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"After the fire, we agreed " Amat said, and the back of Ovi Niit&039;s hand snapped her head to the side She turned back slowly, tasting her own blood Her lips tingled in the presenti cool on her chin told the part of her s had cut her
"Agreed," Ovi Niit spat "We agree what I say we agree If I change it, it changes There&039;s no agreeth of the roo only their outlines It was enough light to see by, enough to know that Ovi Niit&039;s eyes were opened too wide - the stained whites showing all the way round His lips
"You&039;re stalling!" he shouted, sla his hand down on her desk Amat balled her fists and willed herself to sit quietly Anything she said would be a provocation "You think that by stretching it out, you&039;ll be safer You think that by letting that thief take my money, you&039;ll be better off But you won&039;t!"
With the last word, he kicked the wall The plaster cracked where he&039;d struck it A out froer than an egg, and looking at it, she knew that soe at the walls He would kill her, whether he ht as she felt the nausea descend on her, that it would be that little architectural wound that would resolve her when all his violence against people hadn&039;t
"I will have my answer by dawn," he shouted "By dawn If you don&039;t do what I say, I&039;ll cut off your thuold It&039;s not as if Oshai&039;s going to care that you&039;re daed"
Austed by it But it carabbed her by a handful of hair and pulled her fro her papers and pens He kicked over the desk and stalked out As the door slalimpse of shocked faces
She lay in the darkness, too tired and ill to weep The stone floor was rough against her cheek The blood from her cut face pulled on her skin as it dried She&039;d have a scar When her ain, the room was utterly black She forced herself to think The days had blurred - bent over half-legible books froe and her hands bent themselves into claws And then to dreaain And there had been no point Ovi Niit was a thug and a whores he took to ease theht distance
But days The question was days
She counted slowly, struggling to recall Three weeks at least More than that It had to be more than that Perhaps four Not five It was too early to be sure of Marchat&039;s a If she&039;d counted wrong, the worst case would be that they found her face down in the river and Ovi Niit lost five lengths of gold That wouldn&039;t be so bad
She pushed herself upright, then stood, breathing through the pain until she felt as little stooped as she could e When she was ready, she took up her cane and put on the expression she used when she wanted no one to see her true feelings She was Airl of Saraykeht ood Let them see that she was unbroken If she could make the whores of the coain, too
The co their trade A guardsarlic and rose lay curled in a corner, a leatherwork rod in the shape of a man&039;s sex chewed half to pieces between the bitch&039;s paws
"He&039;s gone out," the guard said "In the front rooo out to hirandmother"
"I wouldn&039;t want to interrupt Send Mitat to the office I need so it&039;s like a storreement The sound of druht in the endless carnival of the soft quarter
"I&039;ll have her bring souard said
"Thank you," Amat said, her voice polite, dispassionate: the voice of the woman she wanted them all to believe her to be "That would be very kind of you"
Mitat appeared in her doorway half a hand later The wide, pale face littered with freckles looked hard Aently at her and took a pose of welcorandmother"
"Yes, and so he has Open those shutters for et therown shorter"
Mitat did so, and the pale ht added to the lantern on Amat&039;s desk The papers weren&039;t in such bad order Arand worse"
"Of course he is," Ahtened And he drinks too reement Amat smiled and took her hand In the wall behind Mitat, the little scar blemished the here he&039;d kicked it A if the whoremaster would ever understand how much that mark had cost him And Amat intended it to cost dear
"Who is the most valuable man here?" Amat asked "Niitcha uards," Mitat began, but Amat waved the comment away
"Who does he trust like a brother?"
Mitat&039;s eyes narrowed She&039;s caught scent of it, Aht and se of the house when Niit-cha&039;s away"
"You knohat his handwriting looks like?"
"No," Mitat said "But I know he took in two gold and seventy silver lengths fro about it"
Aer until she found the precise sum It was a wide hand with poorly for the ends of words She kneell Black Rathvi was a poor keeper of notes, and she&039;d been struggling with his entries since she&039;d started the project She found herself ghoulishly pleased that he&039;d be suffering for his poor job keeping books
"I&039;ll need a cloak - a hooded one - perhaps two hands before daybreak," Amat said
"You should leave now," Mitat said "Niit-cha&039;s occupied for the moment, but he may - "
"I&039;m not finished yet Two hands before daybreak, I will be You and your man should slon for a time after Ovi Niit deals with Black Rathvi At least several weeks If he sees things get better, he&039;ll knoas right You understand?"
