by Victor Poole
"Stand up, Delmar," Ajalia said, and Delmar glanced at her, and then at Sharo. He stood up, and Sharo flinched a little, and stepped back. Ajalia smiled again; Delmar was quite broad and wonderful, when he was upright. Sharo had seen Delmar when he had come in, but Ajalia saw that the girl had grown used to the idea of Delmar sitting, and being still, and seeming not quite so tall as he was.
"Are you going?" Delmar asked the girl, and Ajalia began to look over Delmar's clothes. She sent Ossa away for water, and then laid out the things she had chosen, from the pile Ossa had brought.
Sharo looked as though she would never speak again. Card opened one eye a little, and turned it up to the young girl. Sharo could not, it seemed, stop blushing. Sharo looked at Chad in despair, and Chad smiled again, and wiggled his fingers at her.
"They wanted me to marry you," Sharo cried, her eyes turned towards Chad. Chad, Ajalia thought, seemed to the girl to be the least frightening prospect in the room, as far as male figures went, and the girl seemed to be determined to carry through her purpose in some fashion. Chad looked very confused. He looked around at Ajalia, and then back to the girl, still smiling.
"Well, thank you," Chad said politely, looking a little embarrassed, "but Ajalia already spoke to me about getting me a wife. I'm sure you're very nice, though," Chad added quickly. Sharo's face, which had already gotten as red as it could, began to go purple at the edges. She looked as though she had stopped breathing.
"Not you," Sharo got out in a strangled voice.
"Sorry, what?" Chad asked, still smiling genially. Chad looked again at Ajalia, who was busily cutting down the edges of a dark red tunic, and then winding a cord around Delmar's waist, to take his measure. Sharo's eyes followed Ajalia's hands as they brushed against Delmar's sides. Jealousy seemed at last to motivate the girl, and she burst into speech.
"The priests told me that I'm the sky angel," Sharo cried, in a stream of frantic speech, "and they said that you had to marry me." She looked at last at Delmar, and the utter disinterest in the Thief Lord's eyes seemed, at last, to wilt the girl into a puddle of shame. Sharo burst into tears, and ran towards the entrance of the dragon temple. She froze after she had taken three steps, and what Ajalia had told her, about the folly of running away, seemed to press like fire into her mind. Ajalia saw Sharo look around at the rest of them, her eyes full of a terrorized misery, and then Sharo turned, and fled to the stairs at the back of the temple. Ajalia thought she heard the girl let out a stifled sob, when she had vanished up the stairs.
Chad let out an uncomfortable laugh, and looked at Ajalia.
"That was unpleasant," Chad said, his voice uneasy.
"Take off your shirt," Ajalia told Delmar. He pulled his tunic up over his head, and handed it to her. Ossa returned with a bowl of water between her hands, and Ajalia told her to set it down on the floor. "We can go into a room now, if you like," Ajalia told Delmar, who stooped, and began to wash his father's blood from his skin. Delmar shrugged. "I brought the chairs into the hall because I was watching out for you," she explained, and he looked up at her, and grinned.
"I've brought you this from Ocher," Card interrupted. The old man looked as though he had woken up now; he got up from his chair, and crossed to Ajalia, who was sewing a seam swiftly up the side of the new red tunic. Card held out the papers, and Ajalia tied off her seam, and took them from him. Ajalia was kneeling on the floor; Card stood near her, and looked at the cloth she had been sewing. "I think he copied the idea of the contract you sent him," Card told Ajalia with a smile. She read over the paper, which was a brief contract that Ocher had signed, wherein, if Ajalia signed it, she promised to find him a wife, in exchange for the huts being built in the quarries.
"Have you got a pen?" Ajalia asked Card, and he patted at his clothes, and shook his head. Ajalia looked over at Ossa, who was still standing nearby, and the thickset girl vanished again. "Does he realize," Ajalia asked Card, "that we don't need his permission anymore?" Card grinned at her, his thick white hair falling in a snowy heap over his neck. Ajalia remembered the first time she had seen Card, and how rough and yellowed he had been then. Card now looked like a fine old man; his clothes fit well, and his face no longer wore an angry, crusty look. Card looked positively genial.
