Folk came, as Uncle Joe had predicted. The crowd conversed in agitated murmurs. With a laden tray I walked among them as always, and I was grateful to do this ordinary work, just another gal making her way in the world.
Vai had put away his tools and gone over to talk to Kofi, their heads together like conspirators’. Who was this man who looked exactly like my husband? Once or twice or ten times he glanced toward me when he thought I wasn’t looking at him-not that I was looking at him all the time-and each time he would look away with an imperious lift of his chin as if to remind me of the way I had raged at him an hour ago in front of everyone. There was the Andevai I had married! I could dislike the arrogant cold mage. I had to.
How old men did ramble! Yet their words had a toothsome bite as they discussed why the Council hadn’t supported General Camjiata’s original bid for troops, money, and weapons.
“I reckon,” said the oldest uncle, “the Council feared the general would-a just turned troops and weapons around against the Council to overthrow them and sit he own self in they place.”
“So he is now run to the Taino? The cacica shall be glad to use the excuse to invade.”
Several shook their heads. “The Taino shall not invade. They hold their virtue very high. They shall never be the ones to break the First Treaty.”
So why would the Taino help the general? Everyone agreed: trade to Europa with no tariffs or wharfage fees and no restrictions as there were now. They could flood the Europan market with sugar, tobacco, and Expedition’s cheap cloth, and with the profits fund a war against their perpetual rivals, the Purepecha kingdom.
Oldest uncle considered. “The Council shall get those same benefits if they support the general. Except for the war with the Purepecha. The Council could likewise send over the ocean in the general’s service the very lads who trouble the city most with discontent. Yet they refuse to help him. Sweet Cat, yee is from Europa. What yee reckon?”
I paused beside the table, tray balanced on one hand, aware that Vai had looked around to see how I would deal with a question. “Does anyone think the general can defeat the Roman Alliance with a single small fleet from Expedition? Didn’t he lose the first war with a significantly larger army? But have you all forgotten there are radicals in Europa, too? Wasn’t it twenty years ago that General Camjiata wrote a legal code codifying the natural rights due to men? Wouldn’t the existence of such a legal code scare the Council?”
“Gal have a point,” said the oldest uncle. “The Council don’ like kings, but they like talk of equality less.”
“Maybe the Council refuses to help Camjiata because they fear the radicals support him.”
Brenna came over to pour more beer. “I hear Camjiata’s legal code don’ give rights to women. Like the Romans in that, yee know, for on he mother’s side he is of patrician descent.”
The oldest uncle answered her with a kindly nod at me to show he meant no offense. “Yee know how they is in Europa, very backward. Yee should, with that Roman mariner yee keep.”
“Which is why he and me never signed a marriage contract. He is a good man, yee all know it, but he got no rights over me share of this house and me money. Which will all go to me girls.”
“With yee permission, Uncle,” said Kofi, looming up beside the table. When the old man nodded, he went on. “I don’ know what they radicals in Europa reckon, but if the general wish for the support of we Assemblymen, he shall have to change he code. No troll clan will put a single ship or sailor at he disposal if females got no rights. And neither shall we.”
“Not to mention no man in this city who speak against such shall ever again enjoy the favors of he wife or gal,” Brenna added before she glided off like a ship under sail.
A judicious silence calmed the courtyard’s chatter. Then the men chuckled nervously and got going again. I moved on, and Vai caught the eye of a new customer who had been about to pat my backside but decided to pat his kerchief instead. Vai looked away before I could skewer him with a chiseled glance meant to inform him that I had to take care of myself, not be beholden to him.
“Say, is it true? After all that big talk about he search for she, the lost woman.” The speaker was a young man I did not know, talking in a low voice to his lads. He did not see me passing behind him although his companions had begun gesticulating wildly. “Now the maku found she, he is not getting any-?” He yelped as I upended my tray over his back.
“Oh! My apologies! I tripped.” I wasn’t sure he could hear me over the guffaws and snorts of laughter that exploded around the courtyard. “Let me get you something to wipe up with.”
At the counter, Uncle Joe handed me a cloth. “Yee know, Cat, beer is not cheap. Don’ go trying me patience.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
Vai slid in beside me. “Did he say something to you, Catherine?”
“The gal just tripped,” said Brenna, stacking coconut shell bowls on a tray for me to take to the women who did the washing up back by the cistern. “Happen sometimes, don’ it?”
“Not with Cat it doesn’t,” he muttered. Then he looked past me, and his eyes widened as he smiled in a disconcertingly anticipatory way.
I turned. Over at the gate, Kofi was greeting a pair of vivacious young women who had the bearing of clever girls who assume men will listen to their words and not just stare at their breasts.
“My pardon, but I have to go.” He made his way to the gate.
With a lack of greeting I found peculiarly disturbing, for it made them all seem exceedingly familiar with each other, they went out.
“They radicals mean trouble,” muttered Uncle Joe.
“Trouble is what come before change,” said Brenna, “for yee know we is overripe for some manner of change.”
“How deep in is Vai with these radicals?” I asked, one eye on the gate.
“Why do yee care?” she retorted so tartly that my face flushed. “I reckon yee have made yee feelings known to all.”
“Good-looking gals, they two,” remarked Uncle Joe right over the top of Brenna’s comment. “I would surely have a mind to know them, was I a young fellow.”
Brenna snorted and slapped him on the arm. “A sad day for yee should yee be taken blind.”
“Surely true,” he said, gathering full cups onto my tray. “But I’s not blind yet.”
“Do you think the Council should be replaced by an Assembly?” I asked them.
Uncle Joe scratched his beard. “Hard to say how an Assembly shall be chosen, is it not? Fools and wise men look a lot alike. But listen here, Cat. Yee shall not go running after the radicals, for the wardens have they eye on them something fierce. Kofi-lad say we shall give the vote to every adult male and female, even the poor and the idle, with no regard to property or responsibility. He reckon it is the natural right of each person, troll or rat, to have a say in they governance.”
“ Vai agrees with that? Do you have any idea how much power he has in Europa as part of Four Moons House?”
Uncle Joe and Brenna exchanged a glance whose contours I could not fathom.
“And Kayleigh is working at Warden Hall, passing on information to Kofi, and thus the radicals, and thence to Vai.”
“Keep silence, Cat,” said Uncle Joe sternly. “Don’ draw notice to yee own self. Or to him.”
A memory of the conversation I had overheard in Chartji’s office swept over me, the words Vai had said just before Chartji had opened the door to reveal me eavesdropping: “ What if people bound by clientage could say they want to reclaim ownership of themselves??”
“Cat? Is yee well?” Brenna put a hand on my arm.
A man came in through the open gate. The man was not Vai. “Fine. I’m fine.”
“Take that cloth and these drinks over,” said Uncle Joe, “and be certain not to spill this lot.”
I walked off, measuring my steps because I felt disoriented, like I was losing track of my path. I had to concentrate on Bee. I needed more information on fire mages, in case Drake wasn’t strong enough to feed the Hunt. I heard them murmur, thinking I was out of earshot.