The Straits of Galahesh loa-2

by Bradley P. Beaulieu

  And still-

  A knock came at the door to Atiana’s apartments. Any trace of sleep vanished in an instant.

  The knock came again.

  In the outer chamber, Yalessa stirred and moved to the door. A soft click came, and the sounds of whispers drifted in to her. A moment later, Yalessa, carrying a lit taper, slipped inside her room and rushed to her bed.

  “Bahett wishes to speak with you.”

  Atiana swallowed, remembering the words of the tall man from the cemetery. She maneuvered herself down from the bed and pulled on her night coat as Yalessa lit another taper. They moved to the outer chamber, and Atiana settled herself at a table with several opulent, padded chairs.

  “Send him in,” Atiana said, “and take my room. We may be a while.”

  “Of course, My Lady.”

  The dark form of Bahett slipped into the room. Yalessa retreated to Atiana’s bedroom, closing the door behind her.

  “I’m most sorry.” Bahett moved to the table, his handsome face filled with regret. “Janissaries were stationed at all the entrances to the cemetery, but it is large. It’s a mistake that won’t be made again.” He sat down, his face lit in soft, golden light. “The guardsman at the southern entrance said he heard fighting among the tombs. Did you hear it as well?”

  She nodded. “Just as we were leaving through the break in the wall.”

  “And you saw no one?”

  And now it came to it. She had told the seneschal nothing about the men near the willow, only that she had heard sounds of battle among the tombs, but she had debated ever since what she would tell Bahett. She did not trust the tall, dark man she’d spoken to, but he hadn’t said anything that ran counter to what she knew of the Kamarisi and the Lady Arvaneh.

  Atiana had always been good at trump, and one of the things she’d learned was not to play her high cards early. Not unless you knew you could run the trick. And she certainly couldn’t do that, so for now she would protect what cards she did have.

  “Ancients preserve me, I did not,” she said to him.

  Bahett’s face relaxed. He lifted her hands and kissed them. It was a warm and tender gesture. “I’m so relieved, Atiana. I don’t know what I would have done had they found you.”

  “Who were they?”

  Bahett’s eyes went faraway. “I wish I knew, but trust me when I say that no effort will be spared.”

  “And what of the servant, the eunuch?”

  He focused on her once more. “An impostor. We found the one who should have been sent in his bed, his throat cut.” He leaned forward until he was sitting at the edge of his chair, and then he reached out and took her left hand in his. It was not Nikandr’s hand, but it was nice all the same. “Atiana, I will be blunt. It may be best that we abandon our plan. I would not put you in deeper danger, and the chances that Arvaneh will discover our plans are now too great. Clearly she suspects something, enough that she is willing to have you killed before you can learn more about her.”

  Atiana had been ready for him to say something completely different. She thought he would urge her to continue her efforts, no matter what the danger might be, but this was a side of Bahett she hadn’t counted on. He had been so adamant in Vostroma, and now, here he was, asking her to back down.

  “I have a duty to my family, Bahett, to the Grand Duchy as well.”

  “It may be that the Kamarisi will see reason. He may, perhaps, still be led out from under the shadow of Arvaneh’s influence. I still haven’t had the chance to speak to him at length, but when I do-”

  “You said Arvaneh is the one pulling the strings. You said the Kamarisi is powerless. There’s something strange happening, and I would learn its nature, danger or not.” He looked as though he was about to speak again, but she talked over him. “My father arrives in less than a week. In order to protect him, to protect all our interests here, I will take the dark, as soon as can be arranged.”

  He smiled, the candlelight making him even more handsome than he was in the daylight. “My brave princess.”

  She felt herself blush as she pulled her hand away. “Go,” she said, more strongly than she’d meant.

  The following morning, Atiana went early to a terrace overlooking an expansive garden. Bahett was hosting a social for the Kamarisi and his retinue to meet the first of the dignitaries from the Grand Duchy who’d come. Atiana would be among the guests, of course, but so would Vaasak Dhalingrad, the younger brother of Duke Leonid and the man Father had chosen to act as his negotiator in the week before his arrival.

