"You would turn from them for me?"
"Yes."
Kelric felt his defenses crumbling. When Savina put her arms around him, he laid his head against hers. As she stroked his hair, her hand slid over the gash in his temple.
"You're hurt," she said.
"It's just a little cut."
"This is no little cut." She stood up. "I'll be fightback." Then she disappeared into the shadows.
Kelric waited, too tired and too winded by the thin air to follow her. His shoulders felt cold without her arms.
She reappeared. "There's a place where you can lie down in the next room. I'll go upstairs and get the med supplies."
"I'm fine."
Her voice softened. "I know. But humor me."
She took him through the ruins to a bedroom with starlight and chill mountain air pouring through its collapsed roof. Sitting him down on the bed, she said, "I'll be back as soon as I can."
After she left, he lay on his back. Soon after he closed his eyes, he felt her cleaning the gash on his head.
"Full circle," he mumbled.
"Sevtar? You are awake?"
He looked up at her. "I must have made a full circle through the fortress."
"Why do you say that?"
"Aren't we under my room?"
"We're on the other side of the Estate."
"But you just left."
She started bandaging his wound. "It only seems that way because you fainted."
"Jagernauts don't faint."
"What do they do?"
"Pass out."
Savina smiled. "Then you passed out."
She finished with the bandage. Then she stretched out next to him, her hair spilling over his body. Kelric put his arms around her and they lay together in the predawn dimness. She smelled of soap and a musky Savina fragrance that needed no help from any perfume.
Pressing against him, she rubbed his chest, banishing the chill in the air. She kissed his Adam's apple, then his chest, then his stomach. Then she, undid the laces on his pants and went lower. Kelric lay with his eyes closed, savoring the feel of her lips on him and her silken hair brushing his thighs.
Eventually she eased off his clothes. He sat up and pulled her close, between his legs, his erection rubbing the velvet cloth of her blouse, As he undressed her, he stroked her body. Even with his large grip he couldn't hold all of her breast, but when he put his hands around her waist his fingers met on her back. The curling hair below her belly was softer than he expected, and as gold as the curls that floated around her face. Her face was even more beautiful in the predawn light.
He touched her cheek, "How can you look so angelic and be so devilish?"
Savina laughed softly. "I'm incorrigible." She didn't sound incorrigible, though. She had a voice like dark honey.
When she nudged him down on his back, he pulled her with him. Rolling over on top of her, he watched her face, trying to gauge her reaction.
She looked up at him "What's wrong?"
"You don't mind this?"
"Why would I mind it?"
He thought of Deha and Rashiva. "I'm holding you down, on top of you. Isn't that taboo here?"
Savina sighed. "So many rules. Women do this men do that I don I care." She pulled him down and kissed his ear "I just want to feel you inside."
So he nudged apart her thighs and accommodated her wishes. She molded to him as if they were two parts designed to fit together. They made love in the rosy dawn filtering through the ruins, teasing each other almost to a peak and then pulling back at the last minute, again and again in a tantalizing play of love.
When the crest finally pulled them over the top, he wasn't sure if the orgasm he felt was his, or both of theirs together, for in those few moments their minds merged.
Savina brought the rider down onto the Bahvla airfield in the day's blazing light. Guards were running across the tarmac. She tried not to look at the copilot's seat where Sevtar sat staring out the window. He had given her no sign, no hope he would come to Miesa. He hadn't even spoken.
What had possessed her to make love to him? It was like torture, to have him for one morning and then lose him forever.
Then they were down on the airfield, with ranks of guards converging on the rider.
Sevtar suddenly turned to her. "Yes."
She almost jumped. "Yes?"
"Yes. I want to go to Miesa."
The hatch burst open and guards erupted into the rider. As they dragged Savina out of the cabin, she looked back at Sevtar—and his smile blazed like the dawn.
Sun poured through the large window behind the desk. Savina squinted into the glare, barely able to distinguish the woman sitting there.
