'Sorry, I was under oath. I really am sorry, David.'
Easy for him to say. 'His wife.' David formed the words as if they were alien, and taboo. 'His wife.'
'Go to bed,' said Marco kindly, and left him.
David slept soundly and without dreams, but he woke at dawn. He crept out of Charles's tent into the quiet of their camp. Beyond, the jaran camp was full of life. He went to use the portable and to wash: inside the little tent, beside the commode, he had rigged up a sterilizing and recycling unit for wash water. The water was bitterly cold, and he wandered outside into the cold dawn to pace out the size block he would need to set up the solar minis. How to disguise them? What water source was the jaran camp using? How did they remain supplied? Was this a permanent camp, or did it move?
Ursula el Kawakami came up, looking revoltingly awake at such an early hour.
'What do you think, Ursula?' he asked. 'Do you think this is their permanent camp? Or that they move?''
'Of course they move. 'They commonly feed many flocks of cows, mares, and sheep, for which reason they never stay in one place.' That's Marco Polo. And this can't be the entire army, although I'll get a better sense of their numbers when we tour the camp today. Foodstuffs and fodder for the animals alone would deplete any one area within weeks. Days, perhaps. This is a good site, though. Well chosen. Good grassland for the herds, and a river about half a mile to the south. Can you mock me up a map so I can get an estimate of how close we are to the settled agricultural lands to the south? My sense is that Bakhtiian has control over the western seaports and is consolidating his control over the southern borderlands now.'
David chuckled. 'In other words, I shouldn't build anything permanent here.'
Ursula surveyed the square tent that the actors called The Necessary. 'Certainly I think this is elaborate enough. It isn't as if we're on some kind of safari vacation on Tau Ceti Tierce, after all. This is-'
'— an interdicted planet.' David settled his left hand on the back of his neck and contemplated the ring of canvas tents belonging to Soerensen's party. His four tiny name braids, dangling from the nape of his neck down to brush his shoulder blades, tickled his knuckles. 'Yes, I know. Well, if you'll excuse me…'He escaped from Ursula's uncomfortable presence and walked over to his tent to see if Tess was awake.
She was. She was lying on her stomach with the heels of her palms cushioning her eyes.
'Hello, Tess.' He crawled into the tent and knelt beside her.
'I have a headache,' she said without moving her hands. But her Anglais was precise and clear. 'Where am I?'
'In my tent. Oh, ah, this is David.'
She made a disgusted noise in her throat. 'I know it's David. What am I doing here? Never mind, I know the answer, and I would be churlish not to thank you for taking care of me. I must have made a fool of myself.'
'A bit. Luckily some of the actors were drunk, so you weren't alone. And you were among friends.'
'Thank you. So reassuring.' Tess slid her hands away from her eyes and flinched, even though the only light in the tent came through the open flap. 'Lord, how late is it?'
'It's early. Just after dawn.'
She wiggled out of the bag, pausing to let him unseal it for her, and got herself up on her knees. Considered. 'Well, the damage isn't too bad. My head pounds, but I don't feel sick to my stomach.'
'Small favors. Tess.' He hesitated, wanting to ask her if it was true, and instead sealed up the sleeping pouch and rolled it up into a neat cylinder.
'Plumbing,' said Tess suddenly, not appearing to notice his unease. 'Civilized plumbing. That's what I remember from last night. Where is it?' She clambered out of the tent and stood. David hurried out behind her. 'That's what I miss more than anything. And hot showers. They're remarkably clean, you know, the jaran, and practical about it, but still…'
She went on, but David did not hear her next words. She had her back to her brother's tent. She could not see the little embassy that waited outside Charles's awning. But the embassy could see Tess and David.
Eight people. All jaran. Three soldiers whose faces David recalled from the journey from the coast. The silver-haired man who had been at the healer's conference yesterday. Three women, two young, one elderly. And Bakhtiian.
Who had just seen Tess and David emerge from the same tent.
'What's wrong, David?' Tess asked. She turned.
David was calculating ground. About twenty meters separated Bakhtiian from him. How quickly could a man cover that ground?
'Oh,' said Tess. 'That's right. The tour. Of course you don't want to miss it. Here, wait a minute.' She trotted off to the necessary.
David would have stared after her. He was appalled that she would desert him. But he had to keep his eye on the group. He had to keep his eye on Bakhtiian. A man who practiced summary execution for rape… Perhaps they hadn't noticed. But they had. Of course they had. Even now, while they waited for Charles to come out, different individuals within the group glanced over at him and away. One of the women grinned. But Bakhtiian was not looking at him. Perhaps by some astounding piece of good luck, Bakhtiian had not noticed.
Tess jogged back up to him. 'Are they still there? Oh, good. Come on.' She dragged him over to Charles's tent.
Charles had just come outside, with Cara and Marco, and the actors had gathered in a clump, looking excited. Ursula, Jo, Maggie, and Rajiv waited as well.
'I have brought with me,' Bakhtiian was saying to Charles, 'as many of my people as speak Rhuian, so that we can have sufficient translators. Six in all. That includes Tess, of course. If you prefer to go as a single group, that is acceptable.'
'Did you have another suggestion?' Charles asked politely.
Bakhtiian nodded. 'A large group does not see as much as a small group. If you divide your party into six groups, each to go with a translator, then you can move quietly and with more ease through the camp.'
And by splitting them up, David thought, he could isolate the man he thought had just slept with his wife. He began to wipe his hands on his trousers, realized that would make him look nervous, and stopped. He'd stay in camp-but then he would be isolated, and easy prey.
Next to him, Tess said under her breath: 'He's showing off. He's going to let the jaran charm Charles and the rest of you. Which they'll do, given the chance to meet them as individuals. He'd never do this for any other foreign embassy. Those get full state, to cow them into submission.'
'— and I would be honored to escort you personally,' Bakhtiian finished, still speaking to Charles.
'The honor is mine,' replied Charles smoothly. 'And the others?'
As smoothly, without any fanfare, Bakhtiian transferred his gaze from Charles to David. If a look had the physical edge of a saber, if a wish, an emotion, could manifest instantaneously into an act, then David ben Unbutu would have been dead at that moment. He knew it without a doubt.
Bakhtiian looked away. 'As you wish,' he said graciously to Charles.
'The bastard,' muttered Tess. 'Still trying to keep Charles and me apart. Excuse me, David.' She stalked off to stand next to Charles.
The silver-haired man appeared next to David at the same time Cara Hierakis did. 'I am Nikolai Sibirin,' he said, in serviceable Rhuian. 'We have not been introduced.'
David cast a pleading glance at Cara.
'This is David ben Unbutu,' said Cara, who already seemed on casual terms with this elderly jaran man. 'Niko, I don't know your customs, but I can assure you that Tess was only sleeping in David's tent because she was drunk.'
Niko considered David. 'Whatever mood she may have been in, I do wish you hadn't been so hasty, young man. Still, please allow me to apologize for Ilya's behavior. He thinks he doesn't show his emotions, but he can't help it. Of course he has no right to be angry, so if you humor him, he'll calm down eventually.'
'No right to be angry?' David asked in a small voice.
'But Charles-er, Soerensen-the prince said they are married.'
The old man smiled abruptly. 'Of course. You khaja are barbarians. Sometimes I forget that. Jaran women may lie with whomever they wish. It is none of men's business.'
'But-' David began, utterly confused.
'David,' said Cara in Anglais, 'leave well enough alone.' She turned to Niko. 'I had hoped that you might show
