"I wish you wouldn't call it that," he said.
"Well, I wish my hair were still dark. It is what it is, love. Politics
in action."
"Cynic," he said as he reached the porch.
"Idealist," she replied, pulling him down to kiss him.
Far to the east, an early storm fell from clouds dark as bruises, a veil
of gray. Cehmai watched it, his arm around his lover's shoulder. She
leaned her head against him.
"How was the Emperor this morning?" he asked.
"Fine. Excited to see Issandra-cha again as much as anything about the
caravan. I think he's more than half infatuated with her."
"Oh please," Cehmai said. "This will be his seventy-ninth summer? His
eightieth?"
"And you won't still want me when you've reached the age?"
"Well. Fair point."
"His hands bother him most," Idaan said. "It's a pity about his hands."
Lightning flashed on the horizon, less that a firefly. Idaan twined her
fingers with his and sighed.
"Have I mentioned recently how much I appreciate you coming to find me?
Back when you were an outlaw and I was still a judge, I mean," she asked.
"I never tire of hearing it," Cehmai said.
The tomcat leaped on his lap, dug its claws into his robe twice,
kneading him like bread dough, and curled up.
For even if the flowergrows from an ancient vine, the flowers of spring
are themselves new to the world, untried and untested.
EIAH MOTIONED FOR OTAH TO SIT. SHE WAS GENTLE AS ALWAYS WITH HIS
crippled hands. He sat back down slowly. The servants had brought his
couches out to a wide garden, but with the coming sunset he'd have to be
moved again. Eiah tried to impress on her father's servants that what he
needed and what he wanted weren't always the same. She'd given up
convincing Otah years earlier.
"How are you feeling?" she asked, sitting beside him. "You look tired."
"It was a long day," Otah said. "I slept well enough, but I can never
stay in bed past dawn. When I was young, I could sleep until midday. Now
that I have the time and no one would object, I'm up with the birds.
Does that seem right to you?"
"The world was never fair."
"Truth. All the gods know that's the truth."
She took his wrists as if it were nothing more than the contact of
father and daughter. Otah looked at her impatiently, but he suffered it.
She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the subtle differences of his
pulses.
"I heard you woke confused again," she said. "You were calling for
someone called Muhatia-cha?"
"I had a dream. That's all," Otah said. "Muhatia was my overseer back
when I was young. I dreamed that I was late for my shift. I needed to
get to the seafront before he docked my pay. That was all. I'm not
losing my mind, love. My health, maybe, but not my mind. Not yet."
"I didn't think you were. Turn here. Let me look at your eyes. Have the