‘But you’d be a better overseer than he is.’
‘Probably so,’ Itani agreed. ‘The price is too high, though.’
The pause was a different kind of silence than it had been before. Liat could feel the change in Itani’s breathing. He was waiting for her to ask, waiting for her to push the issue. She could feel him flowing away, distant even before she spoke. Because he knew she would. And he was right.
‘Did you ask Wilsin-cha about other opportunities?’
‘Yes,’ he said.
‘And?’
‘He didn’t know of any at the time, but he said he’d see what he could find.’
‘That’s good, then. He liked you. That’s very good,’ and again the pause, the distance. ‘If he offered you a position, you’d take it, wouldn’t you?’
‘It would depend on the offer,’ Itani said. ‘I don’t want to do what I don’t want to do.’
‘Itani! Look past your nose, would you? You’d have to. If the head of House Wilsin makes you an offer and you turn away, why would he ever make another one? You can’t build a life out of refusing things. You have to accept them too - even things you don’t want sometimes. If they lead to things you do want later on.’
Itani shifted out from under her and stood. She rolled up to a sitting position. Itani stretched, his back to her, and he made the cell seem small. Her desk, her ledgers, a pile of ink blocks, waxed paper sticking out from between them like pale tongues. A wardrobe where her robes hung, and Itani, the muscles of his back shifting in the candlelight.
‘Some nights, I feel like I’m talking to a statue. You’re in your twentieth summer. This is my seventeenth,’ she said severely. ‘So how is it I’m older than you?’
‘Maybe you sleep less,’ Itani said mildly. When he turned back to her, he smiled gently. He moved with animal grace and so little padding between his muscles and his skin that she felt she could see the mechanism of each motion. He crouched by the cot, resting his head on his hands and looking up at her. ‘We have this conversation over and over, sweet, and it’s never changed yet. I know you want more from me than—’
‘I want you to want more for yourself, ’Tani. That isn’t the same thing.’
He took a gentle pose asking permission.
‘I know you want more from me than a laborer’s life. And I don’t imagine I’ll do this forever. But I’m not ashamed of it, and I won’t do something I like less so that someone someday might give me something that they think I’m supposed to want. When I want something, that will be different.’
‘And isn’t there anything you want that you don’t already have?’
He rose, cupping her breast in his hand and gently, carefully pressing his lips to hers. His weight bore her back slowly to the labyrinth of cloth that had been her sheets and netting. She pulled back a fraction of an inch, keeping so close that when she spoke, she could feel her lips brushing his.
‘What kind of answer is this?’ she asked.
‘You asked me about things I want,’ he murmured.
‘And you’re distracting me instead of answering the question.’
‘Am I?’
His hand brushed down her side. She felt the gooseflesh rise as it passed.
‘Are you what?’
‘Am I distracting you?’
‘Yes,’ she said.
The knock at the door startled them both. Itani leapt up, chagrin showing on his face as he pawed the shadows, looking for the rough cloth of his pants. Liat drew her sheet around her. To the silent question in Itani’s eyes she shook her head in bewilderment. The knock came again.
‘A moment!’ she said, loud enough to carry over the rain. ‘Who’s there?’
‘Epani Doru,’ the voice shouted from the other side of the thin door. ‘Wilsin-cha sent me to ask whether he might have a word with you.’
‘Of course. Yes. Just give me a moment.’
Itani, trousers located, tossed her robes to her. She pulled on the inner robes, then grabbed a fresh outer robe from the wardrobe. Itani helped her fasten it. She felt her hands trembling. The voice of House Wilsin wanted to speak with her, and outside the normal hours of labor. It had never happened before.
‘I should go back to my quarters,’ Itani said as she pulled her hair back to a formal bun.
‘No. Please, ’Tani. Wait for me.’
‘You could be a quarter-candle, love,’ he said. ‘Listen. The rain’s coming softer now anyway. It’s time.’
It was true. The hiss of the rain was less vicious. And for all her complaints, she understood what it meant to have the unkind interest of an overseer. She took a pose of acceptance, but broke it to kiss him again.
‘I’ll find you tomorrow,’ she said.
‘I’ll be waiting.’
Itani moved back into the shadows behind the wardrobe and Liat tugged at her robes one last time, stepped into her slippers and answered the door. Epani, Marchat Wilsin’s house master, stood under the awning, his arms crossed, and his expression neutral. Liat took a pose indicating preparedness, and without apparent irony, he replied with one expressing thanks for prompt action. His gaze passed her for a moment, taking in the wreckage of her cot, the discarded robes on the stone floor, but he made no comment. When he turned and strode away, she followed.
They went down an open walkway of gray stones raised far enough that the streams of rainwater hadn’t darkened them. In the courtyard, the fountain had filled to overflowing, the wide pool dancing with drops. The tall bronze statue of the Galtic Tree - symbol of the house - loomed in the darkness, the false bark glittering in the light of lanterns strung beneath the awnings and safe from the rain.
