The Very Best of Kate Elliott (21 page)

Now, with a long in-drawn breath to steady herself, she walked to the steps and waited for the riders to halt on the street below. The second rider dismounted stiffly, burdened by the thick weight ringing his torso, and approached. He halted at the base of the steps so she could identify his face.

“Chief Tuvi!” Heedless of the strictures of the Ghost Days, she descended the steps in a rush and, without thinking, caught the chief by the shoulders and kissed each weathered cheek. He mewled with a faint noise of discomfort. Startled, she stepped back to see his familiar and much loved smile as he looked her over.

“You look well, Mistress. I am pleased to see you healthy and blooming.” His voice sounded perfectly normal, just as she remembered it, not mewling at all.

She glanced past him at the two soldiers, still mounted, but they were not men she knew.“Chief, you and your men must come inside.We have a stable, mattresses for visitors, something to drink . . .”

Then she recalled that Orhon had just been murdered.

“I cannot stay, Mistress.” He watched her with the intent gaze she remembered. He was Anji’s most trusted retainer, the man to whom Anji had given the duty of protecting his wife, back when Mai was his wife.“I have been sent by the king.”

“Tuvi.” She hesitated, not wanting her words to a man she respected to be angry. She could not accuse him of the murder, even though she knew he was capable of killing without regret or hesitation. However, most Qin hated the water, and few of them could swim.

His attention had already dropped to what she had at first imagined was a belly grown large from too much eating and drinking in the palace of the Hundred’s new ruler. Instead, he unwrapped a swaddling bundle and held it out before her. The candles gave off just enough light that she could discern the thing he had been carrying against his body as he rode.

It was an infant child, not more than ten days old and boasting a head of coal-black hair.

“Merciful One, cast your blessings upon the innocent,” she murmured reflexively.

“Will you take him?” Tuvi asked.

“Take him?” The anger poured out in a rush.“What, does Anji mean to offer a trade? This infant in exchange for Atani, whom he stole from me and allows another woman to claim as her son? Or is this his way of trying to bind me back to him, to make me surrender—?”

“Mistress,” he said in that way he had of cutting her off without raising his voice or showing the least sign of irritation. “That is not what this is.”

She closed her mouth over the rest of her furious words. With a curt gesture she signaled that she would listen to what he had to say.

“There was another boy-child born before this one, a few years ago. The king’s mother got to him first and had him killed.”

She sucked in air as if she’d been punched in the stomach.

“She had him killed so no younger son could threaten Atani’s place as the heir,” he went on, and that only made it worse, knowing that the son she had lost had been the cause of a blameless infant’s death. “She feared that if Lady Zayrah raised a son borne out of her own womb she might come to prefer it over one born to another woman. This baby,
this infant boy,
would have met the same fate as the other one, smothered at birth. But the king smuggled the infant out of the palace and told his mother the baby was stillborn.”

Rage simmered in her heart. The baby was so small, helpless against the ruthless machinations of the adults surrounding it.

He nodded as if she had spoken her thoughts aloud.“King Anjihosh had to decide quickly whom he could trust to raise the boy kindly and with affection. Whom he could trust to never attempt to bring the child into conflict with his heir. So he thought of you.”

“He thinks of me too much, Tuvi,” she said, for once allowing her bitterness to leak into her voice.

He inclined his head.“When it comes to you, he will never change.”

“What if I agree to take the baby only in exchange for Anji letting go of me?”

“I cannot bargain. You must either accept the burden, or reject it. All else remains as it was.”

She was by now trembling. Anji knew her too well. At that instant, the baby stirred. A dark infant gaze fixed on her and the little person smacked delicate rosebud lips, thinking of inchoate hungers. She wanted to take him into her arms but she took a step back instead.

“Maybe you cannot bargain, Tuvi, but I can, and he knows I will. If he sent the child to me only as a way to bribe me back to him, it will not work. I will not raise a child as a hostage. But if he genuinely wishes the child to live and thrive, then he must give me room. Let him keep his red caps watching the house if he is so selfish that he cannot bear for me to ever again have sexual love with a man. However brilliant he is, in this matter his mind is very narrow. I have love in plenty. But let him leave Bronze Hall alone.”

