"Sevtar—"
"I told you not to call me that."
"Perhaps you should have another drink."
"I don't like being in a cage."
Saje poured him a drink.
"You ever seen a Eubian, Saje?"
"Is that an animal?"
"That's right." Kelric downed his drink. "We call them Traders. Once one of their cruisers ambushed our squad and we crashed near their base." He tried to pour more baiz, but the decanter was empty. "My commander died." He stared into his glass. "In my arms."
"I'm sorry."
"Two of us made it out alive. Two. Out of fourteen. Afterward, I got drunk."
"Their deaths weren't your fault."
"I got drunk and went to where the tuners sing."
"Tuners?"
"Whores," Kelric said. "What our oh-so-charming Manager practically called me today. I sang all night with a tuner and she helped me forget." His voice cracked "My brother told me I was too stupid to think But I'm not too stupid to kill, am I?"
"People die in wars."
"Is that supposed to make it all right?" The decanter slid out of his hand and thudded onto the floor. "Maybe I should just shut up."
"Talk if it helps."
"Nothing helps." Closing his eyes, Kelric lay back and gave in to his exhaustion.
Several moments later he felt Saje laying a quilt over him. "Try to sleep." the Third Level said softly. "Try to forget. It is all you can do now."
20
Queen's Coup
Autumn winds keened around Haka, audible even deep within the Estate. As Rashiva entered her office, her aide Nida followed, reading from a scroll. "After you see the Modernists' delegation this morning, you have a Quis session with Adaar. Then Midday meal, then your meeting at the Children's Cooperative."
"Have the Cooperative files ready for me to read over lunch." Rashiva lifted her jacket off a rack made from hyella reeds. "And add my dinner with the delegation from Shazorla to the schedule."
A boy entered the office. "Mail, Manager Haka." He dropped a bundle on her desk, parchment scrolls wrapped in protective cloth. "There's a letter from the Ministry."
Just what I need, Rashiva thought. More veiled threats from Jahlt Karn about the Miesa Plateau.
Ekoe Haka, the Calanya Speaker, appeared behind the boy. "Manager Haka, do you have a moment?"
Rashiva pulled on her brocaded jacket. "Not now."
"It's the Calani Saje," Ekoe said. "He wishes to see you."
Ai. She could hardly refuse the Third Level. She pushed her hand through her hair. "I'll meet with him in the Hyella Chamber." That meant she would miss her meeting with the Modernists. Lunch was her only other free time and she could think of no better way to lose her appetite than by listening to Modernist tirades about sexual oppression. But if she put them off they might make trouble again, sending unescorted groups of men out in public without Talha scarves and robes. They had done it once before and nearly caused a riot.
"Tell the Modernists I'll see them during lunch," she told Nida. She stuffed the letter from Karn into her jacket and sped out of her office.
"I realize it is personal," Saje said. "But it affects the Quis. His anger is in every pattern he builds."
Rashiva stood by the wall of the Hyella Chamber, watching the desert. "I regret what happened. But that changes nothing. I made a mistake when I gave Sevtar Akasi bands."
"That he was in prison for murder—this you could accept. Yet now you spurn him as if he committed an unspeakable crime."
She turned to face the Third Level, who stood by the Quis table. "It's personal, Saje."
"He trusted you. After all he has suffered, both on our world and before, he is not one who trusts easily." Saje spread his hands. "I've watched him heal, Rashiva. I've seen a man paralyzed by loneliness come alive again. Don't turn from him now."
"It isn't that easy."
"What has he done that is so terrible?"
"If you were Hakaborn you would understand."
"He cares for you and you for him. What more is there to understand?"
Quietly Rashiva said, "No woman but my mother ever touched my father. No other woman even saw him smile. Now the Modernists want me to abolish the Propriety Laws and I can't help but believe they seek to destroy the foundation of all that is right." She exhaled. "I wish what happened with Sevtar didn't matter. But it does. I can't bend that far, Saje. I just can't do it."
"Then I am sorry," he said. "Both for his sake and for yours."
