Four women strolled out to look him over, one with a very sexy smile who was too old for him, one with a playful grin who seemed too young, and a pair more or less his own age, one thin and one plump.
The kalos draped an arm companionably over the shoulders of the youngest. 'Good eyes,' he said to the young one, who was perhaps seventeen, 'but he won't be interested in you, dearest. Nor in you, grandmother,' he added, with a grin at the older woman.
She said, sardonically, 'Nor in you, peaches.'
'I'm here to meet someone,' interrupted Kesh.
They all laughed, but it was the kalos who replied. 'You want to meet a lover, go find some dusty ravine for your assignation, like that idiot debt slave who got accused of stealing sheep when they were just trying to keep out of sight of her husband. The temple does not facilitate secret meetings.'
'But she said to meet me here…' He trailed off, hearing how ridiculous he sounded.
The plump one looked bored by his evident idiocy and wandered off to twitch aside the curtain and peer through to look at the Qin laughing in the Heart Garden at the elderly woman's jokes.
'Which means she was telling you that she's not interested.'
'But-'
'Aren't we always sure, when we're infatuated, that our interest is returned?' Was that pity in his gaze? Were these cursed people feeling sorry for him?
He grasped as at rice straw. 'Maybe she doesn't know the laws. She's an outlander — not an outlander, precisely, a Silv — that is, she was but not now-' He' stumbled to a halt, wondering if it was too late to save himself from utter humiliation.
Their expressions changed. Even the plump woman hurried back, having caught the end of this staggering speech.
'Oh!'
'Well!'
'You didn't say you were talking about Miravia!'
The hells! They looked sidelong at each other, sharing smiles. The plump one brushed a finger over her rosy lips. The kalos waggled his eyebrows as he shared a meaningful glance with the thin one. The older woman flashed that startlingly sexy smile again.
'You know her?' demanded Kesh.
'She comes to worship just like anyone,' said the kalos appreciatively, 'not that it's any business of yours. And not that it changes the law.'
'It's possible she doesn't know,' said the plump one, as if it mattered to her to help Miravia in any way she could. 'He might be the one she was talking about. Those beautiful eyes. Not that it makes any difference.'
'You'll have to go, ver,' said the kalos sadly.
Kesh sure as the hells wasn't going to walk out of here without
seeing Miravia unless it happened she had deliberately sent him on a fireling chase — the kind where you could not hope to catch what you were after — and he was cursed sure that a woman who stared at him the way she had stared at him was not pretending.
'Here, now,' he said, the words flooding out as a scheme took shape in his mind. Zubaidit had nagged him months ago, and he had ignored her then. 'I was sold into slavery at the age of twelve. My master never allowed me to serve my apprenticeship year even though it goes against the law to deny any youth that year. I want to serve as a kalos. Starting tonight.'
A bell rang at the entrance.
The kalos grabbed Kesh by the elbow. 'The Qin won't be wanting me. You and I are going to see the Hieros.' As the hierodules admitted the Qin soldiers, the kalos tugged Kesh back into the Heart Garden.
'Trouble?' asked the elderly woman with an arched eyebrow.
'He says Miravia told him to meet her here for an assignation.'
'I thought so,''said the woman, clucking her tongue. 'It was the eyes.'
'Does everyone know Miravia's business?' he cried.
'She could have been a hierodule and served the Merciless One,' said the woman with a chuckle that made him flush, 'but she says she cannot take an apprenticeship because of her hidden god.'
'This one says he wants to take an apprenticeship so he can serve Miravia!' laughed the kalos.
'Aui! The Hieros will sort this out.'
The kalos led them through the canvas hanging — painted white — that sealed away the inner courtyard from whence the Hieros guided the temple. Behind the gate lay a featureless square of dirt faced on one side by a long stone building. A canvas awning was fixed over a porch constructed of paving stones set on a bed of sand. A man dozed in a sling chair, his behind almost scraping the stones while his feet and head were elevated. He startled awake as the kalos marched Keshad across the empty square.
'Why in the hells are you disturbing me, Dalon?'
'Holy One, my apologies.' Dalon offered a disgracefully hasty gesture of respect that made it obvious this Hieros took a more casual authority over his underlings than the old bitch in Olossi. 'You know the man Miravia thinks she's in love with-'
'The one with the beautiful eyes.' The Hieros sat up, and cursed if Kesh didn't recognize him: a good-looking man with a pleasant smile and his long hair in a braid down his back. 'Come closer.'
Kesh stopped. 'I saw you in the street, the day we first arrived here. You wanted me to tell you who we were and where we'd come from.'
The Hieros raised a hand in an imperious gesture copied from the old bitch. 'You may address me as "Holy One." Also, I meant it. Come closer.'
Why the world was filled with people whose whims must be pleased Kesh did not know, but he walked to the edge of the flagstones, within the aura of lamplight.
'He says Miravia told him to meet her here,' Dalon said. 'Maybe she doesn't know private assignations aren't allowed. So he up and says he never served one of the gods, that he spent his youth as a debt slave and his master never let him. Claims he wants to serve his apprenticeship to Ushara starting tonight.'
The Hieros grabbed his sandals, shook them before slipping them on, and rose. 'It's a gods-rotted coincidence that you're Zubaidit's brother. Isn't it?'
Kesh gaped, left speechless.
The Hieros paced the length of the awning and returned. Zubaidit walked with the same deadly grace. 'I trained Bai. I know all about her. Loyal Keshad.' He smiled in a way that made Kesh very uneasy. 'An unusual thing, I am sure, to think of devouring a Ri Amarah girl. Quite a feast to boast of later to your curious friends.'
Kesh pinned shut his lips and glared.
The man's smile altered, growing sharper. 'You're already under obligation — debt obligation — to the temple in Olossi. Not as kalos, more as a hostage although if you had asked me, which no one did, I would have said Zubaidit needed no hostage to seal her cooperation. She is the most loyal servant of the goddess I know, except for the old bitch.'
'The Hieros?'
'Did you think I was speaking of someone else?'
Kesh grasped desperately for any advantage. 'If Captain Anji finds out I'm speaking to you-'
The Hieros laughed again. 'He'll what? Kill you? Try to kill me? He knows the temple has agents here. Indeed, he asked for
them, which was polite of him considering we had them in place already. For him, we keep an eye on the settlement and all the newcomers. For ourselves, we keep an eye on the trade in oil of naya, on the training camps, on the reeve hall. On such very interesting developments as when you and the Silver youth returned from the south with a cohort of Qin troops and the captain's mother. Is it not odd that such an eminent individual was sent here instead of to Olossi? Peculiar, if you ask me. I'd love to know more. Give me information, and I'll let you meet Miravia here as often as she likes. But I can't take you as a kalos. You're not one of Ushara's apprentices. Too cursed passionate in the wrong way.'
'You would trade Miravia's body for information?'
'She may reject you if she wishes, so I can promise you nothing from her. But I can have you thrown out so you have no chance even to speak to her. That's the offer I'm making. Talk to me, and I'll let you stay. What happens after that is up to her.'