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"You sent for erous habit, Otah-kvo"
"I know it, butPlease Sit I&039;ve been thinking About e do if things go poorly"
"If we fail?"
"I want to be ready for it, and when Kiyan and I were talking last night, so occurred to me Nayiit? That&039;s his name, isn&039;t it? The child that you and Liat had?"
Maati&039;s expression was cool and distant andOtah could see the pain in it, however still the eyes
"What of him?"
"He mustn&039;t be my son Whatever happens, he has to be yours"
"If you fail, you don&039;t take your father&039;s title-"
"If I don&039;t take his title, and someone besides you decides he&039;s mine, they&039;ll kill him to remove all doubt of the succession And if I succeed, Kiyan may have a son," Otah said "And then they would someday have to kill each other Nayiit is your son He has to be"
"I see," Maati said
"I&039;ve written a letter It looks like so I&039;d have sent Kiyan before, when I was in Chaburi-Tan It talks about the night I left Saraykeht It says that on the night I caether That I walked into her cell, and you and she were in her cot It makes it clear that I didn&039;t touch her, that I couldn&039;t have fathered a child on her Kiyan&039;s put it in her things If we have to flee, we&039;ll take it with us and find a way for it to coht-we can hide it at her wayhouse, perhaps If we&039;re found and killed here, it will be found with us You have to back that story"
Maati steepled his fingers and leaned back in the chair
"You&039;ve put it with Kiyan-cha&039;s things to be found in case she&039;s slaughtered?" he asked
"Yes," Otah said "I don&039;t think about it when I can help it, but I know she could die here There&039;s no reason that your son should die with us"
Maati nodded slowly He was struggling with so, Otah could see that er or joy, he had no way to know When the question ca for years
"What did happen?" Maati asked at last, his voice low and hushed "The night Heshai-kvo died What happened? Did you just leave? Did you take Mai with you? Diddid you kill hi into his hands, remembered the way Mai had balked and he had taken the task himself For years, those few ," Otah said "He kneas necessary The consequences if he had lived would have been worse Heshai was right when he warned you to let the thing drop The Khai Saraykeht would have turned the andat against Galt There would have been thousands of innocent lives ruined And when it was over, you would still have been yoked to Seedless Trapped in the torture box just the way Heshai had been all those years Heshai knew that, and he waited for "
"And you did it"
"I did"
Maati was silent Otah sat His knees seemed less solid than he would have liked, but he didn&039;t let the weakness stop hi I have ever done," Otah said "I never stopped dreaood man, but what he&039;d created in Seedless"
"Seedless was only part of hi else Heshai-kvo hated himself, and Seedless was that"
"Everyone hates themselves sometimes There isn&039;t often a price in blood," Otah said "You knoould happen if that were proven Killing a Khai would pale beside , spoke
"I didn&039;t ask on the Dai-kvo&039;s behalf I asked for myself When Heshai-kvo died, Seedlessvanished I ith hiiven you If you&039;d committed some terrible criive you And I told hiive you, and not him Because "
They were silent Maati&039;s eyes were dark as coal
"Because?" Otah asked
"Because I loved you, and I didn&039;t love him He said it was a pity to think that love and justice weren&039;t the saivenyour lover"
"I suppose it&039;s true," Otah said "I was angry with you But there was a part of me that wasrelieved, I suppose"
"Why?"
"Because I didn&039;t love her I thought I did I wanted to, and I enjoyed her company and her bed I liked her and respected her Sometimes, I wanted her as badly as I&039;ve ever wanted anyone And that was enough to letthat deeply or for that long Solad You had each other to take care of, and so it wasn&039;t mine to do"
"You said, that last time we spoke before you leftbefore Heshaikvo died, that you didn&039;t trust me"
"That&039;s true," Otah said "I do remember that"
"But you&039;ve come to me now, and you&039;ve told ave you over to the Khai You&039;ve brought me in here, shown me where you&039;ve hidden You know there are half a hundred people I could say a word to, and you and all these other people would be dead before the sun set So it see
"Why?"
Otah sat with the question His mind had been consus that all nipped and shrieked and robbed him of his rest To reach out to Maati had seeh when he looked at it coldly it was true that each had in some way betrayed the other, his heart had never been in doubt He could feel the heaviness in the air, and he knew that I don&039;t knoouldn&039;t be answer enough He looked for words to give his feelings shape
"Because," he said at last, "in all the ti Even hat you did hurt inc, it was never wrong"
To his surprise, there were tears on Maati&039;s cheeks
"Thank you, Otah-kvo," he said
A shout went up in the tunnels outside the storehouse and the sound of running feet Maati wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his robes, and Otah stood, his heart beating fast The ainst blade It sounded like a busy corner more than a battle Otah walked to the door and, Maati close behind hi and gesturing one to the other by the li fast A and strode to Otah
"What&039;s happened?"