“Bronze Hall? The reeve hall?”

“He sent two agents to steal a courier bag and murder the marshal. They’re staying at the Inn of Fortune’s Star.”

He said nothing. Either he was ignorant of the matter, which she doubted, or he knew better than to give away the game too early.

She offered him her market smile, offering much and promising nothing.“I know Anji. If he truly cares for the child he will have given you permission to bargain with me. Bring me the courier bag and your sworn word that he will leave Bronze Hall alone, and I will take the baby as my own. I trust you to fulfill any promise you make to me here.”

In the deathly hush, every least sound seemed heightened: a splash of wash water being thrown over stones; an unidentifiable thump, heard once and not repeated, like a body falling heavily onto a floor; many streets over the clapping sticks of the fire watch on patrol. A night-jar trilled its delicious song like a spark of unexpected joy.

He met her gaze with his steady one. “Whatever else, Mistress, he does truly care about the welfare of his children. Let it be done. On my honor as a man and a soldier, I make this bargain on his behalf.”

“Give him to me,” she whispered hoarsely, extending her arms.“What is his name?”

He settled the infant in her arms. “He has no name. To give him a name would acknowledge his life, and he is dead to the palace. He must remain dead. The child you hold has no mother but you.”

She had already taken in the baby into her heart. In her arms he bided restfully, his earnest infant gaze fixed on her mouth and eyes. She caught Tuvi’s gaze and held it. “Please tell me, Tuvi-lo. How is Atani? Is he taken care of? Is he healthy? Is he happy? Does he have companions?”

He sighed as though the words pained him. “He is cherished by all who know him, Mistress. He is a good boy, an obedient boy, perhaps a bit timid.”

“Has he any playmates, so he isn’t lonely?”

“He is just a year older than the eldest of his sisters. He adores her, and she has courage enough for both. He is gentle and kind with his other younger sisters, and they think he is the sun in their sky. He is intelligent, like his father. He studies hard to master all that he should at the palace school, where there are boys his own age who treat him with the respect he deserves. The Lady Zayrah treats him as her own. She loves him with true affection, if that is what concerns you.”

“Does Atani love her as a mother?” she asked, the words bitter on her lips as she closed her eyes against the knife of grief. She’d thought the wound healed, but it would never heal.

“He does, Mistress.”

She could not speak. The baby fussed a little, and she opened her eyes as she rocked him enough to distract him. Raggedly, she said,“That is well, then. That is well.”

“We must be gone long before the dawn, so none suspect where the child came from. We’ve been giving him sheep’s milk.”

“Miravia will give birth in a day or two. She can nurse him with his cousin.”

To her surprise, he touched her on one arm, an astonishing display from the tough old soldier.“Be well, Mistress. Do not think I have forgotten you.”

“I know where your duty lies.”

She wanted to ask if the women of the palace treated him well, if they had found a proper wife for him, to replace the one he had been forced to leave behind in the Qin homeland so many years ago because he had followed his duty, which was his captain. But she thought the question would be cruel, for what if they had not? What if no one but her cared anything for Chief Tuvi except as a weapon serving the commander?

He smiled, as if she had spoken with her expression.“I found a good woman, a widow, an older woman. We deal together very well, she and I. I thought you would want to know.” With tears on her cheeks she embraced him as a niece would embrace a beloved uncle. “I will deliver what you are owed,” he said, handing over a leather pouch with some small items for the baby.“Be well, Mistress.”

She let him go, as she must. He mounted, and the riders vanished into the darkness. The fall of hooves on stone faded. The distant shush of the incoming tide swallowing the tidal flats soon became the only sound in the sleeping town except for Arasit’s restful breathing. The bag included a leather bottle with a bit of fresh sheep’s milk still left. Mai fed the baby as ghosts slipped noiselessly past her on the dying winds of the old year and the birthing winds of the new.

