Seasons Of War Part 5

Maati stepped in, Eiah following him without asking or being asked. It was a wide room, not so grand as the palaces or so comfortable as the poet's house. A librarian's room, ink blocks stacked beside a low desk, chairs with wine-stained cloth on the arms and back, a small bronze brazier dusted with old ash. Maati waved Eiah off as she started to close the door.

'Let the place air out a bit,' he said. 'It's warm enough for it now. And what's your day been, Eiah-kya?'

'Father,' she said. 'He was in a mood to have a family, so I had to stay in the palaces all morning. He fell asleep after midday, and Mother said I could leave.'

'I'm surprised. I wasn't under the impression Otah slept anymore. He always seems hip-deep in running the city.'

Eiah shrugged, neither agreeing nor voicing her denial. She paced the length of the room, squinting out the door at nothing. Maati folded his hands together on his belly, considering her.

'Something's bothering you,' he said.

The girl shook her head, but the frown deepened. Maati waited until, with a quick, birdlike motion, Eiah turned to face him. She began to speak, stopped, and gathered herself visibly.

'I want to be married,' she said.

Maati blinked, coughed to give himself a moment to think, and leaned forward in his chair. The wood and cloth creaked slightly beneath him. Eiah stood, her arms crossed, her gaze on him in something almost like accusation.

'Who is the boy?' Maati said, regretting the word boy as soon as it left his mouth. If they were speaking of marriage, the least he could do was say man. But Eiah's impatient snort dismissed the question.

'I don't know,' she said. 'Whoever.'

'Anyone would do?'

'Not just anyone. I don't want to be tied to some low town firekeeper. I want someone good. And I should be able to. Father doesn't have any other daughters, and I know people have talked with him. But nothing ever happens. How long am I supposed to wait?'

Maati rubbed a palm across his cheeks. This was hardly a conversation he'd imagined himself having. He turned through half a hundred things he might say, approaches he might take, and felt a blush rising in his cheeks.

'You're young, Eiah-kya. I mean . . . I suppose it's natural enough for a young woman to . . . be interested in men. Your body is changing, and if I recall the age, there are certain feelings that it's . . .'

Eiah looked at him as if he'd coughed up a rat.

'Or perhaps I've misunderstood the issue,' he said.

'It's not that,' she said. 'I've kissed lots of boys.'

The blush wasn't growing less, but Maati resolved to ignore it.

'Ah,' he said. 'Well, then. If it's that you want apartments of your own, something outside the women's quarters, you could always-'

'Talit Radaani's being married to the third son of the Khai Pathai,' Eiah said, and then a heartbeat later, 'She's half a year younger than I am.'

It was like feeling a puzzle box click open in his fingers. He understood precisely what was happening, what it meant and didn't mean. He rubbed his palms against his knees and sighed.

'And she gloats about that, I'd bet,' he said. Eiah swiped at her betraying eyes with the back of a hand. 'After all, she's younger and lower in the courts. She must think that she's got proof that she's terribly special.'

Eiah shrugged.

'Or that you aren't,' Maati continued, keeping his voice gentle to lessen the sting of the words. 'That's what she thinks, isn't it?'

'I don't know what she thinks.'

'Well, then tell me what you think.'

'I don't know why he can't find me a husband. It isn't as if I'd have to leave. There's marriages that go on for years before anyone does anything. But it's understood. It's arranged. I don't see why he can't do that much for me.'

'Have you asked him?'

'He should know this,' Eiah snapped, pacing between the open door and the fire grate. 'He's the Khai Machi. He isn't stupid.'

'He also isn't . . .' Maati said and then bit down on the words a child. The woman Eiah thought she was would never stand for the name. 'He isn't fourteen summers old. It's not so hard for men like me and your father to forget what it was like to be young. And I'm sure he doesn't want to see you married yet, or even promised. You're his daughter, and . . . it's hard, Eiah-kya. It's hard losing your child.'

She stopped, her brow furrowed. In the trees just outside his door, a bird sang shrill and high and took flight. Maati could hear the fluttering of its wings.

'It's not losing me,' she said, but her voice was less certain than it had been. 'I don't die.'