When the day finally ground to an end, Rashiva escaped to her suite and crawled into bed. Within moments after she called for a doctor, an aide ushered Senior Physician Jy into the room. The longer Jy examined her, the more she frowned.
"You work too hard," Jy said.
Rashiva pulled the blankets up under her chin "I just need one of your potions to settle my stomach."
"What you need is rest." Jy closed her bag. "When was your last cycle?"
Rashiva sat up. "You think I'm pregnant?"
Jy scowled. "Lie down."
"For Wind's sake." Rashiva lay down. "You're as ornery as a desert crab."
"I did a pregnancy test. We will know the results tomorrow. Right now I want you to sleep."
"Pah," Rashiva grumbled. "Just who is Manager here?"
Jy smiled and picked up the jacket Rashiva had thrown. across the bed. "Did you know there's a letter in your pocket with the Ministry seal on it?"
"Oh. Yes." Rashiva reached for the scroll J y held out to her. "What do you think Jahlt is scheming about this time? The Miesa Plateau no doubt." Unrolling the scroll, she peered at its gilded hieroglyphs.
And sat up to read it again.
"What's wrong?" Jy asked.
"No." Rashiva stared at the parchment. "She can't do this. She can't."
"Can't what?"
Rashiva dropped onto her back and threw an arm over her eyes. crumpling the letter in her fist. "Jahlt Karn has gone insane."
. . . boy was dying in his mother's womb. Kelric reached out, to help, to heal . . .
Kelric turned over in bed. "He's sick. I have to help." He opened his eyes into darkness, his head throbbing. "Rashiva?" Closing his eyes, he slipped back into sleep.
The next morning only a trace of the dream lingered. After breakfast. Kelric's guards took him to a library where tapestries hung on the wall. He sat in an armchair until he grew bored, then got up and wandered around looking at the books. He pulled out one that caught his interest and settled back in his chair.
Although he had never formally learned written Teotecan, he had picked up a little in Dahl. He puzzled out the title's hieroglyphs: Early Desert Games. A few minutes of paging through the book revealed it was a text on differential equations. The authors treated the subject like a game, with no indication they realized it had practical applications.
Then it hit him: the book was about Quis. It was all there, in the dice: theories of mathematics, physics, even philosophy.
Like many of the stranded colonies, the one on Coba had apparently slid into barbarism after the Ruby Empire collapsed. But unlike the others, which continued to backslide, Coba had rebounded. The same innovative streak that sparked the creation of Quis also led them to recover lost technology. In recent decades they had even regained air travel and electricity, though Kelric suspected they didn't fully understand the science involved in either.
Given the way Quis tapped every facet of their lives, it didn't surprise him to find their lost sciences buried within the dice game, like old files hidden in an ancient computer network, available only to those who knew where to look. Sooner or later someone would find the link. What a day that would be for Coba. Her people could go from windriders to star travel overnight.
"What are you doing?" Rashiva said.
He looked up to see her standing In the door arch, holding a sheaf of papers "When did you come in?"
"Just now." She closed the door and came over to him. "You are reading
?"
He showed her the book. "Pattern games."
"What about your Oath?"
His voice cooled. "I wasn't aware it mattered to you anymore."
Rashiva exhaled. "At the moment I'm inclined to let you contaminate your Quis however you wish." She gave him the papers. "If you want to read, read this."
The glyphs on the document were too complex for him to decipher well All he could make out was that the papers referred to a property settlement between Dahl and Haka.
Then it hit him; he was the property.
Ice came into his voice. "So that's what you consider me." He thrust the document at her. "Negotiable goods."
She took the papers. "It refers to your Calanya contract."
"What's the difference? Why did you tell me this?"
At first it seemed as if she wouldn't—or couldn't—answer. When she finally did respond, she sounded numb. "Minister Karn granted you a pardon."
He stared at her. "She what?"
"Minister Karn pardoned you."
It rolled around his thoughts, looking for a place to stop and unable to find it. "Why?"
