by Victor Poole
"And?" she asked cautiously.
"Remember how I married you?" Delmar asked her. She peeked up at his eyes, and then put her face into his neck. He took her chin in his hand, and drew her face back, so that he could see her.
"Yes," Ajalia said, struggling to keep her mouth still. Delmar kissed her, long and slow, and then pressed his lips against her forehead.
"I'll come back in three days," Delmar said.
"I've got Chad coming back," Ajalia told him, "and Ocher."
"I love you," Delmar told her. He kissed her again. Ajalia wound her arms around Delmar's neck, and lost herself in his embrace. When they had kissed for some time, Delmar untwined her arms, and pressed his lips against her palm. He turned away, and went towards the entrance to the dragon temple.
"Oh, wait," Ajalia said. She drew out the folded paper, and the length of marked leather from her waist. She walked to where Delmar stood, and held the things out to him. Delmar took the paper, and unfolded it. His eyes darkened as he read. He gave the paper back, and took the scrap of leather.
"This is very valuable," he told her. He looked as though a kind of fire had lit below his gut. Ajalia saw that he wanted to leave at once. He gave the piece of leather back. "If you use the translation stone," he told her, "you'll be able to get at the meaning. I've got to go."
"Stay safe," Ajalia said. Delmar cupped her cheek in his hand, and then turned, and went quickly out of the temple. Cross came down from the stairs, where he had taken the sewing and writing materials, and he started to run when he glimpsed Delmar's retreating back. Ajalia put out an arm to stop the boy.
AJALIA AND OCHER
"Wait," Ajalia said. She looked after Delmar. "He's doing something that I don't want you to see," she told Cross, and she was thinking of the witches that Tree had hidden, and of the old witch she had killed in the tenement building.
"What's he doing?" Cross asked, his eyes following Delmar, disappointment in his voice.
"Thief Lord business," Ajalia said.
"Then I should go," Cross said impatiently. "What if he goes far away, and I can't find him, to bring him food?" Cross glared up at Ajalia, and she studied the little boy's eyes.
"Stay out of sight," she told Cross, and the boy's expression lit up. "It's dangerous," she told the boy, and Cross looked at her seriously.
"I won't let anyone see me," he promised, and Ajalia let the boy go. Cross skittered over the floor of the temple, and vanished after Delmar. Ajalia took a deep breath, and looked down at the paper and leather in her hands. She took her bag, which was still slung closely against her body, and retrieved the translation stone from an inner pocket. She lifted one of the three chairs, and carried it back to the chamber from which she had taken it. She returned for the other chairs, and saw that Daniel was standing at the bottom of the stairs, and looking around. He saw her, and came over.
"That new girl, Minna, is nice," Daniel told Ajalia. He took a chair in each hand, and dragged them to the chamber where they belonged. Ajalia followed Daniel, looking down at the translation stone. Ajalia suppressed a yawn, and thought about going upstairs to her bed. Daniel replaced the chairs, and retrieved the things Delmar had left in his seat.
"I think," Daniel told her, the sack and the bowls in his hands, "that I will turn out to have a white brand after all."
"I think you're right," Ajalia said. "Would you like to try now?" she asked, rubbing her eyes. She remembered that Delmar had told her to sleep, and she found, to her surprise, that she wanted very much to do things that Delmar said to do. She smiled again, and Daniel watched her, his eyes solemn.
"I've got to put these away first," Daniel told her. "Then we can try." Daniel went out to the hall, and Ajalia heard the whisper of fabric; she thought that the boy was picking up Delmar's tunic, which she had left lying on the floor where he had changed into the dark red shirt.
Ajalia turned over the translation stone; her eyes felt fuzzy, and bleary. She was almost, she thought, ready to go up to bed. She felt as though she had forgotten several burning questions that she had meant to ask Delmar, or Rane, but just now her mind felt thoroughly worn out. She thought of what day it was, and then she smiled. Yesterday, she told herself, she had met with Bain. Yesterday, Delmar's mother had come to bother her. I want Isacar, Ajalia thought. She had almost forgotten her new servant. Isacar, Ajalia told herself, will make everything go smoothly. Isacar was exactly the kind of person she had been searching for, ever since she had begun to assemble her own servants in Slavithe. When Isacar knew her mind, Ajalia thought, he would carry out the details of the household, and she would be more able to organize her thoughts. I will stay awake, Ajalia told herself, until Isacar comes.
