whether Adrah would age into the same loose jowls and watery eyes. "I've
finally reached the Galts. They've cooled. Killing Oshai's made them
nervous, and now with Danat back ... we expected to have the fighting
between your brothers to cover our ... our work. There's no hope of that
now. And that poet hasn't stopped hunting around, even with the holes
Oshai poked in him."
""The more reason you have to be distressed," Idaan said, "the more
important that you should not seem it. Besides, I still have two living
brothers."
"Ah, and you have some way to make Danat die at Otah's hand?" the old
man said. There was mockery in his voice, but there was also hope. And
fear. He had seen what she had done, and perhaps now he thought her
capable of anything. She supposed that would be something worthy of his
hope and fear.
"I don't have the details. But, yes. The longer we wait, the more
suspicious it will look when Danat and the poet die."
"You still want Maati Vaupathai dead?" Daaya asked.
"Otah is locked away, and the poet's digging. Maati Vaupathai isn't
satisfied to blame the upstart for everything, even if the whole city
besides him is. There are three breathing men between Adrah and my
father's chair. Danat, Otah, and the poet. I'll need armsmen, though, to
do what I intend. How many could you put together? They would have to he
men you trust."
Daaya looked at his son, as if expecting to find some answer there, but
Adrah neither spoke nor moved. He might very nearly not have been there
at all. Idaan swallowed her impatience and leaned forward, her palms
spread on the cool stone of the table. One of the candles sputtered and
spat.
"I know a man. A mercenary lord. He's done work for me before and kept
quiet," Daaya said at last. He didn't seem certain.
"We'll free the upstart and slit the poet's throat," Idaan said. "There
won't be any question who's actually done the thing. No sane person
would doubt that it was Otah's hand. And when Danat rides out to find
him, our men will be ready to ride with him. That will be the dangerous
part. You'll have to find a way to get him apart from anyone else who goes.
"And the upstart?" Daaya asked.
"He'll go where we tell him to go. We'll just have saved him, after all.
't'here will be no reason to think we mean him harm. They'll all be dead
in time for the wedding, and if we do it well, the joy that is our
bonding will put us as the clear favorites to take the chair. That
should be enough to push the Galts into action. Adrah will be Khai
before the harvest."
Idaan leaned hack, smiling in grim satisfaction. It was Adrah who broke
the silence, his voice calm and sure and unlike him.
"It won't work."
Idaan began to take a pose of challenge, but she hesitated when she saw
his eyes. Adrah had gone cold as winter. It wasn't fear that drove him,
whatever his father's weakness. There was something else in him, and
Idaan felt a stirring of unease.
"I can't sec why not," Idaan said, her voice still strong and sure.
"Killing the poet and freeing Otah would be simple enough to manage. But
the other. No. It supposes that Danat would lead the hunt himself. He
wouldn't. And if he doesn't, the whole thing falls apart. It won't work."
"I say that he would," Idaan said.
"And I say that your history planning these schemes isn't one that
inspires confidence," Adrah said and stood. The candlelight caught his
face at an angle, casting shadows across his eyes. Idaan rose, feeling
the blood rushing into her face.
"I was the one who saved us when Oshai fell," she said. "You two were
mewling like kittens, and crying despair-"
"That's enough," Adrah said.
"I don't recall you being in a position to order me when to speak and
when to he silent."
Daaya coughed, looking from one to the other of them like a lamb caught
between wolf and lion. The smile that touched Adrah's mouth was thin and
unamused.
"Idaan-kya," Adrah said, "I am to be your husband and the Khai of this
city. Sit with that. Your plan to free Oshai failed. Do you understand
that? It failed. It lost us the support of our hackers, it killed the
man most effective in carrying out these unfortunate duties we've taken
on, and it exposed me and my father to risk. You failed before, and this
scheme you've put before us now would also fail if we did as you propose.
Adrah began to pace slowly, one hand brushing the hanging tapestries.
Idaan shook her head, remembering some epic she'd seen when she was
young. A performer in the role of Black Chaos had moved as Adrah moved
now. Idaan felt her heart grow tight.
"It isn't that it's without merit-the shape of it generally is useful,
but the specifics are wrong. If Danat is to grab what men he can find
and rush out into the night, it can't be because he's off to avenge a
poet. He would have to be possessed by some greater passion. And it
would help if he were drunk, but I don't know that we can arrange that."
"So if not the Maati Vaupathai ... ," she began, and her throat closed.
Cehmai, she thought. He means to kill Cehmai and free the andat. Her
hands balled into fists, her heart thudded as if she'd been sprinting.
Adrah turned to face her, his arms folded, his expression calm as a
butcher in the slaughterhouse.
"You said there were three breaths blocking us. There's a fourth. Your
father."
No one spoke. When Idaan laughed, it sounded shrill and panicked in her
own cars. She took a pose that rejected the suggestion.
"You've gone mad, Adrah-kya. You've lost all sense. My father is dying.
He's dying, there's no call to ..."
"What else would enrage Danat enough to let his caution slip? The
upstart escapes. Your father is murdered. In the confusion, we come to
him, a hunting party in hand, ready to ride with him. We can put it out
today that we're planning to ride out before the end of the week. Fresh
meat for the wedding feast, we'll say."
"It won't work," Idaan said, raising her chin.
"And why not?" Adrah replied.
"Because I won't let you!"
She spun and grabbed for the door. As she hauled it open, Adrah was
around her, his arms pressing it shut again. Daaya was there too, his
wide hands patting at her in placating gestures that filled her with
rage. Her mind left her, and she shrieked and howled and wept. She
clawed at them both and kicked and tried to bite her way free, but