Trader's Honour

by Patty Jansen

  He picked her up and set her down on the bed. He pulled up the covers and she slipped between the sheets in the smell of mountain air. Clean, soft, comfortable. He crept in next to her and folded her in his arms. His lips found hers.

  For a long time, they kissed luxuriously, with all the time in the world. There was no hurry, there was no fear that parents would find out. They explored each other's bodies in increasingly hungry ways. He teased her, tickled her, kissed her in places no one had ever touched, until she begged him to go that one place where no one had been before.

  He did.

  He made love with the passion of a man who'd waited for years while his brother was fooling around delaying to get married. Of someone who watched his younger brother flaunt all the rules while trying to uphold those rules in the name of tradition. With the passion of someone who'd turned all his anger into ambition and found his life empty of love. Of a man terrified of being left alone, and terrified of being found to be emotional. And he was emotional. Passionate, not particularly gentle, and intensely vulnerable in the way he opened up for her. She saw a face that was secret from the rest of the world. A face etched with an intense desire to be loved and to find satisfaction. And considerate enough to give her the same.

  When it was done, he lay with his head on her chest. She stroked his hair. He sniffed and wiped his eyes, but left a wet track over his cheek.

  "Not afraid to show my emotions, huh?"

  "You will do fine." She held him close, their hearts beating close to each other.

  He said, his voice hoarse, "When my father died, I thought my world ended. Iztho is very close to Mother, and I adored Father. He was my inspiration, my life, my source of energy. He was why I wanted to be a Trader and how I wanted to be a Trader. When I got the news of his death, my life stopped. At the funeral, I was convinced that my heart would stop beating and I would die. I wanted to die so badly."

  Mikandra only vaguely remembered the funeral, but she did remember how people, even years after the event, had spoken of Rehan, then barely an adolescent, giving the main speech. Unemotional, they said. He cannot feel anything. Too distant. How wrong had they been.

  "When the accident happened . . . I went into a deep hole for many years. I couldn't relate to Mother, or anyone else. I thought I'd never love again. I was wrong. I knew it the moment you started arguing that you wanted to stay and help us. I poked you to see how you reacted. I knew for certain when you worked with us through the night. I don't want a matron who brings me food and asks me what I want to drink. I want a Trader who argues back and tells me that I'm an idiot when I deserve it. What you did today just blew me away. You are the best thing that has happened to me—no, don't say anything to belittle it."

  So she said nothing. He stroked her gently and she was starting to feel very sleepy.

  The fire was going out. He got out of bed—stark naked—to move the screen in front of the fire, and came back. After another long and deep kiss, she settled herself in the warm hollow against his body, and fell asleep.

  Chapter 35

  "Rehan!"

  There was a loud banging on the door.

  "Rehan, are you awake?"

  "The fuck I am now." The heavy, comfortable warmth disappeared from Mikandra's back and the bed covers lifted, letting in icy air.

  "Rehan, come, quickly!"

  The door opened, and Braedon came in, carrying a light. He stopped in the middle of the room. Looked at Mikandra, who had pulled up the covers to hide the fact that she was completely naked.

  "Oh." His mouth fell open. "I'm sorry."

  Rehan stood on one leg, trying to wriggle his leg into his trousers. He was also completely naked.

  "Oh," Braedon said again, looking confused more than anything. "I didn't realise . . ."

  "What's going on? What the fuck is the time?" Rehan pulled up his trousers, fished his shirt from the floor and shoved his feet into his boots.

  He followed Braedon into the hall.

  Taerzo and Calliandra were at the top of the stairs, the ghostly light from the single oil light on the wall lighting their faces. Calliandra was wide-eyed, her face pale. The twins hung onto her cloak.

  Rehan shut the door behind him, plunging the room once more into darkness.

  The sound of shouts drifted from outside.

  Mikandra leaned out of the bed to light the lamp. She picked up the shirt she'd discarded on the floor last night. Put it on. Found her trousers. Put those on, too, although she felt more like having a bath. Her legs were sticky and itchy with dried slime. There were streaks of blood on the sheet, too. No doubt about what had happened there last night. She had bled like a good virgin.

