by D. D. Chant
Chapter Eighteen
The Una
“Why did you let them free her?”
Headman Chopra calmly removed his hat, ignoring Headman Nadu’s invasion of his private chambers in the High Court building.
“We had the support to sentence her to death!”
Still Headman Chopra ignored his unwanted visitor and, seating himself, poured a cup of tea from the waiting pot.
The chamber was small, wood lined, and cosy. The warming light of the sun fell like a benediction from a skylight overhead, adding to the comfort of the room.
“You are naïve, Park. They would not have stood beside us when it meant going against Elder Headman Amajit.”
Headman Nadu shook his head.
“If you had your son under control, this wouldn’t have happened.”
A flicker of irritation passed over Headman Chopra’s face.
“My son is bold and headstrong. He will learn in time that it is best if he does not go against me.”
“You have said the same thing for years, but you have not managed to bring him to heel yet.”
Headman Chopra set his cup down sharply.
“His interference makes no difference, I am happy with the way in which things have proceeded.”
Park Uel Ne Nadu cast an experienced eye over his friend.
“What do you plan, Kim?”
Headman Chopra smiled thinly.
“There is only one course open to us, as Yul Uel Ne Daksha pointed out.”
“And that is?”
“We must find the proof of Dam’sel Aya’s duplicity; we must show her to be a spy.”
“You think they will be able to do anything with Rem watching them? Not to mention the five soldiers that have been detailed to guard them?”
Headman Chopra’s smile disappeared, and he shook his head wearily.
“I sometimes wonder at my own forbearance in keeping you at my side, Park. Your lack of intelligence is disheartening. I was not suggesting we wait until they had committed a crime.”
“You think to frame them?”
“Of course.”
“You cannot!”
“Oh, but I can.”
“If he were ever to find out he would kill you.”
Headman Chopra had no trouble understanding this cryptic statement.
“Kai Uel Ne Sen need not excite your limited faculties; you will leave him to me.”
“It would be madness to go against the house of Sen like this, Kim!”
“You are to trust me on this.”
“He will have our heads!”
Headman Chopra looked at his overexcited friend disdainfully.
“Allow me to assure you that he will be so pleased to be rid of her that he will not look too closely at the details. Think, Park: he expects her to be a spy. It will not come as a surprise to him when he is proven right.”
“He will be too pleased to be rid of her to look closely at the details?” repeated Park Uel Ne Nadu incredulously. “You cannot be serious? Do you really suppose that he will accept such a disgrace without first being sure of its validity?”
Headman Chopra shrugged indifferently.
“Then we shall have to make the evidence irrefutable.”
------
Elder Headman Amajit stood in the opulent surroundings of his court chambers and watched as a servant poured tea into the three cups that stood on the table. Hyun Jae and Kai Uel Ne Sen were seated at a low coffee table, their faces wearing an identical look that could not be read.
He was trying to decide how much damage had been caused by today’s events. Kai’s action in sending Aya home would add fodder to the rumour mill, but Elderman Di Ye could not really censure the boy. Aya had pushed too hard, and had received just recompense.
The servant finished preparing the tea and drew back, bowing as he left the room. Elderman Di Ye sat down in his large armchair before the fire and exhaled slowly.
“I understand your reasons for sending Aya home with her brother, Kai, and that it was a necessary action on your part. Still, I do not wish this estrangement between your two families to last for long.”
Hyun Jae Uel Ne Sen inclined his head respectfully.
“Thank you for your understanding, Elderman.”
“How soon would you have us forgive her?” asked Kai.
Hyun Jae stiffened.
“Kai! You will show respect to Elder Headman Amajit.”
“Let the boy speak, Hyun Jae, I would hear what he has to say.”
Kai inclined his head.
“With respect, Elderman, why must we forgive her so speedily? Why must there be such a hurry to settle things? It serves only to make the House of Sen appear weak and foolish.”
“You know, Kai, what is at stake,” returned Elder Headman Amajit. “The peace that we have managed to preserve is precarious. All the while the Houses of Sen and Singh remain estranged, that peace is threatened.”
"And all the while the House of Sen is treated with such disrespect its position within the Head Families is called into question.”
“Your pride is talking, Kai, learn to recognise it,” returned Elder Headman Amajit.
“Perhaps it is only my pride, but you cannot deny that the House of Sen’s strength has suffered ever since we made our alliance with the House of Singh.”
“Kai…”
Elder Headman Amajit raised a hand to silence Hyun Jae Uel Ne Sen.
“Be careful, Kai, your words speak of bitterness.”
Kai shook his head.
“I do not speak from dissatisfaction, Elderman Di Ye, I merely state the plain facts of the matter.”
Elderman Di Ye nodded.
“Then continue.”
For a moment Kai remained quiet, his brow furrowed in thought.
“When I was a boy, Elderman, you told me stories of my house. You spoke of my ancestors’ courage in the time of upheaval. It was you who taught me to take pride in my family’s strength, and it was for our strength that you chose us to be your allies in this matter. Yet at every turn we have been made weaker due to our connection to her. If you chose us for our strength, how can we be of help to you now when we are weak?”
