He drew away. Slowly, reluctantly, he relinquished his grip on her.
She spun away from him and ran. When she reached the little room the priests had given her, she flung herself on the bed and wept. Her throat still tingled where he had kissed her. Finally she fell into an uneasy sleep filled with vivid dreams in which Ilya Bakhtiian played all too large a part.
In the morning, as she walked down the hall before breakfast, he came out from a side hall. They both stopped.
'Forgive me.' He looked pale and tired and subdued.
'It was no better than treachery, and I was wrong to force myself on you in that fashion when you were ignorant of the consequences. I cannot withdraw myself as your husband, not now, but I will no longer trouble you.'
He bowed, as courtiers bowed in Jeds to the Prince, and limped away, leaving her to stare after him. She walked on in a daze to the eating hall. Yuri waved at her from his seat beside Mikhal. Kirill was sitting across from them, looking pale himself. She hesitated and then sat down beside Kirill and surveyed Yuri and Mikhal wearily.
'I thank you for your support last night.'
'But Tess-' Yuri began.
'Spare me, please. Did Niko kick you or something?' Yuri flushed. 'Well, it didn't work.' She did not look at Kirill, but she felt him shift beside her. 'I slept alone. Gods, I'm not even hungry. Excuse me.' She rose.
'Do you want company?' asked Kirill in a low voice.
Mikhal began to object, but Yuri silenced him with a hand on his sleeve.
'If I wanted anyone's company, it would be yours, Kirill, but no, I-' She hesitated, seeing the Chapalii rise en masse and politely thank Mother Avdotya and then file out the door. She ought to go with them but she was not entirely sure it would be safe to go alone. She glanced at Kirill. His color was a little high but he looked composed and remarkably calm. Could she ask him to escort her? Would it be asking him to betray his loyalty to Bakhtiian? What if Cha Ishii took a jaran presence to mean that Bakhtiian was supporting her and not him and reneged on the payment for this journey? Whatever love existed between her and Kirill, his place in Bakhtiian's jahar was of far more value to him than her convenience.
'If you're going to spy on the khepellis,' Kirill said suddenly, 'then one of the jahar ought to go with you to make sure you don't do anything foolish enough to antagonize them. We can't afford to lose those horses, after all.'
'I'll go,' said Yuri. 'No, I think you're right, Kirill, but I think Ilya would elect to send someone other than you.'
'Bakhtiian knows the worth of my loyalty to him.'
'I'm leaving,' said Tess, and did so. Kirill caught up with her outside. 'How was that settled?' she asked.
'I reminded Yuri that I am his senior and twice the scout he is as well.'
'That was low of you.'
'But true nevertheless. Tess, if you want to follow the pilgrims, they went that way not this way.'
'Oh.' She laughed. 'Very lowering to think that Yuri is twice the scout I am. Yes, there they are. Cha Ishii.'
Cha Ishii stopped, but he made a fleeting sign with his hand and the others went on while he waited. They vanished around a corner, leaving Tess to face him alone. Kirill stood silently at her back.
'Lady Terese.' He bowed. She glanced at his belt and saw that he was not wearing his knife.
Dumb, my girl, that is what we play now. 'The shrine is indeed beautiful, Cha Ishii,' she continued in court Chapalii, 'but I do not understand why you came so far under such brutal conditions merely to survey such an alien place.' Humans had necessarily to learn to speak the language of their emperor but few had occasion or opportunity to master the complex symbology that made up the written tongue and governed the decorative arts. Few understood how interrelated they were. Perhaps he would actually believe she did not recognize this place as Chapalii.
Pink spread up his cheeks. 'You could not be expected to, Lady Terese, though you had already discerned that we were not priests.' He placed his hands in that arrangement known as Lord's Supplication. 'If I may be allowed to acquaint you with our work?' She nodded, and he turned and conducted her into the most opulent sections of the palace. Kirill trailed three steps behind them. Ishii ignored him as thoroughly as he would ignore one of his own stewards. 'We are, in fact, archaeologists.' Color shifted in subtle patterns on his face.
'Indeed! Archaeologists. Why masquerade as priests, then?'
He clasped his hands behind his back. 'In the Earth form I believe this word translates as 'the study of antiquity,' and it therefore demands some perspective of time and culture which these people cannot possess, being of a more primitive stamp. To their understanding, a religious expedition is comprehensible and not so far removed that our activities in systematic measurement cannot be construed as a form of worship.'
'I understand your concern, but surely, Cha Ishii, you might have applied to the duke for permission to conduct your study.' She smiled, enjoying this fencing, and glanced back at Kirill. He returned her gaze blandly since he could not understand a word they were saying.
'This did precipitate embarrassment, Lady Terese. It was deemed necessary to continue our investigations in secret because we feared that your brother would forbid the expedition.'
'Was there such a pressing need to continue it?'
He directed her along a whitewashed hallway and thence into a magnificent salon decorated with a tile pattern on floor and ceiling and walls that, seeming to repeat, never quite repeated itself. ' 'We have been investigating the relics of this particular civilization for many years now.''
'On this planet?'
'No, indeed, Lady Terese. This is a star-faring civilization which predates our current Empire. We were greatly surprised to find traces of it here.'
I'll just bet you were, she thought. This confession rang truer than anything he had ever told her before. They must have been dismayed to find relics of Chapalii provenance here on the planet of the human duke who, of all their enemies, would surely use any information he acquired against them. 'I am intrigued. Perhaps you can enlighten me further.'
Whether he believed that she had been misled by these confidences or whether he tacitly agreed to continue their little fencing match she could not be sure. Perhaps he hoped for the best. In any case, he began a vague discourse on the supposed attributes and history of this civilization, all of which sounded plausible, none of which sounded too betrayingly Chapalii. But it was when they were standing under the dome, staring upward, that Ishii said unexpectedly:
'You were right to wonder why I would conduct an expedition that my rank and birth ought to render repulsive to me. If my father's father had not precipitously died, leaving his affairs in the hands of his wife for one year before his heir could return to take things into order- There were grave losses. Our family was inevitably and immediately cast down from the status we had so long held. What could we expect, having left to us only five estates and two merchant fleets? And I, younger son of the youngest son-' Was there a trace of wry humor in his words? She could not tell. '-was chosen to accept this task. Much will be restored to us, Lady Terese. You see that I could not refuse my duty.'
'Indeed, I see,' replied Tess, quite shocked. They went on as if he had said nothing.
Coming out into a little courtyard of slender pillars engulfed in green vines, she saw a lone Chapalii disappear into the garden. Ishii was looking at the palace, examining some design on the wall, and had not seen him.
'I will walk alone now,' said Tess, dismissing him. She waited for him to retreat inside. 'Which way did he go, Kirill?' she asked in khush as soon as Ishii was gone.
'What, the other one? This way.'
He led her into the garden. It was a clear day for autumn. A breeze cooled her cheeks, stirring the ends of her braided hair. He stopped on the edge of a grassy sward and gestured to a little fountain burbling merrily on the other side, up against a fringe of trees. Hon Garii stood there alone, one hand in the water.
'Stay here,' said Tess in an undertone. She marched across the grass.
Garii turned. He flushed pink and bowed deeply. 'Lady Terese.'
'Hon Garii. We have created certain obligations between us. Is this not true?'
'You honor me with your acknowledgment, Lady Terese. I alone rashly instigated these obligations. That you have chosen to indulge me in this matter reflects only credit to you.'