  For Atiana’s part, she was to meet Bahett’s wives, or at least most of them. Some would be gone, tending to Bahett’s estates around the island of Galahesh. But the most important, including Bahett’s current ilkadin, would be in attendance.

  Atiana met them, seventeen in all. They were all pretty, though in markedly different ways. Some were tall with bright eyes. Others had lustrous dark hair and strong cheekbones. Others still had full lips and fuller hips. Atiana felt strange upon exchanging pleasantries with them. They were real women, all of them. She had expected them to have nary a thought in their pretty little heads, but they were refined. They were well spoken. They knew much of the political landscape, if their subtle yet polite hints about her reasons for wedding Bahett were any indicator.

  The last to come was Meryam, Bahett’s ilkadin. When it was her turn to speak with Atiana, she clapped her hands. The other women, who had up until this point been sitting at intimate tables with mosaic inlays, stood and with their plates and cups in hand left the terrace.

  In moments, Atiana was alone with Meryam at a single table, each of them sipping the strong coffee with the grounds still at the bottom of the cup. Meryam was a mature woman-she would be forty in three days, she told Atiana-and she was beautiful, a woman in her prime, a woman who commanded attention. Many of Bahett’s wives wore bright dresses and jewelry at their wrists and ankles and throats. Meryam wore a ring in her nose, more in her eyebrows, more still in her ears. Her eyes were rimmed with kohl, and her dress was the color of her eyes, a brown so rich and bright it made Atiana think of beaten copper. The skin along the backs of her hands and wrists were marked with beautiful tattoos in the shapes of stars and whorls and bold, angular shapes that highlighted the landscape of her hands.

  Meryam asked Atiana of Vostroma, of life among the islands. In return she spoke of Yrstanla and Aleke s ir, her capital. They spoke of life on Galahesh, what the food was like, where the best cheese could be found. They spoke almost nothing of the thing that stood squarely between them: the fact that Atiana, once she was married to Bahett, would take the title that Meryam now claimed as her own.

  The time was growing near when the social would begin, and still Meryam choose to speak of nothing but pleasantries.

  Soon the other wives returned to the terrace-this time bearing trays with glasses and plates and silverware and food. Meryam stood and nodded toward them. “Ebru will be best to teach you.”

  Atiana stood. She felt dismissed and confused, both. She recalled Ebru as the short woman with the saucy tongue. “Forgive me, ilkadin, but wouldn’t it be better if you taught me?”

  “It might,” she said, smiling, “but in two weeks I’ll be gone.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “To my home, far to the southwest.”

  Atiana shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  “You will, in time. I’ve lived here in Baressa for twenty-five years. Not once in that time have I returned to my home. I was ilkadin. There was always more to do, and I’ve sired Bahett three sons and two daughters. I’ve earned the right to leave this place and run one of his households there.”

  “I thought we’d have time with one another, so I could learn more.”

  “That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” And now a bit of the reception Atiana had expected revealed itself. Meryam stared at her coldly, as if she wished she could watch Atiana flail, watch as Atiana floundered in the myriad of
tasks that lay before her. “Now forgive me, there is much to attend to.” Meryam bowed her head, clasping her hands near her forehead as she did so. “Enjoy your time with the Kamarisi.”

  For a moment, Atiana could only stare. Meryam returned to the wives, ordering them around the terrace, making everything just so. She wanted to speak more with her, or perhaps Ebru, but in the end decided that Meryam had the right of it. The Kamarisi, and surely Arvaneh, would both be in attendance today. She needed to clear her mind before she met them.

  The lords and ladies of Galahesh began to arrive in ones and twos. Atiana moved among them, greeting them, learning their names and where they were from. The talk was idle, and she soon found herself taking in more of the city, which was in full display. As high as the Mount was above the city, the terrace smelled of little more than fresh air and the late-blooming bluemists in the garden below. The western end of the city occupied the largest expanse of the horizon, but the northern run of the straits could also be seen, yet Atiana often found her gaze drawn northward, where the cemetery lay.

