"something has to be done," torish wite said. "she went into the street yesterday. if she'd been mistaken for a whore, there's no knowing how she'd have responded. and given the restraint she's managed so far, we could have had the watch coming down our throats. we can't have that."

her rooms were dark, the windows and wide doors covered with tapestries that held in the heat as well as blocking the light. downstairs, the girls and the children were all sleeping - even mitat, even maj. only not amat or torish. she ached to rest, only not quite yet.

"i'm aware of what we can and cannot have," amat said. "i'll see to it."

the thug, the murderer, the captain of her personal guard shook his head. his expression was grim.

"with all respect, grandmother," he said. "but you've sung that song before. the island girl's trouble. another stern talking to isn't going to do more than the last one did."

amat drew herself up, anger filling her chest partly because she knew what he said was true. she took a pose of query.

"i had not known this was your house to run," she said.

torish shook his wide, bear-like head again, his eyes cast down in something like regret or shame.

"it's your house," he said. "but they're my men. if you're going to be putting them on the wrong side of the watch, there isn't enough silver in the soft quarter to keep them here. i'm sorry."

"you'd break contracts?"

"no. but i won't renew. not on those terms. this is one of the best contracts we've had, but i won't take a fight i know we can't win. you put that girl on a leash, or we can't stay with you. and - truly, with all respect - you need us."

"she lost a child last summer," amat said.

"bad things happen," torish wite said, his voice surprisingly gentle. "you move past them."

he was right, of course, and that was the galling thing. in his position, she would have done the same. amat took a pose of acceptance.

"i understand your position, torish-cha. i'll see to it that maj doesn't endanger your men or your contract with me. give me a day or so, and i'll see it done."

he nodded, turned, left her rooms. he had the grace not to ask what it was she intended. she wouldn't have been able to say. amat rose, took her cane, and walked out the doors to her deck. the rain had stopped, the whole great bowl of the sky white as bleached cotton. seagulls screamed to one another, wheeling over the rooftops. she took a deep breath and let herself weep. the tears were as much about exhaustion as anything else, and they brought her no relief.

between the late hour of the morning and the rain that had fallen all the last day and through the night, the streets of the soft quarter were near deserted. the two boys, then, who came around the corner together caught her attention. the older was broad across the shoulders - a sailor or a laborer - with a long, northern face and a robe of formal cut. the younger boy at his side - smaller, softer - wore the brown robes of a poet. amat knew as they stepped into the street that there would even now be no rest for her. she watched them until they came too near the comfort house to see without leaning over into the street, then went inside and composed herself. it took longer than she'd expected for the guard to come and announce them. perhaps torish-cha had seen how tired she felt.

the older boy proved to be itani noyga, liat's vanished lover. the younger, of course, was the young poet maati. amat, seated at her desk, took a pose of welcome and gestured to chairs she'd had brought in for them. both boys sat. it was an interesting contrast, the pair or them. both were clearly in earnest, both wore expressions of perfect seriousness, but itani's eyes reminded her more of her own - focused out, on her, on the room, searching, it seemed, for something. the poet boy was like his master - brooding, turned inward. like his master, or like marchat wilsin. amat put her hand on her knees and leaned a degree forward.

"and what business brings you young gentlemen?" she asked. her tone was light and pleasant and gave nothing away. her subtlety was lost on them, though. the older boy, itani, clearly wasn't looking to finesse an advantage.

"amat-cha," he said. "i'm told you hope to prove that the high council of galt conspired with the andat seedless when he killed the child out of the island girl last summer."

"i'm investigating the matter," amat said, "and i've broken with house wilsin, but i don't know that it's fair to say the galtic council must therefore be ..."

"amat-cha," the poet boy, maati, broke in. "someone tried to kill liat chokavi. marchat wilsin is keeping it quiet, but i was there. and ... itani thinks it was something to do with you and house wilsin."

amat felt her breath catch. marchat, the old idiot, was panicking. liat chokavi was his best defense, if he could trust her to say the right things before the khai. except that he couldn't. she was too young, and too unskilled at these games. it was why he had used her in the first place. something like nausea swept through her.