Daniel came back into the room. Ajalia tucked away the paper, and the piece of leather, and put her translation stone back into her bag, which was beginning to drag slightly at her shoulder. She remembered that she had the leather pouch of money in the bag, that Delmar had hidden in the wall. Ajalia stood up to go to Daniel, and then she saw another pair of bright eyes, and a fringe of brown hair appear at the edge of the door.
"Leed!" Ajalia exclaimed, and she went towards the boy. Leed ducked away, and he had backed into the shadows when Ajalia came out of the chamber. She waved for Daniel to come near, and Leed looked distrustfully at the other boy.
"Just you," Leed told Ajalia. Leed's eyes were tense, and his mouth was more somber than Ajalia had remembered it being the last time she had seen him. Ajalia paused, and looked back at Daniel.
"I'll come down later," Daniel said, and Ajalia saw the disappointment in the boy's eyes.
"Daniel," Ajalia said. He looked up at her, and she imagined the cords of power in the sky above.
"What?" Daniel asked. Ajalia closed one hand around the twist of blue, and she pictured herself tying the blue cord around Daniel's lights, where the color was brightest. Daniel's eyes faltered; he looked up at the place where she had drawn down the light. Ajalia knew that he could see what she had done. A shy smile crept over Daniel's face. He glanced quickly down at his chest, at the place where the white brand would grow, if the magic worked. He grinned at Ajalia, his eyes naked with joy, and he turned and ran towards the stairs.
"You shouldn't help people," Leed told her.
"Come and talk," Ajalia said to the boy. Leed stayed in the shadows; he looked like a hollow old man. Ajalia saw the unhappiness in the boy's eyes, and her heart stiffened. "Did Philas hurt you?" she demanded. I'll kill Philas, she thought.
"It wasn't Philas," Leed said, and he sniffed, as if to show her that he didn't care. Ajalia put a hand out towards Leed, and Leed pulled back sharply. He looked like a dog who has been beaten, and who does not desire to be touched.
"Leed," Ajalia said seriously. Leed's eyes had been fierce, and dry, but when he heard the tone in her voice, his chin began to wobble. "I shouldn't have let you go," Ajalia told the boy. Leed sniffed.
"It wasn't so bad," Leed told her.
"Did the other slaves beat you?" Ajalia asked. He glanced at her, and shook his head.
"No," Leed said.
"Come and sit down," Ajalia said. "Have you had anything to eat?" Leed's eyes flickered a little, and she saw that the boy was hungry. Ajalia pressed her lips together, and she shouted up the stairs for her boys. Two little ones came scattering down the stairs, and slid to a stop. Ajalia drew a coin for each of them from her bag, which was currently filled with the caches of money she had retrieved in the forest.
"Food," she told one boy, "and leather shoes, like yours," she told the other boy. She had seen that Leed's old shoes were ragged and torn. Her boys, who had grown sharp and resourceful in the time they had lived in the dragon temple, glanced quickly at Leed. The boy she had told to find shoes looked down at Leed's feet, and Ajalia knew he was estimating a size. The boys ran down the hall, and Leed watched them go, a sour expression on his mouth.
"I was pretty useless," Leed told her. "I should have gotten away sooner."
"Who beat you?" Ajalia asked him. She took him by the arm, although he flinched, and led him into a smaller room, where the windows were cozy, and the ceiling was not quite so high. The temple was asymmetrical; it lay over a large square, and the rooms made little rhyme or reason together, though they were all well-designed, and pleasing to the eye. Ajalia pressed Leed into a chair, and Leed looked around him, ashamed of the state of his clothes.
"You didn't live here before," Leed observed, his sharp eyes sliding over the carved walls, and the open stone floor.
"Chad made a trade," Ajalia told Leed. She watched the boy, her body no longer tired. "What happened to the slaves?" she asked. She had been eager to know this since she had first seen Leed's eyes and fringe of hair; she had heard nothing from Philas, and the only gossip she had heard of the caravan was that it had made it to Talbos, weeks ago.
