‘Then you will play the proper slave for a change and sleep across my threshold to keep her out.’ Kheda washed himself vigorously with a soapy cloth.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Dev with distaste. ‘I’ll find some little maid girl to keep watch on the footbridge and come and warn me if her ladyship goes for a midnight stroll.’
‘Find someone to keep an eye on that galley of hers.’ Kheda began rinsing away the suds that covered him. ‘I want to know exactly when she lets a message bird fly.’
‘Do you want it brought down?’ Dev suggested. ‘I could do that without anyone noticing and you can always blame one of the gull hawks.’
No.’ Kheda ran firm hands over his head and face to force water out of his hair and beard.
‘There have been plenty of Chazen courier doves winging their way home over the last ten days or so, from what Jevin tells me. I’ll go and check if any of them are bringing news from the west. You’ll want to know exactly where the remaining wild men are to be found, so you can plan your new campaign against them properly’ Dev threw Kheda a towel as he climbed out of the bath. ‘And whatever her haughtiness Rekha Daish might say, Itrac is managing to trade with other domains. At least, she’s found someone to give her enough silk to cover your arse in suitable style. Come and see.’
Drying himself, Kheda followed the barbarian through the door that led straight from the bathroom into his spacious bedchamber. Dev lifted two full-sleeved tunics from the broad, low bed. ‘The grey or the tan, my lord?’ he asked with mock obsequiousness.
‘I don’t suppose you thought to ask what Itrac will be wearing?’ Kheda considered the skilfully cut and sewn garments. The grey was a dark hue shot through with blue like a rainy-season cloud. The tan was a warmer colour with a vibrant golden gloss. There hadn’t been time for any embroidery on either, however.
‘As it happens, I did,’ retorted Dev. ‘Yellow, so the lad said.’
‘The tan then.’ Kheda reached for the trousers. ‘What gems do we have to dress it up?’
‘Precious few.’ Dev tossed the tunic across and Kheda pulled it over his head.
‘I suppose it’s too much to hope that any more of the domain’s heirlooms have come to light while we’ve been away?’ The cloth muffled his words.
No such luck,’ the barbarian confirmed as he unlocked a coffer set on a stand beside the bed. ‘I’ll bet Daish and Ritsem skippers are trading them even as we speak.’
‘Keep that opinion to yourself, barbarian,’ Kheda warned, ‘unless you want me to read your fate in your entrails when some mariner guts you. Archipelagans aren’t thieves like you northerners. We’ll find most of the loot with those last savages penned up in the west.’
‘Which is another good reason to finally see them all dead,’ said Dev with happy anticipation.
‘So you can try your hand at plundering the wealth they stole?’ Kheda challenged. Not when Itrac needs those talismans and heirlooms to trade for everything this domain so desperately lacks.’
‘You don’t think she’ll have enough pearls?’ Dev stirred the paltry selection of ornaments in the upper tray of the chest with a disdainful finger. What do you want out of here?’
Not pearls, with this colour silk,’ Kheda commented as he came to pull a fine gold chain out of a tangle of links. He took off his silver ring with its uncut talisman emerald and threaded the chain through it. ‘If you say so.’ Dev shrugged. ‘I never had to play the lady’s maid back home.’
‘Just be thankful I didn’t end up saving your skin by making you a slave to my lady wife,’ Kheda taunted as he slipped the chain over his neck and tucked the ring beneath the neck of his tunic. Do you think you would have liked learning how to paint Itrac’s face and nails? What else have we got?’
‘Turtleshell and that’s about it.’ Dev lifted out the padded silk tray to reveal variegated bracelets polished to a mirror finish.
‘Those will do.’ Kheda pushed a matched pair over his knuckles and thrust heavy gold rings on all his fingers. ‘And that belt.’
‘This one?’ Dev picked out the piece Kheda had indicated with his nod. It was made of plaques of turtleshell joined by chased gold links.
And carefully adjusted to fit me, not Chazen Saril’s greater girth.
‘And anklets to finish the set?’ Dev held out two more pieces with faint derision.
Kheda settled the belt on his hips and secured the clasp before taking the anklets and snapping them around the hems of his trousers, drawing in the loose cloth. ‘You don’t reckon much to turtleshell, do you? Nor pearls, if you’re honest, not for more than they can buy you. Why is that?’
‘Probably because I’m an ignorant barbarian with no understanding of their talismanic value,’ said Dev smoothly,
Or is it because you are a wizard? The savage mages that came with the invaders, they spurned pearls and turtleshell alike, seeking only to loot our gemstones. You claim to have no idea why. Is that the truth? Kheda let that question pass unspoken and unanswered. ‘Whatever Rekha’s plotting, I don’t think we’ll need armoured guards at dinner but you should wear your swords if not your hauberk. Go and get them.’
‘Yes, my lord.’ Sarcasm and relief weighted Dev’s words in equal measure.
‘And now I had best go to see Itrac’ Kheda smoothed his hair and beard, already as good as dry with the heat of the day slow to fade till the sun was utterly set. So we can decide our strategy before we go to dine with Rekha.
Chapter Four
Kheda headed for the door leading from the bedchamber into the hall. Dev followed and slid away towards the rear of the building.
The stocky steward who had been waiting outside the pavilion stepped up smartly and bowed low. ‘It’s good to see you back, my lord.’
‘I’m happy to be back, Beyau,’ Kheda replied courteously. ‘Is everything in good order here? Please, walk with me to my lady Itrac’s pavilion.’
Would you tell me if things weren’t going smoothly or try to fix any problem before I discovered it, rather than come and seek my counsel? How am I ever going to be wholly at ease with this household or they with me? Daish slaves knew they were free to speak their minds at all times, but we’d known each other since I was a child, for the most part. I don’t feel I know anyone here. But never take your servants for granted, that’s what Daish Reik always said, or one day you ‘ll stretch out your hand for something and it’ll stay empty.
‘We’re managing well enough now we’ve a full complement of servants,’ the steward said slowly as they walked across the island into the fast-fading evening light. ‘Hopefuls wash up with every tide but I’m not letting them stay unless they were part of the household before—or unless they look as if they’d be handy with a sword.’ He hesitated, muscular hands clasped behind his stiff back as he walked. ‘I’ve nearly doubled the warriors in your retinue.’
‘Those you’re sending away, are they returning to their homes?’ Kheda glanced at the man as they reached the first bridge over the shimmering water. Beyau’s burly build was ill-suited to the elegantly cut silk of a household slave’s formal tunic and Kheda noted that he still affected the close-cropped hair and beard of a fighting man. ‘Are you giving them all you can to help them rebuild what they have lost?’
‘All we can spare, my lord,’ Beyau assured him fervently before hesitating again. ‘Touai, who is first among my lady Itrac’s attendants, she thinks we could spare more if we weren’t maintaining so many warriors in the residence.’
‘Do we have the same numbers of swords as in Chazen Saril’s day yet?’
Kheda nodded as Beyau shook his head. ‘Then you can take on every likely swordsman until we do. The domain must present a decent Show of force to our neighbours.’
Not that all the swords of the Archipelago could turn aside the magic of the savages, if they invade again. ‘And you’re right to encourage those who are coming back to return to their homes, to rebuild their villages,’ the warlord continued. We need all hands working the land, not outstretched for unearned food.’ Then Kheda hesitated in his turn. ‘All able hands, that is. Are there many coming back unable to make shift for themselves, out of injury to mind or body?’