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A of a wo sun ht to look at Ships rested at the docks, taking on cloth or oils or sugar or else putting off brazil blocks and indigo, wheat and rye, wine and Eddensea marble The thin stalls still barked with coulls still wheeled and co into a memory She had passed this way every day for years How quickly it had beco on her cane, she passed the wide mouth of the Nantan and into the warehouse district The traffic patterns in the streets had changed - the rhythm of the city had shifted as it did from season to season The h the year&039;s as still far froreat trick that made Saraykeht the center of all cotton trade had been performed once more, and now nor that advantage into power and wealth and prestige
She could also feel its unease So fro, she&039;d heard three or four different stories about what had happened Every conversation she walked past was the sa to do with House Wilsin and the sad trade So men and women in the street smiled as they told each other, excited by the sense of crisis and too young or too poor or too ignorant for the news of yesterday&039;s events to sicken them with dread That was for older people People who understood
A the scent of the sea, the perfu meat at the stalls, the unpleasant stench of the dyers&039; vats that reached even froh summer behind it In her heart, she still found it hard to believe that she had returned to it, that she was not still entombed in the back office of Ovi Niit&039;s co heavily on her cane, she tried not to wonder what the men and wouards looked at her curiously as they took their poses She didn&039;t even respond, only walked forward into the tiled rooms with their echoes and the scent of cedar and fresh water She shrugged off her robes and went past the public baths to Marchat Wilsin&039;s little room at the back, just as she always had
He looked terrible
"Too hot," he said as she lowered herself into the water The lacquer tray danced a little on the waves she stirred, but didn&039;t spill the tea
"You always say that," As under his eyes, dark as bruises His face, scowl-set, held a grayish cast Amat leaned forward and pulled the tea closer
"So," she said "I take it things ell"
"Don&039;t"
Amat sipped tea from her bowl and considered him Her employer, her friend
"Then what is there left for us to say?" she asked
"There&039;s business," Marchat said "The sas ell"
He shot an annoyed glance at her, then looked away
"Couldn&039;t we start with the contracts with the dyers?"
"If you&039;d like," A with them?"
Her voice carried the whole load of sarcaser And fear Marchat took a clu over and taking his ol of tea fro with the Khai and several of the higher utkhaie on my sword over the sad trade I&039;ve pro to find?"
"The truth, I i to a place where you believe it yourself I expect our investigation - or anyone else&039;s - will shoas Oshai, the translator He and hisunder the direction of the andat Seedless They found the girl, they brought her to us under false pretenses I have letters of introduction that I&039;ll turn over to the Khai&039;s ed House Wilsin will be looked upon as a collection of dupes At best, it will take us years to recover our reputation"
"It&039;s a small price," Amat said "What if they find Oshai?"
"They won&039;t"
"You&039;re sure of that?"
"Yes," Wilsin said with a great sigh "I&039; questioned," Marchat said "I iine she&039;ll be out by the end of the day We&039;ll need to do so to come out of this with a reputation for coirl She didn&039;t have anything very coherent to say, I&039;m afraid But it&039;s over, A I can say of the whole stinking business The worst that was going to happen has happened, and noe can get to cleaning up after it andon"
"And what&039;s the truth?"
