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  "Which can be no one's fault but his own.' Ritsem Caid dismissed the absent warlord with a flick of his hand. 'Zorat and Litai were paying close attention to the triremes and 1 was pleased to see Sirket sharing his knowledge withthem.'

  At a table on the opposite corner of the carpet, under the gentle supervision of Hinai Redigal, Litai was striving to join in the lively exchanges between Daish Sirket and

  Ritsmen Zorat.

  ' They look as if they're ready to take a turn at a galley's oars.' Kheda managed a smile as he brushed crumbs of nut cake from his emerald tunic, brocaded with the same

  jade avahi flowers as Itrac's gown. His belt was crafted from the finest turtleshell.

  All three youths were wearing tightly fitted sleeveless tunics, albeit of richly embroidered silk. In silks to match their masters, their slaves stood alert for any sign that their service was required.

  You haven't looked in this direction once, Telouet.

  'I wonder what Taisia and Janne Daish are discussing.' Kheda looked towards the far table where his erstwhile wife and the Ritsem warlord's lady were absorbed in conversation.

  'Babies, doubtless,' said Caid fondly.

  Taisia was absently smoothing her rich saffron gown over her barely rounded belly, her rings studded with yellow jasper and her bracelets with polished pebbles of golden chrysolite. Janne Daish wore a dull gentian dress belted with a single gold chain and an unjewelled necklace of twisted gold wire. Plain ivory combs held her greying hair off her face, and with her lips and eyelids no more than glossed with gold, all could see that her years easily equalled Redigal Coron's.

  Because you're no longer first wife of Daish, Janne, just the unwed warlord's mother.

  'They'll be talking trade.' Ritsem Caid reached for a bowl of sliced lilla fruit dusted with crushed sweet-pepper.

  Redigal Coron went to pick the few remaining palm kernels from a dish glutinous with honey then changed his mind, laying down his spoon. 'So, Kheda, are you any closer to deciding which slave you'll lake for your new attendant?'

  'I would choose sooner rather than later if I were you.' Ritsem Caid rinsed sticky fingers in a shallow bowl of water proffered by Ganil and dried his hands on linen draped over the slave's arm. He leaned back on his cushions to loosen the vivid azure sash around the waist of his full-sleeved sapphire tunic.

  'It would be best to have decided before we read the new-year stars,' agreed Redigal Coron, tugging at the vivid ochre mantle overlaying his scarlet tunic.

  'All in good time, my lords.' Kheda saw Itrac trying to catch his eye down the length of the hall. He nodded briefly and she signalled to Beyau. Kheda rose to his feet as the household servants came forward to clear away the emptied bowls and platters. 'Excuse me, my lords - I'll take a little air before we're delighted by Itrac's musicians.'

  Just to be sure we won't be tripping over Velindre in the observatory. I wonder if her gossiping with the maidservants has turned up any clues as to why Ulla Safar has shut himself away this evening. Does Beyau know anything?

  Taking care not to hinder the sturdy slaves bodily picking up and removing the low tables from the carpet, Kheda caught the steward's eye. They moved to one of the pairs of tall doors set along the side of the hall to admit cooling breezes when Chazen's warlord sat there in judgement. For now, the slatted doors were draped with pale-yellow muslin curtains, denying the night's insects.

  'I take it Ulla Safar's retinue have been suitably fed in their pavilion?' Kheda raised a brow.

  'Fed and watered, my lord.' Beyau lowered his voice. 'Safar's locked himself away in an inner room with that thick-necked slave of his and a whole cage of courier doves.'

  'Send a hawk handler out on a fast trireme.' Mirrel Ulla was watching him suspiciously so Kheda smiled amiably back. 'If we can bring down one of Safar's birds, we might learn what messages he's sending to Derasulla '

  Because I cannot leave here, even for a few days to extri-cate Risala frome these wizards, unless I know Itrac will be safe.

  Beyau looked at the busy slaves, indecisive. 'Give me a few moments, my lord—'

  Kheda shook his head. 'I'll go to the observatory and write a note for the Brittle Crab's shipmaster. You can take it later.'

  'Make your choice of body slave, my lord, and he can take it.' Beyau walked away to rebuke a maidservant for spilling water from a brass ewer onto a marble step.