"Ten million denai," Avtac Varz said. "You ask a lot."
"I can raise a pan of it," Savina said.
"How much?"
It unnerved Savina to talk to someone she could barely see. "Maybe one million."
"One million." Avtac leaned back in her chair. "And you think my Estate has nine million just lying around for you?"
Savina twisted the edges of her belt. "There must be an arrangement we can make."
"All for this Calani." Avtac shook her head. "Savina, you are a perfect example of how too much time with Akasi weakens the mind." She shifted a paper on her desk. "Why should I lend you more denai? Your Estate already owes mine so much it will be years before I see it again. If ever."
Savina stiffened. "I'll repay every tekal I owe you."
"So you claim. Yet your debts grow larger every year."
"Avtac, you're the only one I can turn to. Name whatever terms you want."
The Varz Manager picked up the paper lying on her desk. She glanced over it while Savina shifted her feet. "An arrangement may be possible. There is, however, the matter of collateral, now that the Wardship is no longer available."
"Anything you want," Savina said.
Avtac looked up at her. "Your Estate."
"What?"
"Your Estate and the city of Miesa."
Savina stared at her. "I can't agree to that"
"Very well" Avtac set the paper on her desk and folded her hands. "The matter is closed."
"There must be something else—"
"I said, the matter is closed."
"No. Wait." Savina went closer to the desk so she could see Avtac better. "If I agree to your terms, how will they bind to my successors?"
"Your successors?" Avtac snorted. "And when will the loan be repaid? In a millennium? No. The term of the loan is your term as Manager. If at the time of your death the debt remains outstanding, Miesa becomes part of Varz."
"I can't gamble with an entire Estate and city."
"You are a young woman. You have decades to repay the debt."
Decades. Savina's thoughts circled around the proposal. A lifetime was a long time.
But. Her Estate already tottered on the rim of disaster. If she agreed to Avtac's terms, she put the literal existence of Miesa in jeopardy.
But. Miesa would have a Fourth Level. A brilliant Fourth Level, one unmatched anywhere among the Twelve Estates.
She took a breath. "I accept your terms."
Avtac slid the paper across the table. "Sign on the line under my name."
The Morning Hall sparkled like the interior of a lightbeam. Sunshine scintillated through the crystal dome, glistening on the Miesa dignitaries seated around the glimmering dais in the center of the Hall. Kelric felt their anticipation as he stepped with Yevris into the Circle of the Calanya. He saw Henta Bahvla with her retinue in a position of honor among the dignitaries. When he nodded, she smiled, the lines around her eyes crinkling in that way he had always liked.
Pipe music danced into the air. Three girls sat on the dais steps playing a set of reeds, their melody sparkling like sunshine.
A door opened at the end of the Hall and Savina entered, dressed in a long yellow robe that fluttered around her body. She walked to where Kelric waited in the Circle and looked up
at him with mischief. "This is where I tell you, with great pomp and ceremony, to enter the Circle. Except you're already in it."
He grinned. "Your Miesa thugs brought me here."
Her laugh glistened. "I will tell my aides you called them thugs."
As he reached across the rail to take her into his arms Yevris grabbed him "For wind's sake," the Second Level said in a low voice "Not here."
Savina smiled at them. Then she walked to a table on the dais and stood there with her Senior Aide. She spoke—and her voice resonated, deep and full, carrying to every edge of the Hall. "Sevtar Bahvla, you come today to the Circle of Miesa."
The power of her voice stunned Kelric. Suddenly she was no longer a tousled-haired imp, but the Manager of an ancient and once-powerful Estate.
"Is there one here who stands as Oath brother to Sevtar?" she asked.
"I stand for him," Yevris said.
"What are your words?"
"I have been honored to know Sevtar," he said. "There are none other like him. If you look at stars in our sky, you will see a hint of him. He IS dreams and light the glory of dawn's first fire, and he will honor your Calanya."
