handwork. "You needn't tell me the sky is blue."
The servant girl flushed, her hands fluttering toward three different
poses at once and achieving none of them. Hiami regretted her words and
put down the knotting, taking a gentle pose of command.
"Bring her here. And something comfortable for her to sit on."
The servant took a pose of acknowledgment, grateful, it seemed, to know
what response to make, and scampered off. And then Idaan was there.
Hardly twenty, she could have been one of Hiami's own daughters. Not a
beauty, but it took a practiced eye to know that. Her hair, pitch dark,
was pleated with strands of silver and gold. Her eyes were touched with
paints, her skin made finer and paler than it really was by powder. Her
robes, blue silk embroidered with gold, flattered her hips and the swell
of her breasts. To a man or a younger woman, Idaan might have seemed the
loveliest woman in the city. Hiami knew the difference between talent
and skill, but of the pair, she had greater respect for skill, so the
effect was much the same.
They each took poses of greeting, subtly different to mark Idaan's blood
relation to the Khai and Hiami's greater age and her potential to become
someday the first wife of the Khai Machi. The servant girl trotted in
with a good chair, placed it silently, and retreated. Hiami halted her
with a gesture and motioned to the singing slave. The servant girl took
a pose of obedience and led him off with her.
Hiami smiled and gestured toward the seat. Idaan took a pose of thanks
much less formal than her greeting had been and sat.
"Is my brother here?" she asked.
"No. There was a problem at one of the mines. I imagine he'll be there
for the day."
Idaan frowned, but stopped short of showing any real disapproval. All
she said was, "It must seem odd for one of the Khaiem to be slogging
through tunnels like a common miner."
"Men have their enthusiasms," Hiami said, smiling slightly. Then she
sobered. "Is there news of your father?"
Idaan took a pose that was both an affirmation and a denial.
"Nothing new, I suppose," the dark-haired girl said. "The physicians are
watching him. He kept his soup down again last night. That makes almost
ten days in a row. And his color is better."
"But?"
"But he's still dying," Idaan said. Her tone was plain and calm as if
she'd been talking about a horse or a stranger. Hiami put down her
thread, the half-finished scarf in a puddle by her ankles. The knot she
felt in the back of her throat was dread. The old man was dying, and the
thought carried its implications with it-the time was growing short.
Biitrah, Danat, and Kaiin Machi-the three eldest sons of the Khaihad
lived their lives in something as close to peace as the sons of the
Khaiem ever could. Utah, the Khai's sixth son, had created a small storm
all those years ago by refusing to take the brand and renounce his claim
to his father's chair, but he had never appeared. It was assumed that he
had forged his path elsewhere or died unknown. Certainly he had never
caused trouble here. And now every time their father missed his howl of
soup, every night his sleep was troubled and restless, the hour drew
nearer when the peace would have to break.
"How are his wives?" Hiami asked.
"Well enough," Idaan said. "Or some of them are. The two new ones from
Nantani and Pathai are relieved, I think. They're younger than I am, you
know."
"Yes. They'll be pleased to go back to their families. It's harder for
the older women, you know. Decades they've spent here. Going back to
cities they hardly remember ..."
Hiami felt her composure slip and clenched her hands in her lap. ldaan's
gaze was on her. Hiami forced a simple pose of apology.
"No. I'm sorry," Idaan said, divining, Hiami supposed, all the fear in
her heart from her gesture. Hiami's lovely, absent-minded, warm, silly
husband and lover might well die. All his string and carved wood models
and designs might fall to disuse, as abandoned by his slaughter as she
would be. If only he might somehow win. If only he might kill his own
brothers and let their wives pay this price, instead of her.
"It's all right, dear," Hiami said. "I can have him send a messenger to
VOL] when he returns if you like. It may not he until morning. If he
thinks the problem is interesting, he might be even longer."
"And then he'll want to sleep," Idaan said, half smiling, "and I might
not see or hear from him for days. And by then I'll have found some
other way to solve my problems, or else have given tip entirely."
Hiami had to chuckle. The girl was right, and somehow that little shared
intimacy made the darkness more bearable.
"Perhaps I can be of some use, then," Hiami said. "What brings you here,
sister?"
To Hiami's surprise, ldaan blushed, the real color seeming slightly
false under her powder.
"I've ... I wanted 13iitrah to speak to our father. About Adrah. Adrah
Vaunyogi. He and I ..."
"Ah," Hiami said. "I see. Have you missed a month?"
It took a moment for the girl to understand. I Ier blush deepened.
"No. It's not that. It's just that I think he may be the one. He's from
a good family," Idaan said quickly, as if she were already defending
him. "They have interests in a trading house and a strong bloodline and..."
Hiami took a pose that silenced the girl. Idaan looked down at her
hands, but then she smiled. The horrified, joyous smile of new love
discovered. Hiami remembered how once it had felt, and her heart broke
again.
"I will talk to him when he comes back, no matter how dearly he wants
his sleep," Hiami said.
"Thank you, Sister," Idaan said. "I should ... I should go."
"So soon?"
"I promised Adrah I'd tell him as soon as I spoke to my brother. He's
waiting in one of the tower gardens, and ..
Idaan took a pose that asked forgiveness, as if a girl needed to be
forgiven for wanting to he with a lover and not a woman her mother's age
knotting silk to fight the darkness in her heart. Hiami took a pose that
accepted the apology and released her. Idaan grinned and turned to go.
Just as the blue and gold of her robe was about to vanish through the
doorway, Hiami surprised herself by calling out.
"Does he make you laugh?"
Idaan turned, her expression questioning. Hiami's mind flooded again