Jaran

Jeds?'

'How dare you. Whatever you may think of me, I have honor.'

'Do you mean that it would be wrong to deceive me into marrying you to gain what I possess but not wrong to deceive me in order to-to what? To humiliate me by forcing me to become your wife?'

'To humiliate you?'

'I suppose you thought I'd be flattered.'

He looked as if she had just slapped him. 'Yes,' he said hoarsely, 'and why shouldn't I have thought that? How many women do you suppose wish they were standing where you are now?'

'If so many women want you, then why didn't you pick one of them?'

'Because I wanted you. '

Tess went white. Said so baldly, the words terrified her. 'It's all war to you, isn't it? You only wanted me because you thought I was something you couldn't have.'

Silence fell between them. 'I have heard enough,' he said in a low, unsteady voice.

'You're afraid to hear any more.' She walked past him to the far corner, her head held high, knowing that she could have said nothing that would have hurt him more. Where had she gained such knowledge of him? A single drop of damp slid from one eye down along her nose to dissolve on her lips. She sat down on a bench and stared into the corner, determined to wait in stony and forbidding silence.

A moment later she heard voices. The door opened and a rush of feet and conversation entered.

'Well,' said Kirill's voice above the rest. 'It's certainly cold in here.'

Tess brushed at her face with the back of one hand, stood and turned. Before anything, she noticed the distance between them-Bakhtiian still by the window, she in the corner farthest from him. No words could have spoken so clearly.

'Tess, what you are wearing?' Yuri asked, walking across the hall to her. Mikhal and Kirill followed him, leaving their four companions-the youngest of the jahar riders-by the door. The rest of the jahar was evidently elsewhere. 'You haven't given yourself into the service of the gods, have you?'

Her cheeks felt hot. 'No, I haven't. One of the priestesses lent this to me while my clothes dry.' She kept her gaze fastened on Yuri, afraid to look at the others, at Bakhtiian, especially afraid to look at Kirill. 'They have hot springs here.'

'Hot springs!' Mikhal stepped up beside Yuri, and by doing so the two men-her brother and her brother-in- law-made almost a barrier between her and Kirill. 'Are all of us welcome to use them?'

Kirill chuckled and merely spoke to her over their shoulders. 'My heart, whatever did he do?'

'How long ago did you get here?' asked Yuri suddenly.

'Yesterday.'

'You can't have, Tess. You can't possibly have ridden fast enough to swing all the way around west and not even Ilya would be mad enough to risk that impossible trail at night, down the west slope.''

'The west slope? But we came-' She stopped dead. What an idiot she was. There must be another path, the usual path, that led down into the valley.

A swift, almost imperceptible glance passed between Yuri and Mikhal. 'The Avenue,' muttered Mikhal.

'When did you get here?' asked Kirill, his face pale.

Tess sat down on the bench.

Kirill pushed past Yuri and Mikhal and rested his hands on the table, staring at her. 'It's true, isn't it? You came at sunset.'

'Kirill,' said Yuri in an undertone. By the door, Konstans and Petre and Mitenka and Nikita whispered together, watching them. Mikhal had turned to stare at Bakhtiian. Ilya seemed frozen by the window, his back to them all. 'Kirill,' Yuri repeated. 'Don't make a fool of yourself.'

'Did you come willingly?' Kirill asked in an undertone. He did not move. 'Ought I to wish you happy?'

Tess stood up. 'You have no right, Kirill, to play out whatever old grudge you have against Bakhtiian over me. You have no right to question me in that tone. I thought you were different from him. ' As she spoke, she saw-felt- Ilya move, like a shadow along the wall, noiseless as he limped toward the door. The young men moved aside uneasily to let him pass. 'No, I didn't go willingly. No, you ought not to wish me happy. But it was done. There, does that satisfy you?'

Kirill went red and then white again and pulled back from the table. 'Forgive me. I never meant-' He faltered.

'I know,' she said, softening. 'You should have heard what I said.'

He grinned. 'By the gods, I wish I had. I haven't seen Ilya look that chastened since that day seven years ago when his aunt-'

'Kirill!' said Yuri.

'Well, never mind.' His face changed expression suddenly. 'But that means he's your husband.'

'Yes. We had just finished discussing that interesting fact when you came in.' But she saw by his face that he was connecting 'husband' with 'sunset' and leading them together to 'night' and drawing a conclusion which he did not like at all. 'Yes,' she added, feeling a certain malicious satisfaction in allowing herself to pass on this one piece of information, 'he spent all night kneeling outside by the great doors. Or so I was told.'

Kirill smiled, but it was the ghost of his usual smile, more show than feeling. 'I hope his knee hurts like fire today,' he said with vindictiveness that was unusual for him.

'Come on, Kirill,' said Mikhal abruptly. 'Let's go see about those hot springs.' He grabbed Kirill by the arm and dragged him away to the others and herded them all out.

Leaving her and Yuri. 'Well?' Yuri asked.

'Well, what? Thank God I'm going back to Jeds.'

'It really is true?'

'Yes. You warned me, Yuri, and I didn't listen. I never thought that he would go this far. I didn't even know until it was too late.'

'He didn't tell you, did he? Gods!' He laughed. 'Oh, I beg your pardon, Tess, but how like him to never give up that kind of advantage. Of course he wouldn't have told you, not until he was sure of his victory.''

'An appropriate choice of words. He didn't tell me at all. Mother Avdotya told me about the Law of the Avenue, and what it means. I could have been killed!'

'Killed!' He hugged her. 'What do you mean?'

She explained.

He pushed back to look at her. 'Gods, you must be angry.'

'Do you know, that's the funny thing. He really was sorry for that. It must have reminded him of his family. The one thing he thinks he did wrong is the one thing I can forgive him for. I can't believe I really would have died, or that they would have let me die. I don't know. Maybe we're all blind that way about our own deaths.'

'Then you're not too angry with him? You are his wife now, after all.'

Tess smiled sweetly. 'I'm not angry with him, Yurinya. I'd happily kill him. But it wouldn't do any good, would it? He'd just come back to plague me in his next life. No, I'm furious. I just wish I had a better vocabulary because I can't think of any words bad enough in any of the languages I know that would truly express what I would like to call him.'

Yuri whistled. 'You are mad, aren't you? Khaja mud snuffler?'

'No, that's not comprehensive enough. There might be a few phrases in Chapalii-oh, God, the Chapalii. Where are they?'

'Being shown to their rooms. Why do you ask? They went all sorts of colors in the face, you know, when we came out of the trees and saw the shrine for the first time.'

'I'll bet they did. Damn. Do you trust me?'

'Yes.'

'Then go find out where their rooms are.'

'Tess.' He hesitated. 'My duty to Ilya…'

'No, you're right. I can't ask that of you. I'll have to do this myself.'

'Tess…'

'Yuri, I'm sorry. I have a duty to my brother that must now supersede my duty to your aunt, for gifting me into your tribe. Can you understand that?'