them, could feel them resonate in her own breast. But more than that,
there was an almost superstitious fear in him. The upstart had slipped
his bonds, had struck in the very heart of the city, and her brother
feared him like Black Chaos.
"We have to secure the city," he said. "I've called for more guards. You
should stay here. We can't know how far he will take his vendetta."
"You're going to let him escape?" Idaan demanded. "You aren't going to
hunt him down?"
"He has resources I can't guess at. Look! Look what he's done. Until I
know what I'm walking towards, I don't dare follow."
The plan was failing. Danat was staying safe in his walls with his
armsmcn around him like a blanket. Idaan sighed. It was tip to her, of
course, to save it.
"Adrah Vaunyogi has a hunt prepared. It was to be for fresh meat for my
wedding feast. You stay here, Danat-kya. I'll bring you Otah's head."
She turned and walked away. She couldn't hesitate, couldn't invite him
to follow her. He would see it in her gait if she were anything less
than totally committed. For a moment, she even believed herself that she
was going out to find her father's killer and bring him down-riding with
her hunt into the low towns and the fields to track down the evil Otah
Machi, her fallen brother. Danat's voice stopped her.
"I forbid you, Idaan. You can't do this."
She paused and looked back at him. He was thicker than her father had
been. Already his jaw line ran toward jowls. She took a pose that disagreed.
"I'm actually quite good with a bow," she said. "I'll find him. And I
will see him dead."
"You're my child sister," Danat said. "You can't do this."
Something flared in her, dark and hot. She stepped back toward Danat,
feeling the rage lift her up like a leaf in the wind.
"Ah, and if I do this thing, you'll be shamed. Because I have breasts
and you've a prick, I'm supposed to muzzle myself and be glad. Is that
it? Well I won't. You hear me? I will not be controlled, I will not be
owned, and I will not step hack from anything to protect your petty
pride. It's gone too far for that, brother. If a woman shrinks meekly
back into the shadows, then you he the woman. See how it feels to you!"
By the end she was shrieking. Her fists were balled so tight they hurt.
Danat's expression was hard as stone and as gray.
"You shame me," he said.
"Live with it," she said and spat.
"Send my body servant," he said. "I'll want my own bow. And then go to
Adrah. The hunt won't leave without me."
She was on the edge of refusing, of telling him that this wasn't
courage. He was only more afraid of losing the respect of the utkhaiem
than of dying, and that made him not only a coward but a stupid one. She
was the one with courage. She was the one who had the will to act. What
was he after all but a mewling kitten lost in the world, while she ...
she was Otah Machi. She was the upstart who had earned the Khai's chair.
She had killed her father for it; it was more than Danat would have done.
But, of course, truth would destroy everything. That was its nature. So