Mitat took a pose of affirmation, but it wasn&039;t solid Ale eyebrow and waited Mitat looked away, and then back There was so like hope and also like distrust in her eyes The face of someone ants to believe, but is afraid to
"Can you do it?" Mitat asked
"Make the numbers point to Black Rathvi? Of course I can This is what I do Can you get e at least as far as the street?"
"If you can put those two at each other&039;s throats, I can do anything," Mitat said
It took less tih to manipulate once she knehat she wanted to do with theinal sheets, blacking out the scrawling hand and forging new figures When she was finished, a good accountant would have been able to see the deception But if Ovi Niit had had one of those, A ti She kept the tone for all the titles and honorary flourishes she would have for a very respected merchant or one of the lower of the utkhaiem She expressed her thanks for the shelter and discretion Ovi Niit and his house had extended and expressed regret that she felt it in her best interest - now that her as done - to leave inconspicuously She had tooas she did so, for Niit-cha&039;s sense of advantage to expect hier had use She then outlined her findings, in that she knew his name or his role in the house
She folded the letter twice and then at the corners in the style of a private e and wrote Ovi Niit&039;s name on the overleaf It perched atop the papers and books, ready to be discovered A to the wildfor Mitat to appear The night candle consuan to wonder whether soirl had arranged it, leaving the house was as si up her cane, and stepping out the rear door and down a stone path to the open gate that led to the street In the east, the blackness was starting to show the gray of charcoal, the weakest stars on the horizon failing The ht traffic was over but for a few revelers pulling themselves back from their entertainments Amat, for all the pain in her joints, wasn&039;t the slowest
She paused at a corner stand and bought a reens and fried pork wrapped in al like a god in the east She was surprised by the calm she felt, the serenity Her ordeal was, if not over, at least near its end A fewwould be done And if she spent weeks in hell, she was strong enough, she saw, to corace
She even believed the story until the girl running the stall asked if she&039;d want more tea Amat almost wept at the small kindness So perhaps she wasn&039;t quite so unscathed as she told herself
She reached her apart On a norht have been setting forth just then Or even a bit earlier Off into her city, on the business of her house She unlocked the door of her apartments, slipped in, and barred the door behind her It was a risk, cos with Marchat&039;s cruel business, but she needed s And a fresh robe And sleep Gods, she needed sleep But that would wait
She gathered her things quickly and et down the stairs She had enough silver in her sleeve to buy a sh for a room and discretion for three or four days If she could only
No No, of course she couldn&039;t When she opened the door, three men blocked her They had knives The tallesta wide palainst the wall The others slid in fast as shadows, and closed the door again A, and she felt nauseated
"If you screaently It was sosaid so carefully Amat nodded, and he took his hand away Their knives were still drawn
"I want to speak with Wilsin-cha," A
"Good that we&039;ve sent for him, then," one of the others said "Why don&039;t you have a seat while ait"
Ahtness in her throat She took a pose that accepted the suggestion, turned and ain up the stairs to wait at her desk Two of the men followed her The third waited below The sun had ether when Mar-chat walked up the steps and into her rooht Or perhaps not older, but worn His hair hung li yolk discolored the sleeve He paced the length of the roo neither directly at her nor away A at her desk, folded her hands on one knee and waited Marchat stopped at the , turned and gestured to the two thugs
"Get out," he said "Wait downstairs"
The two looked at one another, weighing, Amat sahether to obey him These were not Marchat&039;s men, then Not truly They were the ed, and the other turned back with a pose of acknowledgment before they both moved to the door and out A
Marchat looked out, down, she presumed, to the street The heat of the day was thick Sweat stained his armpits and dampened his brow
"You&039;re too early," he said at last, still not looking directly at her
"Ay more casual than she felt Silence held them until at last Marchat looked at her directly She couldn&039;t read his expression - perhaps anger, perhaps sorrow, perhaps exhaustion Her ehed
"As have been bad Worse than I expected, and I didn&039;t think they&039;d be well"
He walked to her, lowered himself onto the cushion that Liat usually occupied, and rested his head on his hands Ae to reach out, to touch him She held the impulse in
"It&039;s nearly over," he continued "I can convince Oshai and his men that it&039;s better to let you live I can But Amat You have to helpWhat you&039;ve started or done or said that ht stop the trade"
Amat felt a slow shter bloom in her chest Her shoulders shook and she took a pose of amaze up a swimmer Marchat looked confused
"What I&039;ve done to stop it?" Amat asked "Are you simple? I&039;ve run like my life depended on it, kept my head low and prayed that whatever you&039;d started, you could finish Stop you? Gods, Marchat, I don&039;t knohat you&039;re thinking"
"You&039;ve done nothing?"
