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A In her drea in her door, and even when she&039;d pulled herself up from sleep&039;s dark waters, it took so reports from the dream hadn&039;t been real Slowly, the panic waned, and she lay back Above her, the netting glowed like new copper in the light frohter and paler as the cool blue light of dawn crept in through the opened s The shutters shifted in the sea-scented breeze

Her desk was piled with papers Ink bricks hollowed from use stacked one on another at the head of the stairs, waiting to be carried away The affairs of the house had fallen into near chaos while she ay She had spent long nights looking over lists and ledgers and telling herself that she cared for them all the way she once had That House Wilsin and her work for it had not been poisoned

A aside Her world since her resurrection had been ray and es until sunset At one point, seeing the strain on her face at the end of the day, Marchat had offered to send her away for a week to Chaburi-tan once the season was over The house could cover the expenses, he said And she let herself iine that time - away from Saraykeht and the seafront and her desk and the soft quarter - though the fantasy ashed by melancholy It could never actually happen, but it would have been nice

Instead, Amat Kyaan rose fro on her cane, to the corner stall where a girl from the lons sold fresh berries wrapped in sweet frybread It was good enough as a h to midday She ate it as she walked back to her apart it hard to concentrate on shiftingher mind blank and empty was so much easier

Her ti ill She&039;dthe had broken in her, and pretending it back to fixed wasn&039;t working She&039;d half known it wouldn&039;t, and herit

Therobes of yellow and silver - the colors of House Tiyan He was young - sixteen, perhaps seventeen sue An apprentice, then, but the apprentice of soh in House Tiyan There was only one errand that could mean Amat shifted her schedule in her mind and popped the last of the berry-soaked frybread into herappropriate for an honored elder Amat responded

"Kyaan-cha," the boy said, "I come on behalf of Annan Tiyan "

"Of course you do," she said, opening her door "Cos?"

He hesitated behind her for only a moment Amat went slowly up the stairs Her hip was much better since she&039;d returned to her apart oint the red stains fro papers When she reached her desk, she turned and sat The boy stood before her He&039;d taken the paper from his sleeve - the one she&039;d sent to his ave it to her

The receipt was signed Amat so with her papers later The papers she was going to take with her, not the ones for House Wilsin The box was on the desk under a pile of contracts Amat shifted it out, into her lap Dark wood banded by iron, and heavy with jewels and lengths of silver She handed it to the boy

"My an "That is, A if "

"Annan wants to knohy I&039;e," she said, "and he wanted you to find out without "

The boy blushed furiously Amat took a pose that dismissed the issue

"It&039;s rude of him, but I&039;d have done the same in his place You may tell hi such things with trusted friends One of the people who had been doing h, so it was time to find a new holder And, of course, if he should ever care to, I would be pleased to return the favor It&039;s got nothing to do with that poor island girl"

It wasn&039;t true, of course, but it was convenient This was the fourth such box she&039;d sent out to ht be able to appeal if circuood as the honor of the people she stowed the boxes with And there would be a certain amount of theft, she expected - one jewel replaced by another of less value A few lengths of silver gone despite the locks It wasn&039;t likely, though, that if she called for theency, that would be very nearly all Ament and retreated down the stairs Ah Ovi Niit She wouldn&039;t be caught without her wealth again That it was a courtesy of the great fa like precedent Annan wouldn&039;t believe that it was unrelated to Maj and the sad trade, but he would understand froossip about it That would suffice

For the next hand and a half, she went through the contracts,notations here and there - one copy for herself, one for the house So late in the season, there were few changes to beBut each contract carried with it two or three letters outlining the completion or modifications of ters that would sink a trading house if they weren&039;t watched She went through thethe translations of the letters in Galtic and the Khaiate, noting discrepancies, or places where a wordIt hat she&039;d done for years, and she did it now mechanically and without joy

When she reached the last one, she checked that the inks were dry, rolled the different documents in tubes tied with cloth ribbons, and packed theht satchel - there were too many to fit in her sleeves She took her cane, then, and walked out into the city, heading north to the Wilsin coents of the utkhaiem were present when she arrived at the wide courtyard of the house Servants in fine silks lounged at the edge of the fountain, talking a out past the statue of the Galtic Tree to the street She hesitated when she saw the at her for no reason she could say She pushed it aside the way she pushed all her feelings aside these recent days, and strode past the room

Epani Doru, Wilsin-cha&039;s rat-faced, obsequious master of house, sat before the ooden doors of thea pose of welcoh to pretend he honored her position

"I&039;ve so an answering pose

"He&039;swith y

Ahed She took a pose that asked for a duration Epani answered vaguely, but with a sense that she would be lucky to see her employer&039;s face before sundown

"It can wait, then," Amat said "It&039;s about the sad trade? Is that what they&039;re picking at him for?"

"I assume so, Amat-cha," Epani said "I understand fro addressed and forgotten as quickly as possible There have been requests to lower tariffs"

Amat clucked and shook her head

"Sour trade, this whole issue," she said "I&039;ot involved in it"

Epani took a pose of agreeht for ain the ht have been someone who Marchat took into his confidence the way he hadn&039;t taken her An accomplice to the act Amat noted her suspicion, tucked it away like a paper into a sleeve, and took a pose of query

"Liat?"