  She briefly drifted off into happiness. Marriage was something that had always seemed a threat to her. She was worthless as true marriage prospect, only to be good as plaything. The fact that it need not be like that came as revelation. A very happy revelation.

  But the bubble of happiness burst with the urgent sound of voices outside. She grabbed her cloak off the chair and went into the hallway. Her ankle protested with each step. It felt stiff and painful.

  Rehan just came out of one of the other rooms, strapping his gun bracket to his upper arm. He kissed her on her forehead, a fleeting feeling of comfort in this harsh awakening.

  "What's going on?" she asked.

  "Have a look," Rehan jerked his head at the door of one of the other rooms, which stood open. Then he looked somewhere over her shoulder. "Oh, I think you'd best get changed, too."

  Mikandra turned. Mother and Liseyo stood at the door of the guest room in their night gowns. Mother's eyes were wide. Her voice was soft and frightened. "The mobs have broken through the perimeter."

  "Afraid so," Rehan said.

  "The guards must stop them."

  "I fear some of the guards have joined them. We are Miran's enemy. I'll see if we can stop them coming into the yard." His eyes met Mikandra's. "Our first priority is our safety. Gather everyone downstairs in the hall. Get Mother and Gillay out of bed. Wait for us down there."

  "Be careful," she whispered.

  He touched her cheek. "Hey, I've been through tougher scrapes. Go." He winked. "Love you."

  Mikandra went into the guest room where Mother and Liseyo were getting changed. Her bag stood there, untouched, on the single bed against the wall.

  "Did you even go to sleep?" Mother asked her. "The bed is untouched."

  "Uhm . . ." How about we discuss that later? Hadn't she seen Rehan kiss her?

  There was a loud bang outside and an orange glow flared up.

  Mikandra pushed the curtain aside.

  A large group of people, showing up as dark shapes with some holding torches, had gathered outside the locked gate. One or two men rattled the bars.

  "Someone should go and talk to them," Mother said at her shoulder.

  "You can't talk to these people. We're an enemy of the kind of nation they want Miran to be."

  "Did you do anything to cause this?"

  "Discover the truth. Nemedor Satarin is a criminal. Come, hurry up. We need to go downstairs."

  "I can't find my socks," Liseyo cried.

  Mother went to the large bed where she and Liseyo had slept and dropped to her knees.

  The shouts outside intensified. A group of men surged against the gate. One figure stood on the shoulders of others and managed to get a leg over the fence.

  Someone shouted from the window in the next room—it sounded like Braedon. "Keep out! I'm warning you!"

  Someone in the mob responded by throwing a burning torch over the wall. It fell midway between the gate and the house and lay in the snow in its own little puddle of firelight.

  "Hurry up, Liseyo." Mikandra was shivering. The memory of Thaeron shooting at her was too fresh in her mind. There was no way they could defend the house if the gate broke.

  Finally, Liseyo had found all her things.

  "Quick, go downstairs."

  Mother left the room fi
rst. They went past the open door to the next room—Braedon's, Mikandra thought. Two of the brothers showed as silhouettes against the glow of fire. Mikandra couldn't tell who they were. She hesitated. She didn't want to leave Rehan here. If this mob set fire to the house, the upstairs bedroom was a stupid place to be. But Mother and Liseyo were already halfway down, and she'd promised Rehan that she'd get Isandra out of bed.

  Just as she was about to go down the stairs, there was a loud crash outside.

  "They’ve pushed open the gate," Braedon yelled.

  Heavy footsteps strode across the room. "Open the window." That was Rehan.

  Someone slid the window open.

  "Stop right there or I’ll shoot!" Rehan shouted.

  Voices cheered in the courtyard.

  Mikandra ran the few steps back up the stairs to the door of the room. At the moment she looked in, a blinding flash went off.

  "That was a warning," Rehan said, while lowering the weapon. Then he said in a low voice, "I wish I wasn’t such a bad shot. I couldn’t hit anything if my life depended on it."

  "You better start improving your aim, brother," Taerzo said. "Because right now, your life does depend on it."

