A Betrayal in Winter - By Daniel Abraham Page 0,16
from the Dai-kvo won't be strange."
"You are an annoying, contrary man. He's going to come in here and root through the place. Some of those volumes are very old, you know. They won't stand mishandling."
"Perhaps you should make copies of them."
"I am making copies. But it's not a fast process, you know. It takes a great deal of time and patience. You can't just grab some half-trained scribes off the street corners and set them to copying the great hooks of the Empire."
"You also can't do the whole job by yourself, Baarath. No matter how much you want to."
The librarian scowled at him, but there was a playfulness in the man's eyes. The andat shifted a white marker forward and the noise in Cehmai's head murmured. It had been a good move.
"You hold an abstract thought in human form and make it play tricks, and you tell me what's not possible? Please. I've come to offer a trade. If you'll-"
"Wait," Cehmai said.
"If you'll just-"
"Baarath, you can be quiet or you can leave. I have to finish this."
Stone-Made-Soft sighed as Cehmai took his seat again. The white stone had opened a line that had until now been closed. It wasn't one he'd seen the andat play before, and Cehmai scowled. The game was still over, there was no way for the andat to clear his files and pour the white markers to their target squares before Cehmai's dark stones had reached their goal. But it would be harder now than it had been before the librarian came. Cehmai played through the next five moves in his mind, his fingertips twitching. Then, decisively, he pushed the black marker forward that would block the andat's fastest course.
"Nice move," the librarian said.
"What did you want with me? Could you just say it so I can refuse and get about my day?"
"I was going to say that I will give this little poet-let of the Dai-kvo's full access if you'll let me include your collection here. It really makes more sense to have all the books and scrolls cataloged together."
Cehmai took a pose of thanks.
"No," he said. "Now go away. I have to do this."
"Be reasonable! If I choose-"
"First, you will give Maati Vaupathai full access because the Dai-kvo and the Khai Machi tell you to. You have nothing to bargain with. Second, I'm not the one who gave the orders, nor was I consulted on them. If you want barley, you don't negotiate with a silversmith, do you? So don't come here asking concessions for something that I'm not involved with."
A flash of genuine hurt crossed Baarath's face. Stone-Made-Soft touched a white marker, then pulled back its hand and sank into thought again. Baarath took a pose of apology, his stance icy with its formality.
"Don't," Cehmai said. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to he a farmer's wife about the thing, but you've come at a difficult time."
"Of course. This children's game upon which all our fates depend. No, no. Stay. I'll see myself out."
"We can talk later," Cehmai said to the librarian's hack.
The door closed and left Cchmai and his captive, or his ward, or his other self, alone together.
"He isn't a very good man," Stone-Made-Soft rumbled.
"No, he's not," Cehmai agreed. "But friendship falls where it falls. And may the gods keep us from a world where only the people who deserve love get it."
"Well said," the andat replied, and pushed forward the white stone Cehmai knew it would.
The game ended quickly after that. Cehmai ate a breakfast of roast lamb and boiled eggs while Stone-Made-Soft put away the game pieces and then sat, warming its huge hands by the fire. There was a long day before them, and after the morning's struggle, Cchmai was dreading it. They were promised to go to the potter's works before midday. A load of granite had come from the quarries and required his services before it could be shaped into the bowls and vases for which Machi was famed. After midday, he was needed for a meeting with the engineers to consider the plans for House Pirnat's silver mine. The Khai Machi's engi neers were concerned, he knew, that using the andat to soften the stone around a newfound seam of ore would weaken the structure of the mine. House Pirnat's overseer thought it worth the risk. It would be like sitting in a child's garden during a mud fight, but it had to be done. Just thinking of it made him tired.