“Is that why you’re roaming the Islands instead of helping the emperor in the Harmonious City?”
For a moment, Mimi was afraid that she had gone too far, but then Toru’s face relaxed, and he stepped back to stand before her still prostrate form and bowed back to her.
“Perhaps it is the will of the gods that we meet, and who am I to defy their wishes?”
Mimi touched her forehead to the ground three times, solemnly, the way she had seen players from the folk opera troupes do when they portrayed students being accepted by great masters. Toru stood in place, accepting the honor.
“You may call me teacher,” said Toru, “but in truth, we will be teaching each other. As the relationship between a teacher and student is one of great trust, it is important for us to know each other’s true names. ‘Toru Noki’ is a name given to me by some friends long ago in a distant land. My true name is Luan, of the Zya clan of Haan. What is your formal name, Mimi-tika?”
The prime strategist of Emperor Ragin. Mimi stared at the man in wonder. And he has just addressed me as though I am his daughter. She couldn’t believe she wasn’t dreaming. “I… don’t have a formal name. I’ve always just been Mimi, a peasant girl.”
Luan nodded. “Then I will give you a formal name.”
Mimi looked at him expectantly.
Luan mused. “How about ‘Zomi’?”
Mimi nodded. “It sounds pleasant. What does it mean?”
“The Classical Ano logogram for the name means ‘pearl of fire,’ which was a plant in the Ano homeland across the sea. It was said that the zomi was the first plant to grow from the ashes of forest fires and to bring color to a world deprived of it by destruction. May your fiery nature be as auspicious.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
A DRINKING PARTY
The celebration of the hundredth day after the birth—or in this case, the adoption—of the son of Mün Çakri, First General of the Infantry, was a wild and unorthodox affair. Not only had General Çakri invited everyone from within three blocks of his mansion—there were over three hundred banquet tables, which spilled out of his courtyard and filled most of the street in front of his residence—but the general had personally wrestled five pigs in a mud pen for the entertainment of all the guests.
So much wine and beer was consumed and so many pigs slaughtered for the feast that the butchers and tavern keepers and sauce vendors in that quarter of Pan would reminisce for years about the day they made “real profit.”
But now that it was getting dark, and most of the guests had finally departed after offering their well wishes and taking home the lucky taros dyed in red, it was time for a more intimate after-party, where General Çakri would finally get to talk to his close friends.
Naro Hun, Mün Çakri’s spouse, finally prevailed upon the redoubtable general to bathe himself before coming out to greet his friends in the family dining room.
“You don’t look much better than the pigs you wrestled,” said a frowning Naro, who had always kept his desk spotless when he was a mere gate-clerk in Zudi. “I am not touching you until you wash.”
“They’ve seen worse,” muttered Mün. “I used to compete with Than to see who could go longer without bathing when we were at war.” But he obediently went into the bathroom and quickly dumped buckets of hot and cold water over himself and came out with a towel wrapped around his waist.
“You can’t possibly think that’s appropriate—” But Mün pulled him into a kiss, and Naro relented. After all, people who had gone to war with you would hardly object to seeing your chest hair.
And so Mün Çakri, semi-naked and cradling the swaddled baby like a precious package, who was napping after his time with the wet nurse, and Naro Hun, handsomely dressed in a new father’s water-silk robe embroidered with stags and swordfish, emerged into the warm dining room, where some of Dara’s most powerful generals, nobles, and ministers were having tea and cakes around a large round table.
“Let me see the baby!” shouted Than Carucono, First General of the Cavalry and First Admiral of the Navy.
“Use both hands!” admonished Mün. “And cradle the head. The head! That’s a baby, not a block of wood, you oaf! Be gentle!”
“He has handled babies before, you know,” said a smiling Lady Péingo, Than Carucono’s wife. “I’ve made a few with him. And the baby will be fine: He’s almost six months old!”
“I cannot believe that I am being told to be gentle by a man who wrestles pigs,” said Than. “I don’t know how Naro puts up with you—you must break a bowl or cup every day. Aha, look at how your baby smiles at me! I’m certain that your beard frightens him.”
“Let me have a turn,” said Puma Yemu, Marquess of Porin. Than handed the baby to him, and Puma promptly tossed the little bundle high into the air.
“By the Twins!—” Mün cried, and Lady Péingo gasped, but Puma caught the baby and laughed.
“I’m going to kill you,” promised Mün.
“I do this with my own kids all the time,” said Puma. “They love it.”
“I’m sure you only do it when Tafé and Jikri aren’t around,” said Lady Péingo, laughing. “You may act all tough among the men, but your wives definitely make the rules governing you.”
Puma smiled and did not dispute this. Gurgling squeals emerged from the bundle in his arms. Naro and Mün rushed over to be sure the baby was all right.
“This is the first time I’ve seen him laugh!” exclaimed Naro.
“Of course,” said Puma. “I told you he’d love it. Babies love to fly.”
Mün pried the baby out of Puma’s hands and glared at him.
“See,” said Puma, “now the baby is going to cry. You look especially frightening with your beard like that.”
“He likes playing with my beard!” Mün proudly stroked his bushy beard, which stuck out in every direction like the spines of a hedgehog. The baby continued to giggle in his arms.
“I certainly hope he turns out to resemble Naro more than you,” said Than.
“That will definitely be the case,” said Mün. “The boy was born to Naro’s sister. She and her husband knew we were looking to adopt, and they were pleased to be able to help us. I will teach the boy everything I know, and nothing will please me more than for him to have Naro’s looks and my skill at fighting.”
Everyone understood that Naro’s sister had likely offered the adoption as a way to gain an advantage for her own family, but there was no need to bring that up at a happy moment like this. It was possible to do something simultaneously out of love as well as self-interest.
“How did you decide on the name Cacaya?” asked Rin Coda. “It’s very unusual.”
Mün’s face turned bright red. “I… like the sound of the name.”
“Does it mean anything?”
“Why does it have to mean anything?” said Mün, getting more defensive. “This is just a nursing name. We won’t have to pick an auspicious formal name for years.”
But Rin, with his farseer instincts, sensed that there was more to this story. “Come on, spill it! It sounds Adüan to me.”
Everyone turned to look at Luan Zya, who had lived among the people of Tan Adü for many years. Luan looked back at Mün with a smile.