  / need a body slave for a warlord's duties but I cannot risk one betraying my association with wizards. Because that is a betrayal of every law and custom that a warlord is supposed to uphold. But there would be no domain for me to rule if I hadn 't betrayed that trust. Am I ever going to be free of this paradox?

  Kheda descended the broad, shallow steps that surrounded the hall on all sides. His stride lengthening, he crossed the short bridge leading to the island where his personal pavilion stood dark against the clear moonlit sky. Honeycanes planted around clusters of palm saplings rustled in the night breeze and he relished the cool air on his face.

  'Searching for omens on the horizon?' Janne's dress rustled as she stepped onto the planks of the bridge. 'Birut, return to the hall. Chazen Kheda and I wish to talk alone.'

  A shadow behind her, Janne's faithful slave muttered something under his breath as his heavy tread retreated down the sandy path.

  The night breeze teased Kheda with Janne's familiar perfume and the soft radiance of the twin moons high above stripped away her years. He could see the beauty he had married half a lifetime before, He spoke before she could. 'How are my children?'

  'Settled for the night, as far as I know.' Janne sounded faintly surprised that he should ask her. 'A nursemaid brought word to Itrac just before she had the tables cleared.'

  'How are my elder daughters?' Kheda found his grip tightening on the plaited rope of palm bark strung either side of the bridge. 'How are my sons?'

  'The younger children of Daish are very well,' Janne replied smoothly. 'Our sister-wife Sain has proved a loving and devoted mother to them all.'

  'Leaving you and Rekha free to concentrate on trades and intrigues.' Kheda's tone was accusing despite his best efforts. 'Where is she? Doesn't Itrac warrant the courtesy of a visit from both of you, after she let the two of you pass off the bounty of Chazen's reefs as Daish pearls last year?'

  'Rekha is on an extended tour of the Aedis, Sier and Tule domains,' Janne said more curtly. 'She will pay her compliments to your new daughters in good time.'

  'She will if she doesn't want her discourtesy to jeopardise Daish trade with Ritsem or Redigal,' Kheda shot back.

  'They plainly have no qualms about renewing their ties with this domain.' There was just a hint of anger in Janne's words.

  'It would make your life easier if Chazen was shunned, giving you an excuse to avoid me.' Kheda tried to curb his resentment. 'But you and I and Rekha and Sain are tied through our children, Janne. Don't think I have forgotten them just because Itrac has given me new daughters.'

  'According to custom—' Janne snapped.

  'Custom?' Kheda spoke over her. 'What custom? If we had divorced, you would have been the one to leave the Daish domain. Those of our children of an age of reason would have stayed with me. Those below it would have gone with you but they'd have been given the choice of returning when they reached it. How many times do the histories record a warlord separated from his children in circumstances like these? If you've found precedent, do

  share it. I've found none.' Kheda waved a hand at the dark observatory and swallowed hard. He managed to moderate his tone as he continued. 'How are Mesil's studies progressing? Is Sirket teaching him his stargazing and herb lore and all the history of the domain?'

  Is he going to prove an ally for Sirket as he grows into his full strength, as you and I always hoped and planned? Or need we worry that he might turn out to be a rival? How could I turn such a circumstance to Chazen's advantage without hating myself?

  Janne answered his unspoken question after a moment. 'Mesil is still
happy to leave questions of warfare and lawmaking to Sirket while he studies healing and divinations.'

  'I'm glad to hear it,' Kheda said with frank relief. He found he couldn't hold back more questions. 'What about Dau? Does she have any plans for marriage yet? What about the little ones? I take it Efi and Vida are learning their letters and their numbers? What about Noi and Mie and Sain's son, Yasi?'

  He's my son, too, even if I wasn't there for his birth.

  Kheda fell silent, choked by the bitterness of his losses. Waves sluiced over the corals with a low murmur of surf. Songs and laughter echoed across the lagoon as Chazen islanders made merry with the visitors come to trade and the crews of the warlords' great galleys.

  'Turn your hopes to your new daughters, Kheda.' Janne cleared her throat, her voice unexpectedly gentle. 'You can leave the Daish children to my care, and Rekha's, and Sain's. The choices you made look you from them. There's no going back.'