"it may have been," amat said. "how is she?"

"recovering in the khai's palaces," itani said. "but she's doing well. she'll be able to go back to her house tomorrow. wilsin-cha will expect her."

"no," amat said. "she can't go back there."

"it's true, then," itani said, his voice somber. perhaps he had a talent for finesse after all. amat took a pose of acknowledgment.

"i wasn't able to stop the crime against maj from happening, but yes. house wilsin knew of the deceit. i believe that the galtic council did as well, though i can't prove that as yet. that i think it is hardly a great secret, though. anyone might guess as much. that i'm right in thinking it ... is more difficult."

"protect liat," maati said, "and whatever we can do for you, we will."

"itani-cha? are those your terms as well?"

"yes," the boy said.

"it may mean speaking before the khai. telling him where you went the night you acted as wilsin-cha's bodyguard."

itani hesitated, then took a pose of acceptance.

amat sat back, one hand up, requesting a moment to herself. this wasn't something she'd foreseen, but it might be what she'd needed. if the young poet could influence heshai or find some scrap of memory from the negotiations that showed marchat wilsin knew that all wasn't what it seemed ... but there was something more in this - she could feel it as sure as the tide. one piece here didn't fit.

"itani-cha's presence i understand," amat said. "what is the poet's interest in liat chokavi."

"she's my friend," maati said, his chin lifted a fraction higher than before. his eyes seemed to defy her.

ah! she thought. so that's how it is. she wondered how far that had gone and whether itani knew. not that it made any difference to her or to what was called for next.

liat. it had always been a mess, of course, what to do with liat. on the one hand, she might have been able to help amat's case, add some telling detail that would show mar-chat had known of the translator oshai's duplicity. on the other hand, pulling the girl into it was doing her no favors. amat had thought about it since she'd come to the house, but without coming to any conclusions. now the decision was forced on her.

liat could room with maj, amat supposed, except that the arrangement had the ring of disaster. but she couldn't put her out with the whores. perhaps a cot in her own rooms, or an apartment in one of the low towns. with a guard, of course... .

later. that could all come later. amat rose. the boys stood.

"bring her here," she said. "tonight. don't let wilsin-cha know what you're doing. don't tell her until you have to. i'll see her safe from there. you can trust me to do it."

"thank you, amat-cha," itani said. "but if this business is going to continue ... i don't want to burden you with this if it's something you don't want to carry forever. this investigation might go on for years, no?"

"gods, i hope not," amat said. "but i promise you, even if it does, i'll see it finished. whatever it costs, i will bring this to light."

"i believe you," itani said.

amat paused, there was a weight to the boy's tone that made her think he'd expected to hear that. she had confirmed something he already suspected, and she wondered what precisely it had been. she had no way to know.

she called in torish-cha, introduced the boys and let them speak until the plans had been made clear. the girl would come that night, just after sundown, to the rear of the house. two of torish's men would meet them at the edge of the palace grounds to be sure nothing odd happened along the way. itani would go along as well, and explain the situation. amat sent them away just before midday, easing herself into bed after they left, and letting her eyes close at last. any fear she had that the day's troubles would keep her awake was unfounded - sleep rolled over her like a wave. she woke hours later, the falling sun shining into her eyes through a gap where one of her tapestries had slipped.

she called mitat up for the briefing that opened the day. the red-haired woman came bearing a bowl of stewed beef and rice and a flask of good red wine. amat sat at her desk and ate while mitat spoke - the tiles man thought he knew how the table was being cheated and should know for certain by the end of the night, little namya had a rash on his back that needed to be looked at by a physician but chiyan was recovering well from her visit to the street of beads and would be back to work within a few more days. two of the girls had apparently run off, and mitat was preparing to hire on replacements. amat listened to each piece, fitting it into the vast complexity that her life had become.

