My House tokens had arrived in time for use, so I wrapped a long black cord around my waist and hung one beneath the pale sash I'd bought for Hesa in het Kabbanil as symbol that our enterprise had been successfully arranged. I considered taking the sickle-knife I'd stored in the chest on our arrival to het Narel, but decided it would be too blatant a reminder of my former occupation, and closed the lid on it. By then, Abadil had found his tongue again.
"So you've decided to aim for 'intimidating', have you."
"My target was more 'former imperial enforcer turned civilian,'" I said. "But 'intimidating' is close enough."
"It works," Abadil said. "You carry it well." He rose. "I've told you all I know...."
"And I thank you for it," I said. "I'll remember. I'm accustomed to operating in treacherous environments."
"It should serve you well," Abadil said. "We are still in the empire... and if het Narel is smaller, that makes its politics all the more vicious. People remember more when there are fewer faces."
"Yes, I imagine," I said. We left my bedroom together.
And found Darsi waiting in the antechamber.
He really did look like the sort of male one would use to distract the easily distracted, and he'd been dressed in a showy dark green edged in blood-white and amber, with a white shirt bound below the elbow with amber cords. The colors were gem-like and made him seem to glow.
"I went ahead and told ke Darsi all that I've told you," Abadil said, with far too casual an air. "That was earlier today."
"How convenient," I said. "Abadil, why don't you return to my bedroom and fetch me a House token for ke Darsi."
"I'd be delighted," he said, and excused himself.
"I promise I'll be a help to you, ke emodo," Darsi said, voice and ears low.
I studied him and said, "See that you are."
Abadil returned. I handed Darsi his token and we went down the ramp together. Abadil did not follow us and Darsi wisely did not speak, letting me consider in silence the wisdom of bringing him. I had planned to claim he'd taken ill and that plan still had merit, particularly if he was going to be indiscreet in some moment of passion. Again. One wrong comment and we would be exposed and destroyed.
But Darsi had managed to keep me at bay for months while masquerading as the Head of House Laisira. I had to believe he had some aptitude for working in dangerous circumstances. And I owed it to Hesa not to dismiss him, particularly if he still suffered from the guilt of facilitating the loss of over half his Household.
So I said nothing and Darsi and I passed out of the Household, where two eperu were waiting with our rikka in the wells of light formed by the lamps. One was our spy, I saw. The other was Hesa. Its eyes caught on me and then Darsi, but it revealed nothing in either its mannerisms or countenance. If only it had been able to play the part we had been forced to find an emodo for! But we made shift with what we had.
"Your rikka, ke emodo," Hesa murmured, eyes cast down.
"Thank you, pefna," I said.
"Enjoy your evening," it said, and how I longed to hear more, to be able to speak more. But the eperu was doing such an admirable job of acting as if it didn't know me well. The other eperu didn't even flick an ear toward us, helping Darsi up into the saddle.
"Thank you," I said again, and as I reined the beast around, showed the eperu the feeling in my eyes. Mostly disgust, I'm afraid. Its gaze glittered with amusement.
"Shall we go, lover mine?" Darsi asked.
"Lead the way, my prize," I said.
Our grand estate being located in the same quarter of town as the Green—and no, I was not immune to the irony of my still separating towns into quadrants of responsibility as if I remained a Claw—we were not far from our destination. Rabeil was truly one of het Narel's Great Houses, though, from the size of its property and the care put into its decor. That there were lamps depending from the eaves of the house—on each story—and at the gates, rather than the more habitual firebowls, that alone was an indicator of what would have been incalculable wealth before the Stone Moon. After the Stone Moon, of course, it was an indicator of either favor or remarkable political canniness. Or both, more likely. I felt my shoulders tighten as we passed through the gates as they were opened for us. Our rikka were led away after we dismounted, and then we were escorted behind the House to another extravagance: an outdoor garden. There, amid the softly glowing lamps and the pungent greenscent of what plants remained blooming in late autumn, there were Jokka mingling.
Here was the power in het Narel. I felt Darsi's presence behind me and was glad of him, for once.
