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"That would be because she is Welcome, Kyaan-cha Please co back to let her pass The round-faced looan to swim out of it The wide, low main room, too bare to mark the house as a place where people actually lived The

"I&039;ve come to see the client," Amat said "Wilsin-cha wants to be sure she&039;s well If she otiations, we&039;ll all look fools"

"The client? Yes Yes, of course," the round-facedin his voice told A Still, he took a pose of obeisance and motioned her to the rear of the place Down a short hallway, a door opened to a wooden porch The light was thick and green, filtered through a canopy of trees Insects droned and birds called, chattering to one another And leaning against a half-rotten railing was a young woman She was hardly older than Liat, her skin the milky pale of an islander Golden hair trailed down her back, and her belly bulged over a pair of rough canvas laborer&039;s pants Half, perhaps three-quarters of the way through her ter them, she turned and smiled Her eyes were blue as the sky, her lips thick Eastern islands, Aive me, Kyaan-cha," the moon-faced man said "My duties require me elsewhere Miyama will be here to help you, should you require it"

A an underling The e half- cant to his wrists He had thick hands, A until the uessed, to Saraykeht, to Wilsin She hadn&039;t ed to avoid suspicion, but by the time Marchat knew she&039;d discovered this place, it would be too late to shut her out of it It would have to do

"My name is Amat Kyaan," she said "I&039;ood irl cocked her head, like listening to an unfaree

"You do know the Khaiate tongues?"

The girl giggled and said so She spoke too quickly to follow precisely, but the words had the liquid feel of an east island language Aain, slowly in Nippu

"My nairl said,as if she were speaking to a child

"You&039;ve co way to be here I trust the travel ell?"

"It was hard at first," the girl said "But the last three days, I&039;ve been able to keep food down"

The girl&039;s hand strayed to her belly Tiny, dark stretch-marks already marbled her skin She was thin If she went to ter on sticks But, of course, she wouldn&039;t go to terers as they unconsciously caressed the rise and shere the baby grew in darkness, and a sense of profound dislocation stole into her This wasn&039;t a noblewoinity wanted plausibility This wasn&039;t a child of wealth too fragile for blood teas This didn&039;t fit any of the hundred scenarios that had plagued A, taking so hip, put her cane aside, and crossed her hands

"Marchat has toldto find the vocabulary she needed "How did you corinned and spun her tale She spoke too quickly sometimes, and Amat had to et had been a reat families of Saraykeht, near to the Khai hiuise He&039;d never revealed his true identity to her when he knew her, but though the affair had been brief, he had lost his heart to her When he heard she ith child, he&039;d sent Oshai - theher here, to him As soon as the politics of court allowed, he would return to her, marry her

As ied, drew her out And with each lie the girl repeated, sure of its truth, nausea grew in Airl was a fool Beautiful, lovely, pleasant, and a fool It was a story froirl, Maj, believed it

She was being used, though for what, Aine And worse, she loved her child

NOTHING WAS said to Maati His belongings si, and a servant girl led him down from the palace proper to a house nestled artfully in a stand of trees - the poet&039;s house An artificial pond divided it fro sharply, like a cat&039;s back Koi - white and gold and scarlet - flowed and shifted beneath the water&039;s skin as Maati passed over them

Within, the house was as lavish as the palace, but on a more nearly hu quarters was a rich, dark wood and inlaid with ivory and mother of pearl, but no th The great rooed walls that could open onto the night air or close like a shutter, were cluttered with books and scrolls and diagrams sketched on cheap paper An ink brick had stained the arreat silk-embroidered chair The place smelled of tallow candles and old laundry

For the first time since he had left the Dai-kvo, Maati felt himself in a space the character of which he could understand He waited for his teacher, prepared for whatever punishht candle as the sun set The silence of the poet&039;s house was his only co, servants delivered a meal of sweet fruits, apple-bread still warm from the palace kitchens, and a pot of s over hiht, he supposed, be another trick, another misdirection Perhaps no one would ever come

He turned his attention to the disorder that filled the house After leaving the bowls, cups and knives frorass for the servants to retrieve, he gathered up so many abandoned dishes from about the house that the pile of the that dust covered the script, he cleaned, furled, and returned to the cloth sleeves that he could find Several he suspected were al considerations holding a scroll of philosophy He took some consolation that the scrolls on the shelves seees of resentain being duped Even as he swept the floors that had clearly gone neglected for weeks, he began almost to hope that this further abandonment was another plot by the andat If it were only that Heshai-kvo had this little use for him, perhaps the Dai-kvo shouldn&039;t have let hi an apprentice Perhaps this neglect was Heshai-kvo&039;s way of avoiding duties he otherwise couldn&039;t

