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Marchat Wilsin had seen wildfires spread more slowly than the news Amat Kyaan&039;s petition had reached the servants of the Master of Tides - an idiot title for an overfed secretary, he thought - just before dawn By the tiether, a er froe fro of a man had scratched out the basic information froible Not that it h It was happening

Epani&039;s letter floated now on the surface of the water It was a warm bath, now that the half-hearted winter was upon them, and steam rose in wisps from the drowned paper The ink had washed away as he&039;d watched it, threads of darkness like shadows fading into the clear water It was over There was nothing he could do now that would put the world back in its right shape, and in a strange way it was a relief Night after night since Seedless, that host, had come to his apartments, Marchat had lain awake He&039;d had a damn fine , no plan of action, no finessed stroke that would avoid the thing that had now co it, he could at least stop looking He closed his eyes and let his head sink for awaves Yes, it was a relief that at least noouldn&039;t have to try

He lay underwater until his lungs began to burn, and then even a little longer, not wanting to leave this littlewhat they were, he rose and tramped up out of the bath The water streaooseflesh behind it, and he dried hi room The heat from a wide, black brazier combined with the vapors from the baths to make the air thick Any chill at all would freeze these people The suine cold, and after so many years here, perhaps he couldn&039;t either As he pulled on his thick woolen robes, it struck Marchat that he didn&039;t remember the last time he&039;d seen snow Whenever it had been, he hadn&039;t known it was the last time he ever would, or he&039;d have paid it ether, round-faced, black-haired, speaking as esture as ords The same as all the others in Saraykeht He was the one - pale skin, kinky hair, ridiculously full beard - who stood out He&039;d lived here since he&039;d been a young man, and he&039;d never really beco for the day when he&039;d be called back to Galt It was a bitter thought When the pair noticed hi which he returned without thinking His hands simply knehat to do

He walked back to the coods kneasn&039;t looking forward, but instead because his failure seemed to have washed his eyes The sounds and scents of the city were fresh, unfaho had carried the saeness that Saraykeht now bore At the tiht it was only that he had been away, but now he thought it was ed hiain just now The city was the sa it: The ancient stonework; the vines that rose on the walls and were pulled back every year only to crawl up again; the es fros of the beggars and cries of birdcall

Too soon, he was back at his own compound where the Galtic Tree stood as it always had in thebehind it He wondered ould take the place once he&039;d gone Some other poor bastard whom the family wanted rid of Some boy desperate to prove his worth in the wealthiest, most isolated position in the house If they didn&039;t tear the place down stone by stone and burn the rubble That was another distinct possibility

Epani waited in his private cha his hands in distress Marchat couldn&039;t bring hi more than a mild annoyance at the ranted Six days It&039;s going to come in six days!"

Marchat put up his hand, pal

"Send a runner to the palaces One of the higher clerks Or go yourself Tell the Khai&039;s people that we expect Amat Kyaan&039;s audience to touch upon the private business of the house, and ant them to postpone her audience until we can be present with our response"

"Yes, Wilsin-cha"

"And bring me paper and a fresh inkblock," Marchat said "I have so in his tone - a certain gravity, perhaps - that reassured the overseer, because Epani dropped into a pose of acknowledgment and scurried out with a sense of relief that was alh to find a servant who could fetch him some mulled wine, then returned to his desk and prepared himself The tiny flask in the thin drawer at his knee was reen wax When he shook it, it clinked like some little piece of metal was hidden in it, and not a liquid at all It was a distillation of the sas comfort houses in the soft quarter used to make exotic wines But it was, of course, h to ers over it

This wasn&039;t how he&039;d wanted it But it would do

He put the flask back in its place as Epani-cha arrived, paper and inkblock and fresh pens in his hands Marchat thanked hie

I aan, then scraped his pen tip over the ink I write this to confess my crimes and to explain them I and I alone

He paused I and I alone It hat he could do, of course He could eat the sin and save those less innocent than hiht save Galt from the wrath of the Khaiem For the first time since he&039;d read Epani&039;s scratched, fear-filled words, Marchat felt a pang of sorrow It was a bad time, this, to be alone

