"Magic," she breathed.
"A little," Tycho said modestly. "A beautiful flower for a beau-"
"Magic!" squeaked Chaka. She dropped the flower as if it was spider and jumped away from him. "There is no magic in the oasis! You'll offend-"
She clamped her mouth shut, but her eyes darted toward the tavern's door flap and the water beyond.
"The spirit?" Tycho asked in disbelief. "Magic offends the water spirit?"
Chaka gave a little nod. Tycho cursed the Tuigans' taboos silently and stood up, reaching for her.
"Chaka, I didn't know! It was nothing, just a little trick."
"No!" she yelped and started backing away.
Other people-other Tuigan women-were starting to look toward them. Surly Chotan was already heading in their direction, a storm of a scowl brewing on her face. Tycho took another step toward Chaka.
She turned around and darted through the crowd, vanishing through another flap in the fabric walls and deeper into the pavilion.
"Faroonl" yelled Chotan. "What did you do to her?"
Tycho cursed out loud. Li sighed and stood up.
"How do you manage this, Tycho?" he asked.
"I don't know," he said as he patted Li's chest. "You hold off Chotan. I'll go find Chaka before she gets everyone upset."
He dashed after the frightened woman before Li could do more than sputter and Chotan squawk in outrage.
Beyond the flap, the back rooms of Ong's pavilion were much like the back rooms of any tavern Tycho had ever crept through: small, jammed with stored goods, and dark. Very dark. Tycho cracked his shin against something low and hard, and swallowed an exclamation of pain. Unlike other back rooms, the walls that separated him from the rest of the tavern were literally no thicker than a good carpet. He could hear Chotan berating Li, and closer to hand the suddenly ominous rhythm of falling knives in the women's game.
"Hoi!" shouted the women.
Their cry covered a muffled yelp as Tycho tripped again. Should he risk more magic and Chaka's fear or maim himself in the darkness?
"Damn water spirit," he muttered, and fished in a belt pouch for a coin.
Clenching it in his fist, he sang a spell. Light leaked out between his fingers-not much, but enough to keep him from stumbling. Playing the faint illumination across the floor, he edged forward.
"Chaka?" he called softly. "Chaka, come out. It's all right."
There was no movement. He crept on. The back room was larger than he expected, and divided up by thin hangings. Chaka could have ducked through or under any of them. Tycho stuck to what seemed to be the largest of the back chambers, stepping quietly around an assortment of boxes, barrels, and sacks. The sounds of the tavern, muffled by the fabric walls, faded to a background murmur. Tycho cursed silently. There was no sign of Chaka. Maybe she had slipped into one of the side chambers after all. Maybe she knew of another door flap he had missed and was no longer even in the pavilion. He clenched his jaw.
Don't worry about it, he told himself, you've talked yourself out of much tighter situations than this!
He started to turn back to the main chamber of the tavern.
"Ah, my beauty! You grow more lovely with each passing day."
Ong's voice. Tycho froze, wrapping his fist tight around the glowing coin and choking off its faint light entirely. In the darkness, he could see an even fainter glow that leaked from a side chamber where the fabric of the hanging wall was rumpled by a box pushed against it. There was no passage to the chamber here-the entrance must have been from one of the other side chambers.
A woman's voice answered Ong in Tuigan and Tycho heard the tavernkeeper click his tongue in gentle reprimand.
"Speak Shou to me, my lovely."
The woman giggled.
"As you command, tremendous one!" she said saucily.
Tycho didn't recognize the woman's voice, but it was soft and musical, like the little bronze bells that the Tuigan women wore on their jacket cuffs. He grinned to himself. What woman of the oasis had Ong charmed into his arms? More importantly, what woman was worth tempting the wrath of a husband or father for a dalliance? He stretched out on the ground and wiggled forward to peer under the hanging.
His eyes went wide.
On the other side of the hanging, carpets and furs and rich eastern silks had been piled up into a kind of bed. Ong sprawled on the pile, his shirt open and his broad belly hanging out. Lounging beside him and rubbing his belly, her beautiful face illuminated by the soft, clearly magical glow of green glass globes, was Ibakha! Ong kissed a finger, then pressed it to Ibakha's lips.
"Are you teasing me?" he asked. Ibakha shook her head and replied, "You, O protector? Never!"
Her fingers paused and Ong gasped as she tweaked a hair.
"Perfidious wench!" the Shou growled. "Do you think that familiarity will protect you from a dragon's wrath?" He forced his voice deep so that it rolled in his chest. "My rage has wiped villages from the face of the world and carved canyons through mountains. I have become a man for you, and your beauty is all that stands between your people and my anger! Do you dare to displease me?"
"Never, great guardian of the oasis, never!" gasped Ibakha in mock fear, then lunged into Ong's arms with such force that they both rolled off of the heaped carpets.
Tycho stifled his laughter as he wriggled back away from the peep hole and stood.
"Ong has what?" exclaimed Li in disbelief. "He's seduced Ibakha."
Tycho leaned back. The main chamber of the tavern was growing empty. They were the last of the caravan travelers in the tent and only a few of the oasis's women, playing one last round of the knife game, were left. A pitcher of millet beer had been abandoned on the table-Tycho drank straight from it. '
"He's told her that he's the water spirit of the oasis incarnate," Tycho added, "the sly dog!"
Li scowled and said, "I knew there was something I didn't like about him! When he said the Tuigan would do anything to avoid offending their spirit…"
"I don't know if Ibakha really believes her people will be punished if she doesn't keep Ong happy," Tycho said, "but she does believe that the guardian of the oasis has fallen in love with her. I could see it in her eyes." He tapped one finger under his own eye. "Believe me, I've told enough stories to women myself to know the look."
"It's still wrong."
"Ha!" Tycho took another drink from the pitcher. "Where's Chotan? I'd like to know what she'd say about this!"
"Gone," said Li. He nodded toward the door flap. "Possibly to organize the women into a mob to hunt you down. She found the flower you made for Chaka and it vanished while she was holding it. She knows you worked magic in the oasis."
"Ong should hope-she never finds out about the magic lights he has back in his love nest then. He's probably breaking Tuigan taboos with every step." Tycho chuckled. "But I guess he doesn't need to worry. After all, if he's the water spirit, he's the source of them!"
"Hoi! Hoi! Hoi!"
The last women finished their game with a rousing cheer and a final swallow of beer, then rose and swaggered out of the tavern. Li's eyes followed them.