The private apartments where Wilsin-cha lived were at the end of the courtyard farthest from the street. Double doors of copper-bound ash stood open, though the view of the antechamber was still blocked by house banners shifting uneasily in the breeze. They glowed from the light behind them. Epani drew one banner aside and gestured Liat within as if she were a guest and not an apprentice overseer.
The antechamber was stone-floored, but the walls and high ceiling glowed with worked wood. The air smelled rich with lemon candle and mint wine and lamp oil. Lanterns lit the space. From somewhere nearby, she heard voices - two men, she thought. She made out few words - Wilsin-cha’s voice saying ‘won’t affect’ and ‘unlike the last girl,’ the other man saying ‘won’t allow’ and ‘street by street if needed.’ Epani, sweeping in behind her, took a pose that indicated she should wait. She took a pose of acknowledgment, but the house master had already moved on, vanishing behind thick banners. The conversation stopped suddenly as Epani’s rain-soft voice interrupted. Then Marchat Wilsin himself, wearing robes of green and black, strode into the room.
‘Liat Chokavi!’
Liat took a pose of obeisance which the head of her house replied to with a curt formal pose, dropped as soon as taken. He put a thick hand on her shoulder and drew her back to an inner chamber.
‘I need to know, Liat. Do you speak any island tongues? Arrask or Nippu?’
‘No, Wilsin-cha. I know Galtic and some Coyani . . .’
‘But nothing from the eastern islands?’
As they stepped into a meeting room, Liat adopted an apologetic pose.
‘That’s too bad,’ Wilsin-cha said, though his tone was mild and his expression curiously relieved.
‘I think Amat-cha may know some Nippu. It isn’t a language that’s much used in trade, but she’s very well-studied.’
Wilsin lowered himself to a bench beside a low table, gesturing to the cushion across from him. Liat knelt as he poured out a bowl of tea for her.
‘You’ve been with my house, what? Three years now?’
‘Amat-cha accepted me as her apprentice four years ago. I was with my father in Chaburi-Tan before that, working with my brothers . . .’
‘Four years ago? Weren’t you young to be working four years ago? You’d have seen twelve summers?’
Liat fe
lt herself blush. She hadn’t meant to have her family brought into the conversation.
‘Thirteen, Wilsin-cha. And there were ways I could help, so I did what I could. My brothers and I all helped where we could.’
She silently willed the old Galt’s attention away from the subject. Anything she could say about her old life would make her seem less likely to be worth cultivating. The small apartments by the smoke-house that had housed her and three brothers; her father’s little stand in the market selling cured meats and dried fruits. It wasn’t the place Liat imagined an overseer of a merchant house would start from. Her wish seemed to be granted. Wilsin-cha cleared his throat and sat forward.
‘Amat’s been sent away on private business. She may be gone for some weeks. I have an audience before the Khai that I’ll need you to take over.’
He said it in a low, conversational voice, but Liat felt herself flush like she’d drunk strong wine. She sipped the tea to steady herself, then put the bowl down and took a pose appropriate to a confession.
‘Wilsin-cha, Amat has never taken me to the courts. I wouldn’t know what to do, and . . .’
‘You’ll be fine,’ Wilsin-cha said. ‘It’s the sad trade. Not complex, but I need it done with decorum, if you see. Someone to see to it that the client has the appropriate robes and understands the process. And with Amat unavailable, I thought her apprentice might be the best person for the role.’
Liat looked down, hoping that the sense of vertigo would fade. An audience with the Khai - even only a very brief one - was something she had expected to take only years later, if ever. She took a pose of query, fighting to keep her fingers from trembling. Wilsin waved a hand, giving her permission to speak her question.
‘There are other overseers. Some of them have been with the house much longer than I have. They have experience in the courts . . .’
‘They’re busy. This is something I was going to have Amat do herself, before she was called away. I don’t want to pull anyone else away from negotiations that are only half-done. And Amat said it was within your abilities, so . . .’
‘She did?’
‘Of course. Here’s what I’ll need of you . . .’
The rain had ended and the night candle burned to just past the halfway mark when Heshai-kvo returned. Maati, having fallen asleep on a reading couch, woke when the door slammed open. Blinking away half-formed dreams, he stood and took a pose of welcome. Heshai snorted, but made no other reply. Instead, he took a candle and touched it to the night candle’s flame, then walked heavily around the rooms lighting every lantern and candle. When the house was bright as morning and thick with the scent of hot wax, the teacher returned the dripping candle to its place and dragged a chair across the floor. Maati sat on the couch as Heshai, groaning under his breath, lowered himself into the chair.
Maati was silent as his teacher considered him. Heshai-kvo’s eyes were narrow, his mouth skewed in something like a stillborn smile. At last the teacher heaved a loud sigh and took a pose of apology.
‘I’ve been an ass. And I’m sorry,’ the teacher said. ‘I meant to say so before, but . . . well, I didn’t, did I? What happened with the Khai was my fault, not yours. Don’t carry it.’
