placid expression, but he guessed from the tilt of her chin that she was annoyed. 'He doesn't hear ghosts. He only sees them. What you hear might help us.'
When he only looked at her, she continued as she would to a particularly slow slave child who needed each least task explained at length several times over. 'Help us. From the ghosts you can learn of any danger that might be ahead… learn the customs of the Hundred
… Shai! The ghosts can teach us, warn us, even if they don't mean to. If we know more, we'll do better in our new life, don't you think?'
'You don't understand ghosts, Mai. They only talk about the past. What lies in the future no longer exists. That's why they're ghosts.'
Which was why ghosts were often boring, as these were, bawling and bleating like so many discontented sheep:
Captain Beron! You betrayed us, you sheep-tupping son of a bitch!
I didn't mean to eat that rabbit. It isn't fair I was exiled for such a little thing! Forced to live the osprey life. I never wanted it! Why won't you forgive me? Why can't I go home?
I hate you! I hate all of you! Piss on you all!
'One thing, though,' he said, because he found it so curious that he had to share with Mai. 'You know how the arkinga here sounds so strange.'
'They speak it wrong,' she agreed. 'Sometimes I can't understand them.'
'I don't notice it so much with the ghosts.'
'Maybe ghosts only speak the language of the dead. What are they saying?'
The only way to be rid of her questions was for the company to start moving, and the caravan wasn't ready. He'd never seen people slower to get moving in his life! The Qin stood beside their horses, not by a whisker betraying they might be impatient to go.
'Some person named Captain Beron betrayed them. Don't eat rabbit meat-it'll get you exiled. Now I don't want to talk about it anymore. How can I know it's safe here? In the empire, they burn those who believe in the Merciful One. What would they do with me?' When he spoke of the empire, he remembered how that Beltak priest had imprisoned the essence of a ghost, trapping it forever within a simple wooden bowl.
She touched his arm. 'Are you all right, Shai? You're pale.'
He looked around to make sure no one was within earshot. Mai's slave women were busying themselves by the cart Mai had obtained south of the pass through some clever trading of silks and woolens given to her as a wedding gift by Commander Beje.
'Can't you see? I've seen so many ghosts. I don't want to become one myself by speaking when I should have remained silent!'
Her expression softened. 'I'm sorry. Of course you've had to keep it secret all your life in Kartu. I can see why you would still be anxious.'
It was almost worse when she gazed at him with sincere concern. 'How do we really know it's safe here?' he demanded. 'Captain Anji made common cause with that eagle rider awfully quickly.'
She shrugged. 'Sometimes you have to know when to leap. Anyway, he liked him.'
Abruptly, many of the horses whinnied and startled and shied. The big eagle landed with a whomp in the clear zone. The reeve fastened himself into his harness, and the eagle launched itself skyward with a mighty thrust of legs and wings whose strength and majesty brought tears of admiration to Shai's eyes. Mai touched fingers to heart, her gaze open with awe. They both followed the raptor's flight until it vanished away over the trees.
Chief Tuvi called out and, when he had their attention, waved merrily at them and signaled toward the horses.
'We're leaving!' Shai said with relief. He wiped his eyes and went to join the ranks.
The angry ghosts did not follow as the caravan trundled out the northern gate. But they hadn't ridden more than a few lengths when Shai saw an almost transparent wisp trudging along the road, a whipcord man-shape who had such an antique look about him-as though he had lingered in this spot for a hundred years-that Shai actually stared, wondering who this ghost was and where it came from. He had a strange idea that he had seen that face recently, but he couldn't place it. The ghost did not even look at him. As he turned in the saddle to watch it fall behind, it reached a broad stone placed beside the road like a marker, and vanished.
29
For the first three days after leaving Dast Korumbos, they traveled through heavily wooded hills, and although the road bent here to the left and there to the right and at intervals hit steep upward inclines as they climbed out of a valley, on the whole they headed northeast and downslope until Mai thought her tailbone would never stop aching. The Qin never tired or ached, so she refused to complain and had Priya massage her in the evening.
'Sheyshi should massage you, and you should massage Sheyshi.' She lay on her stomach, with her head turned sideways so she could see with one eye. Her hair was caught up against her head, tendrils fallen free along her neck. 'You must ache, too.'
Priya smiled as she rubbed Mai's buttocks. 'This is an easy life, compared to what came before.'
'I wish I was a horse,' Sheyshi whispered. She only ever whispered.
'Why do you wish you were a horse?' Mai asked. 'Oh. Ah! Yes, right there!'
Sheyshi did not answer. She was the most reserved person Mai had ever met, closemouthed, not at all confiding.
'Horses are free,' said Priya.
'Sheyshi, do you wish you were free?' Mai asked. 'When we have found a place to live, I'll make sure you can earn extra zastras-or whatever they use here-to earn money toward your manumission. That's perfectly fair. Commander Beje gave me your bill of sale. That amount is what you must earn to buy your freedom.'
The girl colored, stared at her hands, then lifted her gaze to look at Mai as daringly as she ever had. 'I would like to be free,' she whispered. 'But that isn't what I meant. I dream sometimes about things. I dreamed I was a horse, running over the grass. It felt-it felt-' But after all, that was too much confiding! Sheyshi squeezed shut her mouth, twisted her hands and, to make herself busy, offered Priya more oil for the massage even though Priya's hands were moist and Mai's flanks smoothly coated.
Priya chuckled. 'Were you a mare, or a stallion? I've wondered, sometimes, how it might feel to be a stallion-man or horse-and have such a-'
'Oh, stop teasing her!' Mai scolded, because the girl looked miserable. Or maybe not. Commander Beje had implied that the girl slept in the bed with his chief wife and that there was play between them. 'Are you lonely, Sheyshi?'
Sheyshi wore a green silk cap from which hung shoulder-length streamers, some of green silk, some of gold and white beads, and one woven out of supple wire. Normally the arrangement left her face exposed, but with her head bowed the streamers concealed her expression.
'Hard to come by right now,' said Priya as she rubbed, 'but I can make sheaths out of sheep gut if you're wanting comfort with a man without catching a child in your sack.'
Mai chuckled. 'You made me no such offer, Priya! A sheep-gut sheath for a man's sword!'
'You are freeborn, and now a wife. You must get a child as soon as you can.' She paused with a hand resting on the gentle curve of Mai's lower back. 'Perhaps…'
'It's too early,' said Mai, suddenly frightened. 'Don't say anything.'
Priya began kneading again as if nothing had been said. 'I will pray to the Merciful One that you are blessed with seven sons, and three daughters.'
It was good to change the subject. 'How can it be, if there are always seven sons but only three daughters, that all the sons can get married? In Kartu, the clan banner goes only to the eldest son. But all my uncles got wives-well, except for Uncle Shai, and Uncle Hari, and Uncle Girish.' She shuddered, remembering Girish. He'd paved his own path to the deepest hell.
'Priests and soldiers need not marry,' said Priya. 'This way we always have plenty of them.'
'Ow! Ow! No, don't stop! Right there!' She groaned in blissful pain. 'Yes, right there! It hurts!' Priya worked in