Kelric blinked. Poetry, from Yevris? The Second Level grinned at him.
Savina's Senior Aide spoke. "Your words are heard and recorded, Yevris of Bahvla."
Quietly Savina added, "And Miesa is honored by the Speech of a Bahvla Calani."
Yevris bowed, then stepped out of the Circle and left the dais.
In the luminous light of the Morning Hall, Savina gave Kelric the Oath, and for the first time the words had meaning to him. With the ceremony came a sense of closure. On a world that had saved his life and then taken his freedom, he had unexpectedly found, in Savina and the Quis, the dreams denied him as a Jagernaut. Savina had nearly crippled her Estate to bring him to Miesa, an enormous gamble with sobering stakes. But Kelric saw what others missed, that her beauty and unimposing manner masked a dynamic intellect. All Coba underestimated Miesa's Manager.
It baffled Kelric that Coba's people, even its powerful queens, understood so little of the Quis. But he saw. With the knowledge of four Estates, from both sides of the political hierarchy in the Twelve Estates, he would handle the dice as never before. The challenge exhilarated him. Together he and the woman he loved would reshape the future of Miesa.
When the Oath was done, she came to the Circle. Looking up at him, she said, "The bands I offer you are those of an Akasi. Will you accept?"
He smiled. "Yes."
She slipped the circlets on his arms, making them the fourth pair he wore. "Sevtar Dahl Haka Bahvla Miesa, you are now a Fourth Level Calani of Miesa."
This time when Kelric reached across the rail, no Yevris was there to stop him. He held Savina, her lips meeting his as he bent his head. Ignoring the shocked murmurs in the Hall, they embraced, bathed in the streaming sunlight of a new beginning.
BOOK TWO
Years 971-976 of the Modern Age
26
Endgame
Lightning stabbed the thunderclouds with brilliance. The night closed around again and thunder came with it, booming through the windrider. Neither person in the small cabin spoke as the pilot fought her grim battle with the storm.
The woman in the copilot's seat gripped the armrests. I refuse to die, Jahlt Karn thought. There is too much I have yet to do with my life.
The Elders of an Estate sat high in its hierarchy of power. As the senior advisers to the Manager, they followed only the Estate Successor and Senior Aide in rank. Highest of all the Elders on Coba were the Seven of Karn.
They found the woman they sought in an alcove. She stood with her back .to them looking out over the city, her fiery hair held in a thick braid that fell down her back to her waist. At twenty—six years of age she already carried an aura of authority, a self-assurance that hinted at future greatness.
Elder Solan, First among the Seven, spoke. "Ixpar."
The woman turned, her face lighting with welcome. "My greetings." She looked at the array of Elders. "Is Jahlt back from Shazorla already?"
Solan went to stand with her in the afternoon's waning light. "Jahlt will not be returning."
Ixpar smiled. "So she decided to stay for that wine festival after all, heh?"
"No." It seemed to Solan that someone far away spoke with her voice. "She left Shazorla this morning."
Ixpar's smile faded. "I don't understand."
"There was a storm. They had no warning."
Ixpar froze. "And?"
"The rider crashed in the mountains." Solan stopped, deserted by the words she needed. Outside the window a small althawk glided by, its shadow wheeling across the alcove.
"Solan," Ixpar said. "Go on."
"A Viasa logging crew found their remains this morning."
"No." Ixpar stared at her. "It can't be"
The Elder shook her head. She knew nothing else to say. The shock went too deep.
Ixpar turned away, looking out at the city. For a long time she stood motionless. Finally she spoke. "A funeral must be arranged." She turned to face the Elders. "All of Coba will know how we honor the memory of Jahlt Karn."
Solan bowed and spoke words she had not thought she would say to this woman for many years yet. "As you wish, Minister Karn, so we shall do."
27
Alchemist's Gamble
"I can't tell you," Savina said. "Then it wouldn't be a surprise."
