Bakhtiian nodded. He gestured to the khaja prisoners. 'These four khaja soldiers are engineers. This woman is our interpreter. Ursula you know, of course. I hope you will be able to contribute to our discussion.'
'I… You understand, of course, that I'm subject to the prince. I must first have his permission to… to contribute anything.' There, it was said.
Bakhtiian measured him, not without sympathy. 'I understand.' No doubt he did, on one level. After all, his army didn't share its secrets with its enemies either. 'But today should give you ample time to observe.'
They rode on, out to survey the walls of Karkand.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Sitting on the edge of the platform as day slid into evening, Diana unplaited her hair and combed her fingers through it. The Evening Star-which of the planets was it? she never could remember-pierced the darkening blue of the sky, and one by one other stars appeared. Rehearsal had tired her today, but she never minded that; it was a satisfying sort of fatigue.
'Di!' Quinn jogged up, breathless with excitement, and grabbed her hand. 'Come with me!' Quinn yanked her forward, and Diana laughed and went with her to the Company tent.
'Look!' Quinn pointed. At first Diana only saw Owen, speaking quietly with Dejhuti and Seshat and Yomi. Joseph wandered up. Ginny arrived, notebook in one hand, pen in the other. Phillippe helped Anahita to a chair. Helen and Jean-Pierre gossiped with Gwyn over on the other side. Oriana stood in the entrance to the huge tent, half-hidden in its shadow.
'Am I missing something?' asked Hal, walking up beside Diana and Quinn. 'Everyone's here.'
'Except Hyacinth,' murmured Diana. Then she spotted two figures crossing toward them from the main camp. At first the dusk disguised them, but then they emerged into the glow of the lanterns fixed at intervals around the camp.
Quinn squeezed Diana's hand. 'Look, here comes the duke.'
' 'With his eyes full of anger,' replied Diana automatically.
Quinn rolled her eyes. 'Are you quoting again?'
'That's As You Like It, you idiot.'
'It may be, but unlike you, I don't retain entire plays in my memory for years at a time.'
'Charles!' exclaimed Ginny. 'How good to see you again. Hello, Marco. Did you just ride in? This afternoon? You made good time. Though I must say, you look none the worse for the wear.'
With one thought, Diana and Quinn and Hal sidled closer toward the center of the scene.
'I don't suppose,' said Yomi quietly, 'that you have any news of Hyacinth, poor lad.'
'In fact, I do.'
He told them. The entire Company listened intently. Diana found her attention straying to Marco, who stood silently beside Soerensen. He glanced once at her and away as quickly, an exchange that reminded her incongruously of jaran men. Except that he looked nothing like jaran men. By League standards he was not a particularly tall man, but here his height and the breadth of his shoulders marked him as big.
'Thank goodness Hyacinth is safe,' said Ginny at last. 'I suppose that under the circumstances you couldn't have brought him back.'
'No. I thought it best to simply remove him and his companion from Rhui altogether.'
Owen sighed. 'Which still leaves us one actor short. Well, we've managed so far, by the skin of our teeth.'
'Remember, too,' added Soerensen in his mild voice, 'that we'll be leaving soon.'
'Leaving soon!' Anahita roused herself, straightening up in her chair. 'Thank goodness. I wish I'd gone with Hyacinth. I'd be quit of here now.'
There was a short, embarrassed silence which Soerensen covered by going on. 'Autumn's coming on. In order to maintain the charade, we must return to a port before ships stop sailing for the winter. Or else winter here, which I've no leisure to do.'
'What about your sister?' asked Ginny.
'In any case,' added Soerensen, 'we might be leaving anytime within the next two or ten weeks, and possibly abruptly. Just so you can be prepared.'
'Excuse me,' said Diana in a low voice to Quinn and
Hal, and she escaped the assembly. She wandered back to her own tent and simply stood there, outside, staring at nothing. Two weeks, or ten weeks. What if they left before Anatoly returned? What if she never saw Anatoly again? She shivered. After the long hot nights of the summer, she had forgotten that it could get cold at night. But the season did turn, eventually; eventually, the year turned, and what had been young grew old, and what had sprouted fresh and green in the spring withered and died to make way for winter.
'Diana?'
Somehow, it didn't surprise her that Marco had followed her here. 'Hello.' She managed to say it without her voice shaking.
'I beg your pardon, if I'm disturbing you.'
'No. No. I'm just- No, you're not.'
He stood three paces from her. 'I thought- You're well? You look well.'
'Thank you. I'm well. I hope you are, too? I mean, we got a few reports, not much, but- Everything went as you hoped it would?'
'Better. It's nothing I can speak of, right now, but, yes, it went well.'
'No, I understand. Of course, I understand. Was Hyacinth all right?'
'He was traumatized. I think he'll recover.'
'Thank the Goddess for that. He took his jaran lover with him? Well, I don't envy him for that. Neither of them, really.'
A sudden, awkward silence fell. 'You don't-you don't mean to take Anatoly with you, when you go back?' He jerked a hand up, warding off any comment. 'No, I beg your pardon. It's none of my concern.'
'No, don't apologize. Please! Thank you for asking. You don't know what it's like. No one in the Company speaks of him anymore, not to me, at least. It's as if they think I'm embarrassed of him, or that I don't want him mentioned anymore, now that he's gone. And in the jaran camp, why, it's hardly worth mentioning, it's nothing unusual to them.'
'He's gone?' Marco faltered on the question. 'He didn't-'
'Oh, no, he's not dead. At least, I don't think he is. How can a person know, with the communications they have here? He went off months ago-months ago! — and he hasn't come back yet. I don't know when he'll come back. For all I know, we'll leave before he comes back.'
He took a single step toward her, and halted.
'It just doesn't seem fair. And it makes me so damned angry. Why can't I know? How can the women stand to live this way? They could be separated for months, for years! There are tribes out on the plains that haven't seen their riders for years. Although in all fairness, I mink there's some kind of a leave system, that after two or three years serving in the army, a man gets to go back to his tribe for a year. Or something, I'm not sure about the details.' She broke off and felt a flush rise in her cheeks. 'Goddess, I'm sorry. I'm babbling. It just seems like no one else cares. I don't want to bore you.'
'You don't bore me, Diana.'
Diana shut her eyes, wilting under the heat of that simple utterance. He could have said any words, those words, other words, nonsense words, and she would have known what he meant by them. What a stupid little infatuation she had had for him, before. Then he had seemed wild and strong and half a barbarian himself. Oh, the attraction remained. It had never eased. But she desired him as much now because he seemed familiar and safe to her, standing here on die outskirts of a truly barbarian encampment, as because of what he had once represented to her, an adventurer who had wandered in wild landscapes and faced death and fear with equal self-possession. And she was lonely, and she felt alone. She opened her eyes when she felt him take another step. He loomed before her.