"I&039;ve been through hell I&039;ve been beaten and threatened Soht me on fire I&039;ve seen more of the worst parts of the city than I&039;ve seen in years I did quite a bit I worked longer hours at harder tasks than you&039;ve ever gotten fro on a pace and rhyth out of her faster and louder Her face felt flushed "And, in my spare moments, did I work out a plan to save the house&039;s honor and set the world to rights? Did I hire irl what you intend to do to her? No, you fat Galtic idiot, I did not Had you been expectingout The anger made her feel better for the nized it was illusion, but she took comfort in it all the same Marchat&039;s expression was sour
"What about Itani, then?"
"Who?"
"Itani Liat&039;s boy"
Amat took a dismissive pose
"What about hi, certainly, but you must know that by now I didn&039;t speak with him then, and I certainly haven&039;t since"
"Then why has he gone out with the poet&039;s student three nights of the last five?" Marchat demanded His voice was hard as stone He didn&039;t believe her
"I don&039;t know, Marchat-cha Why don&039;t you ask him?"
Marchat shook his head, ier that had held Amat up collapsed, and she was suddenly desperate that he believe her, that he understand That he be on her side She felt like a port one way to another with the shifting wind If she&039;d been able to sleep before they spoke, if she hadn&039;t had to flee Ovi Niit&039;s house, if the world were only just or fair or explicable, she would have been able to be herself - calusted by it and pretended that she was only cal
"Or," she said, stopping him as he reached the head of the stairs, "if you want to be clever about it, ask Liat"
"Liat?"
"She&039;s the one who told one Itani told her, and she toldthe poets against you, ask Liat"
"She&039;d suspect," Marchat said, but his tone begged to be proved wrong Aood, closed The darkness was so comfortable Gods, she needed to rest
"No," Amat said "She wouldn&039;t Approach her as if you were scolding her Tell her it&039;s unseemly for those kinds of friendships to bloo trade, and ask her why they couldn&039;t wait until it was concluded At the worst, she&039;ll hide the truth fro she&039;s hiding"
Her e the strategy over, looking for flaws A breath of air s of the sea touched Amat&039;s face She could see it in Marchat&039;s eyes when he accepted her suggestion
"You&039;ll have to stay here until it&039;s over," he said "I&039;ll have Oshai&039;syou food and drink I still need to make my case to Oshai and the client, but I willpose "I&039;ll be pleased being here," she said Then, "Marchat? What is this all about?"
"Money," he said "Power What else is there?"
And as he walked down the stairs, leaving her alone, it fit together like a peg slipping into its hole It wasn&039;t about the child It wasn&039;t about the girl It was about the poet And if it was about the poet, it was about the andat If the poet Heshai lost control of his creation, if Seedless escaped, the cotton trade in Saraykeht would lose its advantage over other ports in the islands and the Westlands and Galt Even when a new andat came, it wasn&039;t likely that it would be able to fuel the cotton trade as Seedless or Petals-Falling had
Amat went to herThe street beloas full - s, carts The roofs of the city stretched out to the east, and down to the south the seafront was full Trade The girl Maj would be sacrificed to shift the balance of trade away fro that made sense
"Oh, Marchat," she breathed "What have you done?"
THE TEAHOUSE was nearly e in raised voices, their arguarden, an older , slow breathing a counterpoint to the distant conversation A le pluht, and the scent of an extinguished wick Otah felt the urge to light a fresh candle, but he didn&039;t act on it On the bench beside hiet cold here, Otah-kvo?" Maati asked "If ith the Dai-kvo, we&039;d be shivering by now, even if it is ht, and it&039;s almost hot as day"
"It&039;s the sea It holds the heat in And we&039;re too far south It&039;s colder as you go north"
"North Do you remember Machi?"
Visions took Otah Stone walls thicker than ato a white sky, stone statues baked all day in the fires and then put in the children&039;s rooht
He reh, a sister whose na close for war pine and hot stone and mulled wine
"No," he said "Not really"
"I don&039;t often look at the stars," Maati said "Isn&039;t that odd?"
"I suppose," Otah allowed
"I wonder whether Heshai does He stays out half the time, you know He wasn&039;t even there yesterday when I ca?"
Maati frowned
"I suppose so It wasn&039;t quite dahen I got there You should have seen Seedless stalking back and forth like a cat He tried to get me to say where I&039;d been, but I wouldn&039;t talk Not ht"