It had been only a feeeks before that he had taken leave of the Dai-kvo, heading south along the river to Yalakeht and there by ship to the su poet, seeing one of the andat first hand, and eventually studying to one day take on the burden of the andat Seedless himself I am a slave, my dear The slave you hope to own

Maati pushed the dust out the door, shoving with his broo When the full heat of the day ca the house into a kind of pavilion A soft breeze ruffled the pages of books and the tassels of scrolls Maati rested A distant hunger troubled hinal fro to eat If Heshai-kvo were here, he could ask

His teacher arrived at last, at first a s out from the palace Then as he came nearer, Maati made out the wide face, the slanted, weak shoulders, the aard belly As he crossed the wooden bridge, the high color in the poet&039;s face - cheeks red as cherries and sheened in an unhealthy sweat - came clear Maati rose and adopted a pose of welcome appropriate for a student to his ait slowed as he caaped as Heshai-kvo took in the space that had been his unkempt house For the first time, Maati wondered if perhaps he hadin his cheeks and shifted to a pose of apology

Heshai-kvo raised a hand before he could speak

"No No, it&039;sgods, boy I don&039;t think the place has looked like this since I came here Did youthere was a brown book, leather-bound, on that table over there Where did it end up?"

"I don&039;t know, Heshai-kvo," Maati said "I will find it immediately"

"Don&039;t No It will rise to the surface eventually, I&039;m sure Here Coued, but his joints, so far as Maati could make them out within the brown robes, were unswollen Maati tried not to notice the stains of spilled food and drink on the poet&039;s sleeves and down the front of his robes As he lowered himself painfully into a chair of black lacquer and white woven cane, the poet spoke

"We&039;ve gotten off to a bad start, haven&039;t we?"

Maati took a pose of contrition, but the poet waved it away

"I&039;ht I should say so But there&039;s little enough that I can do with you just now Not until the harvests are all done And that et to you when I have time There&039;s quite a bit I&039;ll have to show you The Dai-kvo can give you a good start, but holding one of the andat ishe&039;ll have told you And Seedlesswell, I haven&039;t done you any favors with Seedless, I&039; to accept ood, then Isn&039;t it In the meantime, you should make use of your freedom You understand? It can be a lovely city Taketake your time with it, eh? Live a little before we lock you back down into all this being a poet nonsense, eh?"

Maati took a pose appropriate to a student accepting instruction, though he could see in Heshai&039;s bloodshot eyes that this was not quite the reply the poet had hoped for An aard silence stretched between them, broken when Heshai forced a smile, stood, and clapped Maati on the shoulder

"Excellent," the poet said with such gusto that it was obvious he didn&039;t ot to switch these robes out for fresh Busy, you know, busy No time to rest"

No time to rest And yet it was the afternoon, and the poet, his teacher, was still in yesterday&039;s clothes No time to rest, nor to meet hiht for fear of speaking to a new apprentice Maati watched Heshai&039;s wide for above hih his ablutions His head felt like it had been stuffed ool as he tried to catalog all the things he ht have done that would have pushed his teacher away

"Stings, doesn&039;t it? Not being wanted," a soft voice murmured behind him Maati spun Seedless stood on the opened porch in a robe of perfect black shot with an indigo so deep it was hard to see where it blended with the deeper darkness The dark,eyes considered him Maati took no pose, spoke no words Seedless nodded all the same, as if he had replied "We can talk later, you and I"

"I have nothing to say to you"

"All the better I&039;ll talk You can listen"

The poet Heshai clomped down the stairs, a fresh robe, brown silk over cream, in place The stubble had been erased from his jowls Poet and andat considered each other for a breathless ether down the path Maati watched theant shadow of the slave They walked, Maati noticed, with the saht almost have been old friends, but for the careful way they never brushed each other, even walking abreast

As they topped the rise of the bridge, Seedless looked back, and raised a perfect, pale hand to him in farewell

"SHE DOESN&039;T KNOW"

Marchat Wilsin half-rose fro off his body His expression was strange - anger, relief, sowith stared at A a clothed wo an obscene gesture at hih his gaze was locked on A business I will send a runner with the full proposal"

"But Wilsin-cha," the youngoff when the old Galt turned to hi in Wilsin&039;s face that would have e The youngan audience, hopped noisily out of the bath and strode out

"Have you seen her?" A on her cane "Have you spoken with her?"