"Bad news, Otah-cha Daaya Vaunyogi has called for a decision, and enough of the fah"
Otah felt his heart sink
"They&039;re hound to decide by ," Amilt went on, "and if all the houses that hacked hii will be the Khai Machi by the time the sun comes up"
"And then what?" NIaati asked
"And then we run," Otah said, "as far and fast and quiet as we can, and we hope he never finds us"
THE SUN HAD PASSED ITS HIGHEST POINT AND STARTED THE LONG, SLOW slide toward darkness Idaan had chosen robes the blue-gray of twilight and bound her hair hack with clasps of silver and allery was nearly full, the air thick with heat and the led scents of bodies and perfu down into the press of bodies below her The parquet of the floor was scuffed with the ainst the stone walls, no quiet negotiations going on in hallways or teahouses That tiht here Voices washed together like the hushing of wind, and she could feel the weight of the eyes upon her-the lances up, the representatives of theher, and the lower orders in the gallery above staring down at her and the men over whom she loomed She was a woman, and not welcome to speak or sit at the tables below But still, she would make her presence felt
"How is it that we accept the word of these men that they are the wisest?" Ghiah Vaunani pounded the speaker&039;s pulpit before hiht she could see flecks of foam at the corners of his mouth "How is it that the houses of the utkhaiem are so much like sheep that they would consent to be led by this shepherd boy of Vaunyogi?"
It was meant, Idaan knew, to be a speech to sway the others from their confidence, but all she heard in the words was the confusion and pain of a boy whose plans have fallen through He could pound and rail and screech his questions as long as his voice held out Idaan, standing above the proceedings like a protective ghost, knew the answers to every one, and she would never tell thei looked up, his expression cal that she&039;d woken in the poet&039;s house, later still when she&039;d returned to the roo for her The night&039;s excesses had weighed heavy on him They hadn&039;t spoken-she had only called for a bath and clean robes When she&039;d cleaned herself and washed her hair, she sat at her mirror and painted her face with all her old skill and delicacy The woht have been the loveliest in Machi
Adrah had left without a word It had been almost half a hand before she learned that her new father, Daaya Vaunyogi, had called for the decision, and that the houses had agreed No one had told her to coht of her silent presence to the cause She had done it, perhaps, because Adrah had not demanded it of her
"We must not hurry! We must not allow sentie our city forever!"
Idaan allowed herself a smile It would seem to most people that the force of the story had won the day The last daughter of the old line would be the first ation supported it, if she were really the lover of the poet a hundred times more than the Khai, it hardly h
Ghiah&039;s energy was beginning to flag She heard his words lose their crispness and the pounding on his table fall out of rhyther in his voice became merely petulance, and the objections to Adrah in particular and the Vaunyogi in general lost their force It would have been better, she thought, if he&039;d ended half a hand earlier Still insufficient, but less so
The Master of "fides stood when Ghiah at last surrendered the floor He was an old , northern face and a deep, sonorous voice Idaan saw his eyes flicker up to her and then away
"Adaut Kamau has also asked to address the council," he said, "before the houses speak on the decision to accept Adrah Vaunyogi as the Khai Machi
A chorus of jeers rose froalleries and even the council tables Idaan held herself still and quiet Her feet were starting to ache, but she didn&039;t shift her weight The effect she desired wouldn&039;t be served by showing her pleasure Adaut Karay and pinched He opened his arh cloth arced fro tail of brown fluttered behind it like a banner as it fell, and in the instant that it struck the floor, the screaan
Idaan&039;s composure broke, and she leaned forward Thewaved their ar at the air Voices buzzed and a cloud of pale,was not voices, the cloud was not smoke These asps The bundle on the council floor had been a nest wrapped in cloth and wax The first of the insects buzzed past her, a glimpse of black and yellow She turned and ran
Bodies filled the corridors, panic pressing theether until there was no air, no space People screamed and cursed-ry buzz She was pushed froe of the crowd pressed the breath fro, and insects filled the air above her Idaan felt so bite the flesh at the back of her neck like a hot iron burning her She screa away, but there was no room to move her arm, no air She lashed out at whoever, whatever was near The croas a single, huge, biting beast and Idaan flailed and shrieked, herinto the open air of the street was like waking fro only theone, the cries of pain and terror replaced by the groans of the stung People were still strea on benches or else the ground Servants and slaves were rushing about, tending to the hurt and the hury hu
"It&039;s a poor ohts said "So on thanto attack the council to keep old Ka"
"What could he have said?" the man&039;s companion asked
"I don&039;t know, but you can be sure whatever it was, he&039;ll be saying so else tomorrow Soi It could be that sos when his critics were about to speak?"
"Good point Perhaps "