"torish-cha sent his men out to recover the girl you discussed with him this morning," mitat went on. "they should be back soon."

"i'll need a cot for her," amat said. "you can put it in my rooms, against the wall there."

mitat took a pose of acknowledgment. there was something else in it, though, a nuance that amat caught as much from a hint of a smile as the pose itself. and then she saw mitat realize that she'd noticed something, and the redhaired woman broke into a grin.

"what?" amat asked.

"the other business," mitat said. "about maj and the galts? i had a man come by from a hired laborers' house asking if you were only paying for information about this island girl, or if you wanted to know about the other one too."

amat stopped chewing.

"the other one?" amat asked.

"the one oshai brought in last year."

amat took a moment, sitting back, as the words took time to make sense. in the darkness of her exhaustion, hope flickered. hope and relief.

"there was another one?"

"i thought you might find that interesting," mitat said.

maati sat on the wooden steps of the poet's house, staring out at trees black and bare as sticks, at the dark water of the pond, at the ornate palaces of the khai with lanterns glittering like fireflies. night had fallen, but the last rays of sunlight still lingered in the west. his face and hands were cold, his body hunched forward, pulled into itself. but he didn't go into the warmth of the house behind him. he had no use for comfort.

otah and liat had left just before sunset. they might, he supposed, be in the soft quarter by now. he imagined them walking briskly through the narrow streets, otah's arm across her shoulder protectively. otah-kvo would be able to keep her safe. maati's own presence would have been redundant, unneeded.

behind him, the small door scraped open. maati didn't turn. the slow, lumbering footsteps were enough for him to know it was his teacher and not seedless.

"there's chicken left," heshai-kvo said. "and the bread's good."

"thank you. perhaps later," maati said.

grunting with the effort, the poet lowered himself onto the step beside maati, looking out with him over the bare landscape as it fell into darkness. maati could hear the old poet's wheezing breath over the calling of crows.

"is she doing well?" heshai asked.

"i suppose so."

"she'll be going back to her house soon. wilsin-cha ..."

"she's not going back to him," maati said. "the old overseer - amat kyaan - is taking her up."

"so house wilsin loses another good woman. he won't like that," heshai said, then shrugged. "serves the old bastard right for not treating them better, i'd guess."

"i suppose."

"i see your friend the laborer's back."

maati didn't answer. he was only cold, inside and out. heshai glanced over at him and sighed. his thick-fingered hand patted maati's knee the way his father's might have had the world been something other than it was. maati felt tears welling unbidden in his eyes.

"come inside, my boy," the poet said. "i'll warm us up a little wine."

maati let himself be coaxed back in. with heshai-kvo recovered, the house was slipping back into the mess it had been when he'd first come. books and scrolls lay open on the tables and the floor beside the couches. an inkblock hollowed with use stained the desk where it sat directly on the wood. maati squatted by the fire, looking into the flames as he had the darkness, and to much the same effect.

behind him, heshai moved through the house, and soon the rich scent of wine and mulling spices began to fill the place. maati's belly rumbled, and he forced himself up, walking over to the table where the remains of the evening meal waited for him. he pulled a greasy drumstick from the chicken carcass and considered it. heshai sat across from him and handed him a thick slice of black bread. maati sketched a pose of gratitude. heshai filled a thick earthenware cup with wine and passed it to him. the wine, when he drank it, was clean and rich and warmed his throat.

"full week coming," heshai-kvo said. "there's a dinner with the envoys of cetani and udun tomorrow i thought we should attend. and then a religious scholar's talking down at the temple the day after that. if you wanted to ..."

"if you'd like, heshai-kvo," maati said.

"i wouldn't really," the poet said. "i've always thought religious scholars were idiots."

the old poet's face was touched by mischief, a little bit delighted with his own irreverence. maati could see just a hint of what heshai-kvo had looked like as a young man, and he couldn't help smiling back, if only slightly. heshaikvo clapped a hand on the table.

