Western Shore ac-3

by Juliet E. McKenna

  'You can discuss such things after breakfast.' Smiling, Itrac nevertheless ordered an end to the men's discussion.

  As they entered the open-sided tent ideally placed to catch the morning's cooling breeze, Kheda noted Janne's

  absence from the gathering of wives. 'I hope your lady mother isn't indisposed this morning, Daish Sirket.'

  'No.' Sirket's face was as unemotional as his father's. 'Here she comes.'

  Everyone turned to watch Janne and her slave crossing the lagoon. Birut was carrying something large and square wrapped in white cloth. Janne swept ahead of him, elegant in a plain grey silk dress. As she moved, the side-slit skirt revealed her elegant legs and Kheda noted how the gathered bodice subtly enhanced her voluptuous bosom.

  After playing the dowdy dowager, you 've decided to remind everyone just how stunning you could look at the height of your influence. Why is that?

  'What do you suppose she's got there?' Ritsem Zorat speculated incautiously as he and Redigal Litai helped themselves to skewers of spiced turtle meat.

  'Daish's gifts to Chazen's new daughters.' Taisia Ritsem surprised her son with a minatory glare. Her misty mantle embroidered with butterflies fluttered over a sleeveless tunic and wide trousers of pale-yellow silk. The Redigal wives wore flowing gowns in differing shades of blue brocaded with emerald vines, their jewels discreet gold-mounted sapphires.

  Beyau appeared at Kheda's side. 'Honeyed curds and pitral?'

  'Thank you.' Kheda accepted the unwanted bowl and took a spoonful. The aromatic honey cut through the tartness of the curds and complemented the fainter sweetness of the sliced pitral fruit. 'I hope Ulla Safar didn't manage to leave any slave behind, not even one begging for sanctuary from his brutality?' he asked the steward in a low voice.

  'None of them even tried,' Beyau confirmed. 'The Yellow Serpent is following them.'

  'I want to know exactly where the Ulla galley makes landfall before leaving our waters.' Kheda dug into his breakfast. 'Have all the village spokesmen send word of any unexpected merchants or poets turning up, or seers. Especially seers. I hope Daish Sirket's people will be as alert as the Ulla ship passes through their waters.' He shot Beyau a significant look.

  The steward glanced swiftly at Telouet to show he had taken Kheda's meaning. 'I'm sure they will be, my lord.'

  'We would benefit from knowing more about Ulla Orhan's current situation,' Kheda continued in a low tone, 'but Orhan will hardly be trusting anyone he doesn't know to be a true friend just at present.' He gave the steward another significant look.

  'Indeed, my lord.' Beyau looked a little puzzled.

  Will you believe I'm seeking news of Orhan if I disappear for a little while and return with Risala, whom you know to be my link with all Chazen 's eyes and ears? But that's not an excuse I can offer up for wider consumption.

  After a swift glance to be sure the Chazen servants were keeping her guests well served with food and drink, Itrac stretched out her hands to welcome the first lady of Daish. 'Come and have some breakfast, my lady.'

  'Thank you.'Janne graciously accepted a plate of sliced pitral and sard berries from a maidservant.

  'Now we're all here.' Moving to the centre of the rich red carpet covering the palm matting laid on the sandy ground, Itrac claimed everyone's attention with a winning smile. 'Moni, would you like to show us what tokens you've brought for little Olkai and Sekni?'

  Swaddled in white silk, Sekni was sleeping peacefully as her nurse cuddled her close on a cushion in a corner of the tent. Olkai was quietly wakeful in the arms of Touai's elder daughter, sucking at the silver bangle around her chubby wrist.

  Moni Redigal smiled at the twins as she summoned her personal slave with a snap of her fingers. The swordsman knelt to present her with a finely carved casket of white halda wood. 'We bring your daughters opals, talisman gem of the Greater Moon, for intuition and understanding, most especially of dreams.' Moni opened the coffer, turning it so everyone could see the unset gems nestling in pale-blue velvet within. 'For Olkai, who is heir, we offer the white, for balance and truthfulness. For Sekni, who is to be her sister's support, here and wherever marriage might take her, we offer the black, for inner strength and self-knowledge.'

  Even in the muted light filtering through the soft silk, iridescent flecks glowed within the stones. There were ten of each, pale and dark, all the size of Kheda's thumbnail.