'No. You don't, but you'll likely leave to be in your husband's city. There's couriers to carry messages back and forth, but once you've left, it's not likely you'll return in Otah's life, or Kiyan's. Or mine. It's not death, but it is still loss, dear. And we've all lost so much already, it's hard to look forward to another.'

'You could come with me,' Eiah said. 'My husband would take you in. He wouldn't be worth marrying if he wouldn't, so you could come with me.'

Maati allowed himself to chuckle as he rose from his seat.

'It's too big a world to plan for all that just yet,' he said, mussing Eiah's hair as he had when she'd been younger. 'When we come nearer, we'll see where things stand. I may not be staying here at all, depending on what the Dai-kvo thinks. I might be able to go back to his village and use his libraries.'

'Could I go there with you?'

'No, Eiah-kya. Women aren't allowed in the village. I know, I know. It isn't fair. But it isn't happening today, so why don't we walk to the kitchens and see if we can't talk them out of some sugar bread.'

They left his door open, leaving the spring air and sunlight to freshen the apartments. The path to the kitchens led them through great, arching halls and across pavilions being prepared for a night's dancing; great silken banners celebrated the warmth and light. In the gardens, men and women lay back, eyes closed, faces to the sky like flowers. Outside the palaces, Maati knew, the city was still alive with commerce - the forges and metalworkers toiling through the night, as they always did, preparing to ship the works of Machi. There was bronze, iron, silver and gold, and steel. And the hand-shaped stonework that could be created only here, under the inhuman power of Stone-Made-Soft. None of that work was apparent in the palaces. The utkhaiem seemed carefree as cats. Maati wondered again how much of that was the studied casualness of court life and how much was simple sloth.

At the kitchens, it was simple enough for the Khai's daughter and his permanent guest to get thick slices of sugar bread wrapped in stiff cotton cloth and a stone flask of cold tea. He told Eiah all of what had happened with Athai since she'd last come to the library, and about the Dai-kvo, and the andat, and the world as Maati had known it in the years before he'd come to Machi. It was a pleasure to spend the time with the girl, flattering that she enjoyed his own company enough to seek him out, and perhaps just the slightest bit gratifying that she would speak to him of things that Otah-kvo never heard from her.

They parted company as the quick spring sun came within a hand's width of the western mountains. Maati stopped at a fountain, washing his fingers in the cool waters, and considered the evening that lay ahead. He'd heard that one of the winter choirs was performing at a teahouse not far from the palaces - the long, dark season's work brought out at last to the light. The thought tempted, but perhaps not more than a book, a flask of wine, and a bed with thick wool blankets.

He was so wrapped up by the petty choice of pleasures that he didn't notice that the lanterns had been lit in his apartments or that a woman was sitting on his couch until she spoke.

4.

'Maati,' Liat said, and the man startled like a rabbit. For a long moment, his face was a blank confusion as he struggled to make sense of what he saw. Slowly, she watched him recognize her.

In all fairness, she might not have known him either, had she not sought him out. Time had changed him: thickened his body and thinned his hair. Even his face had changed shape, the smooth chin and jaw giving way to jowls, the eyes going narrower and darker. The lines around his mouth spoke of sadness and isolation. And anger, she thought.

She had known when she arrived that she'd found the right apartments. It hadn't been difficult to get directions to Machi's extra poet, and the door had been open. She'd scratched at the doorframe, called out his name, and when she'd stepped in, it was the scent that had been familiar. Certainly there had been other things - the way the scrolls were laid out, the ink stains on the arms of the chairs - that gave evidence to Maati's presence. The faintest hint, a wisp of musk slight as pale smoke, was the thing that had brought back the flood of memory. For a powerful moment, she saw again the small house she'd lived in after she and Maati had left Saraykeht; the yellow walls and rough, wooden floor, the dog who had lived in the street and only ever been half tamed by her offerings of sausage ends from the kitchen window, the gray spiders that had built their webs in the corners. The particular scent of her old lover's body brought back those rooms. She knew him better by that than to see him again in the flesh.