"there!" he said. "i knew you weren't beyond reach."

maati shook his head, taking a pose of thanks more intimate and sincere than he'd used to accept the offered food. heshai-kvo replied with one that an uncle might offer to a nephew. maati stirred himself. this was as good a time as any, and likely better than most.

"is seedless here?" maati asked.

"what? no. no, i suppose he's out somewhere showing everyone how clever he is," heshai-kvo said bitterly. "i know i ought to keep him closer, but that torture box ..."

"no, that's good. there was something i needed to speak with you about, but i didn't want him nearby."

the poet frowned, but nodded maati on.

"it's about the island girl and what happened to her. i think ... heshai, that wasn't only what it seemed. marchat wilsin knew about it. he arranged it because the galtic high council told him to. and amat kyaan - the one liat's gone to stay with - she's getting the proof of it together to take before the khai."

the poet's face went white and then flushed red. the wide frog-lips pursed, and he shook his wide head. he seemed both angry and resigned.

"that's what she says?" he asked. "this overseer?"

"not only her," maati said.

"well, she's wrong," the poet said. "that isn't how it happened."

"heshai-kvo, i think it is."

"it's not," the poet said and stood. his expression was closed. he walked to the fire, warming his hands with his back to maati. the burning wood crackled and spat. maati, putting down the still-uneaten bread, turned to him.

"amat kyaan isn't the only - "

"they're all wrong, then. think about it for a moment, maati. just think. if it had been the high council of galt behind the blasted thing, what would happen? if the khai saw it proved? he'd punish them. and how'd you think he'd do it?"

"the khai would use you and seedless against them," maati said.

"yes, and what good would come of that?"

maati took a pose of query, but heshai didn't turn to see it. after a moment, he let his hands fall. the firelight danced and flickered, making the poet seem almost as if he were part of the flame. maati walked toward him.

"it's the truth," he said.

"doesn't matter if it is," heshai-kvo said. "there are punishments worse than the crimes. what happened, happened. there's nothing to be gotten by holding onto it now."

"you don't believe that," maati said, and his voice was harder than he'd expected it to be. heshai-kvo shifted, turned. his eyes were dry and calm.

"there's nothing that will put life back into that child," heshai-kvo said. "what could possibly be gained by trying?"

"there's justice," maati said, and heshai laughed. it was a disturbing sound, more anger than mirth. heshai-kvo stood and moved toward him. without thinking maati stepped back.

"justice? gods, boy, you want justice? we have larger problems than that, you and i. getting through another year without one of these small gods flooding a city or setting the world on fire. that's important. keeping the city safe. playing court politics so that the khaiem never decide to take each other's toys and women by force. and you want to add justice to all that? i've sacrificed my life to a world that wouldn't care less about me as a man if you paid it. you and i, both of us were cut off from our brothers and sisters. that boy from udun who we saw in the court was slaughtered by his own brother and we all applauded him for doing it. am i supposed to punish him too?"

"you're supposed to do what's right," maati said.

heshai-kvo took a dismissive pose.

"what we do is bigger than right and wrong," he said. "if the dai-kvo didn't make that clear to you, consider it your best lesson from me."

"i can't think that," maati said. "if we don't push for justice ..."

heshai-kvo's expression darkened. he took a pose appropriate to asking guidance from the holy, his stance a sarcasm. maati swallowed, but held his ground.

"you love justice?" heshai asked. "it's harder than stone, boy. love it if you want. it won't love you."

"i can't think that - "

"tell me you're never transgressed," heshai interrupted, his voice harsh. "never stolen food from the kitchens, never lied to a teacher. tell me you've never bedded another man's woman."

maati felt something shift in him, profound as a bone breaking, but painless. his ears hummed with something like bees. he took the corner of the table and lifted. food, wine, papers, books all spilled together to the ground. he took a chair and tossed it aside, scooped up the winebowl with a puddle of redness still swirling in its curve and threw it against the wall. it shattered with a loud, satisfying pop. the poet looked at him, mouth gaping as if maati had just grown wings.