“How are you weak, Kai?” returned Elder Headman Amajit. “Is your army smaller and not so well trained since your Bonding to Aya?”
“No, Elderman.”
“Then your lands have been taken from you?”
Kai shook his head.
“Then it must be your crops that have suffered that you have become weak?”
“No, Elderman Di Ye.”
“Then I am confused, Kai. How is it that your family is weak when you are so strong?”
“We have lost respect among the Head Families.”
“And who cares for their respect? For their goodwill? Why do you need them to think well of the House of Sen?”
Kai shifted uncomfortably.
“But Elderman…”
Elder Headman Amajit lifted a hand to silence him.
“The House of Sen is still as strong as ever it was. That has not changed. All that is different is the way the other Head Families treat you. It might not be right or pleasant, but it is of little matter. It is your pride that is hurt, Kai, and it is your pride that makes you weak.”
Kai was thoughtful for a moment, and Elder Headman Amajit continued.
“I did not choose your family for its strength, Kai. I chose it because, of all the Head Families, it was yours that I felt I could trust to save our people.”
------
Astra felt strange. She couldn't really put a name to the feeling that held her in a protective calm, it was unlike anything she had ever known.
She knew she was free, yet she felt that she was in more danger here than she had ever experienced in the Tula Strongholds.
She looked at the man seated across from her. A man that was little more than a boy. A boy who was her baby brother. She rubbed her wrist absently, remembering the surprisingly str
ong grip of his fingers. His hold had been precisely balanced between allowing her the ability to escape and his ability to hurt her.
He was angry.
She understood that.
That she had disowned him so completely before everyone he knew was bad enough, but added to that, it had been to protect her Tula foster-family.
She was sorry for hurting him, for disgracing him so terribly, but she would do it again. The second she had seen that the Court had been disposed to be favourable toward her, she had tried to secure that same safety for her foster-family. The only way she had known how was by demanding that she be tried along with them. Her hope had been simple; that they would also be spared. She had never been more relieved than when she had heard the Headmen's vote to pardon them.
Her brow furrowed as she remembered what had happened after. The strange man's appearance before her had caught her off guard, and his thorough examination of her had been distasteful and unwelcome. Who was he, that he could authoritatively order Rem to take her home?
She looked across at the stranger who was her brother. He hadn't spoken to her since that first angry correction regarding her name. They sat so close together, aware of each other but even more aware of the five soldiers seated behind them.
Astra studied Rem surreptitiously. Their colouring was similar, their eyes the same shade of blue with long dark lashes.
Her brother.
It seemed strange to think of him that way. Ceadron was her brother, Balak and Penn, but not this unfamiliar young man before her. The last time she had seen him he had been a baby and, though she knew that many years had passed since then, it was still a shock to see him on the verge of manhood.
When she had thought of him she had always seen him as a baby. As though time had stood still for him.
It worried her that he had accepted the order of the man at the court as final. What was his connecton to the man who had looked her over in such a disdainful way? His eyes had ravelled over her slowly, filled with deliberate insult. She had felt strangely exposed before him, aware of every imperfection, of the stains on her clothes and the uninteresting brown hair falling untidily over her shoulders.
She was surprised that he had been able to unsettle her, she who had lived so long as Councillor Ladron's play thing. She had always been able to endure the twisted games Corbani had played with her mind, and had thought that no other person would ever have the power to scare her.
Yet he had.
Perhaps not scaring her, but certainly making her wary.
The sensation was unexpected and made her shiver, which was foolish. After all; what could he do to her?
Her brother was angry for her defiance, and in a position to extract revenge for her behaviour at the high court. Yet that man, however unnerving, could do nothing.
Astra felt her skin prickle uncomfortably. Somehow she didn't feel reassured. His calm air of authority impressed itself upon her mind. The aura of power that hung around him so strong it seemed almost palpable on the air. Perhaps he could do her some kind of harm after all? Perhaps he was a man of great influence? Son or grandson to the Elder Headman maybe?
She shook her head even as the thought occurred to her. The symbols on his garments and the colours he had worn had not matched Elder Headman Amajit’s.
She shivered again, remembering the haughty and cold cast to his face. He’d not been angry but judgmental, which somehow made her more nervous.
The shuttle stopped, and Astra was pulled from her reverie.
------
Rem was not sure whether to be angered or pleased by what he saw when he turned to look at his sister. She had wrapped her arm around the youngest of the women she had claimed as her sisters.
He felt his jaw tighten. For the Tula girl, she had warmth. For him, who shared her blood, she had no regard at all, but could happily disown him before everyone.
She caught his eye, meeting his gaze with an unflinching stare that made him uncomfortable. Her composure was irritating.
“This is your house?” she asked.
Rem was silent for a moment, seeking to break through that unnatural calm of hers. It was a tactic that he had learnt from Kai, but it was not having its usual effect. She sat quietly awaiting his answer with no discernible trace of discomfort.