"No, I haven&039;t Close the door, Amat"

"She thinks - "

"I said close the door; I meant close the door"

Amat paused, then limped over and slammed the wooden door shut The sounds of the bathhouse faded When she turned back, Wilsin was sitting on the edge of the recessed bath, his head in his hands The bald spot at the top of his head was flushed pink A, Aht," she said "I irl She doesn&039;t know about the sad trade She&039;s an innocent"

"She&039;s the only one in this whole damned city, then Did you tell her? Did you warn her?"

"Without knohat this is? Of course not When was the last ti the situation?"

"This ," he snapped "Now Just now Gods And where did you learn to speak Nippu anyway?"

Amat stood beside hireen tiles Her hip flared painfully, but she pushed it out of herthe Khai to end a pregnancy, and the ? You&039;re killing a wanted child? It doesn&039;t make sense"

"I can&039;t tell you I can&039;t explain I&039;mI&039; to live Can you promise me that?"

He looked over at her, his pale eyes empty as a corpse

"Gods," Amat breathed

"I never wanted to come here," he said "This city That was my uncle&039;s idea I wanted to run the tripled trade Silver and iron froar and rum, then to Far Galt for cedar and spicewood and back to Eddensea I wanted to fight pirates Isn&039;t that ridiculous? Me Fighting pirates"

"You will not make me feel sorry for you Not now You are Marchat Wilsin, and the voice of your house in Saraykeht I have seen you stand strong before a h judge when you thought he rong and called hiirl We don&039;t have to do this Refuse the contract"

Wilsin looked up, his chin raised, his shoulders squared For a ht do as she asked But when he spoke, his voice was defeated

"I can&039;t The stakes are too high I&039;ve already petitioned the Khai for an audience It&039;s in motion, and I can&039;t stop it any more than I can make the tide come early"

Amat kicked off her sandals, raised the he feet sink into the cool water Light played on the surface, patterns of brightness and shadow flickering across Marchat&039;s chest and face He eeping That e to fear

"Then help me make sense of it What is this child?" Amat said "Who is the father?"

"No one The child is no one The father is no one The girl is no one"

"Then why, Marchat? Why "

"I can&039;t tell you! Why won&039;t you hear et to tell you Gods Ao out there?"

"You wanted uard? You toldI wasn&039;t welcome to You said there was house business, and then you said that you trusted hed with a sound like choking - rasped his knees, fingertips digging into pink flesh Amat laid her cane aside and pressed her palh the carved cedar blinds she heard soo silent

"The round-faced one - Oshai He came, didn&039;t he? He told you I went there"

"Of course he did He wanted to know if I&039;d sent you"

"What did you tell him?"

"That I hadn&039;t"

"I see"

The silence stretched She waited, willing hi some words that would put it in some perspective less awful than it seeo back to my apartments," Amat said "We can talk about this later"

She reached for her cane, but Wilsin&039;s hand trapped hers There was so in his eyes now, an e in it instead of water She could feel her own heart trip faster as his eyes searched hers

"Don&039;t Don&039;t go ho for you"

For the space of four breaths together, they were silent Amat had to s to loosen her throat

"Hide, Aone Keep your head low forfour weeks Five It&039;ll be over by then And once it&039;s finished with, you&039;ll be safe I can protect you then You&039;re only in danger if they think youOnce it&039;s done "

"I could go to the utkhaie We could have Oshai in chains by nightfall, if "

Marchat shook his woolly, white head slowly, his gaze never leaving hers Aers

"If this comes out to anyone, I&039;ll be killed At least ht there was only one innocent in this city," A her words

"I&039;ll be killed"

Amat hesitated, then withdrew her arm and took a pose of acceptance He let her stand Her hip screa oint that snificant detail in a world that had turned frohtmare in a day

At the door, she stopped, her hand on the water-thick wood She looked back at her employer At her old friend His face was stone

"You told me," she said, "because you wanted me to find a way to stop it Didn&039;t you?"

"I made a mistake because I was confused and upset and felt very er now, h But it was a mistake, and I see the situation more clearly now Do what I tell you, Amat, and we&039;ll both see the other side of this"

"It&039;s wrong Whatever this is, it&039;s evil and it&039;s wrong"

"Yes," he agreed

Amat nodded and closed the door behind her when she went