and then, quickly as it had come, the rage was gone, and maati sank to his knees like a puppet with its strings cut. sobs wracked him, as violent as being sick. maati was only half-aware of the poet's footsteps as he came near, as he bent down. the thick arms cradled him, and maati held heshai-kvo's wide frame and cried into the brown folds of his cloak while the poet rocked him and whispered i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry.

it felt like it would go on forever, like the river of pain could run and run and run and never go dry. it wasn't true - in time exhaustion as much as anything else stilled him. maati sat beside his master, the overturned table beside them. the fire had burned low while he wasn't watching it - embers glowed red and gold among ashes still standing in the shapes of the wood they'd once been.

"well," maati said at last, his voice thick, "i've just made an ass of myself, haven't i?"

heshai-kvo chuckled, recognizing the words. maati, despite himself, smiled.

"a decent first effort, at least," heshai-kvo said. "you'll get better with time. i didn't mean to do that to you, you know. it was unfair bringing liat-kya into it. it's only that ... the island girl ... if i'd done better work when i first fashioned seedless, it wouldn't have happened. i just don't want things getting worse. i want it over with."

"i know," maati said.

they were silent for a time. the embers cooled a shade, the ashes crumbled.

"they say there's two women you don't get past," heshaikvo said. "your first love and your first sex. and then, if it turns out to be the same girl ..."

"it is," maati said.

"yes," heshai said. "it was the same for me. her name was ariat miu. she had the most beautiful voice i've ever heard. i don't know where she is now."

maati leaned over and put his arm around heshai as if they were drinking companions. heshai nodded as if maati had spoken. he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"well, we'd best get this cleaned up before the servants see it. stoke the fire, would you? i'll get some candles burning. night's coming on too early these days."

"yes, heshai-kvo," maati said.

"and maati? you know i won't tell anyone about this, don't you?"

maati took a pose of acknowledgment. in the dim light he couldn't be sure that heshai had seen it, so he let his hands fall and spoke.

"thank you," he said into the dark.

they walked slowly, hampered by liat's wounds. the two mercenaries walked one before and one behind, and otah walked at her side. at first, near the palaces, he had put his arm around her waist, thinking that it would be a comfort. her body told him, though, that it wasn't. her shoulder, her arm, her ribs - they were too tender to be touched and otah found himself oddly glad. it freed him to watch the doorways and alleys, rooftops and food carts and firekeepers' kilns more closely.

the air smelled of wood smoke from a hundred hearths. a cool, thick mist too dense to be fog, too insubstantial to be rain, slicked the stones of the road and the walls of the houses. in her oversized woolen cloak, liat might have been anyone. otah found himself half-consciously flexing his hands, as if preparing for an attack that never came.

when they reached the edge of the soft quarter, passing by the door of amat kyaan's now-empty apartments, liat motioned to stop. the two men looked to otah and then each other, their expressions professional and impatient, but they paused.

"are you all right?" otah asked, his head bent close to the deep cowl of liat's cloak. "i could get you water ..."

"no," she said. then, a moment later. " 'tani, i don't want to go there."

"where?" he asked, his fingertips touching her bound arm.

"to amat kyaan. i've done everything so badly. and i can't think she really wants me there. and ..."

"sweet," otah said. "she'll keep you safe. until we know what's ..."

liat looked at him directly. her shadowed face showed her impatience and her fear.

"i didn't say i wouldn't," she said. "only that i don't want it."

otah leaned close, kissing her gently on the lips. her good hand held him close.

"don't leave me," she said, hardly more than a whisper.

