the front door close to pour herself a cup of tea from the cooling pot. Fei Minh watched her carefully—afraid she’d start crying again, perhaps. Tea washed away the taste of tears, bitter replacing salt; leaves clung to the sides of the cup, swirled lazily in the dregs.
“Your business with Faraj,” she said at last, “your personal investment. It’s stones, isn’t it? It’s diamonds.” A tea leaf stuck in her throat and she fought a cough.
Fei Minh blinked, dark lashes brushing her delicately powdered cheeks. Pale as any pure-blooded mountain clan, and she had always taken care to show it, instead of counterfeiting bronzen Assari skin as some tried.
“How—” She smiled fleetingly. “My daughter.”
“Diamonds, Mira! Soul-stones. How can you have any part of that?”
Her mother’s jaw tightened. “Now you sound like your father. Aren’t mages supposed to know better than foolish superstition? As for how—” She sat again, crossing her legs and straightening the seam of one trouser-leg. “Those diamonds are the reason Faraj is Viceroy, and not some politician from Ta’ashlan. Those diamonds are the reason I sat on the council, and that all the other clans have their representatives.”
All the loyalist clans, you mean. Zhirin held her tongue.
“It’s our arrangement with the Emperor,” Fei Minh continued. “He gets our diamonds, unregulated by the Imperial Senate, and we get home-rule. If these Dai Tranh madmen keep interfering, we’ll be awash in Imperial soldiers again.”
“What happened to Zhang, exactly, that Faraj was afraid to repeat?”
Fei Minh cocked an eyebrow. “He lost ships in a storm and panicked. Thought the stones were cursed. The man couldn’t guard his tongue—he was going to make a spectacle of himself.”
“And what happened?”
“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “He’d been drinking too much, perhaps, and fell. Accidents do happen, especially to the foolish.” Black eyes narrowed. “Zhirin, have you spoken of this to anyone?”
“No, no one. Why—am I likely to have an accident as well?”
“Of course not!” Fei Minh stood, caught Zhirin’s arm. “You’re my daughter and I won’t let anything happen to you. But for the love of all our foremothers, hold your tongue. Especially around your father. Do you understand how important this is to everyone?”
“Yes, Mira.”
Her mother pulled her close and she didn’t resist, though she couldn’t relax either. “I’m worried about you, gaia. What was that master of yours mixed up in? What are you mixed up in?”
No more than you, at least. “I don’t know,” she said again, and the lie still came easily. “I don’t know who could have killed him, or why.”
“And you’re sure it’s not that foreign witch? I don’t want you getting involved with such dangerous people.”
It was all she could do not to laugh. “I know it wasn’t Isyllt, Mira. I was with her, after all. You sound like a Dai Tranh, blaming all our troubles on foreigners.”
Fei Minh snorted softly. “I want you to be careful, darling.”
“I will.”
“Oh, a message came for you this morning.” She picked up a folded piece of parchment from the table. The seal was broken, and Zhirin didn’t bother to complain. Plain red wax, on solid but inexpensive parchment. The sort anyone might use for a quick note.
Miss Laii, the looping Assari script read in a fine scribe’s hand.
It grieves me to learn of Lord Medeion’s death, and I extend my deepest condolences.
I know how hard this time must be for you, but I beg a favor nonetheless. My associate Lady beth Isa was also close to your master, but I have lost track of her recently, and don’t know where to reach her with this terrible news. I would hate for her to learn of it through the criers. If you have any way to reach her, please do so. I stand ready to offer any aid or support that I can in our time of mutual grief, if only she will send word of her wishes.
I shall await a reply from either of you, at your convenience.
Yours in sorrow,
Asa bin Adam
Zhirin blinked stupidly at the paper for a moment.
“What is it?” her mother asked, as though she hadn’t just read the message herself.
“A friend of Vasilios,” Zhirin said, lowering the letter. “He wants me to take word of…what happened to someone else they knew, but I don’t think I can help him.”
“News travels fast.”
“I’m sure police and Khas were swarming all over the house.” That brought a fresh lump to her throat—unknowing, uncaring feet tramping through the house, rifling through her master’s belongings. “Everyone in