"What I told you," he said "That&039;s the truth It&039;s the only truth that matters"
"No The real truth Who sent those pearls? And don&039;t tell me the spirit conjured them out of the sea"
"Who knows?" Marchat said "Oshai told us they were froirl&039;s family We had no reason to think otherwise"
Aether Marchat er with his His pale face flushed red, his chin slid forward belligerently like a boy in a play yard
"I a everything I can to kill this thing and bury it, and by all the gods, Amat, I knoell as you that it was rotten, but what do you want ize? Where did the pearls come from? Galt, Aed the thing? Galts And ill pay for this if that story is proved instead of mine? I&039;ll be killed You&039;ll be exiled if you&039;re lucky The house will be destroyed And do you think it&039;ll stop there, Amat? Do you? Because I don&039;t"
"It was evil, Marchat"
"Yes Yes, it was evil Yes, it rong," he said,so violently that his tea splashed, the red tint of if diffusing quickly in the bath "But it was decided before anyone consulted us By the time you or I or any of us were told, it was already too late It needed doing, and so we&039;ve done it
"Tell me, Amat, what happens if you&039;re the Khai Saraykeht and you find out your pet god&039;s been conspiring with your trade rivals? Do you stop with the tools, because that&039;s all we are Tools Or do you teach a lesson to the Galts that they won&039;t soon forget? We haven&039;t got any andat of our own, so there&039;s nothing to restrain you We can&039;t hit back Do our crops fail? Do all the women with child in Galt lose their children over this? They&039;re as innocent as that island girl, Amat They&039;ve done as little to deserve that as she has"
"Lower your voice," Alancing nervously at the s, the door Amat shook her head
"That was a pretty speech," she said "Did you practice it?"
"So to convince with it? Me, or yourself?"
"Us," he said "Both of us It&039;s true, you know The price would be worse than the crime, and innocent people would suffer"
Amat considered hiree He was like a child, a boy It hted down
"I suppose it is," she said "So Where do we go froe Ah, and one thing The boy Itani? Do you knohy the young poet would call him Otah?"
Amat let herself be distracted She turned the na came She put her bowl of tea on the side of the bath and took a pose pleading ignorance
"It sounds like a northern name," she said "When did he use it?"
"I had a "
"It doesn&039;tLiat&039;s told er on it and see if it &039;s coirl Yes We&039;ll need to keep her close for another week or two Then I&039;ll have her taken ho a run to the east at about the right time If the Khai&039;s e with theer"
"But you&039;ll see her back home safely"
"It&039;s what I can do," Marchat said
They sat in silence for a long minute Amat&039;s heart felt like lead in her breast Marchat was as still as if he&039;d drunk poison Poor Wilsin-cha, she thought He&039;s trying so hard to make this conscionable, but he&039;s too wise to believe his own arguments
"So, then," she said, softly "The contracts with the dyers Where do we stand with theaze met hers, a faint sht her up to date on the sotiated with Old Sanya and the dyers, the problems with the shipments from Obar State, the tax statements under review by the utkhaie to she moved back into the rhyths of the house slid back into use, and she pictured all the issues Wilsin-cha brought up and how they would affect each other She asked questions to confire Marchat to think things through with her And for a while, she could al had happened, that she still felt what she had, that the house she had served so long was still what it had been to her Alertips rinkled from the baths and her mind was clearer She had several full days&039; work before her just to put things back in order And after that the work of the autumn: first House Wilsin&039;s - she felt she owed Marchat that much - and then perhaps also her own
THE POET&039;S house had been full for two days now, ever since Heshai had taken to his bed Utkhaiereat trading houses caht food and drink and thinly-veiled curiosity and tacit recriifts, saw theratitude until his shoulders ached He wanted nothing ht had been the worst Maati had stood outside the door of Heshai-kvo&039;s rooht candle was half-burned And when the door finally scraped open, it was Seedless who had unbarred it
Heshai had lain on his cot, his eyes fixed on nothing, his skin pale, his lips slack The white netting around him reminded Maati of a funeral shroud He had had to touch the poet&039;s shoulder before Heshai&039;s distracted gaze flickered over to him and then away Maati took a chair beside hiht, Seedless had paced the roo for a way under a woodpile Sohed to himself Once, when Maati had drifted into an uneasy sleep, he woke to find the andat on the bed, bent over until his pale lips al fast, sharp syllables too quietly for Maati to make sense of them The poet&039;s face was contorted as if in pain and flushed bright red In the long azes locked, and Maati saw Seedless s ca of visitors, Heshai roused hireet them The bar had slid home behind him, and the stream of people had hardly slackened since They stayed until the first quarter of the night candle had burned, and a neave arrived before dawn
