‘Yes, my lord,’ the barbarian replied stolidly.
‘Of course, my lord.’ Beyau bowed low before turning to go.
Then all the servants and the slaves who aren’t waiting on us can eat their food hot from the kitchens, instead of waiting for we exalted three to tire of the plenty and allow them the cooling leavings. That should win me some goodwill, and that never goes amiss.
Kheda walked through the corridors and courtyards, nodding to acknowledge the servants and slaves busy with the constant care of the residence. Garden servants in workaday cotton were removing faded blooms from the splendid arrays of flowers or sweeping the spotless tiles with rustling palm-frond brooms. Inner-household slaves protected their silk sleeves with long, soft cotton gloves as they polished finger marks from gleaming brassware and adjusted painted hangings showing vistas of all the differing isles of the domain.
He knocked on the door to Itrac’s private sitting room. Jevin opened it. ‘My lord.’ He bowed and looked past Kheda for Dev. ‘You’re alone?’
‘Dev’s arranging my private audience chamber for our meal.’ Kheda entered the room. ‘It seems Janne Daish finds herself too weary to dine with us. I see no point in the two of us rattling around the banqueting hall.’
‘As you wish, my lord.’ Itrac stood in the middle of the room, wearing a shimmering gold gown cut close to flatter her slenderness. Kheda noted both anger and apprehension in her eyes, and with her paler skin, he could see the hint of a blush underlaying the rose powder on her cheekbones. Her gold-painted lips were pressed tightly together. ‘Or we can dine in the banqueting hall if you’d rather,’ he offered. ‘What?’ Itrac looked at him, momentarily confused. No, I’d rather it was just the two of us. As you say, it’s been a long day. And I’ve had about all I can stomach of Janne,’ she added in a sudden rush of anger. ‘She’s been walking in and out of my rooms ever since she arrived, as if she were mistress here. She won’t take a hint, from me or the servants, and that slave of hers is deaf to anything Jevin says to him. She kept reminiscing about how informal we’d all been when Olkai and Sekni were here.’
‘You should have sent word to me.’ Kheda saw Itrac flinch at his harsh tone. No, I’m not cross with you, just with her discourtesy. But why didn’t you send word? I thought we agreed we’d meet her together.’
‘I didn’t know how to get rid of her without being insulting. It seemed silly to make a fuss, when she was being all sweetness and sympathy and offering compliments on how well I’m managing the domain.’ Itrac bit her lip, twisting her long, gold-tipped fingers among the graduated strings of yellow lustre pearls that reached to her waist. ‘Then I realised she was treating me like a little girl who’s been out in the sun too long. And she kept reminding me that Olkai and Sekni are dead and gone, even though she was saying how proud they would be of me.’
Indignation rose above the tremor in her voice as she went on. ‘And now, after we’ve disrupted the entire household to try to provide a fitting banquet, when she was the one setting us all awry by arriving early, she says she’s too tired to join us!’
I used to admire her manoeuvrings, when they were to further Daish interests. It’s not so amusing to be on the receiving end of such manipulations.
‘So now she’s got you wound to such a pitch that you’ll be awake half the night fretting or fuming and she’ll have the advantage of you in the morning when it comes to negotiating your trades,’ Kheda pointed out. ‘Let’s not fall into that trap. Let’s just commiserate with her weariness and do all we can to make her comfortable. She’ll thank us profusely, at the same time letting slip some hint that we’re falling short of perfect hospitality—which, of course, she forgives, after all we’ve been through. Which we will, of course, ignore.’
‘And what if she sprearls tales of our inadequate welcome to the other domains?’ Itrac twisted one of the thick gold rings she wore on every finger.
Kheda paused for a moment’s thought. ‘I think you might share your concerns that she’s become sadly exacting in her old age. We’re sorry for her, seeing how her insecurity must be gnawing at her. As soon as Sirket marries, after all, she will lose all her status and need to find another home.’
He realised he was pacing back and forth across the room and stopped abruptly.
‘I don’t think anyone will believe that janne’s going senile,’ Itrac said, subdued. ‘She already knows we want to trade pearls for gems. I wasn’t intending to talk trade at all, not till tomorrow, but she kept coming in chatting about this and that. She was telling me what we needed and how she would help and if T hadn’t said no and told jevin to escort her back to her rooms, she’d have probably set sail tonight to put everything in hand as if I’d agreed to it all.’ She looked at Kheda, beseeching. ‘That must be why she’s feeling so insulted.’
‘That’s why she’s withdrawn, now she realises she’s underestimated you,’ Kheda convected. ‘I think you’ll find she’s more inclined to treat you as an equal tomon-ow. Anyway, it’s me who insulted her.’
‘How?’ Itrac asked, wide-eyed. ‘Firstly for her discourtesy in coming to my private apartments before we’d publicly received her.’ Kheda hesi—
tated. ‘And she thinks she can get all the pearls she wants from us because we’re so desperate to pay some barbarian for tales of how to kill the beast. I’ve put her right on that, never fear. Hold out for a fair trade and she’ll back down, trust me.’ He took one of Itrac’s gold-ringed hands and gave it an encouraging squeeze. ‘Because if she starts making trouble for us, we can start making trouble for her. Remember, she really doesn’t want anyone knowing just how poor the Daish pearl harvest has been, not officially.’
‘I don’t know how to say things like that, not without making an open threat.’ Itrac looked at him anxiously. ‘Olkai always used to deal with that kind of thing.’
‘Just do your best, Kheda encouraged. ‘It’s not as if there will be wives from other domains whispering behind their hands as they gauge your skills.’
‘I suppose not,’ Itrac allowed, with an inelegant grimace. ‘Jevin, leave us,’ she said abruptly. ‘Go and see if Dev needs any help.’
What do we do if the boy comes upon him working magic?
Kheda realised there was nothing he was going to be able to do about it. Itrac plainly had something pressing to say to him, holding tightly to his hand when he would have withdrawn it.
‘Janne seemed most concerned that I shouldn’t ask too much of myself as Chazen’s only wife.’ Itrac swallowed, looking down at her feet. ‘She was sure you’d have more sense than to look to father a child in such troubled times. She said everyone knew that I’d chosen Saril for love and that this marriage is only a safeguard for me. She said your taste had never really run to virgins, that you’d left Sain to come to you in her own time, since that was also purely a marriage of alliance. She said Olkai would have told me the same, if she’d lived.’
‘While she tried to persuade me that I should scorn you and allow one of my children by Daish to claim Chazen,’ Kheda inten-upted. ‘Janne’s very good at dripping honeyed poison into unwilling ears. I wonder she didn’t hint at some inadequacy in the marriage bed on my part, that you’d not be missing much.’
He realised Itrac was pulling away, rebuffed by his churlishness. He took both her hands in his and leaned forward to kiss her scented cheek ‘I told her to mind Daish business while we minded Chazen’s, the two of us, as we see fit, in our own time, without her interference or anyone else’s.’
Itrac turned her head to meet his kiss with her soft lips, her eyes closing on the diamond glint of a tear beneath her lashes. ‘I think I’m ready to be a proper wife to you, Kheda,’ she breathed. ‘And Janne can go ‘
A loud knock at the door startled the two of them apart. ‘My lord?’ It was Dev. ‘Your dinner’s ready, my lord.’ He bowed to Itrac. ‘My lady.’