  Moni closed the box with a muted click and handed it to Itrac. 'Of course, opals need careful tending if they are not to spoil, just like children. Let that be a token of your duty, as parents and for Chazen as a whole. All children are in part the responsibility of the whole domain.'

  'This is a handsome gift, my lady.' Itrac passed the casket to Jevin and embraced Moni.

  'Redigal is glad to make it.' Moni kissed her cheek fondly.

  'Ulla Safar will be spitting venom when he hears about this,' Kheda murmured to Beyau.

  'I fear our gift hardly matches such munificence.' Taisia Ritsem held out a hand and her slave helped her to her feet. A second slave who had been patiently waiting outside the tent came and set a tall box covered in reddish leather on the floor before her. Taisia opened the lid and lifted out two lanterns of brilliantly polished silver. One was small, no larger than kheda's clenched fist, while the other was twice the length of his hand. The smaller one had ovals

  clear as glass set into its sides, while the larger was faceted with translucent misty-white shell.

  'We have found crystal oysters in our rivers once again.' Taisia showed both pieces off.

  'A rare find, and a splendid omen,' Redigal Coron congratulated Ritsem Caid.

  'It's no myth that the young oysters live in shells so clear their beating hearts can be clearly seen. It's only as they grow older that the shell becomes even barely opaque,' Taisia continued, smiling at the murmurs of surprise and approval from the gathering. 'As it's said the light from such lanterns reveals truth, we offer a pair, large and small, for each new daughter of Chazen. We hope they will always see clearly by their light, especially in matters of affection since every oyster can be read as a sign of the female heart.' She grinned. 'And naturally, we trust that they will both always see their dealings with Ritsem in the most favourable light.' She set the lanterns back in their box as everyone laughed.

  'My lady of Daish?' Itrac turned to Janne, who composedly passed her empty fruit plate to an unobtrusive maidservant.

  Everyone fell silent at the realisation that Janne hadn't laughed. 'My lady of Chazen,' she began slowly, 'I trust you'll forgive me for not bringing my gift within this tent. It's not the happiest of offerings but I couldn't think of anything more appropriate.'

  Kheda noted that Sirket was looking resolutely at his dusty feet.

  What by all the stars in the skies are you up to now?

  There wasn't a sound in the tent beyond the idle flapping of silk and the shuffle of some slave's nervous feet on the palm matting.

  Itrac's smile turned a little brittle. 'Please do explain.'

  Janne looked out over the lagoon to the westernmost

  reef. 'A domain is guided by its lord, who is guided in turn by the omens he reads in the heavenly and earthly compasses, supported by all the wisdom his forefathers have recorded. Only one divination is a woman's prerogative and that is the reading of dreams, bound as we are by the plaited threads of marriage, blood and birth. The dreams of a daughter born to rule must be more potent than any other.'

  She paused as everyone looked to the far island where a tall wall with a single gate ringed the solid pillar of stone where open stairs spiralled up to the platform where the most honoured dead were laid.

  Turning back to Itrac, Janne's voice strengthened. 'You named your elder daughter for Olkai, who was first wife and beloved friend to so many of us in the days of Chazen's peace and prosperity before the upheavals of these last few years. Those upheavals cost Olkai her life and cost Chazen even more dearly, in that she died as she came seeking refuge in Dais
h, despite all we could do for her—' Emotion apparently overcame Janne and she closed her eyes for an instant.

  Kheda did his best to hold his own feelings in check.

  Despite all I could do for her, my knowledge of healing little more than a curse when I saw how little chance Olkai had of surviving such horrendous burns. Are you looking to remind everyone of my failure, Janne?

  'Olkai was so cruelly cut down in the full bloom of her wisdom and beauty.' Janne opened her clear, dark eyes. 'Sekni, too. Yet their virtues remain, as the perfume of the fallen flower lingers. Sekni's bones were lost among the carnage but Olkai's remains at least have lain atop a Daish tower of silence. Their presence has honoured our domain, but the time has come to return such vital talismans to Chazen. As you raise your daughters, you will be guided by your dreams, Itrac, and

  in time, they too will sleep beneath the towers to see what truths may come through the mists of sleep and dawn. So your sister-wife Olkai's bones are Daish's gift to Chazen's newest daughters.'