Her fist clenched around the papers. "With the pardon, your Calanya contract reverts to Dahl. Deha knew. She knew what you could become and she knew the Ministry would never tolerate my Estate winning such advantage."
He had no idea how to respond. He couldn't absorb it. Go to Dahl? With Deha gone, nothing remained for him there but the memory of Llaach's death.
Kelric got up and went to a window. The city stretched out below in a jumble of desert colors, with onion towers. Gracing its architecture. Did he want to leave? He liked the desert, liked Haka, liked the Calanya. liked the exotic life. The Propriety Laws would have been a nuisance had he lived Outside, but they made little difference inside the Calanya.
But nothing would ever change the millennia—old Haka customs. Rashiva was compelling, yes. But the longer he knew her, the more insurmountable the barriers between them seemed.
She spoke behind him. "Sevtar?"
Tell me you want me to stay, he thought. We'll find a way to understand each other. But you have to bend, Rashiva. I won't beg for your love.
The silence lengthened. Finally he said, "I take it Raaj is the father of your baby."
"How did you know I'm pregnant?"
Kelric turned around. Until he spoke, he hadn't realized he knew. She showed no outward sign of it. But all he could think to say was, "You've started to show."
Softly she said, "Yes. Raaj is the father."
* * *
On the dawn of an autumn morning, before the reddened disk of the sun raised its rim over the horizon, Kelric left Haka. Surrounded by guards, he walked with Rashiva to the airfield. With their retinue waiting beyond the range of hearing, he and Rashiva stood together as if isolated in a bubble of desert air that shimmered with heat at its edges When she looked up at him, Kelric swallowed. He thought he saw tears in her eyes, but if they were there, the wind whipped them away before they fell.
21
Pause
Autumn in Dahl turned the suntrees into a splendor of gilt foliage Kelric sat in the shade with his back against a tree whose branches bowed under the weight of their gold fruit. He picked up a succulent orb that had fallen and bit into it. Sweet juice ran down his throat.
At the bottom of the lawn that sloped away from his feet, he saw Chankah Dahl climbing toward him. When she reached the top, she flopped down next to him in the shade. "Heh. What a hike."
He swallowed a bite of sunfruit. "It's good for you."
"Probably." Her smile faded. "Kelric—we need to talk. About Jevi."
So. He had known this was coming. He still remembered the petition at his Tribunal from Llaach's widower: The Calani Jevi asks that Sevtar never be allowed to live in the Dahl Calanya. If this is unacceptable, Jevi requests to leave Dahl. . . Llaach's widower had eventually remarried, but every time the young man looked at him, Kelric knew he remembered.
"Jevi has his life here," Kelric said. "I should be the one who goes."
"I think it's for the best," Chankah said.
"So what do I do? Apply to another Calanya?"
"You won't need to. Six Estates have made offers for your contract."
"Six? What for?"
She smiled. "You really have no idea how well you play Quis And you've been in two of the most powerful Calanya on Coba."
"Which means I know the Quis on both sides."
"Yes. It is unusual. Valuable."
"What offer will you take?"
"The choice is yours."
Kelric thought of Ixpar. "What about Karn?"
"The Ministry isn't interested," she said. "Neither Miesa nor any Secondary Estates made offers either, probably because they don't have the finances to consider a Third Level."
"I don't know any other Estate. I wouldn't know how to choose."
"Haka made an offer." Chankah paused. "A large one."
As much as he wanted to forget Rashiva, Kelric's pulse quickened. "Why? I'd only be Second Level there."
She pulled up a blade of grass and studied it. "Perhaps her reasons have nothing to do with Level."
Kelric doubted he and Rashiva could ever come to terms with their differences. Even if they did, Raaj would always be there. With difficulty, he said, "I prefer not to go to Haka,"
Her tension eased. "All right."
"Do you have any suggestions?"
"I thought Bahvla," Chankah said. "Its Manager usually allies with Karn despite her friendship with the Miesa Manager."
