you want to ..."
"You think I've taken another man?" she asked.
His lips pressed thin and bloodless, and he nodded. His hand squeezed hers as if she might save his life, if only he held onto her. A hundred things came to her mind all at once. Yes, of course I have. How dare you accuse me? Cehmai is the only clean thing left in my world, and you cannot have him. She smiled as if Adrah were a boy being silly, as if he were wrong.
"That would be the stupidest thing I could possibly do just now," she said, neither lying nor speaking the truth of it. She leaned forward to kiss him, but before their mouths touched, a voice wild with excitement called out from the atrium.
"Idaan-cha! Idaan-cha! Come quickly!"
Idaan leapt up as if she'd been caught doing something she ought not, then gathered herself, straightened her robes. The mirror showed that the paint on her mouth and eyes was smudged from eating and weeping, but there wasn't time to reapply it. She pushed hack a stray lock of hair and stormed out.
The servant girl took a pose of apology as Idaan approached her. She wore the colors of her father's personal retinue, and Idaan's heart sank to her belly. He had died. It had happened. But the girl was smiling, her eyes bright.
"What's happened?" Idaan demanded.
"Everything," the girl said. "You're summoned to the court. The Khai is calling everyone."
"Why? What's happened?"
"I'm not to say, Idaan-cha," the girl said.
Idaan felt the rage-blood in her face as if she were standing near a fire. She didn't think, didn't plan. Her body seemed to move of its own accord as she slid forward and clapped her hand on the servant girl's throat and pressed her to the wall. There was shock in the girl's expression, and Idaan sneered at it. Adrah fluttered like a bird in the corner of her vision.
"Say," Idaan said. "Because I asked you twice, tell me what's happened. And do it now."
"The upstart," the girl said. ""They've caught him."
Idaan stepped back, dropping her hand. The girl's eyes were wide. The air of excitement and pleasure were gone. Adrah put a hand on Idaan's shoulder, and she pushed it away.
"He was here," the girl said. "In the palaces. The visiting poet caught him, and they're bringing him before the Khai."
Idaan licked her lips. Otah Machi was here. He had been here for the gods only knew how long. She looked at Adrah, but his expression spoke of an uncertainty and surprise as deep as her own. And a fear that wasn't entirely about their conspiracy.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Choya," the girl said.
Idaan took a pose of abject apology. It was more than a member of the utkhaiem would have normally presented to a servant, but Idaan felt her guilt welling up like blood from a cut.
"I am very sorry, Choya-cha. I was wrong to-"
"But that isn't all," the servant girl said. "A courier came this morning from 'Ian-Sadar. He'd been riding for three weeks. Kaiin Machi is dead. Your brother Danat killed him, and he's coming hack. The courier guessed he might be a week behind him. I)anat Machi's going to he the new Khai Machi. And Idaan-cha, he'll be back in the city in time for your wedding!"
On one end, the chain ended at a cube of polished granite the color of soot that stood as high as a man's waist. On the other, it linked to a rough iron collar around Otah's neck. Sitting with his back to the stone-the chain was not so long that he could stand-Otah remembered seeing a brown bear tied to a pole in the main square of a low town outside'lan-Sadar. Dogs had been set upon it three at a time, and with each new wave, the men had wagered on which animal would survive.
Armsmen stood around him with blades drawn and leather armor, stationed widely enough apart to allow anyone who wished it a good view of the captive. Beyond them, the representatives of the utkhaiem in fine robes and ornate jewelry crowded the floor and two tiers of the balconies that rose up to the base of the domed ceiling far above him. The dais before him was empty. Otah wondered what would happen if he should need to empty his bladder. It seemed unlikely that they would let him piss on the fine parquet floor, but neither could he imagine being led away decorously. He tried to