"Ke Pathen!" Thesenet said, espying me from a group clustered at a nearby bench. "How delightful. Please, let me make you known to Rozen Rabeil-emodo, Head of House Rabeil."
So I stepped into the garden and the battle I had chosen and went to meet the Head of House Rabeil, of House Dzeri and House Kerfa and all the others that Abadil had thoughtfully prepared me to recognize. And yet, it was not as large an affair as I'd expected, perhaps over twenty people if I counted correctly in the garden's dim lighting. Even assuming a single guest from each House, rather than pairs or groups, not all of het Narel's Great Houses were in evidence... or had been invited. I said as much to Darsi when we had a moment alone together on a stone bench.
"Rivalries, maybe," he said. "I know Kathara's not here, for instance... Kathara and Rabeil were the breeding Houses of het Narel before the mess Abadil told me about."
"The mess," I repeated, voice low.
He trailed a finger over the edge of my hand, as if we were whispering lovers' nonsense. I would have been more impressed with the performance had I not suspected he'd originally learned it to seduce me. "Kathara had the original contract to manage the anadi residence here but there was some scandal that forced the Stone Moon to retract it. Since then, Rabeil's been in charge of the breeding."
I remembered Thesenet's comment about precedents in het Narel and frowned, then looked up as a change in the lighting alerted me to the arrival of another Jokkad.
"I hope I'm not interrupting," the Head of Rabeil said.
"Not at all," I said. "We were just taking a little time to enjoy the charming environs."
Rozen laughed. "It's hard to resist with a lover at your side, isn't it. Before the Stone Moon we kept these gardens for the anadi. When it was pleasant out they enjoyed it, especially at night. Since then, it's been relegated to this sort of garden party... and of course, the inevitable trysts conducted by the emodo of the House when they think the rest of us aren't looking." He sat on the bench across from us.
"I don't blame them," Darsi offered. "It's beautiful, and I haven't seen some of the plants you have here. Maybe flora that only grows further south?"
"Ah?" Rozen said. "You noticed? Why yes... I happen to think we have lovelier flowers here." He grinned, all coarse fangs and large teeth. He'd never been any other sex, if that mouth was any indication. "It must be quite a change, coming here from het Kabbanil."
"Oh, we like it here," Darsi said, threading his fingers through mine where they rested on my thigh. "We welcomed the chance to come start something new together."
Rozen smiled at us both. "Ah, now that's good to see. It's so refreshing, people who really care about one another. The House's work means I see a lot of... forced... interactions. So your feeling for one another is like waking from a dull dream."
Darsi rested his cheek on my shoulder, the very picture, I imagined, of the devoted prize. So I did my part and brought our joined hands to my mouth, kissing the back of his before putting our hands back on my knee. I used the time to wonder why Rozen was being so appallingly open with us. "You're kind, ke Rozen," I said at last. "And Darsi and I are fortunate—" and then I paused at the sight of a shape, striped in shadows cast by an ornamental plant. "Is that...?"
"Ah, you've seen one of our anadi," Rozen said.
"I had no idea they'd be out," I said. "One of your tokens?"
"Not so much so," Rozen said.
"We allow the anadi of the residence a few weeks here before sending them back."
"All of them?" Darsi asked, surprised. But he didn't lift his head from my shoulder, and I congratulated him in silence for maintaining his casual demeanor.
"Yes," Rozen said. "If they're able, if it's safe for them. In that way, all the anadi have a chance to be the token female of a Stone Moon Household. It does no harm that we've seen." He canted his head. "I hear you will be coming to us soon for stud duty, ke Pathen, and to select your own tokens...? Quite an honor in such a new Household. You have high favor in the empire."
"My patrons have been very generous," I said, quite truthfully.
"It's good to have generous patrons," he said. He grinned at Darsi good-naturedly. "Will you be bringing your lover to the duty? I hear it's the fashion now, to go together to serve the anadi and then have one another for comfort afterward."
I said, "I wouldn't want to deprive my beloved of the honor."
