"Sweet little peacemaker," said Kokor. "Not much for looks, are you, but maybe you'll grow old gracefully."
Nafai couldn't help it. Kokor's insults were so childish, so much like what passed for cleverness among schoolchildren, that he had to laugh.
Kokor didn't like it. "Laugh all you want," said Kokor. "But I can sing my way back to wealth, and Mother still has a household in Basilica that I can inherit. What does your father have for you? And what kind of household will your little orphan wife establish for you in Basilica?"
Luet stepped forward and faced Kokor; Nafai noticed for the first time that they were almost the same height, which meant Luet had been growing this past year. She really is still a child, he thought.
"Koya," said Luet. "You forget whom you're speaking to. You may think that Nafai is just your younger brother. In the future, though, I hope you'll remember that he is the husband of the waterseer."
Kokor answered with defiance. "And what does that matter here?"
"It doesn't matter at all.. here. But if we were to return to Basilica, dear Koya, I wonder how far your career will go if you're known to be the enemy of the waterseer."
Kokor blanched. "You wouldn't."
"No," said Luet, "I wouldn't. I never used my influence that way. And besides - we're not going back to Basilica."
Nafai had never seen Luet act so imperious before. He was enough of a Basilican to feel somewhat overawed at the title of waterseer; it was easy to forget sometimes that the woman he took to bed every night was the same woman whose dreams, whose words, were whispered house to house in Basilica. Once she had come to him at great risk, leaving the city in the middle of the night to wake him and warn him of danger to his father - and on that night she did not show any sign that she was aware of her lofty role in the city. Once she had taken him, when he was being chased by Gaballufix's men, and led him down into the waters of the Lake of Women, where no man was allowed to go and return alive - and even then, as she faced down those who would have killed him, she had not taken this tone, but rather had spoken calmly, quietly.
And then it dawned on Nafai - Luet wasn't putting on this air of haughty majesty because it was any part of her. She was acting this way because this is how Kokor would have acted, if she had even the tiniest shred of power. Luet was speaking to Nafai's half-sister in language that she could understand. And the message was received. Kokor plucked at Obring's sleeve and the two of them left.
"You're very good at that," said Nafai. "I can't wait to hear you use that voice on Chveya, the first time she sasses you."
"I intend to raise Chveya to be the kind of woman with whom that voice would never need to be used."
"I didn't even know you had that voice."
Luet smiled. "Neither did I." She kissed him again.
"You were telling me something about Vas."
"Something Hushidh saw but didn't understand; the Over-soul explained it to me. Vas hasn't forgotten that Sevet betrayed him with Obring and brought public humiliation to him."
"No?"
"The Oversoul says he plans to murder them."
Nafai hooted once in derision. "Vas? He was the picture of calm. Mother said that she'd never seen anybody take a bad situation so well."
"He saves up his revenge for later, I guess," said Luet. "We have plenty of evidence now to suggest that Vas isn't quite as calm and cooperative as he seems."
"No," said Nafai, "he's not, is he? Meb and Dol, Obring and Kokor, they whine and moan about wanting to go back to the city. But not Vas. He takes it silently, seems to go along, and then sets out to destroy the pulses so we have to go back."
"You've got to admit, it was a clever plan."
"And if he happens to kill me in the process, well, that's the way it goes. It makes me think - if Gaballufix had been as subtle as Vas, he would be king of Basilica by now."
"No, Nafai. He'd be dead."
"Why?"
"Because the Oversoul would have told you to kill him in order to get the Index."
Nafai looked at her, uncomprehending. "You throw this up to me?"