"In the workrooms, I think," Epani said "The utkhaiem didn&039;t ask to speak with her"

Amat didn&039;t reply The workrooms of the compound were a bad place for so packets for the archives, copying docu numbers - all the work done at the low slate tables was better suited for a new clerk, someone who had recently co, still air and the smell of cheap lamp oil

Liat sat at a table by herself, hunched over Airl The too-round face had misplaced its youth; Amat could see in that moment what Liat would be when her beauty failed her A woht of sympathy descended on Amat Kyaan, and she stepped forward

"Amat-cha," Liat said when she looked up She took a pose of apology "I didn&039;t know you had need of me I would have - "

"I didn&039;t know it either," A on?"

"Ship the records for the archive"

A was clean, legible A over nuhten

"Wilsin-cha set you to this?" Amat asked

"No No one did Only I ran out of work, and I wanted to be useful I&039; idle these days It just feels "

"Don&039;t carry it," A to look at the written nu pose A you did wrong," Amat said

"You&039;re kind"

"No Not really There was nothing you could have done to prevent this, Liat You were tricked The girl was tricked The poet and the Khai"

"Wilsin-cha was tricked," Liat said, adding to the list

Or trapped, A Liat rallied herself to sratitude

"It helps to hear soirl said "Itani does when he&039;s here, but I can&039;t always believe hi?"

"North," Liat said, startling as if she&039;d saidnorth to see his sister Andand I already miss him"

"Of course you do He&039;s your heartently, but the weariness and dread in Liat&039;s gaze deepened Amat took a deep breath and put a hand on Liat&039;s shoulder

"Cos I need of you But so room on the north side of the compound where the ere in shade and laid the tasks before her She&039;dher now, she added three or four ss that she&039;d intended to let rest Liat needed so now Work was thin comfort, but it hat she had to offer Liat listened closely, ferociously

Amat reluctantly ended her list

"And before that, I need you to take me to the wo as she said the words precisely how inadequate they were For a hten Liat&039;s burden by whatever e But she sed it She put coer and sorrow

Liat led her to a private room in the back, not far from Marchat Wilsin&039;s own Amat knew the place The delicate inlaid wood of the floor, the Galtic tapestries, thelattices of carved bone It here House Wilsin kept its uests Airl had slept before the crin of Marchat&039;s pricked conscience

Maj lay curled on the ledge before theHer pale fingers rested on the lattice; the strange dirty gold of her hair spilled down across her shoulders and halfway to the floor She looked softer Amat stood behind her and watched the rise and fall of her breath, slow but not so slow as sleep

"I could stay, if you like," Liat said "She canI think she is better when there are people around who she knows Fairl shifted at the sound of her voice The pale eyes looked over her with nothing like real interest "No, Liat-kya, I think I&039;ve put enough on you for today I can e fro the door behind her Airl and lowered herself into it Maj watched her When Aht, Maj spoke

"You hurt her feelings," she said in the sibilant words of Nippu "You sent her away, didn&039;t you?"

"I did," Amat said "I ca I know I&039;ve told it to a hundred people I won&039;t do it again"

"I haven&039;t co I&039;ve co smile touched the wide, pale lips The fair eyebrows rose

"Have you coed, asking with oing to arrange your travel back to Nippu," Amat said "I think it will happen within the week"

Maj nodded Her eyes softened, and As that had happened soo on

"I don&039;t want you to go," Amat said "I want you to stay here In Saraykeht"

The pale eyes narrowed, and Maj lifted herself on one elbow, shifting to face Amat directly Amat could see the distrust in her face and felt she understood it

"What happened to you goes deeper than it appears," Amat said "It was an attack on my city and its trade, and not only by the andat and Oshai It won&039;t be easy to show this for what it was, and if you leaveif you leave, I don&039;t think I can"

"What can&039;t you do?"

"Prove to the Khai that there werepaid to do this?"

"No"

"Then why?"

Airl&039;s eyes

"Because it&039;s the right thing," Amat said It was the first ti in her released with them Since the day she&039;d left Ovi Niit, she had been tomen - the overseer of House Wilsin and also the woman who knew that she would have to have this conversation Have this conversation and then folloith all the actions it iers around one knee and s only one wo They struck at my city Mine And my house was part of it Because of that, I was part of it Doing this will gain reat deal that I hold dear And I will do it with you or without you"

"It won&039;t bring e him?"

"Yes If I succeed"

"What would he do, your Khai? If you won"

"I don&039;t know," Aht fine House Wilsin Or he ht exile Wilsin-cha"

"Or kill hiainst House Wilsin, or the Galtic Council Or all of Galt I don&039;t know But that&039;s not for me to choose All I can do is ask for his justice, and trust that the Khai will follow the right road afterward"

Maj turned back to the ay froers touched the latticework, traced the lines of it as if they were the curves of a beloved face Amat sed to loosen the knot in her throat Outside, a songbird called twice, then paused, and sang again

"I should go," Amat said