‘And Chazen needs so many things that you can buy with those pearls.’ Kheda inclined his head slowly. ‘Of course, drilled pearls are more valuable, as are finished ornaments made from the petals and dog’s teeth. But I do have some unwelcome news from my voyage around the domain, Itrac. Many of our best craftsmen fled the invaders to Daish waters and they’re slow to return, whatever Daish Sirket might decree. You might allow Rekha some limited share in our pearl harvest on the strict understanding that such valuable men and women of Chazen be sent home.’
‘Possibly.’ Itrac looked a little mutinous before smiling with new boldness. ‘You’re right to say it would be better to keep our access to their sea lanes. Trade with Ritsem is certainly easier with passage through Daish waters and I’ve a proposal for Taisia. Ulla Safar’s wives are doing all they can to deny Ritsem the limestone they need to smelt the iron ore they discovered last year. Given how little nacre our harvest yields, I propose to burn the oyster shells for lime. We can trade that with Taisia Ritsem for swords and armour.
‘An excellent opportunity for Chazen to help Ritsem and to snub Ulla,’ observed Kheda. ‘And no one will weep to see Ulla Safar’s power as the only purveyor of iron in these reaches undermined.’ / owe Ulla Safar and his pack of bitches every ill turn I can contrive. He would have killed me for pure malice before lifting a finger to help Daish against the invaders. But would all the warriors from the Ulla domain have been any use against magic?
Though without his attempts on your life, you ‘d never have been able to play dead and go in search of lore to combat the invaders’ sorceries.
But the price of that was being landed with Chazen and with Dev. And where is he?
‘Taisia Ritsem sends me plenty of news.’ Itrac didn’t notice his preoccupation, looking down at the message slips brought by the courier doves. Her voice shook a little. ‘For the sake of Olkai Chazen, who was her sister before she was mine.’
‘You could make it a condition of trading pearls with Rekha,’ Kheda said without thinking, ‘that Olkai’s bones are returned from the Daish tower of silence where we laid her.’
He looked through the far window over towards the only other tower on these islands. Out on the most distant islet at the far end of the reef, a tall wall with a single gate ringed a solid pillar. Unrailed stairs spiralled up the outside to the open platform where the most honoured dead of the domain were laid. There were no carrion birds wheeling around in the fading sky. There was nothing to bring them to play their part in returning all that the dead had been to the islands they had lived in, to bind them to the future of the whole domain.
Forgive me, Sekni Chazen, on your own behalf and for the three little children of the domain who died with you. There was simply no way of telling your charred bones from all those others killed here. At least you are buried with your people and your virtues will bless this residence at least.
‘I miss her so much.’ Itrac choked on an abrupt sob and tears spilled from her long painted lashes. ‘Olkai and Sekni.’
‘You did all you could.’ Kheda laid gentle hands on her bare shoulders and felt her trembling with the effort of holding back hysterical weeping. You brought Olkai out of the fires of the wild men’s attack. I used all the healing lore I had. There was just no saving her from such burns.’
Not with more than half her body blistered and blackened by magical fires. One of the kindest and most amiable women I have ever known, from her earliest girlhood as Olkai Ritsem. She was far more wife than Chazen Saril deserved, the best first wife this domain had had in a long while.
‘Perhaps—’ Itrac took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her decorated eyes with careful fingers ‘it might have been better for the domain if I had died and she had lived.’
Never think that.’ Kheda tightened his grip on her shoulders. ‘When someone dies despite all we can do, we must accept that fate. All we can do is seek to understand the omens in that death.’
‘I’ll never understand why Olkai had to die like that. Omens are your business and trade is mine.’ Itrac twisted free of Kheda’s hands, her chin trembling. But perhaps I’ll make a deal with Rekha for Olkai’s bones. Then I might at least feel her presence in my dreams here.’
‘You will prove as fine a first wife for this domain as she was,’ Kheda said warmly.
‘You’ve seen that in the portents, have you?’ Itrac demanded with sudden brittle anger. ‘When I’m so terrified of dying like Olkai that I spend half my days staring out over the southern ocean, wondering when those savages will return? When every day I spend here reminds me of Sekni and the children she and Olkai bore to Saril, all dead at the invaders’ hands? I wake expecting their laughter and hear only the endless silence in their empty rooms.’
She pressed her hands to her flat stomach. ‘Don’t say it, Kheda. I hear it whispered in corners day after day. I see the way everyone looks at my belly before they look me in the eye, as if all I need is to get with child to make me forget the babies I took in my arms when they were still wet with their birth blood.’ Her voice rose in wild accusation. ‘And don’t tell me all the village spokesmen and half the shipmasters weren’t making tactful enquires after my health on your voyage. Or were they offering up travelling seers to predict an auspicious future for our children, as soon as I care to supply them? Well, I don’t care to, Kheda, not until you can show me a future beyond doubt where I’ll never see those I love murdered by wild men and their vicious magics. And I don’t care if that does send you to Rekha’s bed!’ Is this why Rekha came instead of Janne? Itrac would always have the advantage of youth over Janne’s grey hair and thickened waist. But she’s a bud blighted by drought and uncertainty compared to Rekha in the full bloom of her womanhood. And I see some things remain consistent in my marriages. Such as impossible conversations where I’ll be in the wrong whatever I say. But if I don’t at least try, I’m definitely condemned.
‘Itrac, listen to me.’ Kheda seized her shoulders again and this time he shook her, sending Jevin backwards with a fierce glare when the slave would have intervened. ‘Yes, I’ve had all the veiled hints you can imagine, and some not so veiled. True, the islanders would be greatly reassured if you bore a baby to the domain as token of your confidence in Chazen’s future. If you chose me to father your child, many would feel more certain of my commitment to them and their domain, given that I was not born here.’
He waved a hand at the darkening skies beyond the window where stars were now visible. ‘The Winged Serpent rides in the arc of the heavens where we could seek signs concerning children and serpents of any kind are a reminder of male and female intertwined. None of this gives me any rights over your choices. It is ever a wife’s prerogative to decide when and if to give her husband a child, from the least to the highest born in any domain.’
Itrac stood frozen between his hands. Kheda leaned forward to kiss her cheek once again before speaking more softly. ‘If you invite me to your bed, when you judge that the time is right, I will be honoured. You’re a beautiful and desirable woman. Forgive me if I haven’t made myself clear on that; I wanted to leave you to grieve for Chazen Saril in peace. I know you married him for love more than any affiance. I can wait, and if I find myself in need of companionship in the meantime, Pll find some bedmate who won’t exact the kind of price Rekha Daish would be seeking for her favours,’ he concluded frankly.
‘I’m sorry . Itrac stammered. ‘I shouldn’t have said—’
Kheda shook his head. Don’t apologise. We should have had this conversation long since but that’s as much my fault as yours. And since the subject of children has come up, you should think very carefully whether or not you want to me to father any child of yours. For every learned sage who declares an innocent touched by magic is not stained with it, there’s another who says merely being in the presence of magic taints us. I was in the presence of magic time and again, Itrac, however honest my motives. If you don’t want to risk blighting your baby’s future with such a father, I couldn’t blame you. There’s always Jevin.’ He was careful not to look at the youthful slave. ‘He was a gift from Taisia Ritsem and that domain’s certainly untouched by magic’