'Then, as Zvertkov says,' replied Grekov, 'we had better ride a ring around Karkand and cut it off from the rest of the country. Then the khaja can starve or surrender.'
Everyone nodded.
'If we take prisoners,' said Vershinin, 'then when we do attack, we can drive them before us as we did at Tashmar-you weren't there, Bakhtiian-up to the walls as the first wave.'
'There are other ways,' said Nadine suddenly, 'to break a siege. The Prince of Jeds has an engineer with him who knows many tricks. I expect the prince's woman soldier Ursula el Kawakami does as well.'
'What kind of tricks?' asked Bakhtiian.
'Well, if we can make the walls collapse, then they can't protect the khaja army, can they?'
'I will think on this,' said Ilya. 'Meanwhile,' he glanced up to survey the council, 'as you say, Sakhalin ought to ride south to Salkh, once I arrive at Karkand, and Grekov, Vershinin, you will double your jahars in numbers and ride on west, to the cities beyond Karkand. Nadine.' He tapped a finger on her maps, but northward, now, at the edge where the Farisa city lay, the one the Habakar general had himself burned, at the northeastern boundary of Habakar lands where they bordered the plains. 'You will return to Morava, to escort the Prince of Jeds back to me.'
'Uncle!' Ah, but she looked angry.
'That would be best,' said Mother Sakhalin smoothly, 'since her husband is there.' Everyone knew what she meant: that it was long past time for Nadine to start having babies.
Nadine rarely sat still. She did so now, but it was a stillness brought on by fury, not by peace. 'Uncle, what if the prince has already left Morava?'
'You rode the same route, there and back, both you and Feodor Grekov. You will go.' He set his hands, palms down and open, on his knees, and surveyed the council. 'So will it be.'
Rather than reply, Nadine made a great business of rolling up her maps. She was angry, but what could she do? Bakhtiian had spoken. She rose, excused herself, and left. Bakhtiian rose to follow her. The council, dismissed, broke up into a dozen disparate groups to gossip and stretch their legs. Kirill came by to speak for a few moments in a low voice to Tess; then he strode away into the lowering twilight.
Tess leaned back. 'Aleksi, Cara wanted to see you.'
'To see me?'
'About-don't you remember?' She dropped her voice to a whisper. 'As you watched her do with me. She wants to look into your body with her machines. To-to map it.'
Aleksi remembered. He wasn't sure whether to feel honored or nervous, but Tess wished him to do this, so he would. 'I'll go,' he said, not one to hesitate once he had made a decision. He kissed her on the cheek, bade farewell to Josef Raevsky, and went on his way. Passing between his tent and Tess's on his way to the hospital encampment, he heard Bakhtiian and Nadine arguing in Rhuian just out of sight behind Tess's great tent. He paused to listen.
'What right has she to interfere?' Nadine demanded, sounding quite intemperate. 'I know she convinced Feodor to mark me. He would never have done it otherwise. He would never have had the nerve.'
'Yes, and faced with the prospect of being married to you in this temper, Dina, can you blame him? In any case, you know very well what right she has to interfere. She is Mother of all the tribes.'
'Yes, but we've been to Jeds. We're not bound by useless jaran customs. You and I should know better-'
'Listen to me, young woman. I know better, and I know that for all that I learned in Jeds, for all the knowledge that lies in these khaja universities, we jaran are stronger because of what we are and because of how we live. The khaja can't stand against us. They will never be able to. So the gods have gifted us. Would you like to have married in Jeds, instead?'
A fulminating silence. 'You know very well how they treat women in khaja lands.'
'Yes, I do.'
'I don't want to marry at all. I want to ride.'
'Then ride. You are already married, Dina. The nine days have passed.'
'I wasn't in seclusion.'
'That's true. If you wish to go through the ceremony-'
'I don't!'
'Then accept what you must. And you must have children. You know it as well as I do.' There was another silence, but this one had more of a despairing edge to it. 'Dina,! have already been advised to remove you from command of your jahar.'
'Who-!'
'None of your business. Listen to me, damn you. You're worse than I was at your age.' That brought a reluctant chuckle from her. 'I won't do it. You're a good commander, and even if you weren't my niece, you would deserve such a command. You will remain a dyan. But there will be times when you can't ride.'
'When I'm pregnant.'
'Yes. Don't you see, Dina? The gods never give out unmixed blessings. They gifted women with the knowledge that is also a mystery, that of bringing children into the world, but knowledge is also a burden.'
'A heavy one, in this case.'
'If you only had a sister to bear children while you rode, then that would be well. But you have none.'
'I want to explore, like the prince's man, Marco Burckhardt, does.' Said stubbornly.
Bakhtiian sighed. 'You have no choice, my niece. You will have children. I order you to. Do you understand?'
'I understand.'
'During such time as you can't leave camp, you will work with Tess. Her work is every bit as important as Yaroslav Sakhalin's.' His voice dropped into a coaxing tone. 'Those maps you made together are very fine.'
'Thank you.' Was there a slightly warmer edge to her voice? Was she melting. 'Praise from Bakhtiian is as a blessing from the gods themselves-'
'Stop that! Don't mock me!'
'Uncle… I didn't mean… I only meant…' She faltered. Aleksi was amazed to hear her sound chastened.
'Never show such disrespect for the gods. You should know better, you who only by the gods' grace are alive today, when everyone else in our family died.'
'My father didn't die. You didn't die.'
'Go,' said Bakhtiian.
Aleksi heard Nadine take in a breath to say something. Instead, she said nothing, and a moment later he saw her emerge from behind the tent and stride away out into camp, which he thought showed great wisdom on her part.
'Aleksi,' said Bakhtiian, sounding no less curt. Aleksi started, and then walked around the corner to face Bakhtiian. Ilya turned from looking out after his niece to glare at Aleksi, and Aleksi wondered abruptly how many times he had been saved from a lecture-or worse-from Bakhtiian because of Tess's implicit protection. 'I don't like it,' Ilya said, and Aleksi knew that he meant Aleksi's habit of listening in. 'Do it to others if you will. Don't do — it to me.'
'I beg your pardon,' said Aleksi. 'An incurable habit from my youth. It saved my life more than once.'
'No doubt,' replied Bakhtiian. Aleksi could not tell whether he meant the comment to express sympathy or censure. 'Nevertheless, not to me.'
'I understand and obey, Bakhtiian.' He bowed, as they did in Jeds; Tess had taught him how to do it.
'Go,' said Bakhtiian, but the word wasn't as terse as it had been when he had ordered Nadine to leave. He might even have been amused.
Aleksi escaped and, whistling under his breath, he considered the world while he made his way to the doctor's tent. He decided that the world was a strange place, stranger than any one person ever might suspect, knowing only what she knew from the narrow path she rode through it. Aleksi felt sometimes that he himself rode more than one path, that there were two, or three or four of him, each scouting a different path, each in constant communication, as though belled messengers raced between the routes carrying intelligence from one to the next. And once you saw the world from three, or five, different roads, the view was never the same. The map changed and altered, and its details became more accurate. The landmarks receded or grew, depending on the angle from which you observed them, and at once, there might be an escarpment from which the astonished traveler would rendezvous with her selves and could suddenly comprehend the land as it truly was.