  Janne gestured towards Birut, waiting patiently just outside the tent, and he withdrew the white cloth from a brass-bound coffer. Kheda saw it draw thoughtful glances from the other warlords and ladies. The Ritsem warlord was looking tranquil enough, though grief for his dead sister darkened his eyes and his knuckles showed pale as he clasped Taisia's comforting hand.

  'A most considerate gift, if wholly unexpected.' Itrac's voice was tight. 'Chazen is most grateful to the Daish domain.'

  So this is why you were wondering what I had done with Chazen Saril's corpse, Janne. And now everyone else will be thinking along those lines. Not that anyone will ask me, because warlords don't ask one another such questions. Even Itrac hasn't asked me.

  Kheda shot a swift glance at Sirket and saw utter bemusement on the young warlord's face. A knot beneath his breastbone eased.

  If Janne means mischief, you 've no part in it, my son. Are you looking to make mischief here, Janne, or are you truly sincere? Either way, you 've given me a most unexpected opportunity, my lady, to twist this to my own purposes. There was a time when I would have taken this for a most powerful omen. Now I just have to manage not to choke on my own hypocrisy.

  'I am more grateful to Daish for this gift than you can imagine, my lady.' Feeling curiously calm, Kheda stepped forward. His words broke the tense silence beneath the silken canopy. He smiled warmly at Janne and was rewarded with a flicker of uncertainty across her flawless face. 'Olkai was ever a woman generous with her wisdom

  and her affection.' Kheda gestured towards the distant tower of silence. 'We of Chazen gratefully recall her virtues, as we cherish too our memories of Sekni who died at the hands of those foul invaders. Both women never faltered in their duty to the people of Chazen.' He took Itrac's hand and squeezed it tight. 'Just like Itrac Chazen, whose faithfulness to the peace of the past has been wholly vindicated by Chazen's present prosperity and the future promise of her twin daughters.'

  Muted agreement ran around the gathering and Itrac held her head high, a threat of tears retreating as the colour rose on her cheekbones.

  'I am not so confident on my own account.' Kheda's sombre words instantly silenced the sympathetic murmurs. 'I have faced difficult decisions over these last few years. I allowed you all to believe Ulla Safar had indeed killed me, believing it necessary at the time. My choices were vindicated as I led Chazen to victory over magic-wielding savages coming out of the empty ocean to plague these islands, but that doesn't alter the fact that my deceit laid undeserved suffering on the innocent children of Daish. I have paid for my deception - those children are now lost to me, as I found that my choices had bound me to Chazen.'

  Not daring to risk catching Sirket's eye or Janne's, Kheda pressed on. 'I have been blessed with Itrac Chazen as my wife. We were able to evade the first dragon that came in the wild men's wake, and then to kill the second monster after it was wounded in its battle to slay the first. But in doing so, I led many brave men to their deaths.' He broke off to take a deep breath, looking out across the lagoon.

  'Ulla Safar has chosen to leave us, so I can be frank with you all, as friends of Chazen. I am burdened by so many deaths laid to my account. I tell myself that the ledger is

  balanced with the lives my choices have saved, but I still wonder if there might have been a better path for me to take that would have cost fewer lives and spared even a few some measure of pain. I have come to suspect this is why I am failing to see the omens that should guide me towards the best future for this domain, and in the choices I must make as husband, and as father to these new daughters of Chazen. My life has taken a new direction with their birth and I do not wish to go astray.'

  Let's hope the ring of truth in that drowns out the lies I've been so carefully preparing. I won't find a better time to deceive you all, thanks to this unexpected assistance Janne Daish has handed me.

  'I have been tempted to go into seclusion to meditate on these things, but I hoped the new-year stars would give me some guidance without that proving necessary. Yet we could not agree on our interpretations last night, my lords. Now I see the sign I have been looking for in the return of Olkai Chazen's bones.' He gestured towards the casket that Birut was guarding. 'This is a sign that it is Itrac who will find answers to her questions in this residence, in her dreams beneath the tower of silence. Now I see clearly that the heavens are telling me to look elsewhere. The Lesser Moon rides with the stars of the Sailfish, emblem of good fortune in voyaging, in the arc of the sky where travel leads to new knowledge. I must never forget that the twin moons will be symbols of these twin girls for Chazen throughout (heir lives. And the Greater Moon rides in the arc of honour where the stars of the Hoe remind us of every man's honest labour in service of family and domain that binds him to the land.'

