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The ship passed the great island with its white watch-tower and into the bay of Yalakeht on a cool, hazyand watched the land turn froray of pine trees in autue of the calmest of waters The noise of their bayfront carried over the water, but muffled by the thick air like a conversation in a nearby roonaled in by the dock master&039;s torches - just as the sun reached its peak in the sky Otah had hardly put his feet to the cobbled streets before he heard the news The bayfront seemed to buzz with it
The third son the Khai Udun had killed his re brother They had found each other in Chaburi-Tan, and faced each other in a seafront street with knives Or else the second son - whom Otah had seen in the court of the Khai Saraykeht - had been poisoned after all Or he had aht slip from him On the docks, on the streets, in the teahouses, the stories ran together and meshed with older, better-known tales, last year&039;s news, and wild iht have happened Otah found a seat in the back of a teahouse near the bayfront and listened as the stories unfolded The youngest son would take his father&039;s place - a good sign When a youngest son took power, it orous People said it meant the next Khai Udun would be especially talented and brave
To Otah, it meant that he had killed two of his brothers, and that the others, younger even than he was, had been cast out They earing brands somewhere even now Unless they were poets Unless they were lucky enough to be poets like Heshai of Saraykeht
"Well, you&039;re looking sour," a fa a pose of welcome The courier sat down across fro man Moments later, tls of fish and rice appeared before the with a pot of sreen Otah took a pose of correction to the serving man, but Orai stopped him
"It&039;s a tradition ofcompanions a meal"
"Really?"
"No," the courier said, "but I think I have more money than you do, and as it happens the fish here is really quite good"
The serving hed
"At least let me pay my half," Otah said, but Orai took a pose of deferment: next time
"So, Itani," he said "This is the end? Or how far upriver is your sister?"
"A day or so by boat," Otah lied "Two days walking Or so she tells me I&039;ve never been"
"A few days e You&039;ve never been there, have you?"
"No," Otah said
"It&039;s worth the extra travel, if you can spare it The houses of the Dai-kvo are actually built into the living rock They say it&039;s based on the school of the ancients in the old Eh I don&039;t suppose there&039;s ood story"
"I suppose"
The fish was very good - bright with lemon, hot with pepper Otah realized after a few ry
"And now that you&039;re at the end of your first journey over water, what do you think of it?"
"It&039;s strange," Otah said "The world still feels like it&039;s "
"Yes It does stop after a while More than that, though There was a saying when I was young that sea journeys are like woe you And none so much as the first"
"I don&039;t know about that," Otah said "I seeers, ten toes No flippers"
"Perhaps it&039;s just a saying, then"
Orai poured hi across it to cool it Otah finished the last of the rice and leaned back to find the courier&039;s gaze on hi He replied with a pose of query that seemed to pull Orai out of a half-dream
"I have to confess, Itani, it isn&039;t precisely chance that I found you here The fish really is very good, but I found you by asking after you I&039;ve been working for House Siyanti for eight years, and traveling for five of those I think it&039;s taught s and I&039;ll flatter e of character These last weeks, on the ship, you&039;ve struckman You&039;re smart, but you hide the fact You&039;re driven, but I don&039;t think you know yet what you&039;re driven toward And you like travel You have a gift for it"
"You&039;re just saying that because I didn&039;t get sick the way you did," Otah said, trying to lighten the ift Don&039;t underestimate it But all this tiood courier And I hold enough influence in the house now, that if you wanted a letter of introduction, I think I ht be able to help you with it You wouldn&039;t be trusted with i the cities any less fascinating It&039;s not an easy life, but it&039;s an interesting one And it ht suit you"
Otah cocked his head and felt a flush rising in hiratification and e the ratitude and refusal
"I belong in Saraykeht," he said "There are things there I need to see through"
"Your indenture I understand But that&039;s going to end before h I have friends there"
"And the girl," Orai said
"Yes Liat II don&039;t think she&039;d enjoy having a lover as always elsewhere"
Orai took a pose of understanding that see forh perhaps not the one he&039;d wanted to ask
"How old are you?"