  'It was the choices you made that denied me any hope of going back to Daish.' Kheda couldn't help himself. 'Your choices have denied a father to our children.'

  'Your children had already mourned you as dead.'

  Janne's tone hardened, her arms folded tight below her bosom. 'Daish had a new warlord in Sirket. All Chazen had was Saril who was utterly broken by fear and doubt.'

  'Who never had a chance to go back and redeem himself,' Kheda retorted. 'Not after you fed him white mussels gathered in a red tide that killed him stone dead.'

  'All three of us ate from the same shellfish,' Janne said steadily. 'If Saril had been fated to return to Chazen, he would have lived. If I had erred in reading the dreams that guided me to that place and that deed, I would have paid for it with my life.'

  She glanced involuntarily over her shoulder. The white sand paths were empty in the moonlight and no motionless shadows lurked among the gently shifting stands of nut palms beyond. She looked back at Kheda and he was surprised to see vulnerability in her face.

  'Just as if you had been the one in mortal error, when you sought out that foul barbarian to help you fight the invaders' magic with northern sorcery, you would have been the one to die on those sands. How can you doubt the omens of that day, Kheda?' she went on, strain tightening her voice. 'And what of last year? Chazen Saril could never have stood up to a dragon arriving in these waters, even if he had managed to reclaim his domain after he had disgraced himself by fleeing from the invaders who came before it. As for two such creatures—' she shuddered. 'And that sorcerer masquerading as your slave proved your salvation a second time. Chazen was even cleansed as his evil poisoned the beast when it consumed him. That is what really happened to him, isn't it?'

  Kheda made no move to answer her.

  So you didn't believe the tale that Dev was burned to ashes by the dragon's fiery breath. Not that you would ever believe the truth, even if I could share it with you. Once we shared everything.

  'So yes, Kheda, I'll allow that your choices cannot have been as corrupt as I thought them.' Janne spoke through gritted teeth. 'Not if you were able to lead the men of this domain to kill that second dragon with sword and spear. The poets will be composing epics around that feat for generations to come. They're already singing your praises from one end of the Archipelago to the other now that you have been so plainly vindicated by Chazen's prosperity and your new wife's fertility.'

  Kheda heard the faintest of tremors running below Janne's words.

  Your faith in the heavens and the portents of the earthly compass hasn 't been shaken in the least. You seize on the random turns of chance as justification for what you have done. Whereas I can no longer believe in any such guidance or excuse. If nothing else had come between us, this would have driven us irrevocably apart.

  'I'm glad to see Itrac so happy again,' Janne Daish said with clipped neutrality, 'because Chazen Saril couldn't bear to have her near him at the end. Did she tell you that? Her devotion to this domain was a constant reproach to his cowardice in fleeing Chazen. He rejected her utterly. He could barely live with himself, never mind anyone else. But of course you know that. Why else would you forbid him a resting place among the honoured dead of the domain? What did you do with his body, Kheda?'

  'That's none of your concern.' Kheda drew a breath. 'As for his death, all right, I'll allow you thought you acted in the best interests of the Daish domain, Janne, as you have always done.'

  'I'd prefer the unequivocal reassurance of the heavens or the earthly compass.' Janne moved to the little bridge's rope rail and stared out over the open sea.

  You're not just playing the part of the dowager to throw the other wives off balance. You are truly dispirited, and more

  weary than I can ever recall seeing you. It would be so easy to take you in my arms, to offer you comfort. But I must be satisfied that your weakness will strengthen Itrac's position. I must not let slip how wearisome I find all this manoeuvring.

  'Let's hope Sirket sees hope for Daish in the new year's stars.' Kheda looked away over the silken waters. 'Ritsem Caid believes the earthly compass will counsel faithfulness between allies. Daish and Chazen will always have interests in common.' He drew a bracing breath of the salt-scented air. 'And common enemies. Why do you suppose Ulla Safar snubbed us all with his refusal to dine in our company?'

  What inside knowledge can you offer me? You always had the most well-informed network of eyes and ears of any warlord's lady.

  Janne Daish rallied, squaring her shoulders beneath her gossamer wrap. 'I imagine our hurt feelings are the least of Ulla Safar's concerns.'

  'How so?' Kheda prompted.