  “My dear Atiana,” Vaasak Dhalingrad asked near the noon hour, “what keeps drawing your attention so? And what turns your mood so sour? Did you have too much to drink last night? Or have you taken ill like your sister?”

  “I have not taken ill,” she replied, wondering when she would see Bahett again. “I only worry over what will come of these talks.”

  He smiled and patted her wrist. “All will be well. Do not worry.”

  She slapped his hand away. “There are troubled winds ahead, Dhalingrad. Best you remember it. Siha s surely does, and the Kamarisi as well.”

  “The talks are proceeding smoothly,” Vaasak said.

  “Then you aren’t paying enough attention.”

  “I have my orders, My Lady, and I’ll see to them well. I suggest you see to yours.”

  He said the words as though he knew of her conversations with Bahett, as though he knew of what had happened last night. But he couldn’t possibly…

  Before she could respond to him, the golden doors to the terrace opened wide and out stepped four tall guardsmen dressed not in ceremonial armor, but hardened leather, the kind the men from the south of Yrstanla wore, the ones who trained with the sword day and night. They were the Kilic S aik, the Singers of the Blade, the Kamarisi’s personal guard.

  Shortly behind them came Hakan ul Aye s e, the Kamarisi himself. He was young, several years younger than Atiana at least, and he was handsome. She could see why he was so loved, so protected-at least until now.

  Behind the Kamarisi was Siha s ul Mehmed, the tall envoy, the one treating most closely with Vaasak until Father arrived.

  Atiana wondered where Arvaneh was, but she didn’t have to wonder long. She strode out from the doors as Hakan began speaking with two old, bearded men from the north of Yrstanla, men wearing wide belts and large turbans with tall feathers pinned behind ornate brooches. Arvaneh did not tarry behind the Kamarisi. Instead, she walked among those gathered, conversing lightly, studying each carefully.

  Atiana was surprised to see the Kamarisi break away from the two kaymakam-both of them bowing low-and come toward her and Vaasak.

  “Good day to you,” he said smoothly to Vaasak.

  “And you, Kamarisi,” Vaasak said as he bowed and stepped away. “By your leave, there are things I would discuss with Siha s.”

  Hakan merely smiled.

  Vaasak-his face coloring-bowed again and took his leave, leaving Atiana alone with the Kamarisi. He had a musky scent about him, redolent of sandalwood and open fields of hops. It smelled of confidence, of the assurance that all was as he’d planned. She was used to walking the halls of power, and yet before this man-several years her junior-she felt ill-equipped. She found herself shivering, though she tried to cover it, and unbidden, her throat began to close.

  “Walk with me,” he said in Yrstanlan.

  He headed toward the northern edge of the expansive terrace, and he came to a stop when they were not only alone, but had an unobstructed view of the cemetery.

  “Congratulations to you,” he said, smiling and taking both of her hands. He kissed them quickly and held them out, regarding her as if he were a proud uncle.

  “Thank you, Kamarisi.” She cleared her throat. The language of Yrstanla was still thick on her tongue, but since her arrival on Galahesh it had quickly returned. “I’m lucky to have found a man like Bahett.”

  “Bahett is a good man, though I fear he has been placed in a difficult situation.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “In these days of strife, these days of disease and blight, we are all put-upon, are we not?”

  “We will survive, Your Majesty.”

  “I don’t mean the islands. I mean us all. We are put upon in the west and the south. Our fields to the north have gone fallow despite all efforts to revive them. I fear the blight is moving west, for good or ill.”

  “And yet the Empire is strong. She will persevere.”

  “As will the islands.” He smiled and turned to lean upon the white marble banister that lined the terrace.

  “Of course, Your Majesty.”

  “But Bahett, he is caught between our two worlds, is he not? Galahesh has always had one foot among the islands, and another on the lands of the Empire. I’m glad he’s decided to take someone from Anuskaya as his wife, and even gladder that he’s chosen you.”

