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Two days later, after his as coht&039;s entertainments, Otah stepped out froaudy with sunset Orange light warlimmer in the deep cobalt of the eastern sky Otah stood in the street and watched the change coed as the traffic of night caht, lit like a carnival as it was every night The seafront was before hih hidden by the barracks of other labor cohorts like his own, employed by other houses And soreat river flowed, bearing water froht reddened, then grayed The sun vanished again, and the stars ca over the city Liat was in her cell, he supposed, to the north and uphill And beyond her, the palaces of the Khai
The streets changed as he walked north The laborers&039; quarter was actually quite s way to the shops of small merchants and free traders Then came the weavers&039; co the streets as they would even later into the night He passed groups of h the street of beads and the blood quarter where physicians and pretenders vied to care for the sick and injured, selling services, as everything in Saraykeht was for trade
The coes Streets greider near them, and walls taller The firekeepers at their kilns wore better robes than their felloer in the city Otah paused at the corner that would have taken hih the familiar spaces to Liat&039;s side It would be so easy, he thought, to go there He stood for the space of ten heartbeats, standing at the intersection like the statue of so north His hands were balled in fists
The palaces grew up like a city of their own, above the city inhabited byat teahouses vanished and those of gardens and incense took their places The paths changed froars gave way to the songs of slaves, alreat halls stood empty and dark or else lit like lanterns fro the paths with the quiet efficiency of ants, and the utkhaieaudy as the sunset, stood in lit courtyards, posing to each other as the politics of the court played out Vying, Otah guessed, for which would have the honor of killing a son of the Khai Udun
Pretending that he bore a e, he took directions from one of the servants, and soon he&039;d left even the palaces behind The path was dark, curving through stands of trees He could still see the palaces behind him if he turned, but the emptiness made the poet&039;s house seee over a pond And there the siant house stood Its upper story was lit Its lower had the front wall pulled open like shutters or a stage set for a play And sitting on a velvet chair was the boy Maati Vaupathai
"Well," a soft voice said "Here&039;s an oddity It&039;s a strange day we see toughs reeking of the seafront dropping by for tea Or perhaps you&039;ve got sorass Otah fell into a pose that asked forgiveness
"II&039;ve come to see Maati-cha," Otah stumbled "We werethat is "
"Hai! Who&039;s down there?" another voice called "Who&039;re you?"
Seedless glanced up at the house, eyes narrowed A fatdown the steps Maati was following
"Itani of House Wilsin," Otah called out "I&039;ve come to see Maati-cha"
The poet walked e ht
"You&039;ve co over his shoulder Otah took a pose of affirrand audience," Maati said "He offered to show me the seafront"
"Did he?" Heshai-kvo asked, and the disapproval lost ground, Otah thought, to the pleasure "Well You Itani&039;s your name? You knoho you&039;re with, eh? This boy is one of the most important men in Saraykeht Keep him out of trouble"
"Yes, Heshai-cha," Otah said "I will"
The poet&039;s face softened, and he rooted in the sleeve of his robe for a moment, then reached out to Otah Otah, unsure, stepped closer and put his hand out to the poet&039;s
"I was young once too," Heshai-kvo said with a broad wink "Don&039;t keep hiths of ratitude
"Who&039;d have thought it," Seedless said, his voice low and considering "Our perfect student&039;s developing a life"
"Please, Itani-cha," Maati said, stepping forward and taking Otah&039;s sleeve "You&039;ve gone out of your way already We should go Your friends are waiting"
"Yes," Otah said "Of course"
He took a pose of farewell that the poet responded to eagerly, the andat htful attitude Maati led the way back across the bridge
"You were expecting me?" Otah asked once they were out of earshot Poet and andat were still watching the," Maati allowed
"You weren&039;t the only one The poet see at the house He thinks I should see more of the city It&039;s really that he hates it there and can&039;t iine that I like it"
"Ah I see"
"You see part, at least," Maati said "It&039;s complex And what of you, Otah-kvo? It&039;s been days I was afraid that you wouldn&039;t come"
"I had to," Otah said, surprised by his own candor even as he said it "I&039;ve no one else to talk with Gods! He gave ths of silver!"
"Is that bad?"
"Itthe seafront and just take you to tea The pay&039;s better"
HE HAD changed That was clear The voice was much the same, the face older, more adult, but Maati could still see the boy who had worn the black robes in the garden all those years ago And soone - he still had that in the way he held himself and his voice when he spoke - but perhaps it was certainty It was in the way he held his cup and in the way he drank So his old teacher, but Maati could not yet put a name to it
"A laborer," Maati said "It isn&039;t what the Dai-kvo would have expected"
"Or anyone else," Otah said, s at his cup of wine
The private patio of the teahouse overlooked the street below it, and the long stretch of the city to the south Le snats away andOtah took a long drink of wine
"It isn&039;t what you&039;d expected either, is it?"
"No," Maati adined what?"
Maati sighed, frowned, tried to find words for daydreams and secret stories he&039;d never precisely told hiure who&039;d shaped his life almost more than the Dai-kvo, certainlya new order, a dark, dangerous, possibly libertine group that would be at odds with the Daikvo and the school, or perhaps its rival Or else adventuring on the seas or in the turmoil of the wars in the Westlands Maati would never have said it, but the co
"Soue
"It was hard The first few ht us about hunting and foraging? They work, but only barely When I got a bowl of soup and half a loaf of stale bread for cleaning out a henhouse, I felt like I&039;d been given the best hed Otah s the subject "Was the Dai-kvo&039;s village what you thought?"
"I suppose so It was more work than the school, but it was easier Because there was a reason for it It wasn&039;t just hard to be hard We studied old graes of the Empire And the history of the andat and the poets who bound thes were like How they escaped I didn&039;t kno much harder it is to bind the same andat a second ti captured three or four tihed It was a war Maati took a pose of query Otah responded with one of apology that nearly spilled his wine
"It&039;s just that you sound like you loved it," Otah said
"I did," Maati said "It was fascinating And I&039;ood at it, I think My teachers seemed to feel that way Heshai-kvo isn&039;t what I&039;d expected though"
"Hio? When the Daikvo offered you a place with hi," Otah said, simply "And I didn&039;t want any part of it"
Maati frowned into his wine His reflection looked back at hiain, would you do the sa a laborer?"
Otah took two deep breaths, turned, and sat on the railing, considering Maati with dark, troubled eyes His hands ht have been accusation or demand or query, but that never took a final form
"Is this really so bad, what I do?" Otah asked "You, Liat Everyone seems to think so I started out as a child on the road with no family, no friends I didn&039;t even dare useI have work, and friends, and a lover I have good food and shelter And at night I can go and listen to poets or philosophers or singers, or I can go to bathhouses or teahouses, or out on the ocean in sailing boats Is that so bad? It that so little?"
Maati was surprised by the pain in Otah&039;s voice, and perhaps by the desperation He had the feeling that the words were only half meant for him Still, he considered the doesn&039;t have to be great to be worthy If you&039;ve followed the calling of your heart, then what does it matter what anyone else thinks?"
"It can reat deal"
"Not if you&039;re certain," Maati said
"And someone, somewhere, is actually certain of the choices they made? Are you?"
"No, I&039;m not," Maati said It was easier than he&039;d expected, voicing this deepest of doubts He&039;d never said it to anyone at the school or with the Dai-kvo He&039;d have died before he said it to Heshai-kvo But to Otah, it wasn&039;t such a hard thing to say "But it&039;s done I&039;vewhether I&039;h"
"You are," Otah said