The servant arrived with his wine, and Marchat drank it slowly, looking at the feords he&039;d written He&039;d invented the whole tale, of course How he&039;d hoped to shift the balance of trade away from Saraykeht and so end his exile How he had fed himself on foolish hopes and dreams and let his own evil nature carry hiize to the Khai for his sins, confess his cowardice, and coed and to Amat Kyaan whose loyalty to him had led her to suspect those in Galt who could command him, since she would not believe the sickness of the plan to be his own

The last part was, he thought, a nice touch Recasting Amat as a woman so loyal to him, so in love with him, that she didn&039;t see the truth clearly He felt sure she&039;d appreciate the irony

I and I alone

He took the barely-started confession, blew on it to cure the ink, and set it aside for a time There was no hurry Any time in the next six days would suit as well perhaps more if the Khai let him stall Amat and cheat the world out of a fewto the fah Council for his evil plans that the utkhaie, perhaps, real

He drew his pen across the ink, and set the metal nib to a fresh sheet

Amat, my dear old friend You see what I&039;m like? Even now, at this last stop on the trail, I&039;ht words Amat, my love Ah or, worse, be polite Who ever would have thought we&039;d come to this?

OTAH WOKE late in the afternoon from a heavy, troubled sleep The rooone their ways The brazier was cool, but the sun glowed against acovering of thin-stretched leather He gathered his things from the narrow space between himself and the here so body to steal them Even so he checked What money he&039;d had before, he had now He dressed sloaiting for half-re about a flood, and feral dogs drowning in it

The streets of the seafront were busy, even in winter Ships arrived and departed by the spare handful, heading mostly south for other warm ports The journey to Yalakeht would have been profoundly unpleasant, even now At one of the tall, thin tables by the wharves, he bought a small sack of baked apple slices covered in butter and black sugar, tossing it from one hand to the other as the heat slapped his pal cold of the far north It would, he thought, make apples taste even better

The scandal in every teahouse, around every firekeeper&039;s kiln, on the corners and in the streets, was the petition of Aainst House Wilsin Otah listened and s it She was going to disclose how the house had been evading taxes, one version said Another had it that the sad trade that had gone wrong was more than just the work of the andat - a rival house had arranged it to discredit Wilsin, and A the vendetta still in the pay of some unknown villain Another that Airl&039;s child had truly been Marchat Wilsin&039;s Or the Khai Saraykeht&039;s Or the get of some other Khai killed so that the Khaiem wouldn&039;t have to suffer the possibility of a half-Nippu poet

It was no more or less than any of the other thousand scandals and occasions of gossip that stirred the slow blood of the city Even when he canized, Otah kept his own counsel It was co in the west, vanishing into the low hills and cane fields, when Otah took himself up the wide streets toward the palaces of the Khai and through those high gardens to the poet&039;s house Set off frorandeur of the halls of the Khai and the utkhaiem, the poet&039;s house seeht Otah left the bare trees behind and walked over the wooden bridge, koi popping sluggishly at the water as he passed Nothing ever froze here

Before he&039;d reached the doors, Maati opened them The waft of air that came with him arm and scented with s appropriate for a student to an honored teacher, and Otah laughed and pushed his hands aside It was only when Maati didn&039;t laugh in return that he saw the pose had been sincere He took one of apology, but Maati only shook his head and gestured him inside

The rooms were more cluttered than usual - books, papers, a pair of old boots, half the &039;s breakfast still uneaten A small fire burned, and Maati sat down in one of the two chairs that faced it Otah took the other

"You stayed with her last night?" Maati asked

"Most of it," Otah said, leaning forward "I rented a bunk by the seafront I didn&039;t want to stay in the comfort house You heard that Aht word to Heshai-kvo before they told the Khai"

"How did he take it?"

"He&039;s gone off to the soft quarter I doubt he&039;ll co to A a proble in it"

"Does he know? Ito say?"

