needs you,' Kevin grated out, as if he struggled for other words that eluded him. 'She is left with no great general for her armies, no master tactician to take your place.'
No sound and no movement issued from the man in the cushions. Kevin frowned and, with obvious discomfort, tried again. 'You need no legs to train your successor, nor to advise in matters of war.'
'I need no legs to know that you have overstepped yourself,, Keyoke interrupted. The effort taxed him. He sagged back against his pillows. 'Who are you, barbarian, to judge me in my service to this house?'
Kevin flushed darkly and rose to his feet. Embarrassed, in his tranSparent way, but also unknowably stung, he clenched his fists and added, 'I did not come to hound you, but to make you think., Then, as if angry, the huge redhead stalked from the bedside. At the doorway he half turned, but still would not meet Keyoke's eyes. 'You love her too,' he added accusingly.
'To die without a fight is to deprive her of her finest Commander. I say you seek an easy way out; your service is not discharged' old man. If you die now, you desert your post.'
He was gone before Keyoke could summon the strength for rejoinder. The candles seemed suddenly too bright, ~
the pain intense. Quietly the musicians resumed their playing Keyoke listened, but his heart found no ease. The pot verses lost their lustre and became just empty words recounting events long done and mostly forgotten as lapsed into sleep.
Mara waited outside in the hallway. No attendants we with her, and she stood so still that Kevin almost missed I in the shadows. Only quick reflexes stopped him as, wiping moisture from his eyes, he saw her barely in time to prevent crashing into her.
'You will answer to me for this,' she said, and although her poise was perfect, and her tone even, Kevin knew h well enough to read the anger in her stance. Her hen twisted in the fabric of her sleeves as she went on. 'Keyoke has led our soldiers into battle for more years than I've be alive. He has faced enemies in situations the rest of us would have nightmares just contemplating. He left a war, and I own Lord to die, though the orders broke his heart, to keep the Acoma name alive by coming to take me from Lashima temple. If we have a natami in the glade to hold our honour sacred, Keyoke is worthy of the credit. How dare you, slave and a barbarian, imply that he has not done enough
'well,' said Kevin, 'I admit that I have a big mouth, and al that I don't know when to keep it shut.' He smiled in th sudden spontaneous way that never failed to disarm her.
Mara sighed. 'Why must you continually interfere with things you do not understand? If Keyoke wishes a warrior death, it is his right, and our honour, to grant him h passage in comfort.'
Kevin's smile vanished. 'If I have any quarrel with you culture, Lady, ~t is that you count life much too lightly Keyoke is a brilliant tactician. His mind is his genius, not his sword arm, which a younger man can beat anyway. Yet all of you stand back, and send poets and musicians! And wait for him to die his warrior's death, and waste the years of eXperience that your army so sorely needs to -'
'And you suggest?' Mara interrupted. Her lips were white.
Kevin shivered under the intensity of her gaze, but continued. 'I would appoint Keyoke to the position of adviser, make up a new office if necessary, and then call in the most skilled of your healers. The wound in his abdomen might kill him still, but I believe that human nature between your culture and mine cannot differ so widely that a man, even a dying one, wants to let go of life feeling useless.'
'You presume to a great deal of knowledge for a commoner,' Mare observed acidly.
Kevin stiffened and all at once fell into one of his strange, inexplicable silences. He locked eyes with her, still unwilling to end the discussion; and so wrapped up was she in trying to read why he should suddenly become secretive, Mara did not notice the runner slave at her elbow until the second time he addressed her.
'Mistress.' The boy bowed diffidently. 'My Lady, Nacoya bids you come at once to the great hall. An imperial