Leed glanced at her, and his mouth made a sour twist.
"You won't like it," Leed told her. He looked as though his spirit had been broken; Ajalia wanted to ask him what had happened to him, in the weeks he had been away, but she did not think, from the expression in his eyes, that Leed would answer her yet.
"Where's Philas?" Ajalia asked. Leed's mouth was closed up tight. Ajalia looked at the boy, and then she reached slowly under the earth, and grasped a golden thread of light. Leed looked up at her, his eyes fixed surely on her face.
"What are you doing?" Leed asked her.
"Can you feel that?" Ajalia asked. Leed's lips pressed slowly together; his nostrils flared, and his chin lifted.
"What are you planning to do with it?" Leed asked her, and she knew that he meant, what was she going to do with the magic she had lifted up.
"You are a spy, from Talbos," Ajalia told the boy. A series of conjectures unfolded swiftly in her mind, and she breathed in. "You stayed with Philas, didn't you?" Ajalia told the boy. "You stayed with him, so that you could find out more about my master."
Leed was watching her with narrowed eyes. His small body was still, and his brown hair fell almost into his eyes. Ajalia told herself that Leed needed a haircut.
"What did Philas tell you," Ajalia asked Leed, "about my master?"
Leed looked very much as though he was deciding how much he wanted to say.
"I am not from Talbos," he said, "and I never asked Philas about your master. Should I have?" he added, looking Ajalia up and down.
"Rane does not know that you're a spy," Ajalia told him. "I told him about you, and he thought I was making up stories."
Leed's nose wrinkled in scorn when Ajalia named Rane.
"I don't like Rane," Leed told her, and for the first time he looked a little like his old self. "Rane is a liar," Leed told her.
"Delmar is the Thief Lord," Ajalia told Leed. "Did you hear that already?" Leed looked at her with the eyes of a world-weary soul. She laughed.
"Did you know that Tree is dead?" she asked. Leed's eyes widened; she saw that she had surprised him.
"How did the old man die?" Leed asked.
"You talk as though you knew him," Ajalia said. And hated him, she added in her mind. Leed looked around at the room, and stretched. Ajalia saw that he was beginning to feel more at home. "My boys sleep upstairs," she told him. Leed grimaced at her.
"I don't like sleeping with other boys," Leed said circumspectly, and Ajalia was reminded of Delmar, and also, she realized, of herself. She had never willingly shared spaces with the other slaves, when she had been a child. She had learned to manage her space when she was older, so that her things were kept in particular ways, but when she had been very young, she had had a horror of sleeping near other slaves.
Leed was watching Ajalia's eyes, his brows drawn down, and his lips pulled into a tight square.
"I think," Leed said, and he sounded almost happy now, "that you need someone to look after you."
Ajalia raised her eyebrows, but Leed pressed on.
"You look tired," Leed said, his voice thoroughly that of a managing person. He settled into his chair, and he looked like a miniature overlord. "I'm going to manage your appointments now," Leed announced. He looked appraisingly up and down at Ajalia, and tilted his head to one side. "And you're hungry," he added. Leed stood up abruptly. "Give me some money," Leed said, holding out his hand. Ajalia was tempted to laugh, but she controlled her features.
"You have to eat first," she told Leed. Leed considered this, and he looked at her as though trying to decide if she would be able to hold up a little longer without nourishment.
"All right," Leed said, "but then I'm going to take care of you." He sat down again, and Ajalia reminded herself to buy him a set of clothes.
"Where is Philas?" she asked. Leed seemed to have gotten thoroughly comfortable and at his ease, now that he had decided to nurture Ajalia back into strength and health. He made his fingers into a steeple before his chin, and observed Ajalia wisely.
"Philas is a drunk again," Leed announced. Ajalia nodded. She had expected this. "But," Leed put in, "he is not a nice drunk anymore. Philas," Leed said darkly, "is an angry drunk."
Ajalia got the sense, from Leed's tone, that Philas was in one of his moods. He had had these drunken funks every year or so, ever since Ajalia had known him.
"Does he throw things?" Ajalia asked. "Or shout at anyone?"