But perhaps that wasn't true. When he blinked fast and uncertainly, when his head leaned just slightly forward and a smile just began to bloom on his lips, she could see him there, beneath that flesh. The man she had known and loved. The man she'd left behind.

'Liat?' he said. 'You . . . you're here?'

She took a pose of affirmation, surprised to find her hands trembling. Maati stepped forward slowly, as if afraid a sudden movement might startle her into flight. Liat swallowed to loosen the knot in her throat and smiled.

'I would have written to warn you I was coming,' she said, 'but by the time I knew I was, I'd have raced the letter. I'm . . . I'm sorry if . . .'

But he touched her arm, his fingers on the cloth just above her elbow. His eyes were wide and amazed. As if it were natural, as if it had been a week or a day and not a third of their lives, Liat put her arms around him and felt him enclose her. She had told herself that she would hold back, be careful. She was the head of House Kyaan, a woman of business and politics. She knew how to be hardhearted and cool. There was no reason to think that she would be safe here in the farthest city from her home and facing again the two lovers of her childhood. The years had worked changes on them all, and she had parted with neither of them on good terms.

And yet the tears in her eyes were simple and sincere and as much joy as sorrow, and the touch of Maati's body against her own - strange and familiar both - wasn't awkward or unwelcome. She kissed his cheek and drew back enough to see his still wonder-filled face.

'Well,' she said at last. 'It's been a while. It's good to see you again, Maati-kya. I wasn't sure it would be, but it is.'

'I thought I'd never see you again,' he said. 'I thought, after all this time . . . My letters . . .'

'I got them, yes. And it's not as if court gossip didn't tell everyone in the world where you were. The last succession of Machi was the favorite scandal of the season. I even saw an epic made from it. The boy who took your part didn't look a thing like you,' she said, and then, in a lower voice, 'I meant to write back to you, even if it was only to tell you that I'd heard. That I knew. But somehow I never managed. I regret that. I've always regretted that. It only seemed so . . . complex.'

'I thought perhaps . . . I don't know. I don't know what I thought.'

She stood silently in his arms the s.p.a.ce of another breath, part of her wishing that this moment might suffice; that the relief she felt at Maati's simple, unconsidered acceptance might stand in for all that she had still to do. He sensed the change in her thoughts and stepped back, his hands moving restlessly. She smoothed her hair, suddenly aware of the streaks of gray at her temple.

'Can I get something for you?' Maati said. 'It's simple enough to call a servant in from the palaces. Or I have some distilled wine here.'

'Wine will do,' she said, and sat.

He went to a low cabinet beside the fire grate, sliding the wooden panel back and taking out two small porcelain bowls and a stoppered bottle as he spoke.

'I've had company recently. He's only just left. I don't usually live in this disorder.'

'I'm not sure I believe that,' she said, wryly. Maati chuckled and shrugged.

'Oh, I don't clean it myself. It would be a hundred times worse than this. Otah-kvo's been very kind in loaning me servants. He has more than he has places for.'

The name was like a cold breath, but Liat only smiled and accepted the bowl that Maati held out to her. She sipped the wine - strong, peppery, and warm in her throat - to give herself a moment. She wasn't ready yet for the pleasure to end.

'The world's changed on us,' she said. It was a plat.i.tude, but Maati seemed to take some deeper meaning from it.

'It has,' he said. 'And it'll keep on changing, I think. When I was a boy, I never imagined myself here, and I can't say for certain what I'll be doing when next summer comes. The new Dai-kvo . . .'

He shook his head slowly and sipped his wine for what Liat guessed was much the same reason she had. The silence between them grew. Maati cleared his throat.

'How is Nayiit?' he asked, careful, Liat noticed, to use the boy's name. Not our son, but Nayiit.

She told him about the work of House Kyaan, and Nayiit's role as an overseer. The stories of how he had made the transition from the child of the head of the house to an overseer in his own right. His courtship, his marriage, the child. Maati closed the door, lit a fire in the grate, and listened.

