"It's not that," she said. "I've kissed lots of boys."
The blush wasn't growing less, but Nlaati resolved to ignore it.
"Ah," he said. "Well, then. If it's that you want apartments of your
own, something outside the women's quarters, you could always-"
""Ialit Radaani's being married to the third son of the Khai Pathai,"
Eiah said, and then a heartbeat later, "She's half a year younger than I
am."
It was like feeling a puzzle box click open in his fingers. He
understood precisely what was happening, what it meant and didn't mean.
He rubbed his palms against his knees and sighed.
"And she gloats about that, I'd bet," he said. Eiah swiped at her
betraying eyes with the back of a hand. "After all, she's younger and
lower in the courts. She must think that she's got proof that she's
terribly special."
Eiah shrugged.
"Or that you aren't," Maati continued, keeping his voice gentle to
lessen the sting of the words. "That's what she thinks, isn't it?"
"I don't know what she thinks."
"Well, then tell me what you think."
"I don't know why he can't find me a husband. It isn't as if I'd have to
leave. There's marriages that go on for years before anyone does
anything. But it's understood. It's arranged. I don't see why he can't
do that much for me."
"I lave you asked him?"
"He should know this," Eiah snapped, pacing between the open door and
the fire grate. "He's the Khai Machi. He isn't stupid."
"lie also isn't . . ." hlaati said and then bit down on the words a
child. The woman Eiah thought she was would never stand for the name.
"He isn't fourteen summers old. It's not so hard for men like me and
your father to forget what it was like to be young. And I'm sure he
doesn't want to see you married yet, or even promised. You're his
daughter, and ... it's hard, Eiah-kya. It's hard losing your child."
She stopped, her brow furrowed. In the trees just outside his door, a
bird sang shrill and high and took flight. Maati could hear the
fluttering of its wings.
"It's not losing me," she said, but her voice was less certain than it
had been. "I don't die."
"No. You don't, but you'll likely leave to be in your husband's city.
There's couriers to carry messages back and forth, but once you've left,
it's not likely you'll return in Otah's life, or Kiyan's. Or mine. It's
not death, but it is still loss, dear. And we've all lost so much
already, it's hard to look forward to another."
"You could come with me," Eiah said. "My husband would take you in. He
wouldn't be worth marrying if he wouldn't, so you could come with me."
Maati allowed himself to chuckle as he rose from his seat.
"It's too big a world to plan for all that just yet," he said, mussing
Eiah's hair as he had when she'd been younger. "When we come nearer,
we'll see where things stand. I may not be staying here at all,
depending on what the Dai-kvo thinks. I might be able to go hack to his