After seven years of living with Savina, Kelric had given up trying to outguess her. "So where is this mystery hidden?"
She pulled him through her suite and into a study she used for storage. The boxes and. old furniture had vanished. Fresh paint brightened the walls, shading from sun-yellow at the floor into white at the top. A sun peeked out from behind puffs of cloud on the ceiling and a rainbow arched across one wall. Lacy curtains billowed about the windows, revealing glimpses of the mountains.
Kelric looked around the room. "If this is for me, it, uh, well, it isn't a paint job I would have chosen."
Savina laughed. "It isn't for you, dummy. It's for the surprise."
"Dummy?" Kelric pinned her against the wall and kissed her nose. "Don't you call me dummy."
She dimpled. "Have you figured out the surprise?"
"You found a ton of paint and threw it at the walls."
"No. This surprise we both made."
He brushed his lips over her hair. "I don't remember making anything."
"We made love. Then the surprise came."
He stopped kissing her. "You're pregnant?"
"Surprise."
"Are you sure?" It was too much to believe. They had been trying for seven years to have a child.
"Positive, certain—heh, what are you doing?" Savina laughed as he swung her around in a circle. "What would you like? A girl or a boy?"
He set her on her feet. "Either. Any. Both."
"Twins. A little you and a little me in the Cooperative."
Cooperative. It hit him like cold water. "If she goes to live in the Cooperative, how will I see her?"
Savina sighed. "It is the difficulty for Calani, yes? But she can visit the Calanya."
"It's not the same. I lived with my parents when I was a boy."
"To isolate her from the other children—it is not our way. What do we say when she asks why she is being kept apart?"
Kelric absorbed the words His child was Coban She would probably see separation from the other children as a punishment. Unlike other Coban parents, however, he couldn't choose to live in the Cooperative.
"She can stay here for the first few years," Savina said. "When she does leave we will work it out. You will see her as much as you want. I promise."
"Even so." Many adults he didn't know were going to have a hand in bringing up his child. "I want to see the Cooperative, the grounds, the guardians. the tutors, all of it."
She looked as if he had just asked her to eat Quis dice. "Visit the Cooperative?"
"Yes."
br /> "It would be an anomalous thing for a Calani to do."
He smiled. "I'm an anomalous Calani."
"I had better send an aide to warn them. Our visit will create a stir."
By Midday they were ready to leave. As they walked through the city, the wind fanned his Calanya robe out behind him. He had brought the Talha scarf he still sometimes wore, but he let it hang around his neck, enjoying the crisp breezes on his face.
I have an update. Bolt thought.
What's up? Kelric asked.
Nanomed series J just reached critical population. it is no longer in danger of becoming extinct.
Good work, Kelric thought. It had taken seven years to reestablish the series, but Bolt had done it. He glanced at Savina, watching the wind play with her curls. Since coming to Miesa, he had gradually been healing over the years, his depleted meds given a chance to renew by his improved lifestyle, which demanded less of their services. The same was true for his biomech web and Kyle senses. The gentle touch of Savina's mind was a balm bringing him health. He had no doubt that a scientific reason existed for her effect on him, a combination of the positive influences happiness was known to have on health and sympathetic resonances between his neural activity and hers. But he didn't care about reasons. All he knew was that he loved her.
An octet accompanied them on their walk; Savina obeyed to the letter the condition of his pardon, taking no chances that she would lose him back to prison. Miesa's citizens fell silent when he passed and children stopped their games to stare. Each person he looked at bowed to him.
"The city will hum with news tonight," Savina said as they crossed a plaza. "People will say, 'I saw him. The Fourth Level!' They will remember it for the rest of their lives."
"Not much to remember," he said.
She smiled. "To you, maybe not. To everyone else, it is."
The Cooperative was a circle of whitewashed houses facing on a courtyard. The cluster of women and men waiting for them in the yard looked like a handful of sky brought to the ground; all were white shirts and blue vests, with darker trousers tucked into sky-blue boots.