"I think he feels a little left out," Card told her, in a soft voice. Card glanced at Delmar, who had scrubbed away the bloodstains, and was now getting the stickiness out of his blond hair, from the bits of fruit that the metheros had thrown at his head.
Ajalia looked at Delmar, and held in a contented sigh. She had seen Delmar shirtless before, but not with his parents cast out of his skin, and the young Thief Lord now presented rather a different picture than he had before. His shoulders were broad, and held square, and his back, which had, when Ajalia had first met him, been a little limp, was strong and straight now.
"Do you know where Ocher is now?" Ajalia asked Card. Card nodded, his eyes on Delmar's smooth muscles, and thick arms. Card looked at Ajalia.
"He's found some men that were working with Tree," Card said quietly, so that Chad wouldn't hear. "I know he's waiting for Delmar to meet him tonight, to decide what to do with them."
"Have they taken the old women, as well?" Ajalia asked Card. Card's eyes clouded a little, and he shook his head in the negative.
"I haven't heard anything about that," Card said.
"Where's Rane gone?" Ajalia asked Delmar, who stood up, dripping, and shaking his hair.
"He's gathering the agents he knows, the planted men from Talbos," Delmar told her. "We're going to meet with them soon."
"How are you going to take the witches?" Ajalia asked him. Delmar grinned at her, and nodded at the red tunic.
"Can I have my clothes yet?" he asked.
"Hang on," she said, threading her needle, and beginning on the second seam. "You're the Thief Lord now," she told him. "You are going to be a little more elegant than you were." Delmar smiled again, and Ajalia saw his eyes move to Chad's legs, and to the shimmering boots that the young man wore.
"You said my clothes would change," Delmar said, watching her sew. He and Card stood over her, and her fingers moved up the seam.
"Your tunic will be just a little more fitted now, at the sides," Ajalia explained. "And I'm going to bring the hem up, to just below your waist. It will set off your shoulders and arms," she said. Ajalia looked up, and saw that Chad was watching her avidly. She thought that he was probably taking note of what she said and did. A sudden vision of Chad wearing handmade clothes rose up in her mind, and she took pity on the young man. "Chad," she called, tying off the end of the seam. "Put this on," she told Delmar, and handed up the red tunic. Delmar pulled the tunic over his head; the sleeves were the same as his other sleeves had been, but the sides of his shirt hugged a little closer now to his flanks, and made visible the slim tapering of his waist. Ajalia got up on her knees, and went around Delmar, measuring the end of the tunic's hem, and marking it with pins. Chad had jumped up when she had spoken, and he stood now near his chair, an undecided look on his face.
"Come here," Ajalia told Chad, and he came close to her. Ossa entered, writing materials in her hands, and brought them to Ajalia. Ajalia took them, and laid them down on the ground. "Go and find Sharo," Ajalia told Ossa, "and tease her as much as you like." Ossa did not smile, but her eyes gleamed a little. Ossa turned; she went to the stairs, and disappeared.
Ajalia took the scissors that Ossa had brought with the sewing things, and cut off several inches of the red tunic. She folded the edge under, and put a swift stitch through the new hem.
"Chad," Ajalia said. Delmar was standing with his hands raised a little into the air, to stay out of Ajalia's way; he watched her as she sewed, and if she had looked up, she would have seen a look of pure adoration in his eyes. Chad had seen this look, and his eyebrows were drawn close together. Ajalia glanced quickly up at Chad; she saw this look. "You would not like me, Chad," Ajalia told the young man, who blushed at her words.
&
nbsp; "Is that what you called me over to say?" Chad asked, with offended dignity.
"No," Ajalia said, "but you look confused." Chad frowned, and looked over at Card.
"I just thought," Chad said carefully, his eyes passing with some annoyance over Delmar's figure, where Ajalia's fingers were busy, "that the three of us already made a pretty good team."
"Card is telling me," Ajalia said, glancing up at the old man, "that Ocher seems to feel left out. Is this the way you feel, as well?" she asked Chad. Chad's eyes grew a little wet; relief seemed to well up in his whole body. His shoulders sagged.
"Kind of, yes, I do feel left out," Chad confessed.
"Then are you ready to do more interesting things to help me?" Ajalia asked, her eyes on her sewing. Delmar shifted his weight a little; he was frowning, and staring at a graceful carving that lay over the wall within the temple. Delmar looked as though he were thinking of something else. Chad looked at Delmar, and then back at Ajalia.