Kelric remembered Miesa and its rich mineral plateau from his dice sessions at Haka, but he- didn't recall much about Bahvla. "Does Manager Bahvla want an Akasi?" He had no intention of getting caught in that emotional war zone again.
"No I don't think so."
"Do her Calani play Quis well?"
"Not as well as you. But few people do." She tilted her head. "In terms of Quis, I would rate Bahvla in the tier just below the four strongest Estates: Karn, Varz, Dahl, and Haka."
"Did Varz make an offer?"
She scowled.
Kelric smiled slightly. "I take it that means yes. And you have no intention of considering it."
"It would utterly defeat the purpose of getting you out of Haka."
He shrugged. "Then Bahvla is fine."
She nodded with satisfaction. "I will contact Manager Bahvla."
22
Sunsky Bridge
Bahvla Estate nestled high in the mountains, in a misty valley at a much greater elevation than Dahl. Its Manager was Henta, a plump woman with graying hair whom Kelric liked immediately. She laughed often and loved to talk. Her husband was the Akasi Tevon, a male version of herself. Manager and Akasi often sat together in the common room, clucking over their latest gossip.
The Estate had twelve Calani. Just as Saje had been the only Third Level at Haka, so Kelric found himself the only Third at Bahvla. There were three Second Levels, including Yevris Tehnsa Bahvla. Dark and lean, with brown eyes flecked by green, Yevris reminded Kelric of a gnarled tree limb, one well flexed in exercise. He and Yevris Often jogged together across the parks at daybreak or swam in the chill water of the Calanya lakes.
One morning Yevris decided they should climb the sculpted windbreak surrounding the parks.
"Won't my escort stop us?" Kelric asked. His pardon came with a stipulation, that he be guarded at all times. His escort was discreet, blending so well with the background that he often forgot they were there. It reminded him of being with his parents, who were required by the Imperialate Assembly to have bodyguards.
"Why stop us?" Yevris said. "I know. Because we're stupid enough to fall over the top and plummet to untimely deaths."
Kelric smiled. "You plummet. I'll climb."
Yevris grinned and took off. With his lighter build he outran Kelric, who made no attempt to engage his damaged hydraulics, but at the wall Kelric's greater strength got him to the top first. He climbed over the
edge, stood up—and froze.
The outer side of the windbreak plunged down in a sheer, unscalable cliff. Far, far below, forested mountains stretched out in slope after magnificent slope. A white mist hung over the world and for once the wind held still. The panorama swept out as far as he could see, a mystical land that faded into fog.
Yevris's head poked above the wall, followed by the rest of Yevris. He climbed up next to Kelric. "It's powerful, yes?"
"Yes," Kelric said.
"I thought you'd like it. It reminds me of you."
"Me? Why?"
"It's hard to explain. I'll build you a Quis pattern for it sometime." Dryly he added, "Better that than gamble with you."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because you pulverize me every time."
Kelric laughed. "We're Calani. We don't need to gamble. We have, better things to do with our dice."
Yevris smiled. "I don't think I've ever met anyone who likes Quis as much as you."
That caught Kelric by surprise. But it was true; Quis fascinated him.
Turning around, he looked out across Bahvla to the mountains that rose up in the north, thrusting into an overcast sky. High in the northeast, a cluster of towers stood wreathed in mist. He indicated the distant hamlet. "What's that?"
Yevris followed his gaze; "Viasa Estate. Tehnsa is up there too"
"You grew up in Tehnsa, didn't you?"
"Yip." Yevris was in motion again ambling backward along the wall. "It's not really an Estate, though It's Secondary to Viasa."
Kelric followed him; "How is that different from an Estate?"
"Smaller. A Secondary can't survive independent of its main Estate." Yevris stopped and cocked his head. "The way Miesa is going, it'll be Secondary to Varz soon."
Varz. The infamous Ministry foe. "Can you see Varz or Miesa from here?"
"Too far. But you'll meet Manager Miesa. She and Henta are friends." He grinned. "Savina Miesa."
Kelric laughed. "I detect more than a casual interest here, Yevris."