It was odd that of all the subjects she had to bring to the table, Nayiit should be the easiest. And Maati listened to it all, laughing or rapt, delighted and also sorrowful, longing to have been part of something that was already gone. Her words were like rain in a desert; he absorbed them, cherished them. She found herself searching for more - anecdotes of Nayiit and his friends, his early lovers, the city, anything. She searched for them and offered them up, part apology, part sacrifice. The candles had grown visibly shorter before he asked whether Nayiit had stayed in Saraykeht, and Liat reluctantly shook her head.

'I've left him at the wayhouse,' she said. 'I wasn't certain how this would go, between us. I didn't want him to be here if it was bad.'

Maati's hands started to move toward some pose - a denial, perhaps - then faltered. His eyes locked on hers. There were decades in them. She felt tears welling up.

'I'm sorry,' she said. 'If that's worth anything, I am sorry, Maati-kya.'

'For what?' he asked, and his tone said that he could imagine a number of answers.

'That you weren't a part of his life until now.'

'It was my choice as much as yours. And it will be good to see him again.'

He heaved a sigh and pressed the stopper back into the bottle's neck. The sun was long gone, and a cold breeze, thick with the perfume of night-flowering gardens, raised b.u.mps on her arms. Only the air. Not dread.

'You haven't asked me why I've come,' she said.

He chuckled and leaned back against his couch. His cheeks were ruddy from the candlelight and wine. His eyes seemed to glitter.

'I was pretending it was for me. Mending old wounds, making peace,' Maati said. The anger she'd seen was there now, swimming beneath the pleasant, joking surface. She wondered if she'd waited too long to come to the issue. She should have asked before she'd told him Nayiit was in the city, before the sour memories came back.

Maati took a pose of query, inviting her to share her true agenda.

'I need your help,' Liat said. 'I need an audience with the Khai.'

'You want to talk to Otah-kvo? You don't need my help for that. You could just-'

'I need you to help me convince him. To argue my case with me. We have to convince him to intercede with the Dai-kvo.'

Maati's eyes narrowed, and his head tilted like that of a man considering a puzzle. Liat felt herself starting to blush. She'd had too much of the wine, and her control wasn't all it should be.

'Intercede with the Dai-kvo?' he said.

'I've been following the world. And the Galts. It was what Amat Kyaan built the house to do. I have decades of books and ledgers. I've made note of every contract they've made in the summer cities. I know every ship that sails past, what her captain's name is, and half the time, what cargo she carries. I know, Maati. I've seen them scheming. I've even blocked them a time or two.'

'They had hands in the succession here too. They were backing the woman, Otah-kvo's sister. Anything you want to say about Galt, he'll half-believe before he's heard it. But how is the Dai-kvo part of it?'

'They won't do it without the Dai-kvo,' Liat said. 'He has to say it's the right thing, or they won't do it.'

'Who won't do what?' Maati said, impatience growing in his voice.

'The poets,' Liat said. 'They have to kill the Galts. And they have to do it now.'

Otah presented the meeting as a luncheon, a social gathering of old friends. He chose a balcony high in the palace looking out over the wide air to the south. The city lay below them, streets paved in black stone, tile and metal roofs pointing sharply at the sky. The towers rose above, only sun and clouds hanging higher. The wind was thick with the green, permeating scent of spring and the darker, acrid forge smoke. Between them, the low stone table was covered with plates - bread and cheese and salt olives, honeyed almonds and lemon trout and a sweetbread topped with sliced oranges. The G.o.ds alone knew where the kitchen had found a fresh orange.

Yet of all those present none of them ate.

Maati had made the introductions. Liat and Nayiit and Otah and Kiyan. The young man, Liat's son, had taken all the appropriate poses, said all the right phrases, and then taken position standing behind his mother like a bodyguard. Maati leaned against the stone banister, the sky at his back. Otah - formal, uneased, and feeling more the Khai Machi than ever under the anxious gaze of woman who had been his lover in his youth - took a pose of query, and Liat shared the news that changed the world forever: the Galts had a poet of their own.

'His name is Riaan Vaudathat,' Liat said. 'He was the fourth son of a high family in the courts of Nantani. His father sent him to the school when he was five.'

'This was well after our time,' Maati said to Otah. 'Neither of us would have known him. Not from there.'