"Would they be interesting things?" Chad asked.
"I said they would be interesting," Ajalia reminded him. She glanced up at Card, and grimaced a little. Card waved a hand at her, assuring her that he had no problem with waiting a little. Card had grown accustomed, as Ajalia had, of talking Chad slowly through new ideas. Chad was not actually stupid, but he had a very delicate sense of pride, and his feelings were hurt easily. He was steady, and reliable, once he got into an accustomed groove, but he often bridled at change, and he seemed to think that any new idea was likely to be a disguised attack on his manhood.
"Can I hear about it first," Chad asked, "before I say yes?"
"That sounds reasonable," Ajalia said. She kept her voice light, and friendly. She had avoided sharpness with Chad; she could see how he watched her always for signs of burgeoning affection, and she knew that if she was short with him now, he would tell himself that she no longer loved him. Ajalia had never loved Chad at all, but the young Slavithe man had never seemed ready to grasp this idea, and he was useful enough to her to merit the effort she made to appear cordial.
"Well, then what are the interesting things?" Chad asked cautiously. Ajalia tied off her thread, and smoothed the tunic down flat. She could see Delmar's fingers twitching a little; she knew that he wanted to pick her up, and snuggle her thoroughly.
"I need to talk to a woman from the market," Ajalia said. "Her name is Calles. She now owns the little house that I used to stay in." Delmar looked down at Ajalia, and Chad's eyes, which were still and wary, remained cautious. "I want her to sew some things for me," Ajalia added, "for Delmar to wear." Ajalia looked up at Chad, and she saw the beginnings of an idea growing in his mind. She thought that she knew what he was thinking; when Chad had ideas, his eyes moved so gradually through the different thoughts, and his cheeks and mouth were so mobile and sensitive, that Ajalia could often watch his ideas as they formed in his mind. She could see now that he was thinking to himself that if knew the woman who made Delmar's clothes, it would be but a short and easy step to have the woman make clothes for himself as well. Chad's lips twitched, and his eyebrows smoothed out a little.
"Okay," Chad admitted. "That sounds interesting enough."
"If you do a good job of finding her, and bringing her here," Ajalia said, "and letting her know what I want," she added, examining Delmar's tunic, and adjusting one sleeve, "I will think about you more."
Chad's eyebrows lowered again. The little boy Cross appeared, bearing food and drink in his arms, and he came importantly down the middle of the dragon temple hall, his leather shoes making soft thumps on the white stone floor.
Ajalia raised up on her toes, and arranged Delmar's hair, so that it would dry in the right shape.
"Okay," she told Delmar, "You're fine." Delmar went to meet Cross, and Ajalia saw Cross swell with almost painful excitement.
"But thinking about me doesn't mean anything, does it?" Chad asked Ajalia. Ajalia, who had been kneeling on the floor, bent now over the writing things that Ossa had brought, and began to write.
"What would mean something?" Ajalia asked Chad, her eyes on the paper.
"Ocher sent a copy," Card said suddenly, drawing a second paper from his clothes, and Ajalia smiled brightly. I knew it, she said to herself, and she took the sheet from Card.
"Well," Chad said, looking discomfited. Ajalia thought that Chad would enjoy this conversation more if she would gaze soulfully into his eyes. "Kissing would mean something," Chad said.
"Chad," Ajalia said, finishing the first page, and copying out what she had written onto the second paper, "I think that you need a wife."
Chad blushed, and tucked his chin against his neck.
"I don't know why you would say something like that," Chad said, his eyes following Ajalia's pen. Delmar had taken Cross's spoils to a chair, and was working them over with the all the verve of a devouring horde. Cross was standing behind Delmar, and watching him with the pride of a young mother, or of a protective sheepdog.
Ajalia realized suddenly that she had been talking to Chad and Card, and that she had not noticed before the sheen of the white brands that shone over both of their hearts. She blinked, and looked down at the second paper.
"I'm getting Ocher a wife," Ajalia said, finishing her writing. "I may as well get you one, too."