  There was a clinking sound on the roof below the window and an orange glow came in.

  Rehan yelled, "Fuck, they're throwing oil!"

  Taerzo grabbed the washbasin off the table next to the bed and threw its contents out the window. It was no use. The fire was leaking down the entire side of the roof, setting the gutter alight.

  "Everyone, get out, now," Rehan yelled. He met Mikandra's eyes. "What are you still doing here? Come on, get Mother."

  She ran down the stairs.

  Calliandra was waiting in the hall, shielding the boys under her cloak. On the ground floor, the smell of smoke was already starting to penetrate the hallway. As they walked past the kitchen door, a crash sounded above them and a piece of burning wood fell through the ceiling. One of the boys screamed.

  Shouts of the attackers rose over the roar of the fire.

  "Go with them, out the kitchen door," she shouted to Mother and Liseyo.

  Mikandra ran into the living room, where the remains of last night's dinner had been cleared after she and Rehan left last night and a lifetime ago.

  Through the living room.

  There were further crashes on the roof above. Rehan.

  "Isandra!" She banged on the door and opened it.

  An eerie orange glow outside the window lit the room. There had been no fire in the hearth overnight. All the firebricks still stood neatly-stacked in the corner.

  "Isandra? Wake up." She walked into the room, but clearly, no one was there. The bed was untouched. Smoke was already leaking in from the ceiling.

  What was going on? She'd seen Isandra go into the room last night.

  She went back to the door. "Gillay!"

  There was a huge crash and part of the back of Isandra's room fell in. Burning debris crashed into the room and took down half the ceiling. Mikandra ran into the living room, with debris falling down beside her. Past the glass cabinet that held the—

  Wait.

  With all her strength, she shoved against the cabinet's side. Her ankle protested with a sharp pain. The cabinet toppled and fell sideways with a clatter. The glass sides disintegrated, spilling its precious contents over the floor. Hundreds of years of Mirani history scattered over the floor.

  Mikandra shoved shards of glass aside, and picked up the one thing in this house that had more value than anything else. The Foundation stone felt cold in her hands. She slipped the chain over her neck and hung the stone under her shirt.

  The roar of fire in the house was deafening. The fire was not in this room yet, but the top floor of the house had to be well alight. Smoke poured from gaps between the ceiling and the walls. Breathing was starting to get difficult.

  Out the living room, into the hall, where she found her boots. Where was everyone?

  At the top of the stairs, she could only see an inferno.

  "Rehan!"

  He had to be outside, he had to be. She couldn't bear the alternative.

  There was no answer in the roaring of the flames. Another beam fell through the ceiling near the front door with a crash of plaster and dust.

  Mikandra raised the collar of her shirt over her mouth. She found the kitchen, managed to slide the bolts back and open the door.

  She ran out onto the porch. A couple of dark figures stood at the far end of the veranda, not familiar ones. Male voices yelled, with Nikala accents. She clambered over the railing and let herself drop onto a pile of snow in the yard below. Ouch. Pain shot up foot.

  Someone yelled, "Here's one of them!"

  Mikandra ran through the yard as fast as her ankle allowed. It was a hobble more than a run. She reached the back of the house and found the back gate, which led into a servants' alley, which was a lot wider than the usual passages between houses. There, she found a couple of people huddled under cloaks.

  A woman's voice called, "Mikandra!"

  "Mother."

  She ran to Mikandra, and buried her head in her cloak, crying. Mikandra coughed from the smoke. Past her mother, she saw Braedon and Taerzo, Calliandra and the boys. Her heart jumped.

  "Where is Rehan?"

  "Still looking for Mother and Gillay," Braedon said.

  No. No one could possibly still be in the house alive. The glow from the flames lit the entire neighbourhood. "I checked. Your mother wasn't in her room. The bed was untouched." She hadn't seen Gillay either. "Where is Rehan? Where is he?" She couldn't help it, her voice cracked. The alley blurred before her eyes. "Rehan!"

  Mother put an arm around Mikandra's shoulders. "Shhh. He's a big boy. He can look after himself."