  Atiana smiled. “I was the closest at hand.”

  Hakan laughed. It was a pleasant sound. “You are more than that, Atiana Radieva Vostroma. Word of your exploits has reached even the halls of Irabahce.”

  “I would hardly call them exploits.”

  “My dear, you saved the islands. Surely much would have been lost had the Maharraht had their way. We would have lost much.”

  Atiana bowed her head, wondering why the Kamarisi was showering her with compliments, wondering as well what his consort would think of it. She glanced toward the crowd that was now surrounding Arvaneh. Bahett, though ostensibly watching Arvaneh as well, was clearly keeping an eye out for Atiana and her conversation with the Kamarisi.

  “I thank you.”

  “I was… disappointed when you did not come to the ball. I’ve heard much about your dancing as well, and was sad when it couldn’t be put on display.”

  “Your Majesty?”

  Hakan glanced sidelong at her. “It’s difficult for your sister to go unnoticed, even when she’s trying not to be. You, on the other hand, are more subtle. There’s a quiet strength to you that may be overlooked by some, but not those with a more discerning eye.”

  Despite his simple words and his apparent indifference to her deception, she began to fear this man, as one fears the blackness in the depths of the sea. “I’m most sorry, Your Majesty. I didn’t feel well. Travel has been difficult for me ever since Duzol.”

  “I hadn’t heard. But why send your sister?”

  “I didn’t wish to disappoint.”

  Hakan smiled mischievously. “Did Bahett know?”

  “He did not.”

  His smiled deepened. “Then we’ll keep it between us. A secret between east and west.”

  “ Evet.” Atiana smiled. “A secret.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “I t’s time you take the dark,” Ishkyna said as she burst into Atiana’s room four days after the meeting with the Kamarisi.

  Atiana was penning a letter to Mother, but she looked up in annoyance. “What are you talking about?”

  “The Lady Arvaneh, she’s retreated to her tower.”

  Atiana returned to her writing. “What of it?”

  “I’ve been watching her. She goes there often. At times she looks haggard when she enters and she returns refreshed. Other times she seems drained.”

  “You’re making no sense.”

  Ishkyna flopped down into the chair across from Atiana’s writing desk.

  “Set down your quill.”

  Her voice was so serious th
at Atiana complied. Ishkyna, so often ready to nip at her heels with a snide remark, was looking at her with a deadly serious expression.

  “Go on,” Atiana said.

  “I may avoid taking the dark, Tiana, but it’s provided me a certain amount of perspective that you and Mileva may lack. I can see the way Arvaneh is after her time in her tower. Often her eyes are dulled. Her words come more slowly. And her card play is, frankly, disastrous.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “I’ve taught Bahett’s wives trump. Arvaneh joined us one day. She’s become quite enamored of it. I think at first she only wanted to learn more about you, but over the days she’s become more and more wily at laying her cards, not unlike Mileva.”

  “What does this have to do with me taking the dark?”

  “I didn’t see her this morning, but Ebru did. She said that Arvaneh looked not just exhausted, but pale, her skin ashen, her eyes haunted, as if she’d aged thirty years in a week. She’s done this before and returned rejuvenated, resplendent, as we saw her on our arrival here. I don’t know what she does in the tower when she’s like this, but she isn’t taking the dark. It would be too dangerous, and besides, she would return looking even worse if that was the case. If there was ever a time to watch her, Atiana, it would be now.”

  Atiana considered this. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  Ishkyna smiled a mischievous smile. “ Nyet. It doesn’t.”

  Although there were times that Ishkyna was too impetuous for her own good, Atiana would never deny that she was not sly, that she didn’t know people. She knew them. She knew how to read their moods with but a word.

  “Bahett wanted me to wait until his return from the hunt.”

  Ishkyna raised one eyebrow, her smile turning to genuine amusement.

  “Wipe that grin off your face,” Atiana said as she stood, “and tell Yalessa to begin preparations.”