"I like the sound of this fashion," Darsi added, and lifted his head enough to brush his cheek against mine. "We'll have to follow suit."
"Excellent," Rozen said. "I'm looking forward to seeing the two of you there." And then, amiably, he wandered off to see to his other guests, leaving me looking after him with ears that trembled with the effort to keep them from flattening.
"She's looking at you," Darsi whispered against my jaw.
"What?" I said, and looked away from Rozen's retreating back... and saw that Darsi was right. In the shadowed arch leading back into the house was a shape limned only by the bronze light of an oblique lamp, hip, point of shoulder, a shimmer in a length of hair... and a gleam in a gaze, meeting mine. I did flatten my ears then, but she didn't look away. What was in her gaze? A certain calm? A resignation. And... a curiosity.
"Just what we need," Darsi muttered. "More trouble."
"You fear too much, Darsi," I answered, low. "You can only die once."
"You're wrong," he said, "You can die a hundred deaths if your loved ones die first." And then he stood, tugging me after him and laughing, saying, "Not here, ke emodo. Come, let us find something to drink."
Surprised by him, I let him lead me away. We returned to the flow of people, attaching to the knots that clustered beneath a tree in a planter here, or beside a small fountain there. Abadil's information proved very helpful, for I found him to be right: for whatever reason, the politicking among the high and influential of het Narel struck me as more personal than anything I'd been a part of before. Indeed, my observation that not every Great House was represented made me wonder if I'd inadvertently cast my lot in with some faction without fully understanding the one I'd spurned.
I did not spend much worry on the possibility. If a faction I had to join, the one Thesenet himself recommended had to be my choice. But I counted bodies and names so that when I returned home I could see who'd been excluded, and been made my potential enemy.
There was one emodo here that I wanted to see, very purposefully, and by name rather than title. Thesenet had introduced him but I had not had a chance to speak to him alone yet. With Darsi engaged in charming a group of Jokka that included the minister, I went seeking my quarry and found him in a secluded corner much like the one I'd been using with Darsi. He was not alone; there was an anadi with him, sitting at his feet with her head against his knee. They were bent together so that they seemed to flow into one another, and the sight of it stopped me entirely: my feet, my heart, even my thoughts. Fear, I thought, when I could think again at all. And wonder. Those things, like the two sitting together, were often found entwined.
An emodo and an anadi, entwined. I began to wonder about House Rabeil.
"Ke emodo," the other said, cupping the anadi's cheek and lifting his head to look at me. "I admit I'd been expecting you."
"Was this pose planned, then?" I asked, wary.
"To entrap you?" Eduñil asked. He smiled, tired. "No... this anadi is the Stone Moon's official gift to House Rabeil, and you will often find us together. She was my request and I was fortunate enough to be obliged."
"And no one wonders," I said, voice low.
"At my consideration of her?" he asked. And huffed softly. "Ke Pathen, anadi are not to be loved. One might grow fond of them, as one might a favored rikka or a servile ñedsu pup. But everyone knows deeper feelings never grow for Jokka who are taken from us so quickly."
The curve of his hand on her face was tender and the look on his face mask-like. I joined him, sitting on the bench opposite his, and said, "Abadil tells me a great deal about you."
"Does he?" Eduñil asked, ears splaying.
"As much by his silences as by his words," I finished, and lifted a brow.
"Ah, well," Eduñil said, glancing away. "He and I have been through a great deal."
"So he said," I agreed, crossing my legs and resting my hands on my knee.
Eduñil looked at me, then laughed. "You don't wear innocence well, ke emodo. But I have received your message, and I'll grant it full consideration."
"Good," I said, satisfied. I liked Abadil; it bothered me that he hadn't noticed the relationship he'd apparently spent a lifetime fostering. I looked down at the anadi, who hadn't moved save to flick an ear now and then. In her contentment I saw promise for Abadil... an emodo who could tend so gently to an anadi would surely be good for my clay-keeper. "I'm told you have been involved in this history since its inception."
"Some part of it," Eduñil allowed, his voice quiet.
"And my clay-keeper will not tell me the tale in full for fear of misrepresenting some portion of it," I continued.
