Which was exactly what would happen....
“Reswen—darling, what are you thinking about?”
“Nothing,” he said. But he knew she heard the lie. He bit Laas’s neck gently, starting to make love to her again, and hoped she wouldn’t notice that the fur was getting wet.
In the morning, the Easterners left. They tried to leave early, since the feeling against them in the city was now as high as it had ever been, if not higher. But even though they were at the city gates just after dawn, there was also a crowd there to heckle them. So no one found it particularly surprising that a contingent of constables should be there, with the chief of police to supervise.
There were few courtesies to observe, nothing to be done but open the gates and see them out. The chief of police stood in his worn, everyday harness, watching—the loads on the beasts being checked, watching the litters being hoisted to the shoulders of the bearers. One litter he did not look at, and at that early hour, no one remarked on it.
The gates swung open, and the first litters went out, followed by lowing beasts and the Easterners’ servants, leading or switching the creatures along. One by one the party passed out, and one last litter. The police chief’s eyes seemed to linger on it, with an uncomfortable look. Mrem standing around thought that he was glad to see the back of it, and he turned away briskly enough when the gates shut behind it. Briskly he walked off, and mrem standing around muttered to one another that it was good to have a decent police force, even if you couldn’t always get them to look the other way when you were lifting something ....
He leaned on his elbows on the old crumbling black wall and looked down at the city, at the desert beyond it. He could see them down there, a tiny group against the immensity of the desert. The night had not been very cool, and already the day was hot; waves of heat shimmered, made the little figures down there look somehow unreal. It would be an hour or so before they would be out of sight. He would watch them from here, with only Sorimoh for company. She wouldn’t care if he wasn’t up to making conversation.
His eyes were dry at last. He had his own work, after all; married life would be something that would have interfered terribly with his schedule. He was married to Niau, he supposed, and that was sufficient. There was going to be so much work to do in the days to come. After this mess with the Easterners, about twenty people in the department were due promotions. He was going to have to work out where to slot them in, how to supervise them. And his star seemed somewhat in the ascendant with the Arpekh at the moment—there were hints about increasing the number of constables, adding more people to the H’satei— He rubbed his eyes wearily. More work, but at least it would be interesting.
He glanced down at the departing group, and rubbed his eyes again. They paused, or seemed to—it was hard to tell, with the shimmer of heat that had come up. Going to be a hot one today, Reswen thought. Then they went on again, but one of them seemed to have turned back. Probably forgot something.
One of them had turned back—
He was down from the walls in a flash. He was out of the old fortress and pelting down the hill and down to the road to the city quick as a kit chasing string. When he got to the gate he was panting and gasping for air like a mrem about to die of a heart seizure. He didn’t care. He cared nothing for the looks of the guards on the wall. He gestured the gates open like a king and stood there, panting and impatient, as they swung slowly toward him.
The litter stopped in the gates. Laas flung herself out of it, dismissed the bearers, ran to Reswen, and threw her arms around him. “I’m an idiot. You’re an idiot,” she said. “I forgot something.”
“What?”
“To marry you, you fool,” she said, and bit him on the neck right there in front of all Niau.
An admiring cheer went up from the soldiers on the walls, and there were yowls and cheerful suggestions about Reswen’s prospective sex life. Reswen glowered at them all—it was a friendly glower—and said, “Shut the gates, you half-wits. There’s only one of her, and she’s mine!”
If there were more cheers then, he ignored them. “Come on,” he said, “let’s go see the Arpekh about a wedding license.”
And paw in paw they went off together, to start their lives at last....
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Exiled: Keeper of the City Page 35