"No," Leed said, righteous indignation hot in his eyes. "He just gets very grumpy-looking, and when you speak to him, he looks at you with bloodshot eyes. Erai says that he's in love with you," Leed added, "but Darien told me that he was sulking, because you wanted to stay in Slavithe, and he wanted you to come and do his work for him in Talbos."
Ajalia thought that this was probably true. She questioned Leed further, and learned that roughly two-thirds of the caravan, under the direction of Barat, had begun the journey East, taking the most valuable slaves, and the majority of the money with them. She asked Leed about the route these slaves had planned to take, and Leed told her about a dangerous pass through the black mountains to the north.
"They've hired a band of the war-gangs," Leed told Ajalia, "to get them through the mountains and the desert to the white road. Philas was going to send to you for money," Leed said, "from you selling the horses."
"We haven't sold them yet," Ajalia said to the boy.
"Philas had to buy new horses," Leed said. "He complained about it for days and days. I saw my father," Leed added, his eyes brightening. "He was at the horse markets, and he brought my sister to see me."
Ajalia did not know what she was expected to say to this. She waited, and Leed turned thoughtful eyes onto his knees.
"I'm not a spy," Leed said, and he glanced up at her swiftly.
Ajalia was sure that the boy was lying, because he had known at once who Rane was, and because of the slight tension around Leed's lips. She nodded agreeably, and Leed sighed.
"It's nice to be home," Leed said. He did not seem to think much of the fact that he had called the dragon temple, and Ajalia's presence, home, but Ajalia noticed what he had said, and a warmth spread all through her insides. She looked fondly at the boy, and he glared around at her. "I'm still going to watch out for you," Leed said. "Is Delmar still around?" he demanded, looking over at the door, as though expecting the new Thief Lord to burst in upon them.
"Yes," Ajalia said.
"Good," Leed said. "I think Delmar is good for you." Ajalia heard footsteps in the main hall; she went out into the doorway, and saw the two little boys returning. Chad and Calles were coming in behind the little boys. Ajalia sent the boys in to Leed, and went to meet Calles.
It had been less than a week since Ajalia had met Calles last; the married woman's hair was still tucked back behind her ears, but her eyes were bright, and her cheeks seemed more joyful and mobile now. Calles embraced Ajalia closely, and held her at arm's length, when she had hugged her.
"You look well," Calles said, her eyes taking in the cream Eastern robe that Ajalia wore. Ajalia smiled at Calles, and asked her how her life was. "We've moved i
nto the little white house that you gave me," Calles told Ajalia, her eyebrows lifting. "I have never had so much room before! We have been in the rooms above the stall in the market," Calles explained, "the whole time we have lived together, and with three children, it had become a little crowded." Ajalia smiled with pleasure, and told the fabric merchant's wife that she was delighted that the little house suited her needs.
"My husband is so apologetic," Calles confided softly, looking aside at Chad, who stood behind her, his hands clasped expectantly before him. "He has started to see, I think, how hard it was for me."
"I am glad," Ajalia said. She led Calles into the room where Ossa had laid down the clothes she had brought down, and showed the seamstress the different things she had bought for Delmar. "I did not realize how soon I would need alterations," Ajalia told Calles, "but your stitching is very fine, and you have exquisite taste." Calles looked pleased at this praise, and she accepted it gracefully. Ajalia told her what she had in mind for Delmar's costume, and Calles's eyes grew gradually brighter, and more interested.
"He is going to wear fine things?" Calles asked, and she sounded as though she were being granted some ultimate dream.
"I want him to look like the king of the world," Ajalia said, "but a king who has originated from Slavithe."
Calles's mouth twisted as she touched the colors Ajalia had chosen.
"These are beautiful shades," Calles said. "We are prohibited," she added, "from wearing such colors, except on feast days."
"That will be changing," Ajalia told her, "if I have anything to say about it."
Calles gathered up the clothes, and nodded at Chad.
"What about him?" Calles asked Ajalia. "He says you wanted something special for him."
Ajalia looked at Chad, who had the grace to blush, though he met her eyes boldly.
"Chad must look like a little more than a servant," Ajalia told Calles, "but less than a powerful man. I want him to look noteworthy, but not distracting."