"I bring greetings from Annan Tiyan of House Tiyan," an older man said loudly as he stood on the threshold He had to speak up for his words to carry over the conversation behind Maati "We had heard of the poet&039;s ill health and wished "
Maati took a brief pose of welcoin to abbled and talked and waited, Maati knew, for news of Heshai Maati only took the food they&039;d brought and laid it out for theift wine into bowls as hospitality And upstairs, HeshaiIt didn&039;t bear thinking about A regal ently what he could do to help the poet in his ti had changed was the sudden silence All conversations stopped, and Maati rushed to the front of the house to find hiry eyes of the Khai Saraykeht
"Where is yourpose made the words seem stark and terrible
Maati took a pose of welcoh," he said
The Khai looked slowly around the roo between his brows The visitors all took appropriate poses - Maati could hear the shuffle of their robes The Khai took a pose of query that was directed to Maati, though his gaze remained on the assembled men
"Who are these?" the Khai asked
"Well-wishers," Maati said
The Khai said nothing, and the silence grew ly unco Maati by the shoulder and turning him to the stairs Maati walked before the Khai
"When I come down," the Khai said in a calm, almost conversational tone, "any man still here forfeits half his wealth"
At the top of the stairs, Maati turned and led the Khai down the short hall to Heshai&039;s door He tried it, but it was barred Maati turned with a pose of apology, but the Khaito notice it
"Heshai," the Khai said, his voice loud and low "Open the door"
There was a moment&039;s pause, and then soft footsteps The bar scraped, and the door swung open Seedless stepped aside as the Khai entered Maati followed The andat leaned the bar against the wall, caught Maati&039;s gaze, and took a pose of greeting appropriate to old friends Maati felt a surge of anger in his chest, but did nothing more than turn away
The Khai stood at the foot of Heshai&039;s bed The poet was sitting up, now Soed fro cloth The wide le The Khai reached up and swept the netting aside It occurred to Maati how race, the beauty, the presence The greatest difference was that the Khai Saraykeht showed tiny lines of age at the corners of his eyes and was not so lovely
"I have spoken with Marchat Wilsin of House Wilsin," the Khai said "He extends his apologies There will be an investigation It has already begun"
Heshai looked down, but took a pose of gratitude The Khai ignored it
"We have also spoken with the girl and the overseer for House Wilsin who negotiated the trade There arequestions"
Heshai nodded and then shook his head as if clearing it He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and took a pose of agreeh," he said "I will answer anything I can"
"Not you," the Khai said "All I require is that you compel your creature"
Heshai looked at Maati and then at Seedless The wide face went gray, the lips pressed thin Seedless stiffened and then, slowly as a h deep water, moved to the bedside and took a pose of obeisance before the Khai Maati moved a step forward before he knew he meant to His impulse to shield soer and a deepening dread
"I think this was your doing A?" the Khai asked, and Seedless sh," he said
"And you did this to tor at each other, so only Maati saw Heshai&039;s face The shock of surprise and then a bleak cal Maati&039;s stomach twisted This was part of it, he realized Seedless had planned this to hurt Heshai, and thisnow, this humiliation, was also part of his intention
"Where may we find the translator Oshai?" the Khai said
"I don&039;t know Careless oftrack of my toys"
"That will do," the Khai said, and strode to theLooking down to the grass at the front of the house, the Khai esture In the distance, Maati heard aan order
"Heshai," the Khai Saraykeht said, turning back "I want you to know that I understand the struggles a poet faces I&039;ve read the old romances But youyou must understand that these little shadow plays of yours hurt innocent people And they hurtthat I lower tariffs to compensate for the risk that the andat will find soht hurt the cotton crop I have had two of the largest trading houses in the city ask me what I plan to do if the andat escapes Hoill I maintain trade then? And as I to tell them? Eh?"
"I don&039;t know," the poet said, his voice low and rough
"Nor do I," the Khai said
Men were tra up the stairway now Maati could hear the was almost more than his desire to hear when the Khai said next
"This stops now," the Khai said "And if I must be the one to stop it, I will"