it changed slightly. His voice continued imperturbably. 'We have mechanisms, Lady Terese.'

' 'What if this other party attacks? Are you not concerned for your life and the lives of your party, Cha Ishii?'

'I am not concerned, Lady Terese. If I may be excused?'

She nodded. He beat a strategic retreat into the nearest tent. One Chapalii stood outside the second tent, watching her attentively. He was clearly not of the steward class; their deference to her was so complete as to render them almost invisible. Then, bowing directly to her-a slightly arrogant breach of manners, since she had not formally recognized him-he, too, turned and vanished into his tent.

'Why do they bow to you?' Yuri asked. 'I never saw people bow except in Jeds, when what they called-what is that word? — the nobility went past.'

'I think that Bakhtiian would like to be bowed to.'

Yuri grinned. 'I'll just bet he would.' Then, either distracted from his question or letting it go, he changed the subject. 'We should start teaching you to use that saber. Just in case. Kirill will help. He's a good teacher, though he doesn't act it. And Mikhal and Konstans and Nikita and Fedya. I suppose we ought to ask Vladimir to join, too.' He took her over to where the youngest men in the jahar had gathered, and they showed her how to hold and balance her saber, and how to take simple backward and forward cuts.

In the morning, Niko Sibirin rode out to scout with Bakhtiian and Tess. For a while, he and Bakhtiian spoke rapidly together in khush. Tess caught the name Doroskayev many times, and other words and phrases in bits and pieces, but not enough to string together into understanding. Then Bakhtiian rode off by himself, leaving Tess with Niko.

'How are you getting on?' Sibirin asked in Rhuian.

'I'm still here.'

'Yes. I'm glad to see it. I've seen others fail this test.'

'Does he do this to every new rider?'

Niko chuckled. The lines on his face softened when he smiled, gentling the sharpness of his eyes. 'Oh, no, my dear. Only those he does not trust yet for one reason or another. Poor Vladi had enough trouble from the young men when Ilyakoria took him in to foster so that he took it doubly hard when he was run into the ground his first ride out. I suppose he thought that Bakhtiian taking him in assured him a place. It did not.'

'He must have passed the test.'

'Well enough.' He glanced to his right. A moment later Bakhtiian appeared around the low swell of a rise. Here the plains still rose and fell like waves, slopes that hid the near ground but revealed what was in the distance.

'Nothing,' said Bakhtiian in Rhuian, sounding disgusted. 'So you studied at the University in Jeds?'

The sudden question took Tess by surprise. 'Why, ah, no, I never did. I was too young, and then my brother sent me overseas to study. He wanted me to learn languages that would benefit him in his trading. So he couldn't be cheated, or sold bad goods.' It was close enough. Charles had never possessed a knack for the Chapalii language. That his sister proved adept at languages had been an unlooked-for advantage to his plans. All the more reason that her loss would hurt him badly. Where was Charles now? Did he think she was lost? Kidnapped? Dead? She pressed her lips together, feeling ashamed that she had brought this problem upon Charles, with everything else he had to worry about. Sibirin and Bakhtiian were watching her, Sibirin with interest, Bakhtiian with-? She could not be sure.

'Still, perhaps you came across the works of Iban Khal-dun?' Bakhtiian concealed his thoughts with these innocuous words. 'The great historian? His works came to Jeds from overseas.'

Tess choked back an exclamation. It turned into a cough. 'Yes,' she said cautiously. 'I've heard of him. Didn't he write about cycles of conquest and civilization?'

To her surprise, Bakhtiian launched into an explication of Iban Khaldun's work leavened by frequent questions to her and to Niko-for it quickly became apparent that Niko had somehow or other also been introduced to these writings-about their opinions and arguments. They talked in this vein until midday, when they joined up with the jahar. For the first time, Bakhtiian ordered both Tess and Yuri to ride with the main group.

'Is he protecting me?' Tess asked as Bakhtiian left again with Niko, back out to scout.

'Not really. You're a-a burden, Tess. If he's caught in the open with you, and Doroskayev and his riders appear, he'll have to defend you rather than get away.' He sighed. 'It will be easier when you've learned khush.'

'What? For me to scout?'

'No, for me to talk with you. I don't speak Rhuian well.'

'You speak it well enough. Although your pronunciation isn't very good.'

'Tess, you speak khush better already after six hands of days than I did Rhuian after a year in Jeds. And Ilya and Sonia had taught me some ahead of time. Ilya still makes me speak it when he wants to talk to us so that others can't understand what we're saying. It's the only reason I remember any, except now, of course, because I speak it with you.'

'Why is Doroskayev trying to find us?'

'To kill Ilya.' Yuri grinned. 'Can you blame him?'

'And if he kills Ilya?'

' 'Then all the tribes go back to warring among themselves like they did when Ilya was a child. And the khaja move farther out onto the plains each spring. You see, in the long ago days, before the rhan-the tribes-had horses,