Maati roan

"Yes He didn&039;t believe it Or he did, but he wouldn&039;t admit to it He said that justice wasn&039;t worth the price"

"I can&039;t think that&039;s true," Otah said Then, "Butpause There was a deep cup of wine, Otah saw, near the fire A deep cup, but very little wine in it

"And how did you take the news?" he asked

Maati shrugged He looked tired, unwell His skin had a gray cast to it, and the bags under his eyes ht have been froht to look for it, Maati&039;s head was shifting slightly, back and forth with the beating of his heart He was drunk

"What&039;s the matter, Maati?" he asked

"You should stay here," the boy said "You shouldn&039;t sleep at the seafront or the comfort house You&039;re welcome here"

"Thank you, but I think people would find it a little odd that - "

"People," Maati said angrily, then beca over a small brazier, and pushed away the papers that lay too close to the glowing coals before he poured hi up at hiotten that"

"It hardly ot it now Are you well, Maati? You see about you Ever since you got back from the Dai-kvo, it&039;s seemeddifficult between us Don&039;t you think?"

"I suppose so," Otah said and sipped the wine It was hot enough to blow across before he drank it, but it hadn&039;t been cooking so long that the spirit had been burned out of it The warmth of it in his throat was cos I&039;ve been trying not to look at too closely Orai said that sea travel changes you Changes who you are"

"It may not be only that," Maati said softly

"No?"

Maati sat forward, his elbows on his knees, and looked into the fire as he spoke His voice was hard as slate

"There&039;s so to break that pro terrible, Otah-kvo I didn&039;t ods I would While you were away, Liat and Ithere was no one else for us to speak with We were the only tho knew all the truth And so we spent time in each other&039;s company "

I need you to stay, Liat had said before he&039;d left for the Dai-kvo I need someone by my side

And Seedless when he&039;d returned: Heshai fell in love and lost her, and he&039;s been chewed by guilt ever since Maati will do the sa weight With a rush like water poured fro, what had happened He put down his bowl of wine Maati was silent, shaking his head back and forth slowly His face was flushed and although there was no thickness in his voice, no hidden sob in his breath, still a single tear hung from the tip of his nose It would have been comical if it had been someone else

"She&039;s a wonderful woman," Otah said, carefully "Soood woo," Otah said softly

"I&039;m so sorry," Maati whispered to the fire "Otah-kvo, I a that hasn&039;t been done a thousand times before by a thousand different people"

"But I did it to you I betrayed you You love her"

"But I don&039;t trust her," Otah said softly

"Or reed, and pulling his robes close around him, he walked out of the poet&039;s house and into the darkness He closed the door, paused, and then hit it hard enough to bloody his knuckle

The pain in his chest was real, and the rage behind it And also, strangely, an amusee of the pond, wishingthat the courier Orai had been on his way to Saraykeht instead of Machi But the world was as it was Maati and Liat had becoedy had broken his teacher A her suit before the Khai Saraykeht in aSeedless had said to him appeared to be true And so he stood in the chill by the koi pond, and he waited, throwing stones into the dark water, hearing theotten He knew the andat would come to him if he were only patient It wasn&039;t more than half a hand

"He&039;s told you, then," Seedless said

The pale face hovered in the night air, a rueful smile on the perfect, sensual lips

"You knew?"

"Gods The world and everyone knew," the andat said, stepping up beside him to look out over the black water "They were about as discreet as rutting elk I was only hoping you wouldn&039;t hear of it until you&039;d done me that little favor It&039;s a pity, really But I think I bear up quite well under failure, don&039;t you?"

Otah took a deep breath, and let it out slowly He thought perhaps he could see just the wisps of it in the cold Beside him the andat didn&039;t breathe because whatever it looked like, it was not a man

"AndI have failed," Seedless said, his tone suddenly careful, probing "Haven&039;t I? I can spill your secrets, but that&039;s hardly worth murder And I can&039;t expect you to kill a man in order to protect your faithless lover and the dear friend who bedded her, now can I?"

Otah saw again Maati&039;s angry, self-loathing, e twist in his belly An iarden of half-turned earth, half a life ago It didn&039;t undo the hurt or the anger, but it complicated them

"Someone told me once that you can love someone and not trust them, or you can bed someone and not trust them, but never both"

"I wouldn&039;t know," the andat said "My experience of love is actually fairly liht, pale hands took a pose that asked for clarification

"You said you knehere he would be How long it would take him to drink himself to sleep Tell me"