  He saw that Redigal Coron was about to say something, so turned away to gesture towards the south. 'All the other heavenly jewels are in arcs of the sky where the stars are beneath the horizon, which speaks of things

  hidden from view. We couldn't see any potent conjunctions, yet the symmetry in the heavenly compass must signify something. The Amethyst that counsels humility rides in the arc of duty with the Winged Snake, symbol of deeds bringing things into the light.'

  Is this what I have spent all my life doing, reading whatever was most welcome or useful into the meaningless patterns of the sky? Deluding myself and others? Whatever, I cannot stop now, not and get away with this.

  'Beside it, the Diamond bringing clarity of purpose looks over the Horned Fish, symbol of nurturing in the arc promising omens for our children. Across that hidden half-circle, the Ruby promises strength and longevity in the arc of wealth, blessed with the Vizail Blossom that symbolises all our wives and daughters. Next to that, the Topaz that balances head and heart guides us towards new ideas, moving with the turn of the year into the arc of life where the stars of the Bowl promise not only sustenance for the body but food for thought as well.'

  Kheda paused, blood pulsing in his throat. 'My lords, my friends, I must go in search of peace and solitude to come to terms with these past few years, to regain my perspective on the future. Now I understand why there has been no omen to guide me in the choice of a new body slave. I must do this alone. The omen of the return of these bones cannot be gainsaid.'

  With everyone else stunned and silent, he turned to Itrac and caught her face in his cupped hands, kissing her. Embracing her, he drew her close, apparently burying his face in her neck. He spoke softly, for her ears alone.

  'You have never asked me where Chazen Saril's bones lie, Itrac, and I honour you for that. But I fear I have dishonoured the domain with that secret. If I travel alone, I can bring his remains back to join Olkai's on the tower of silence and no one else need know.'

  I would never have thought of this without Janne's gift. And the irony is it need not be a lie. I can bring Chazen Saril's bones back here. It's surprising how easy it is to weave truth and circumstance into a tissue of lies embroid
ered with a little wishful thinking.

  Itrac stiffened in the circle of his arms. 'I have seen how troubled you have been, my husband, even though you have tried to hide it.-' She spoke loudly enough for the assembled warlords and ladies to hear clearly. Her voice was calm and level, though Kheda could feel her trembling. 'I believe you are right. This is something you must do for all our sakes.'

  Kheda saw a single tear running down Janne's cheek. He covered his confusion by kissing Itrac's hair in apparent affection. 'I am honoured by your confidence in me, my lady.' He surprised her by unclasping her necklace of silver-mounted lozenges of turtleshell and deftly securing it around his own neck. 'Honour me with this talisman.'

  Redigal Coron managed to find his tongue. 'We appreciate your confidence in us, my lord of Chazen.'

  Kheda looked directly at him. 'We ask more than that of you all, my lord of Redigal. While I am gone, Chazen could be seen as vulnerable by any who wish the domain ill.' He managed a thin smile. 'Perhaps we can see an omen in Ulla Safar's unexpected departure, which allows me to be frank. We all know his malice of old, my lords. While I'm encouraged to learn that malevolence is being repaid with a host of troubles keeping him close lo home, 1 ask all of you to stand as Chazen's allies if his vicious eye turns this way. Who knows, I may learn something or see some portent that will be of benefit to us all in our dealings with him. More than that, I ask you not to wait for some move against my wife and daughters but to pre-empt any attack, if you learn of one.' He looked briefly at Beyau.

  Make sure you let them know you suspect I'm going to try to make some contact with Orhan.

  Ritsem Caid spoke up suddenly. 'Chazen can count on Ritsem's friendship and protection until your return.'

  'There have been portents in Redigal advocating new honesty to accompany this new year,' Redigal Coron said slowly. 'I welcome your frankness, Chazen Kheda, and you may trust in Redigal's defence of your waters and your people while you seek new clarity for yourself.'

  'You may treat our sea lanes as your own for purposes of trade,' Moni assured Itrac.