  Janne considered her reply. 'You may as well know,' she said at length, twisting the fringe of her wrap around her fingers. 'Ulla Orhan has been actively seeking support among the spokesmen of the domain's villages and islands. It's whispered he is looking to overthrow his father. So Ulla Safar had him locked in Derasulla's deepest dungeon.'

  The back of Kheda's neck prickled as if a chill breath of wind had blown from the north. 'And Orhan will be sliced to quivering shreds for the fat snake's entertainment as soon as he's got a new son who looks healthy enough to live to an age of reason.'

  'More likely it'll be a death leaving a presentable corpse,' Janne said dryly. 'Safar's predicament is compli-eated by the affection of the Ulla people for Orhan, despite their fear of Safar, Safar has had plenty of practice using

  venoms to make it seem as though someone has died of a fever. Remember Orhan's mother.'

  'Hence the tale of him being unwell.' Kheda shook his head. 'But Sirket said he'd had a letter—'

  'I take it he let that slip with appropriate clumsiness?' Janne's smile gleamed in the moonlight.

  Kheda was puzzled. 'It wasn't true?'

  'It was true.' Janne tossed a shred from the fringe of her wrap into the silent water beneath the bridge. 'But the letter didn't come from anywhere on Hakere, so Safar can waste all the time and men he chooses beating the bushes on that isle.'

  'Orhan has escaped his father's clutches?' Kheda frowned as he tried to make sense of this unexpected news. 'Is that what you were telling Taisia Ritsem?'

  'That and warning her not to take any food or drink from Chay or Mirrel,' Janne said with distaste. 'They're frantically trying to dose each other and any other wife or concubine they suspect of receiving Safar's attentions, to be certain any babe he begets slips away. I wouldn't put it past either one of them to ruin Taisia's happiness out of sheer spite.'

  'They are truly vile.' Kheda didn't hide his disgust. 'I've always thought they deserved each other, those two and Safar.'

  'They're reaping a full harvest from the misery they've sown in the past.' Janne settled her wrap anew around her shoulders. 'With any luck they'll poison each other and Safar for good measure, while Orhan thrives on sailer pottage and spring water out in the forests.'

  'Wouldn't we all be safer if Orhan were recaptured?' Kheda picked at the rope rail. 'If he dies, Tewi Ulla becomes the heir and there's no way she could h
old that domain together.'

  'Orhan has been paying court to Dau for over a year

  now.' Janne folded her hands deliberately across her golden belt. 'Sirket, Rekha and I all agree that it would be a good marriage.'

  'You want Dau to marry Ulla Safar's son?' Appalled, Kheda pushed himself away from the rope and set the whole bridge swaying.

  'Not unless she chooses to,' Janne said with asperity, putting a hand on one of the posts to steady herself. 'I know you always thought Orhan a fool, but we've come to realise that was a feint to divert his father's suspicions.'

  'It was a convincing deceit.' Kheda picked at the frayed palm rope again, biting back more heated words.

  He's still not fit to wash the dust from my daughter's feet. But I have no say in such matters now that Sirket is warlord of Daish. Does he know anything more of the plots inside Derasulla's labyrinthine walls? Another of my lost brothers chose to serve the Daish domain as azamorin slave in that termite hill. Who does he send word to now?

  'Ulla Orhan played a significant part in saving you from Ulla Safar's assassins,' Janne said pointedly into the silence.

  'Is all this what's caused the breach between Redigal Coron and Safar?' asked Kheda abruptly.

  'No, that was Ulla Safar overreaching himself once again,' Janne said with satisfaction. 'Coron discovered that those zamorin counsellors of his were plotting to overthrow him—'

  Kheda searched his memory for some half-recollection. 'There was rumour—'

  ''This was no rumour,' Janne said tartly.

  Kltcdii looked towards the silent darkness of the obser-vatory, 'Zamorin are supposed to be less interested in worldly ambltion than whole men, cut off as they are from fathering their own posterity.'

  'Which is why Redigal Adun sought such scholars as tutori for his sons,' agreed Janne. 'I don't suppose he

  foresaw that those zamorin would become such a powerful clique, renewing their number through adopted sons and co-opted nephews.'

  Kheda shook his head slowly. 'What kind of man would willingly undergo castration? When so many die—'