“In a manner of speaking,” he returned at last.
It was an impressive structure, made in part from hewn stone and sturdy timber beams. The result was both beautiful and grand, but warmly so, not overpowering. Turning he saw the girl standing beside his sister reach out to take her hand.
“Astra? What is it?”
Aya shook her head, stroking the girl’s hair.
“Isn’t it strange, Pet? But somehow this feels strangely familiar.”
The girl’s face took on an expression of hazy bewilderment, and Uri Va Dic Toban stepped forward, placing a hand on his foster-daughter's shoulder. Aya lifted her hand to his and smiled a little.
Rem watched the exchange with a strong blend of emotions churning in his stomach. First was pleasure that Astra had not felt the Tula Strongholds to be her home. Yet that emotion was closely followed by an unpleasant ache for the affection he perceived she shared with her foster-family. Even as he watched, one of her Tula foster-brothers reached out a hand to flick her cheek in a cheering fashion.
Rem looked down at his hands.
She was his sister, yet he could not have touched her like that, with the familiar camaraderie of friends.
His gaze shifted and he saw Shin regarding him with solemn and sympathetic eyes, as though he knew what he was feeling. Rem felt a little better, less alone. Shin was with him. Shin, who had known him since his childhood, and defended him as though he had been his own brother. The friend that had taken a demotion, laying aside the command he had worked so hard for, just so that he could save him and Kai from the indignity of seeing Astra and her Tula keepers incarcerated in a detention centre.
The thought gave Rem strength, and he straightened his shoulders. He was a Headman of the Una nation, a man who held the lives of others in his hands.
“We would be more comfortable inside I think,” he observed smoothly.
Aya inclined her head, and followed him up the gravel path to the large wooden double doors. The walkway was flanked on either side by decorative Acers, their size proclaiming a lengthy life span. Rem saw Aya reach out a hand to touch the different coloured leaves as she walked past.
The doors to the house opened slowly inward, sunlight catching the intricate pattern carved into the wood, making it gleam a richly. Rem paused a second as he stepped into the hall, the transition from bright to dim blinding him momentarily.
As his vision cleared, he became aware of the middle aged woman standing before him. Her long grey hair flowed loosely around her, and her dress was sashed at the waist with the colours of his house. Her welcoming smile faltered as she took in those who filed in after him.
“Do you wish me to prepare more rooms, Master?”
Rem looked over his unwanted guests.
“The west wing will be given over to our visitors and to Shin and his men, Ella.”
“Very well, Master.” Ella bowed with quiet grace. “Shall they dine with you, Master?”
“No!”
Rem hadn’t meant his voice to sound so vehement. Ella looked taken aback, and nervously twisted the white sash around her waist.
Rem turned to Aya, clearing his throat awkwardly.
“You must be tired after your journey; I will have food sent up to your rooms.”
Aya bowed unhurriedly.
“Thank you, Brother.”
Rem nodded sharply, indicating that she was free to leave.
Brother.
He didn’t think he’d ever heard the term of family pronounced so impersonally before. It was no longer an endearment, but a cold fact as unemotional as her expression. It rubbed him raw, standing in such stark contrast to how she treated her Tula keepers.
/> “Shin, you will have a drink with me?”
For a second his friend looked a little startled, then he turned to the soldier standing beside him.
“Pau, you will take the first watch with Genji. Aiko will take the second with Gatto. I will take the third. If the servants need help with anything, put yourself at their disposal.”
The young man bowed and turned to follow Astra and her foster-family upstairs. Shin allowed Rem to usher him into a large and airy sitting room. As soon as the door was shut behind them, Rem sank onto one of the cushioned platforms before the fire, crossing his legs and staring glumly into the bright flames that danced in the grate.
“A drink?” asked Shin, raising his eyebrows.
Rem grimaced.
“Sounded grown up didn’t it?”
Shin smiled sitting on the raised platform across from him.
“What now?”
Rem frowned shrugging his shoulders.
“I'm not sure,” he returned. “I will have to talk it through with Kai and Uncle Hyun Jae.”
A few moments passed before Shin asked his next question.
“Are you annoyed?”
Rem’s brow furrowed.
“Yes and no.”
“With Kai?” inquired Shin carefully.
Rem shook his head at once.
“No, not with Kai.” He met Shin's gaze frankly. “You think that I hold his treatment of Aya against him? I don’t, we understand one another far too well to mistake one another’s motives.”
“Then with Dam'sel Aya?”
Rem did not answer.
As the silence stretched out Shin reclined on the cushions.
“You expect Kai tonight?”
“No, he will be angry. He will not come today, maybe not even tomorrow.”
Shin lifted his eyebrow.
“What do you mean?”
“He had planned to let her transgression pass, but because of Aya’s actions at the court proceedings he could not. She forced his hand. He needed to show the Head Families that he was still in control by punishing her for disgracing us again.”
“Then what will you do?”
“With Kai? Nothing, the fault is hers, and his punishment is just.”