'My uncle, the var, ordered me killed. Were you unaware of the bargain he made with Azadihosh?'
'I hear whispers, as must any woman in the palace who values the life of her son. My brother desired an easy path into the rich trade offered by the border towns. Your half brother Farazadihosh was desperate. He was newly come to the throne. He suspected his cousins meant to contest him, and he knew they commanded better and more numerous troops than he did. He sought an ally. Your uncle my brother sought advantage.'
'And my life was the piece on the board my uncle was willing to sacrifice. Did that part of this tale escape you, Honored Mother?'
She brushed a hand over his head in an intimate manner, touching his topknot. 'Of course it did not escape me. Do you think it was chance you survived?'
'Commander Beje gave me the opportunity to escape with my life.'
'Did this surprise you?'
'It did, I admit it.'
Her disapproval flowed hot like the sun. 'It should not have. Your wife is Beje's daughter, a woman of suitable rank and noble lineage. I arranged the marriage myself through Beje's wife Cherfa when I sent you back to your uncle, the var, for safekeeping. Serpent and snake that he proved to be — my own brother! Hu! He had betrayed me beforehand by sending me to that terrible place. I should have expected nothing less from him. Naturally, in later years, when whispers reached my ears of my brother's further treachery, I turned to Cherfa again. She told Beje to aid you.'
'I never saw Beje's wife, although he mentioned her,' said Anji. 'I will say that Commander Beje behaved in all ways honorably toward me.'
'He is our ally. The soldiers he sent me are for you. He hands them over to your command.'
'Mine? Hu!' He blew out breath between his teeth, swiped a finger along his beard as he considered this unexpected harvest.
'Certainly I have no complaint of Commander Beje. However, I am no longer married to his daughter. She ran away into the west with a demon.'
'Hu! I had not imagined Beje and Cherfa could sire a weak-minded female. Still, she may yet be alive.'
'To me she is dead.'
She brushed his topknot again and this time found a corner of wrapped ribbon a hair out of place and tweaked it to fall into line. 'Too much pride is a weakness, Anjihosh.'
'Call it what you wish. I was married to her at one time. Now she is dead.' He hoisted Atani and, finally, rose; he was taller than his mother was but not enough for his height to intimidate.
His mother cut off his attack before he could pursue it further. 'Come inside, Anjihosh. We will drink a proper greeting.'
Her gesture commanded him to accompany her — into the house without taking off his boots! He could not refuse his mother, yet to walk with her forced Mai to walk behind.
Mai thought probably her ears were flaming red from anger, but she would not let her anger rule her. Miravia's clear gaze met hers. Mai gestured as the thought bloomed. Miravia mounted the steps to fall in beside her. Let Miravia stand for her allies, all the women and men in Astafero and Olo'osson who respected her as a woman of means.
Side by side, they walked behind Anji into the house that had once been hers and which was now transformed with all manner of fabrics and low couches and a slumbrous perfume of smoky incense that made her want to sneeze. Sirniakans evidently did not sit on pillows like civilized people. They raised themselves up on low couches, as if they could not be bothered to keep their floors clean by keeping people's dirt-laden shoes off the fine mats.
They tromped barbarically across the mats into an inner room whose doors lay open to receive light from the private central courtyard of the house. The doors to the outer audience chamber slapped shut behind them. In the courtyard, under the shade of the inner porches, sat about twenty women, from sweet-faced girls to wrinkled crones. One quickly covered her face with a wing of pale blue silk shot through with silver cross threads. The others hid their mouths behind their hands and measured Anji through sidelong, coy gazes.
He was the only man in the chamber.
Anji's mother seated herself and indicated that Anji must sit
opposite on a couch facing both her and the courtyard. He remained standing until Mai reached him. He nodded toward the couch; when he sat, she sat beside him. Miravia slid in to kneel gracefully on the floor by Mai's legs, her back a solid comfort. She turned a little, and Atani smiled boldly at her and allowed himself to be passed into Miravia's arms.
Mai settled her now-empty hands in her lap, palms up and relaxed, in the manner of the Merciful One's bounty. She'd faced worse in Kartu Town's market, haggling over peaches. The women examined Mai more boldly than they had examined Anji. She did not flinch. Let them look! She knew her own worth.
Anji's mother clapped her hands. Slaves scurried out from whatever shadows they'd been skulking in to lay out cups and platters around a silver teapot. Out of this pot steaming hot water was drawn and poured into a ceramic blue teapot to rinse it, and the rinse water sluiced into a brass basin. Blackened leaves were sprinkled into the pot, water poured over them, and the teapot sealed with a lid. The aroma was powerful and very fine.
Two cups only, so finely wrought they seemed as thin as paper, sat on the low table.
Anji washed his hands out of the brass basin, his expression so collected Mai knew he was plotting as he wiped his hands dry. He grasped the teapot's handle, filled one cup a third of the way, the other to the full, and finished filling the first. After setting down the teapot, he picked up one cup with both hands and offered it to his mother. She took it, not hiding her smile, meant to announce her victory.
Anji picked up the second cup with both hands and offered it to Mai.
The attendants gasped, hiding faces behind veils of cloth or concealing hands.
Mai took the cup but kept on her placid market face as she met the older woman's steady gaze. So. Now they would stare in the manner of wolves waiting for one to submit to another. Mai would not look down. Neither would Anji's mother.
'Bring me a cup,' said Anji, his tone so clipped it shocked Mai into looking at him.
A cup was brought. He poured for himself. He drank first, and then of course both women must hasten to drink as the women on the courtyard whispered, like leaves stirred by the rising wind off a coming storm. Anji drained his cup and set it down. His mother
finished likewise, and Mai took a final swallow and set hers next to Anji's.
'You are being stubborn, Anjihosh,' said his mother. 'I see that has not changed.'
'I came, obediently, as soon as I heard you had arrived in the Hundred, despite pressing events elsewhere that need my immediate attention. You are of course welcome to set up your own household here, if you do not wish to return to the empire or to the Qin. With what message do you come as an emissary from cousins I have never met, do not wish to meet, and who must by the custom and law of the empire seek my death?'
She folded her hands on the glorious silk of her gown. 'I bring this message: Remain in exile, never to set foot in Sirniakan or Qin territory again, and they will not trouble you.'
'Why should I believe they are willing to allow me live unmolested when there have been several attempts already on my life?'
'If the red hounds pursued you, it was by the directive of your brother Farazadihosh. Your cousins were too busy raising an army and fighting their war to trouble themselves with you.'
'But now they do trouble themselves with me. The offer is too generous for me to believe it honestly meant. Surely you cannot believe they harbor no grievance against me, Honored Mother. Why is it you agreed to act as their emissary?'
'Because my first duty, my only obligation, is to keep you alive, Son. They know that. I know that. You know that. No other person will protect you as I have protected you and will — indeed must — protect you. Am I not correct, Anjihosh?'