"That would be his way," Eduñil said with a smile. "He is a historian, toe to ear. He'll tell you he's a clay-keeper but in every important way he's really a lore-knower, like in the old stories."
"I don't suppose you might tell me the parts you know," I said.
"I could," Eduñil said. "But not here. We could take a meal together, if you want to talk at length."
"I'd like that," I said. "Are you still in Transactions these days?"
"Not for now," he said. "It's not my year for it." He grinned suddenly. "We pass the title around still, and the Stone Moon does not seem to mind so long as none of us have been errant lately."
"So business in het Narel remains much as it was before," I surmised.
"The minister is generous," Eduñil said, and surprisingly I could hear no irony in his voice. "He lets us manage a great deal of our own affairs. But then, het Narel is smaller than het Kabbanil, from which you came. We can afford such luxuries."
"Yes," I said, glancing again at the anadi. She opened her eyes, sleepy; in them I saw an animal softness without fear or grief. Her consideration of me was unhurried and whatever she saw neither alarmed nor interested her, for she shut them again and resumed her submission to Eduñil's caress. "Het Narel is certainly not het Kabbanil."
"Just so," Eduñil answered. "Send me a message when you're free, ke emodo."
"I shall," I said, and left him to his prize... and I wondered at the House that let him display his affection so freely. It was true that we tended to overlook any feelings a Jokkad might have for an anadi but there were limits to everything.
The rest of the evening was uneventful, save for its length. We stayed until near truedark and by the time we'd mounted our rikka to go home I was well and again exhausted with holding up the mask to these strangers. We'd acquitted ourselves well; Darsi in particular had surprised me, for he'd not put a foot wrong the entire evening and had I not known just how little regard he had for me even I would have begun to wonder if he secretly adored me.
And as much as he irritated me, he deserved to know it. So as we reached our gates, I said, quiet, "You did an excellent job. I'm glad I brought you."
Surprised, Darsi said, "Thank you, ke emodo."
I left it at that; to be more effusive would have sounded insincere and I wanted him to believe in my sincerity. We rode through the gate, let the eperu awaiting us ta
ke the rikka away, and parted ways up the ramp, he to his bed, me to mine. And for once I didn't think of its emptiness, only that in it I need not dissemble. I folded all my fine clothes and set them on the clothes-chest, and then slept.
The following day I sent a formal acceptance of Thesenet's proposed contract to the ministry, oversaw the transfer of management from the Stone Moon's Claws to our eperu in the fields and arranged my lunch with Eduñil. That was also the first day I sat in the Head of Household's office to receive an itemized list of purchases—from Abadil, whose experiment was proceeding apace. Hesa had already scrawled a note alongside. I turned the tablet sideways: "GOOD BUT MAKE NOISE OTHERWISE."
I started laughing, which made Abadil slick his ears back. "Ah, ke emodo? I hope my requests aren't outrageous...?"
"No," I said, smudging the note out of the wax. "But watch your expenses, Abadil. You don't have a working prototype yet, so don't build out an entire industry until you do."
"Of course, ke emodo," he said, bemused, and took the tablet back.
That afternoon I also had my first invitation to a regular meet in the cheldzan shervel where I'd had my rooftop meal with Thesenet. It was from House Dzeri; I sent back a message that I'd be delighted to join my peers there. Darsi reminded me that we were supposed to hire on the rest of our House now that we were settled in het Narel, and I promised to begin showing at Transactions to read the records there in preparation for the ones that would conveniently be available soon.
And I had the visit to the anadi residence to schedule...
That, I put off. Partly because I didn't want to do it yet, and partly because Hesa had dived headfirst into the warehouse project and the initial organization required near-constant consultation with the Head of Household. Even if most of what I did was approve the eperu's suggestions, there were a great deal of them and all of them affected us. It was not unusual for me to end up in three of those meetings a day, some of them impromptu affairs in the halls or outside, others in my office. There was good light in my office, brought in by a skylight; I used it to admire the intensity of Hesa's interest, and how that fire shone in its eyes.
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