"Twenty summers"
"And she&039;s ?"
"Seventeen"
"And you love her," Orai said Otah could hear the almost-covered disappointment in the words "She&039;s your heart-mate"
"I don&039;t know that But I have to find out, don&039;t I?"
Orai grinned and took a pose that conceded the point, then, hesitating, he plucked so from his sleeve It was a letter sewn closed and sealed with hard green wax stamped with an ornate seal
"I took the chance that you&039;d acceptthe letter across the table "If it turns out this a woman doesn&039;t own your heart after all, consider the offer open"
Otah dropped it into his own sleeve and took a pose of thanks He felt an unreasonable trust for this man, and an ease that three weeks&039; acquaintance - even in the close quarters of a ship - couldn&039;t explain Perhaps, he thought, it was only the change of his first sea voyage
"Orai," he said, "have you ever been in love?"
"Yes Several tiood women"
"Can you love someone you don&039;t trust?"
"Absolutely," he said "I have a sister I wouldn&039;t lend two copper lengths if I wanted the soht distance"
"The right distance"
"With my sister, we love each other best from different cities If we had to share a house, it wouldn&039;t go so gracefully"
"But a lover A heartmate"
Orai shook his head
"In my experience, you can bed a woman and mistrust her or you can love a woman and mistrust her, but not all three at once"
Otah sipped his tea It had gone tepid Orai waited, his boyish face with its graying beard serious Two men left from another table, and the cold draft froreen bowl and set his hands together on the table His head felt thick, his mind stuffed ool
"Before I left Saraykeht," he said slowly, "I told Liat sos About my family"
"But not because you trust her?"
"Because I love her and I thought I ought to trust her"
He looked up, his gazeand syreater forces - gods or fate or weight of circumstances There seemed little more to say Orai rose
"Keep hold of that letter," he said "And whatever happens, good luck to you You&039;ve been a good "
"Thank you," Otah said
The courier pulled his robes closed about him and left Otah finished his bowl of tea before he also quit the teahouse The bay of Yalakeht ide and calm and still before him; the port that ended his first journey over the sea His h the wet, narrow streets to the river gate, and some days beyond that, the Dai-kvo
"THIS IS shit!" the one-eyed man shouted and threw the papers on the floor His face was flushed, and the scarring that webbed his cheeks shone white Ah she never took her gaze from his - Ovi Niit&039;s unappointed spokesman "He would never have done this"
The front rooh none of the people there were patrons It was far too early for one thing The soft quarter wasn&039;t awake in the day And the watch had closed the house at her request They ith her still Big scowling reat comfort houses as a symbol of their loyalty to no one house, but the soft quarter itself The protecting soldiery of vice
Behind Amat, where she couldn&039;t see the And arrayed before her, leaning against walls or sitting on the tables and chairs, were the guards and gaht herself, and couldn&039;t entirely stop the smile Her house It was a mistake to think of it as the dead man&039;s
"He did," she said "If he didn&039;t tell you, perhaps you weren&039;t as close as you&039;d thought And you can burn those papers and eat the ashes if you like It won&039;t change anything"
The one-eyeda pose of imprecation The captain - a dark-eyedpose
"They&039;re forged," the one-eyed ed and you know it If Niit-cha was going to sell out, it wouldn&039;t be to a high town cunt like her"
"I&039;ve spoken to the firekeeper that signed witness," the captain said
"Who was it?" a thin, gray-haired man asked One of the tiles men
"Marat Golu Firekeeper for the weaver&039;s quarter"
A ht That was a detail she would have preferred to leave quiet The tiles man was clever
"Gods!" the one-eyed irls that are more expensive"
Amat took a pose that asked clarification Her hands were steady as stone, her voice pleasant
"Are you suggesting that one of the utkhaie in fraud?"
"Yes I am!" the one-eyed man roared The tiles man pursed his lips, but stayed silent "Bhadat Coll was Niitcha&039;s second now Black Rathvi&039;s gone, and if Niit-cha&039;s dead, the house should be his"
"Niit-cha isn&039;t dead," Aht and paid for You can read the contracts yourselves, if you can read"