‘Heshai-kvo, I was wrong to . . .’
‘Ah, you’re a decent boy. Your heart’s good. But there’s no call to sweeten turds. I was thoughtless. Careless. I let that bastard Seedless get the better of me. Again. And you. Gods, you must think I’m the silliest joke ever to wear a poet’s robe.’
‘Not at all,’ Maati said seriously. ‘He is . . . a credit to you, Heshai-kvo. I have never seen anything to match him.’
Heshai-kvo coughed out a sharp, mirthless laugh.
‘And have you seen another andat?’ he asked. ‘Any of them at all?’
‘I was present when Choti Dausadar of Amnat-Tan bound Moss-Hidden-from-Sunlight. But I never saw him use her powers.’
‘Yes, well, I’m sure he will as soon as anyone can think of a decent use for forcing mosses out in the light where we can see them. The Dai-kvo should have insisted that Choti wait until he had a binding poem for something useful. Even Petals-Falling was a better tool than that. Hidden moss. Gods.’
Maati took a pose of polite agreement, appropriate to receiving teachings, but as he did so, it struck him. Heshai-kvo was drunk.
‘It’s a fallen age, boy. The great poets of the Empire ruined it for us. All that’s left is picking at the obscure thoughts and images that are still in the corners. We’re like dogs sniffing for scraps. We aren’t poets; we’re scholars.’
Maati began to take a pose of agreement but paused, unsure. Heshai-kvo raised an eyebrow and completed the pose himself, his gaze fixed on Maati as if asking was this what you meant? Then the teacher waved the pose away.
‘Seedless was . . . was the answer to a problem,’ the poet said, his voice growing soft. ‘I didn’t think it through. Not far enough. Have you heard of Miyani-kvo and Three-Bound-As-One? I studied that when I was your age. Poured my heart into it. And when the time came - when the Dai-kvo sent for me and said that I wasn’t simply going to take over another man’s work, that I was to attempt a binding of my own - I drew on that knowledge. She was in love with him, you know. Three-Bound-As-One. An andat in love with her poet. There was an epic written about it.’
‘I’ve seen it performed.’
‘Have you? Well forget it. Unlearn it. It’ll only lead you astray. I was too young and too foolish, and now I’m afraid I’ll never have the chance to be wise.’ The poet’s gaze was fixed on something that Maati couldn’t see, something in another place or time. A smile touched the wide lips for a moment, and then, with a sigh, the poet blinked. He seemed to see Maati again, and took a pose of command.
‘Put these damned candles out,’ he said. ‘I’m going to sleep.’
And without looking back, Heshai-kvo rose and tramped up the stairs. Maati moved through the house, dousing the flames Heshai-kvo had lit, dimming the room as he did so. His mind churned with half-formed questions. Above him, he heard Heshai-kvo’s footsteps, and then the clatter of shutters closing, and then silence. The master had gone to bed - likely already asleep. Maati had snuffed the last flame but the night candle when the new voice spoke.
‘You didn’t accept my apology.’
Seedless stood in the doorway, his pale skin glowing in the light of the single candle. His robes were dark - blue or black or red so deep Maati couldn’t make it out. The thin hands took a pose of query.
‘Is there a reason I should?’
‘Charity?’
Maati coughed out a mirthless laugh and turned as if to go, but the andat stepped into the house. His movements were as graceful as an animal’s - as beautiful as the Khai, but unstudied, as much a part of his nature as the shape of a leaf was natural to a tree.
‘I am sorry,’ the andat said. ‘And you should forgive our mutual master as well. He had a bad day.’
‘Did he?’
‘Yes. He met with the Khai and discovered that he’s going to have to do something he doesn’t enjoy. But now that it’s just the two of us . . .’
The andat sat on the stairs, black eyes amused, pale hands cradling a knee.
‘Ask,’ Seedless said.
‘Ask what?’
‘Whatever the question is that’s making your face pull in like that. Really, you look like you’ve been sucking lemons.’
Maati hesitated. If he could have walked away, he would have. But the path to his cot was effectively blocked. He considered calling out to Heshai-kvo, waking him so that he could walk up the stairway without brushing against the beautiful creature in his way.
‘Please, Maati. I said I was sorry for my little misdirection. I won’t do it again.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
‘No? Well, then you’re wise beyond your years. I probably will at some point. But here, tonight, ask me what you’d like, and I’ll tell you the truth. For a price.’
‘
What price?’
‘That you accept my apology.’
Maati shook his head.
‘Fine,’ Seedless said, rising and moving to the shelves. ‘Don’t ask. Tie yourself in knots if it suits you.’
The pale hand ran along the spines of books, plucking one in a brown leather binding free. Maati turned, walked up two steps, and then faltered. When he looked back, Seedless had curled up on a couch beside the night candle, his legs pulled up beneath him. He seemed engaged in the open book on his knee.