Chad laughed a little, and looked around at Delmar, as though expecting the new Thief Lord to chortle helpfully along with him. Delmar, who was not listening to what they said, had turned his attention to a large roasted bird that Cross had found for him. Ajalia stifled a smile, and told herself to lay aside more money for Cross. She told herself that Delmar was going to get as big as a muscled ox, if he was already so large, and had been starved for so long by his mother and father.
Ajalia looked at Chad, and she saw that the young man was composed of vivid yellow-green, with edges of brilliant orange. She thought of the four—no, she told herself, five girls—who were now upstairs, and she wondered what colors their spirits were. Chad was young enough to pair well with one of her girls, but Ajalia had not yet decided if Ossa and Clare were too young for marriage to such a mature man as Ocher. She blinked, and tried to recall the colors she had seen inside of Ocher.
Ajalia handed up the two papers to Card, who glanced down at them. His eyes boggled a little, and he looked up at Ajalia, his expression stern. Card opened his mouth, as if to ask her if she was sure, but then the old man pressed his lips silently together in a line, and went out of the dragon temple.
"What did you write down?" Chad asked her. He had shoved his hands into his pockets, and was beginning to rock a little on his heels.
"I like your boots," Ajalia told Chad, and Chad beamed. The young man's eyes went around to Delmar, but Chad stopped himself before he turned fully around, and he met Ajalia's eyes instead.
"Thank you," Chad said. "I like them, too."
"Go and find Calles," Ajalia told Chad.
"I don't think I'll like being married," Chad told her, as he turned away. "But," he added cheerfully, "maybe I will." He went out of the dragon temple, and Ajalia gathered up the writing materials, and the sewing things.
"Take those things, and put them away," Delmar said to Cross, and Cross leapt into action. Ajalia let the boy take the things from her hands, and she went over to Delmar, and sat in a chair beside him.
"I could have taken them myself," Ajalia said. Her body felt suddenly weary; she felt as though she were about fall asleep where she sat.
"You try to do too many things," Delmar told her. He passed her a hunk of bread, and she waved it away. "Eat," Delmar commanded. She looked at him, and took the bread. "I'm going to send you to bed," Delmar said seriously, dipping a bone into a dish of mashed fruit, and sucking on the end.
"Am I a child, now?" Ajalia asked, smiling. Delmar regarded her seriously.
"You look exhausted," he told her. "You are starting to have big circles under your eyes." He reached out, and stroked her cheek. She sighed, and relaxed into his touch. "And you
're beautiful," he said wistfully.
"Card said Ocher had the two men," Ajalia said, trying to hold in a yawn. "He said they hadn't caught the witches."
"I'll take care of the witches," Delmar said easily. Ajalia looked at him. Delmar was licking the last remnants of fruit from the dish. Cross had carried the food in a rough fabric sack clutched between his arms, and borne two vessels in his hands in addition to this. Delmar had, in the space of a few minutes, torn through the food. All that remained now were the two empty dishes, and a pile of bones. "Thank you for the boy," Delmar told her, and she smiled.
"How are you going to get the witches?" Ajalia asked, rubbing her fingers over her eyes.
"I'll take care of the witches," Delmar said. He stood, and put the empty sack and the bowls into his chair.
"I have to put the chairs away," Ajalia said, and stood up. Delmar put out a hand to stop her.
"You have servants," Delmar told her, his eyes firm. "Let them do their jobs."
Ajalia wanted to tell him that she was used to cleaning things, and to taking care of herself, but he had moved very close to her, and his eyes were gleaming.
"I like putting things away," Ajalia said. Delmar put his face against her temple, and breathed in her smell.
"I'll come and see you," Delmar promised, "after things are settled."
"And how long will that be?" Ajalia asked him. He smiled at her.
"A couple of days?" he suggested. Ajalia glared at him, and he laughed. "Three days," he promised, "and then I will come back for good."
"Are you going to go to Talbos?" Ajalia asked. She could not have said why she was letting him talk like this, as though she were not going to accompany him.
"You did all the hard things," Delmar told her, pressing his lips to her hair. "Let me do some things now."
"I can come with you," she said, and she yawned.
"Go to bed," Delmar told her. "And eat food." He put his arms around her, and wiggled her lovingly from side to side. She giggled, and hid her face in his chest. "You're Slavithe now," he murmured into her ear, and she felt a hot rush of blood along her neck.