if I'd been clear-minded, I likely wouldn't have needed to leave. Please
accept my apology."
There was little enough the man could do. Moments later, the armsmen
were scattering back to the wayhouse or the stables. The smell of doused
torches filled the air like a forest on fire. Danat and Idaan stood side
by side.
"Should I apologize to you as well?" Otah asked with a half-smile.
"Isn't called for," Idaan said. "I was only keeping your boy near to
hand in case you reconsidered my death order."
"Next time, maybe," Otah said, and Idaan grinned. "Is there anything
warm to drink in this place?"
The young keeper brought them the best food the wayhouse had to
offer-river fish baked with red pepper and lemon, sweet rice, almond
milk with mint, hot plum wine, and cold water. They arrayed themselves
through the main room, all other guests being turned away by the paired
guards at every door. Ana and Ashti Beg were in a deep conversation
about the strategies they'd developed in their new sightlessness. Danat
sat nearer the fire, watching them with a naked longing in his
expression that would have made Ana blush, Otah thought, had she been
able to see it. Otah and Idaan sat together at a low table, passing the
chipped lacquer bowls back and forth. The armsmen who weren't on duty
had taken a back room, and their voices came in occasional outbursts of
hilarity and song.
It could have been the image of peace, of something approaching a family
passing a road-wearied night in warmth and companionship. And perhaps it
was. But it was other things as well.
"You look better," Idaan said, freshening the wine in his bowl. Fragrant
steam rose from it, astringent and rich with the scent of the fruit.
"I am for now," Otah said. "I'll be worse again later."
"Have you made up your mind, then?" she asked. He sighed. Ashti Beg
illustrated some point with a wide, vague gesture. Danat placed a new
length of pine on the fire.
"There isn't an answer," Otah said. "They have all the power. All I can
do is ask them to reconsider. So I suppose I'll do that and see what
happens next. I know that you think I should go in and kill them all-"
"I didn't say that," Idaan said. "I said it was what I would do. My
judgment on those matters is ... occasionally suspect."
Otah sipped his wine, then put the bowl down carefully.
"I think that's the nearest you've ever come to apologizing," he said.
"To you, perhaps," Idaan said. "I spent years talking to the dead about
it. They didn't have much to say back."
"Do you miss them?"
"Yes," Idaan said without hesitation. "I do."
They lapsed into silence again. Danat and Ashti Beg were in the middle
of a lively debate over the ethics of showfighting, Ana listening to
them both with a frown. Her hand pressed her belly as if the fish was
troubling her.
"If Maati were here tonight," Otah said, "and demanded that he be named
emperor, I think I'd give it to him."