'If you will,' he said, his gods-rotted intense gaze fixed on Miravia as his color changed.
Miravia could barely look at him, but she accepted the reins and his help in mounting.
Chief Tuvi was still helping Anji with the baby, his back to them. Keshad slipped away into the lines. Miravia clumsily got the horse to move up beside Mai's mare. Anji signaled. The troop wheeled and, under the gaze of the Sirniakan slaves, headed down through town.
Anji was smiling, but Mai could not.
He had not said no.
31
The dusty militia encampment outside Astafero boiled with Qin soldiers, who wore tabards dyed a very dark blue. They were distinguishable from the black tabards favored by Anji's men only when the two garments were seen side by side. The captain and chiefs of the recently arrived Qin troop waited outside the three huge central tents together with the chiefs in charge of the training camp. The camp flew two cohort banners together with a Qin banner Keshad had not seen before: a crescent moon gleaming on a dark blue background the same color as the tunics. As Kesh dismounted and threw his reins to one of the waiting tailmen, Anji's banner, the black wolf, was being raised from the central pole to mark Anji's arrival.
The men clomped up onto the plank walkway that surrounded the three tents and, following Captain Anji's example, pulled off their boots before they entered. Mai's party followed: Mai holding
Miravia's hand and smiling at something Miravia had said; Priya and O'eki with serious expressions as they talked; Sheyshi had a hand pressed to a cheek as if overtaken by a fit of shyness; three kitchen women who had worked for Mai in all the time Kesh had been in and out of the compound; two apprentice clerks of Sapanasu, who looked young and intimidated. By the time Keshad reached the walkway he was alone except for the ubiquitous guards, but those on duty recognized him and, after checking him for weapons, allowed him to pass.
His feet sank into carpet as he crossed an empty audience chamber furnished only with rugs, a bare expanse that could accommodate perhaps a hundred people sitting squashed together. Toughid sat cross-legged to one side on a rug, next to a small chest decorated with an elaborate brass clasp in the shape of a boar and wrapped in chains. He'd been hauling that cursed chest since Olossi, sleeping with it as though it were his wife. He looked half asleep now, callused hands relaxed on his thighs, a bead of sweat on his upper lip.
The heat simmering within the airless space made Kesh's neck prickle. Eight guards, each pair flanking a slit in the canvas, suffered at their stations with reddened faces. The military contingent had gathered in an adjoining tent, their voices buzzing. He hesitated, not sure where to go.
Chief Deze emerged from behind one of the curtains, Anji and Tuvi right behind him.
'-would have been prudent to leave her in Olossi rather than precipitate a battle you cannot win, Anjihosh,' Tuvi was saying. 'Not for your sake, mind you. I speak solely out of concern for Mai. It was a reckless, headstrong decision. You allowed your pride to over-master you. Do you really need to prove to anyone that you are no longer that twelve-year-old boy? Because by acting as you did, you have proven that you are. And furthermore-'
Anji's frown revealed his annoyance at the chief's scolding, but he made no effort to stop him nor did he disagree. However, when the chief saw Kesh, he clamped his lips shut. Reacting to the silence, Anji looked up. His gaze sharpened, fixing on Kesh.
'Captain?' asked Toughid, rising with a hand on his sword's hilt.
A wave of heat washed Kesh's torso. Like a rabbit hiding from a hawk, stillness might protect him. The guards perked up, their interest surely caught by the expectation of bloodshed.
Anji's smile was a fearful thing because that gods-rotted dimple made it so sweet. He seemed on the brink of laughter. 'Master Keshad. Just the man I wanted to see. I need a ship filled with oil of naya, ready to depart at dawn for Argent Hall. Take Master O'eki and see to it. I recommend caution. Oil of naya is quite flammable.'
'I understand oil of naya, like some men, is volatile if mishandled,' said Keshad boldly.
Anji laughed. He gestured to Tuvi, and they crossed to the tent where the assembly waited. The cursed guards sighed, looking disappointed. Toughid sat, closed his eyes, and resumed his doze.
'I need to see Master O'eki,' said Keshad. A guard twitched back one curtain.
He walked down a corridor between tents screened by hangings and past more guards into a separate tent. This space was much cooler because the inner walls and the flaps cut into the canvas roof had been rolled up to allow a breeze through. Pallets lay rolled up on one side, seating pillows heaped around them. Outside, a square of bare ground was shaded not by a canvas roof but by the high sides of other tents; here a hearth fire burned and the kitchen women had already set to work brewing khaif and pouring cordial. Mai was seated on a pillow on a plank porch, nursing the baby; Miravia sat beside her, whispering in her ear in an affectionate way that stabbed Kesh with envy. Would she ever lean against him so lovingly? Did she care about him at all?
Sheyshi, standing unremarked in a corner, was also staring, her eyes as unfocused as if she were — as she likely was — a bit lack-witted. Perhaps she, too, was jealous of the attention her mistress was receiving from the interloper. Sometimes slaves developed an infatuation with their masters, perhaps only to deflect the degradation of their own condition.
As sharply as if they had appeared out of the air to regard him with fear and reproach, he remembered the two girls he had sold to Master Calon, the young sisters who had clutched at each other for comfort. Calon had intended to train one as a jarya in expectation of gaining a greater price for her later. Had the other girl been sold to pay for her sister's training and upkeep? Where were those girls now?
Why should he even care? If he had not bought them in Mariha, someone else would have. A jarya's life and training was
nothing to scorn. Certainly their lives would be better in the Hundred than they would have been in Mariha.
His lips were dry.
'Is Master O'eki here?' he croaked.
Miravia stiffened, without turning to look. After a moment's hesitation, Mai smiled in that pretty way she had that could as well kill a man as reassure him. The baby suckled noisily. Miravia acknowledged his presence with an awkward nod.
'Master Keshad?' O'eki emerged from yet another hidden chamber; this cursed place was full of little antechambers walled off by hangings and canvas and woven curtains. 'Here I am.'
Kesh kept trying not to stare at Miravia; he knew he was making a fool of himself, but she was so close and alive, and looking at him because she was free to do so. If she were free to look at him, then he was free to look at her. He ventured a smile, and knew at once how clumsy it must appear because Sheyshi snickered as Miravia flushed and looked away.
The hells!
'Master Keshad?' The big man loomed beside him. 'How can I help you?'
'Er, ah, yes, we're to supervise the loading of a ship with oil of nay a.'
'Oil of naya?' asked Mai. The baby let go of the nipple and reared back to look at his mother, caught by her tone, which Kesh could not interpret. She quickly covered her exposed breast with her taloos. 'Merciful One! To bring oil of naya again to battle. A cruel weapon. But effective.'
'Better this way than drawn out long, Mistress,' said O'eki with a slow shake of his head.
'It was just so awful to see,' said Mai. 'Never mind it. I'd rather win with oil of naya than lose by refraining. I'll come with you. I'd like to see how much oil has been stored up, and I want to check the accounts books. Sheyshi, could you bring me the sling?'