Footsteps scuffed the silence. She looked up to see the young man stroll effortlessly out of the darkness. She was surprised and yet not surprised, at once sorting through possible responses and potential lines of attack. He halted at the base of the steps, unslung a bag from his shoulder, and swung it as if to loft it onto the porch with a flourish.

“Quietly. There’s a child sleeping.”

Catching it deftly on the backswing, he set it on the ground at his feet and grinned at her. Lamplight caught on the interesting planes of his face. He was a few years younger than she was, still a little raw and unformed except for the absolutely sure way he held himself, a man who could manage any sort of physical feat.

“You wear the wolf ’s head ring,” she said in a low voice.“It’s the badge of the king’s elite soldiers, the Black Wolves. They carry out his most dangerous missions, so it is said.”

His grin got cockier but didn’t lose its essential sweetness.

“Did you murder Marshal?” she added.

His smile vanished.“I stole the bag. But I would have killed him, had I been given that order instead.”

“How did you get on the island?”

“That was simple enough. We paddled out on one of those lovely canoes, and then swam the last part, and climbed the cliffs. Not nearly as difficult as it sounds.”

“An interesting statement considering everyone believes it can’t be done.” She studied him carefully and precisely: taut arms, strong calves, a lean waist, and slim hips. He was still wearing the kilt, although he had laced up the vest, thus concealing his attractive torso. His shoulders were beautiful.“But if anyone looks fit for the part, it would be you.”

His eyes widened at this unexpected compliment, and he gave her such a frankly sexual look-over, as if only now contemplating that they might actually find themselves tangling together on a bed, that she felt the heat of his thoughts pour right through her flesh. She had bested Anji once, hadn’t she? She had wrested her freedom from his possessive grasp. Anji’s weakness was that even though he knew she was as brilliant as he was, he could only see her as a woman who ought to belong to him. He knew only one way to fight.

“Aren’t you afraid of ghosts and Night Riders?” she asked, filling the silence.

With a flick of his fingers the man gestured to show he had no worries. “My life is not my own. It belongs to the king. Thus I walk without concern because I am already dead.”

“You don’t look dead,” she retorted, meaning the words in so many different possible ways. It had been years since she had so thoroughly enjoyed ogling a man.

The smile emerged again as he picked up on the energy surging between them.“May I ask your name, verea?”

“If you have to ask, then you’re not a very good spy.”

A blink acknowledged this hit. His gaze cast around the spacious porch, pausing briefly on Arasit before returning to her.“Are these your children?”

The baby had fallen asleep in her arms, the feel of his little body like balm healing the old pain in her heart. With perfect contentment and an almost blistering sense of triumph, she said, “They are, ver. My daughter and my son.”

He caught in a breath, as if realizing he had made a mistake, and took a step back. The night drew its shadows over him so he was half obscured, almost a ghost himself.“My apologies if I have rudely intruded upon you, verea. I will bid you and your family a quiet festival and an auspicious new year.”

But she caught him with a look before he could walk away. She hooked him with her market smile.“I have fewer encumbrances than it may seem. Will I not see you again, ver?”

Almost he reeled under this onslaught, but he was well trained and well honed, prepared for the most strenuous challenges. “If that is an invitation, then someday you will, verea. When you least expect me.”

She allowed him the last word and thus said nothing as he touched a kiss to his fingers and flew it to her, then padded away into the night. This new armistice between her and Anji was not peace but merely a prelude to a more complicated struggle that she would wage with patience and flexibility in place of swords and spears. She laughed to herself as she went down the steps to the street to fetch the courier bag. Surely a man who could paddle, swim, and climb to reach a reeve hall famous for its inaccessibility could easily penetrate the guard of her red-cap sentries and find a way into her house.

If he did not, her life would not change from what it already was. The expectations, pleasures, and goals she held now were perfectly satisfying.

If he did, then anything might happen. The sex might be tedious, or it might be gratifying . . .

“Mai?”

Startled, she turned.

Peddonon emerged from the interior, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. “In my dreams I thought I heard the sound of hooves. It woke me, so I came to take my share of the watch . . . Mai! Come up off the street! Don’t you know the Night Riders steal beauty when they can catch such people out of doors on Ghost Nights?”