  "Where is he? We were happy. We're going to be married. Finally, I was happy with my life. Why do bad things always happen when I'm happy? Why? Rehan!"

  She huddled against Mother. On the other side of the wall, the fire popped and crackled. The glow of it hit the neighbours' house. There were people behind the windows, pale faces.

  Male voices shouted on the other side of the wall. There was laughter and cheering.

  The back gate yawned open. Orange glow from the fire cast a bright rectangle of light on the snow, but no one came through.

  .

  Chapter 36

  Braedon put a hand on Mikandra's shoulder. His eyes glittered. She hugged him, tears streaming down her face, thinking of how tender Rehan had been to her last night.

  No, Rehan. How much more misfortune could the family stand?

  A male voice yelled behind the wall.

  Both Mikandra and Braedon whirled to look at the gate. A shadow of a running man grew on the snowy ground. Braedon raised his gun.

  Taerzo did the same, yelling at Calliandra to duck.

  Mother and Liseyo sheltered behind a rubbish bin. Calliandra pressed the boys against the wall and sheltered them with her cloak.

  The person reached the gate, came through.

  It was—

  "Rehan!"

  Braedon lowered the gun. Taerzo cheered, but at the same time, a flash erupted from somewhere within the yard. As if in slow motion, it hit Rehan square in the back. Blue light danced over his back and shoulders. He stopped running and fell face first into the snow.

  There was a moment of silence, as if the world had stopped.

  Mikandra screamed. Braedon ran to his brother's side and crouched in the snow. Mikandra helped him roll Rehan to his side. His eyes were closed, his face slack.

  Mikandra met Braedon's eyes. They said, too late.

  Mikandra couldn't move. All around her was silence. She could only hear her own ragged breathing, and the sound of her own heartbeat.

  And Rehan's voice When I got the news of my father's death, I thought I would die.

  No. No, no, no.

  She fell to her knees, somehow found his hand. She pushed the sleeve up, pressed her fingers into the soft flesh of his wr
ist. Under the tips of her fingers, a vein pulsed.

  Mikandra shouted, "Braedon, he’s alive!"

  But Braedon stood to the side of the door, peering into the glare and holding his gun. People were shouting in the yard, the attackers closing in.

  "Rehan, can you hear me?" Mikandra shouted over the noise.

  Rehan's mouth opened. His eyes were narrow slits. The irises moved under the eyelids.

  He threw up. Coughed, and threw up more. Coughed, spitting slime onto the snow. But he was now breathing ragged breaths.

  A volley of shots went overhead.

  Taerzo was firing into the yard, but it was hard to see what was happening because of the mist and smoke and snow.

  Taerzo screamed, "Can I have some help? I can’t hold them back any longer!"

  Braedon jumped up and reached for his gun. Discharged flashed in the darkness.

  Mikandra stroked Rehan's hand. There was no way he could run. There was no way she could run with her busted ankle. They would have to defend this position and hope someone would help them. All the well-heeled Endri neighbours hid in their houses. There were lights on in upstairs bedrooms, and people standing in front of windows. In a flash, she thought, Jocassa would never abandon anyone like this.

  "They're trying to climb the wall!" Taerzo shouted and then, "Fuck it, I'm out of charge."

  Mikandra felt under Rehan's cloak for his gun, snapped it out of the arm bracket. Rehan raised a weak hand, probably to try and stop her.

  "I'm all right," she said. "I used to go hunting with my father. Used to be a decent shot."

  But hunting was with crossbows, and while she'd used guns, this particular one was unfamiliar. It was a lot heavier than the ones she'd used, too. Yet, she knew the drill. Turn it on, charge up—the light flashed—safety off. Liseyo watched with wide eyes, her face pale in the glow of the fire.

  By the same light, Mikandra spotted the silhouette of a man climbing onto the wall. She was going to hand Taerzo the weapon, but there was no time. In one movement, she jumped to her feet, raised the gun and discharged. The charge went over the heads of Calliandra, the twins, Mother and Liseyo. It hit the top of the wall in a huge flash that blinded her. Did she hit anyone? She couldn't see for the steam of vaporised snow.