‘My lord Chazen Kheda.’ Jevin’s precipitate arrival beside him interrupted the perfidious notions that Kheda found so hard to shake off. The youthful slave opened the door with a smile of relief. ‘Your lady wife is pleased to see you.’
‘And Ito see her.’ Kheda recovered himself and went inside.
Itrac Chazen’s personal audience chamber was an airy room floored with the Ulla domain’s most prized lustre tiles. The sunrise-pink walls were hung with draperies of white silk painted with a riot of colourful birds flitting among nut palms and lilla trees. A low table of creamy marbled halda wood in the middle of the floor was surrounded by plum-coloured cushions. Kheda noted a litter of the thin silver cylinders that courier doves carried clasped to their scaly legs and slips of coiled paper fine as onion skin. Reed pens lay across an open inkwell in the midst of them.
‘I was glad to hear you’d returned safely. How fares our domain, my husband?’ Standing by the table, Itrac Chazen wore a gown of sunshine silk shot with a blush of pink, the whispering pleats of the full skirt belted close to her slim waist with a heavy golden chain. The modest bodice rose to a high neck, leaving her slender arms and shoulders bare. She wore a triple-stranded collar of lustrous pink conch pearls and bracelets of the same sea gems. More gleamed in the net of fine braids woven from her own long hair, holding the wealth of midnight locks off her face to cascade down her back to her waist. Subtle paints of gold and shell-pink made an exquisite mask of her eyes and mouth.
Well enough, my lady wife. I visited every major island and every group of lesser ones and the spokesmen brought me word of each village. There were few enough healers bringing illnesses or injuries for my advice and I didn’t need to sit in judgement on any disputes. Our people are busy rebuilding their homes and their lives and looking forward to a better future.’
Whereas you’re looking thinner than is good for you and even Jevin’s skilled hand with a cosmetic brush can’t hide your weariness and apprehension. Though I see determination in your eyes. That’s better than the grief and confusion when we first came here.
Kheda took her hands in his and kissed her chastely on one cheek. His skin was lighter than most in these southern reaches but Itrac’s was paler still, the colour of honey. With the much-mingled blood of the central domains, she was taller than most women hereabouts, with a sparer build. ‘I gather we’re to enjoy a dinner that will be a credit to the domain.’
‘As long as there are fish in the sea and fruit on the trees we won’t go hungry.’ Itrac’s taut smile faded a little. ‘Though I see us tightening our belts before the rains, even with us drying and pickling all the excess.
‘Daish must have some surplus, after Chazen labour helped to plant their sailer and reap their harvest last year,’ Kheda remarked with studied casualness. ‘You might like to propose some mutually beneficial exchange with Rekha.’
‘I gather she had hopes of some more personal exchange with you.’ Itrac’s hazel eyes searched Kheda’s green ones.
Now dashed, sadly for her.’ Kheda surprised Itrac with a grin and a nod at Jevin who was filling two crystal goblets with the pale wine of the Archipelago from a long-spouted ewer of gold embossed with silver sea birds. ‘As I hope Jevin told you. She seems very eager for me to interfere with your trading of the pearl harvest,’ he added sceptically.
‘I’ll bet she is.’ A smile lightened Itrac’s face, her teeth white and even.
Kheda narrowed his eyes as he accepted a goblet from Jevin. ‘That doesn’t sound like a wager I want to take.’ He sipped at the wine: refreshing without being intoxicating.
Because we want all our wits about us for dealings with Rekha. How can barbarians conduct their commerce or their warfare when they are so fuddled with alcohol?
‘I’ve been picking up the threads of the network that brought news to Olkai.’ Itrac’s voice wavered a little at the mention of the domain’s former first wife. ‘Some of her favoured craftsmen have only recently returned from Daish waters and they bring interesting news.’
‘Do they?’ Kheda couldn’t restrain a qualm at the notion of Daish concerns so blithely carried south. Itrac’s eyes shone with glee. ‘The pearl oysters have deserted the Daish reefs.’
‘A barren year?’ The shock left Kheda hollow.
What an appalling omen for Sirket’s first full year as warlord.
‘Which is why Rekha’s come looking for Chazen pearls to help them weather this calamity.’ Itrac’s tone didn’t bode well for the Daish woman.
‘Janne and Rekha are always prepared for a lean year,’ Kheda said slowly. ‘They will have pearls and nacre stockpiled, doubtless enough to settle trades already agreed with the Ritsem and Aedis domains.’
‘Then why is Rekha so desperate to get her hands on our harvest?’ Itrac challenged him. ‘And she is desperate, believe me.’
‘I know,’ Kheda assured her. He closed his eyes, the better to scour his memory as recollection teased him. ‘I think I have it. Rekha made a deal with Moni Redigal towards the end of the last dry season for a shipload of brassware. Redigal is owed a full eighth share in this oyster harvest as it leaves the sea.’
Itrac clicked her tongue. ‘Moth Redigal is always too ready to gamble. So Daish has its brassware in return for a cupful of pearls, if Moni’s lucky.’
‘Daish won’t relish such a bargain.’ Kheda drained his goblet. ‘How can they conceal this disaster, if Redigal boats are out on their reefs waiting for their share of the unopened oysters?’
‘Mori would want pearls equal to an eighth share of a fair harvest, at the very least, as the price of her silence.’ Itrac pursed her lips.
‘Which would seriously deplete Daish reserves.’ Kheda did his best to hide his concern. ‘And they would hardly want to trade the rest in case the reefs prove barren again next year.’
It happened in my grandsire ‘s time: a full seven years when the best reefs were bare and the lesser oyster beds offered only the poorest nacre.
What does this portend, when Chazen has the richest pearl harvest within living memory?
‘So Daish has a grave problem.’ Itrac looked closely at him. ‘And we have an interesting opportunity.’ And I am now of Chazen, not of Daish.
Kheda hid his misgivings in his empty goblet, pretending to drink. ‘How do you propose to make the best of it?’
‘What do you make of the omen in this?’ Itrac’s gaze still held his. ‘That Daish suffers such an ill-fated start to their year? Do we want dealings with a domain facing such misfortune? We have reason enough to shun their waters, after Chazen Saril died while enjoying their hospitality.’
Kheda’s mind’s eye showed him Chazen Saril’s agonised death once again.
Am I billy innocent because I had no notion that Janne was feeding all three of us mussels gathered after a red tide, potentially lethal? The wife of my youth and I had no idea she could be so ruthless, wagering all our lives against her judgement that Chazen Saril’s cowardice forfeited his right to rule and to life, and that my choice to cloak myself in a deceit of death and search out lore to counter the invaders’ magic forfeited any right of return to my own domain.
‘Chazen Kheda?’ Itrac’s pointed prompting struck him harder than Rekha’s slap to his face.
He blinked and chose his words carefully. ‘Whatever this portent means for Daish, we must consider Chazen’s situation. The safest seaways to the rest of the Archipelago run through Daish waters. Crossing open water to Redigal is far more dangerous for our galleys. If we don’t give Rekha something of what she wants, we risk her closing Daish waters to anyone wanting to trade with us. That’s if they have overcome their doubts about our domain’s recovery from the magic that swept over us last year.’
‘Word will have spread fast enough that the wild wizards spurned any wealth born of the seas and only sought gemstones.’ Itrac was scornful. ‘And I want the entire Archipelago to know that our new year is blessed with such a potent omen. I am not about to let Rekha pass off our pearls or our good fortune as her own.’