Ilyana came to hang on his other arm. 'Are you going to stay, father? Or are you going away again?'
'Hush, Yana,' said Karolla.
'No, it's all right. I have every intention of staying.' Karolla bit at her lower lip, and Vasil could see that it was only with an immense effort that she refrained from bursting into tears. 'But where is my cousin Arina? She is etsana now, is she not? I must have her permission to enter camp, surely.'
'Rather late to get that,' said a cool voice behind him.
He spun, and was shocked to see his little cousin Arina looking very composed and at her ease, and prettier than he had ever seen her. She held herself with surprising authority, and next to her stood a man Vasil recognized instantly.
'I am happy to see you, cousin,' said Arina formally, 'and I am pleased to receive you back into the tribe. This is my husband, Kirill Zvertkov. But I'm sure you know each other.''
Zvertkov was a good-looking man, fair-haired, but his appearance was hopelessly marred by one lifeless arm that hung loose at his side, as if it were, like an ill-made saber, a mere dead appendage. In his other, his good, arm, he held a tiny baby, and a child somewhat younger than Valentin peeked out shyly from behind his legs.
'No longer riding with Bakhtiian?' Vasil asked, but smoothly and without glancing at the useless arm.
'No, I am an etsana's husband now,' replied Zvertkov, with a touch of ironic pride. Vasil did not recall that Zvertkov's family had ever had high enough standing that Kirill could have expected to marry so well-but perhaps there was more to it than that. So often there was. 'And I have other duties as well.'
Arina smiled, not disguising her pride in her husband. 'Many young men come here to train, to find places in the army, and Kirill is in charge of all of them. He oversees their fighting and what jahar they are assigned to. Since Kerchaniia Bakhalo died, Bakhtiian gave the entire command into Kirill's hands.'
One of which was withered and curled up into a clawlike loose fist. 'I see you have done well, then,' said Vasil kindly, wondering how important Zvertkov was to Bakhtiian.
'If I may?' asked Kirill, looking at his wife.
She nodded. Kirill motioned to Vasil and led him aside. A moment later Anton joined them. The baby whimpered and Kirill shifted it deftly in his arm, and it quieted. Behind them, Arina ruthlessly dispersed the crowd. Karolla, with stunning aplomb, went back to her spinning. Yana trailed after the men, loitering just far enough from them that they would have no reason to shoo her away. Her face was bright with joy. A gorgeous child, she was, prettier than her brother, but only because his features were blemished by his fretful, sullen expression.
'Well, Vasil,' said Zvertkov. 'I'm surprised to see you.'
'I heard my father died.'
'It's true, but quite a while back. Don't think, Veselov, that I don't have a good idea of why you've really come back.'
Vasil blinked innocently. 'Why is that?'
Zvertkov smiled mockingly. 'I don't think it's anything we need talk of publicly, do you?'' Vasil recalled him as a young and rather foolish man, the kind of overgrown boy who attaches himself to a powerful man out of love and loyalty without having much personality himself. He revised this estimate quickly. Kirill Zvertkov had evidently become a rather more formidable man since they'd last met, and not just because he was now an etsana's husband. 'Personally, I'd as soon you were gone for good, meaning no offense to your person, of course. But Karolla has missed you bitterly.' He glanced to one side. 'As has little Yana there, and for their sake, I'll counsel my wife to let you stay.''
Vasil laughed. 'I think Arina loves me rather more than you realize.'
'I am sure she does, and if this were the times before, I would not be talking to you now. But it isn't. Bakhtiian has changed everything we are.'
' 'Is that why I see khaja weapons in camp?''
'You can't take cities on horseback, Veselov. We have learned that, and other things. We're going to conquer the khaja lands, as the gods have meant us to all along, and nothing will interfere with that. Especially not you.'
'What is this, Kirill? Don't forget I knew you when you were young. I always thought your infatuation with Ilya was only a boy's admiration for a stronger man-well, but perhaps I was wrong.'
Kirill's lips tightened, and he shifted. The baby mewled. 'I don't think you have any power over him anymore, Vasil. Perhaps you've forgotten that he is married.'
'I have never forgotten it,' said Vasil softly. 'But what makes you think I returned because of Bakhtiian? I, too, have married. And now that my father is dead, I am dyan by right.''
Now Kirill was startled. 'What? Anton-'
Anton shrugged. 'What's past is past, Kirill. It's true enough that Vasil is the proper dyan.'
And since it was true, Kirill did not reply.
Vasil smiled and nodded. 'Excuse me,' he said. 'My daughter is waiting.' The moment he turned away from them, Yana dashed across to grab his arm. Clearly she did not mean to let go, but the weight did not distress Vasil. He kissed her on the brow and mussed her golden hair, and let her lead him back to his wife's tent where Karolla waited, patient, solemn, and just as desperately in love with him as she had been from the very first, when he had marked her in order to make her father, Dmitri Mikhailov, take him into his jahar. He sat down beside her as if he had never been gone and helped her wind yarn.
When Vasil woke the next morning, he could hear Karolla singing softly to herself outside as she went about her work. Occasionally she broke off her song to speak to one of the children, or to someone passing by, and Vasil marveled at how sweet and pleasant her voice was, as if all the beauty had been poured into it instead of into her face.
'Mama, can I go in and wake him up?'
'Yes. Tell him that Arina said that the scouts for the main army have already ridden by.''
Vasil was half-dressed in the clothes Karolla had laid out for him by the time Yana got all the way back to the sleeping alcove. 'Oh,' she said, almost disappointed, ''you're already awake.''
He kissed her on each cheek. 'Not truly awake until I'd seen your sweet face, little one.' She beamed. 'Here, hand me my saber, will you?' She shyly held it out to him. 'Come, take my hand and we'll go outside.'
Outside, he greeted Karolla by kissing both of her palms and then by offering to go fetch water. 'No, no.' She shook her head. 'Yana will go with the other girls. You'd better go see Anton and Kirill. The vanguard of the army will be coming by soon. I don't know-Vasil.' She hesitated.
Vasil kissed Yana on the forehead and sent her off to her chores. 'Karolla, you must never hesitate to tell me what you think. I would be a poor husband if I did not listen to my wife's wisdom.'
She blushed with pleasure. 'Vasil, if it is your dearest wish to become dyan, then I will support you. Although I have little standing in this tribe-Arina was very generous to take me in at all, and everything I have here I owe to her. I can't go back to my mother's tribe. Not now.''
'All the more reason, then, that I become dyan. I don't intend that my wife and children live beholden to others. Once I am dyan, then you are by right a member of this tribe, and you will not be here only on Arina's sufferance.'
'Arina has been kind. You must not think she has ever treated us badly.'
'What about my sister? I haven't even seen her.'
Karolla returned her attention to the copper pot she was scouring clean. 'Vera disgraced herself. You must know that.'
'Since she did what she did at my bidding, I can hardly consider her fairly treated.'
Karolla looked up, angry. ' 'She betrayed her own tribe.
She violated the sanctity of the camp. It is true that I left my mother and my aunts, but I never betrayed them. What you did-trying to kill Bakhtiian-well, you did that at Mikhailov's bidding.'
'Is that what people say?'
Karolla shrugged. 'I have long since given up listening to what people say. But if you go to see Anton, you'll see Vera. She serves the Telyegin family now.' She glanced away, looking shamed. 'Valentin is there.'
'Yes, I had noticed that he wasn't here.'
'Don't be angry with him, Vasil. It was a shock, to have you come back so suddenly. He was so young when you left.'
Vasil kissed her on her hair and straightened his saber. 'How could I be angry with him, Karolla? He will come
