Medjhah started playing catch with Arif, using an orange somebody had stolenfrom one of the groves beyond the compound. The boy was very inept, mostlybecause he was too afraid he would get hit. Yoseh thought his parents probablyprotected him too much. These veydeen all sheltered their children more thandid Dartar parents.
Mo'atabar came down the hill alone. Nogah went to talk to him.
Stafa tried to get into the game with his brother and Medjhah. His idea ofcatch was to grab the orange and scurry around among the animals laughing tillsomebody ran him down. Medjhah caught up, started to lift him, thought betterof it, set him down, and said, "Phew! This one needs to be changed."
Whereupon Stafa, still armed with the orange, headed for home yelling, "Mom!
I'm pooped!" Like he had not known perfectly well and been .too busy to bebothered.
Tamisa said, "I'd better go. Chores to do. Mother is going to be crabby enoughas it is. Arif, come on."
Yoseh said his farewells and watched them go. He had disappointed Arifseverely, he knew, being more interested in the girl than in him. But whatcould you do? How could you explain?
Mo'atabar went on down the hill. Nogah went back and sat down, preoccupied.
"What's up?" Medjhah asked.
"Joab. He's taking fifteen hundred men out to chase those Turoks."
That scaly thing inside Yoseh wakened and started wriggling.
"We going?"
"No. We're staying to play Fa'tad's game. He's taking all horsemen. He wants to hurry and get between the Turoks and the herd. Just in case."
Yoseh tried not to show his relief. There was nothing dishonorable about it but he did not want to admit that he had no taste for fighting and glory and riding around in the weather.
There were a few more clouds now. The veydeen did not seem excited so it seemed unlikely they would turn to rain. He wished it would rain.
The city was a madhouse. Troops were on the move, headed south to assemble outside the Gate of Summer, whence they would march before sunrise. Azel was not pleased by the dislocations. They made it difficult to be as cautious as he liked.
What about tomorrow, when the garrison was reduced? Would the Living's crazies make themselves heard? Something. From somewhere. He felt the first tingle of it. He did not like it because he had no idea from what direction disaster might strike.
He took position in sight of the place where Ishabal bel-Shaduk lived in the northern Shu. He watched for an hour. Several men visited. He recognized two as thugs. Guys who would do anything for money.
He had a notion what bel-Shaduk was doing. He did not like it. He'd thought bel-Shaduk possessed of better sense.
Gold and women had their ways of dribbling blindness into even a wise man's eyes. The day was getting on. If he wanted to get out the Gate of Autumn and back with plenty of time he'd better waste no more here.
He overtook the cavalcade moving the old man two miles east of the Dartar compound. The new gimp General told him to get up inside the covered wagon where the stiff lay. One look at that black print and he knew his suspicions were feet.
The damn woman had gone mad! She would set the city on fire.
And she didn't care. That was the hell of it.
He climbed out of the wagon, drifted back to walk beside the gimp on his donkey. A comedown for him. He'd probably ridden a purebred stallion out to Dak-es-Souetta. "I got an idea where to start looking."
"Where? Who?"
"I'll let you know if it comes out sure. Meantime, I got a suggestion. Burnthe old boy. Don't bury him."
"Immolation is a rite of Gorloch, not of Aram."
"How many people going to be involved in this, eh? All of them mourning thebeloved General. What chance you figure there is all of them will keep theirmouths shut about who, what, and where? Cado gets the word, he's going to havethe old boy dug up and paraded around."
"I'll think about it."
Dumb shit. He was asking for it. "You put some time in on the new governor andhis witch, too. There's something more there than meets the eye. Talk to youmore when we get together. I got something else I got to do right now."
He turned and headed west.
There was a lot of traffic on the road. Too much. How much had to do with the funeral? He checked faces. A few were familiar. He remembered them all. It was a habit he had, one he followed unconsciously sometimes even when he was awareof no need. Thus he noticed two particular faces among the inevitable beggarsand loafers inside the Gate of Autumn.
He had seen one for the first time not far from where Ishabal bel-Shaduk lived. He'd last seen the other in the halls of Government House.
So.
He did not lead them an interesting chase. He went to Muma's, where he spentthe afternoon and early evening eating, thinking, and carefully, laboriouslycomposing a long letter to General Cado. He entrusted that to Muma's youngest, a quickwitted urchin, and relaxed with some black-market beer before he wentout for the night's work.
Meryel guided bel-Sidek to a mound of cushions. "You look awful tonight. Ifyou'll pardon me saying so."
"I can pardon you anything if you can pardon me."
She looked at him curiously but did not pursue it while her servants came andwent with the courses of their meal. Then she asked. He told her about his day.
"Murdered? You're sure?" She did not seem interested in his conduct while questioning the traitor's wife.
"It seems more likely all the time. The trouble is, I can't see who would havegained by getting him out of the way."
"One of the fanatics, getting impatient?"
"No. They honored him too much. Besides, getting him out of the way just putsme in the way. Tonight I intend to name another moderate as my successor sothere's nothing to gain getting rid of me, either."
"Could it be the governor's witch getting even for what happened to hisguards?"
"Not unless she's one hell of a diviner. I think he died before they did.
Herodians would have taken him alive, anyway. Sullo laying hands on themastermind of the Living so soon after getting here would have been apolitical deathblow for Cado. There are people in Herod who want his head. Hesurvives because he's competent, he has several very powerful friends, and hehas the indulgence of the Living."
"Hubris?"
"Fact. We could cause trouble enough to get him taken out. If a Herodian mustrule here, we'd prefer General Cado. None of the likely replacements would beso kind to Qushmarrah. I'd better go. We have a lot to argue out."
Meryel rose with him. She said, "I have a few contacts among those who operateoutside anybody's law. I'll ask them if they've heard anything that might havesomething to do with the old man's death."
Bel-Sidek paused at the door. "All right. Also find out what they know about achild-stealing ring. And about a man named Azel." He slipped out, not at alleager to face what lay ahead. But they did have to decide who should take over in the Shu and who should takeover most of his own duties on the waterfront.
Too, he hoped to discover if there had been some dark side to the old manthat, in his love, he had been unable to see.
The Witch moaned, twitched uncontrollably. Her flesh was beyond her command.
All her will was bent upon the child, that stubborn brat.
Three times she had tried to breach the barrier of trauma. Three times she had been repelled. Never had she encountered such resistance. The previous lifemust have ended terribly.
She gathered her remaining reserves, feeble after half a day in trance. Onelast effort ... No matter. This could not be the one she sought. Azel couldhave him and welcome.
Her thoughts were not that clear. They constituted more an instinctual flowthan actual reasoning.