your staying dead until we know more than this. But ... but I can tell a
few well-placed people to be on alert. And give them some idea what to
be alert for. Another Saraykeht would be devastating." Amiit sighed
deeply. "And here I thought only the succession, your life, and my house
were in play. Poets now, too."
Amiit's smile was thoughtful.
"I'll give you this. You make the world more interesting, Itani-cha. Or...?"
He took a pose that asked for correction.
"Otah. Much as I've fought against it, my name is Otah Machi. We might
as well both get used to saying it."
"Otah-cha, then," Amiit said. He seemed pleased, as if he'd won some
small victory.
Voices came up through the window. The commander's was already familiar
even after so short a time. Otah couldn't make out the words, but he
sounded pleased. Another voice answered him that Otah didn't know, but
the woman's laughter that pealed out after it was familiar as water.
Otah felt the air go thin. He stood and walked slowly to the open
shutters. There in the yard behind the farmhouse Sinja and one of the
archers were standing beside a lovely woman in loose cotton robes the
blue of the sky at twilight. Her fox-thin face was smiling, one eyebrow
arched as she said something to the commander, who chuckled in his turn.
Her hair was dark and shot with individual strands of white that she had
had since birth.
He saw the change in Kiyan's stance when she noticed him-a release and
relaxation. She walked away from the two men and toward the open window.
Otah's heart beat fast as if he'd been running. She stopped and put out
her hands, palms up and open. It wasn't a formal pose, and seemed to
mean here I am and here you are and who would have guessed this all at once.
"She came to me not long after you left," Amiit said from where he sat.
"I'm half-partner in her wayhouse down in Udun. We've been keeping it a
quiet arrangement, though. There's something to be said for having a
whole wayhouse of one's own without the couriers of other houses knowing
it's yours."
Otah wanted to look hack at the man, but his gaze seemed fastened on
Kiyan. He thought he caught a faint blush rising in her cheeks. She
shook her head as if clearing away some unwanted thought and walked in
toward the house and out of his view. She was smiling, though. Sinja had
also caught sight of Otah in the window and took a pose of congratulation.
"She's changed her mind, then. About me?"
"Apparently."
Otah turned back and leaned against the wall. Its coolness surprised
him. After so many days in the cell at the tower's height, he'd come to
think of stone as warm. Amiit poured himself another cup of wine. Otah
swallowed to loosen his throat. The question didn't want to be asked.
"Why? What changed it?"
"I have known Kiyan-cha well for almost a quarter of this year. Not even
that. You've been her lover for what? Three summers? And you want me to
explain her mind to you? You've become an optimist."
Otah sat because his knees felt too weak to hold him. Amiit chuckled