"where would i go," he said, his tone gentle to hide that his answer was also a question. she smiled, slight and brave, and nodded. liat held his hand in hers for the rest of the way.

the soft quarter never knew a truly quiet night. the lanterns lit the streets with the dancing shadows of a permanent fire. music came from the opened doors of the houses: drums and flutes, horns and voices. twice they passed houses with balconies that overlooked the street with small groups of underdressed, chilly whores leaning over the rails like carcasses at a butcher's. the wealth of saraykeht, richest and most powerful of the southern cities, eddied and swirled around them. otah found himself neither aroused nor disturbed, though he thought perhaps he should be.

they reached the comfort house, going through an iron-bound doorway in a tall stone wall, through a sad little garden that separated the kitchens from the main house, and then into the common room. it was alive with activity. the red-haired woman, mitat, and amat had covered the long common tables with papers and scrolls. the island girl, maj, paced behind them, gnawing impatiently at a thumbnail. as the two guards who'd accompanied them moved deeper into the house greeting other men similarly armed and armored, otah noticed two young boys, one in the colors of house yanaani, the other wearing the badge of the seafront's custom house, waiting impatiently. messengers. something had happened.

amat's closer than she knows. there isn't much time.

"liat-kya," amat said, raising one hand in a casual greeting. "come here. i've something i want to ask you."

liat walked forward, and otah followed her. there was a light in amat's eyes - something like triumph. amat embraced liat gently, and otah saw the tears in liat's eyes as she held her old master with one uninjured arm.

"i'm sorry," amat said. "i though you'd be safe. and there was so much that needed doing, that ... i didn't understand the situation deeply enough. i should have warned you."

"honored teacher," liat said, and then had no more words. amat's smile was warm as summer sunlight.

"you know maj, of course. this is mitat, and that brute against that wall is torish wite, my master of guard."

when maj spoke, she spoke the khaiate tongue. her accent was thick but not so much that otah couldn't catch her words.

"i didn't think i was to be seeing you again."

liat's smile went thin.

"you speak very well, maj-cha."

"i am waiting for weeks here," maj said, coolly. "what else do i do?"

amat looked over. otah saw the woman called mitat glance up at her, then at the island girl, then away. tension quieted the room, and for a moment, even the messengers stopped fidgeting and stared.

"she's come to help," amat said.

"she is come because you called her," maj said. "because she needs you."

"we need each other," amat said, command in her voice. she drew herself to her full height, and even leaning on her cane, she seemed to fill the room. "she's come because i wanted her to come. we have almost everything we need. without her, we aren't ready."

maj stared at amat, then slowly turned and took a pose of greeting as awkward as a child's. otah saw the flush in the pale cheeks, the brightness of her eyes, and understood. maj was drunk. amat gathered liat close to the table, peppering her with questions about dates and shipping orders, and what exactly oshai and wilsin-cha had said and when. otah sat at the table, near enough to hear, near enough to watch, but not a part of the interrogation.

for a moment, he felt invisible. the intensity and excitement, desperation and controlled violence around him became like an epic on a stage. he saw it all from outside. when, unconsciously, he met the island girl's gaze, she smiled at him and nodded - a wordless, informal, unmistakable gesture; a recognition between strangers. she, with her imperfect knowledge of language and custom, couldn't truly be a part of the conspiracy now coming near to full bloom before them. he, by contrast, could not because he still heard seedless laying the consequences of amat's success before him - liat may be killed, innocent blood will wash galt, maati will suffer to the end of his days, i will betray you to your family - and that private knowledge was like an infection. every step that amat made brought them one step nearer that end.

and to his unease, otah found that his refusal of the andat was not so certain a thing as he had thought it.

for nearly a quarter candle, amat and mitat, liat and sometimes even torish wite chewed and argued. the messengers were questioned, the letters they bore added to the growing stacks, and they were sent away with amat's replies tucked in their sleeves. otah listened and watched as the arguments to be presented before the khai saraykeht became clearer. proofs of billing, testimonies, collisions of dates and letters from galt, and maj - witness and centerpiece - to stand as the symbol of it all. and then the whole web of coincidence repeated a year earlier with some other girl who had taken fright, the story said, and escaped. there was no proof - no evidence which in itself showed anything. but like tile chips in a mosaic, the facts related to one another in a way that demanded a grim interpretation.

and only so much proof, of course, was required. amat's evidence need only capture the imagination of the -->>

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