Jo Clayton - Shadowkill

Matja Allina knocked gently against the table. “Quiet, Luwlu chal. Answer me a question or two, if you please. No, Nunnikura chal, you can speak later if you so desire.”

Luwlu sniffed, wiped her nose on her sleeve, dipped a curtsey and waited.

“Luwlu chal, how much of the first bolt remains?”

The woman looked sullen, but she didn’t dare protest. “About half,” she said after a long silence while she was pretending to remember, “Matja Allina.”

“It is certainly no fault of Lahirra that her first husband met with an angry l’borrgha and if the time between her weddings were somewhat longer, there would be no question about providing a second dower bolt. Nunnikura, you will measure the length remaining of the first dower bolt and complete it so Lahirra goes to her second wedding with the same gift she had at the first. And, given the tragic circumstances that make the second wedding necessary, you will also add a length of wedding cloth, fine green for the twice married bride, and a length of lace for her wedding shift from my own stores. Do you consent, Nunnikura chal? Do you consent, Luwlu chal?”

Nunnikura Weavemistress compressed her mouth in a straight line; she didn’t approve, but she wasn’t about to say so. She nodded, dipped through a perfunctory curtsy.

Luwlu chal had a discontented look, but she, too, nodded and curtsied her acceptance.

“Then let it be done, Nunnikura chal, and done within the hour. I thank you for your courtesy, y-chala. Amurra Bless.”

“Blessed be,” Nunnikura said. She glared at Luwlu chal who hastily added her Blessed be, then both left the room.

“What is it, Aghilo? You have something to tell me?” Matja Allina’s voice was cool, but there was more than a little fear behind the mask.

Aghilo glanced at Polyapo, unwilling to give her message in the presence of the older woman.

Matja Allina sat back in the chair, dropped her hands on the arms where they were hidden from the other two women. “Ulyinik Polyapo, you will help me greatly if you would see how many supplicants remain outside and have one of the girls you trained so well make a list of names and when possible a short summary of each complaint. Will you do this for me, please? Good. Amurra Bless.”

“Blessed be Amurra.” Polyapo resented furiously being pushed out like this and given what she considered a make-work task, but she knew also that her place here hung by a thread and that thread was the Matja’s good will. So she went.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Matja Allina brought her hands up, clutched at the table’s edge. “Pirs? There’s word?”

“No, Allina, it’s early yet. This is almost as bad.” She looked down at her hands, touched the ring of keys at her belt. “I was in the Family Garden, setting up the screens for your tea. I heard glass breaking. It was Kulyari, she was trying to get into the study. I had her taken back to her room, there was a cut on her wrist, I used that as an excuse. Loujary was with me, you know, to shift the screens. He had to be rough with her.”

“I understand. If she complains, I’ll back you. Go on.”

“Yes. Well. I saw the summons light blinking on the com;

I expect Kulyari did, too, and that’s why she tried to break in. Anyway, I thought it was someone calling her and it might help if I saw who it was. But it wasn’t for her, it was Tribbi. You remember my half sister, the one who keeps Aynti Tingger? Yes, well, she kept trying to get us, but with the door locked there was no one to answer the com. She wanted to warn us. Your father-by-law, the Artwa Arring Cagharadad flew in yesterday with his bodyguards and bedwarmer and Rintirry. He stayed there overnight, left this morning. He’ll be here sometime before sundown.”

Matja Allina looked down at her hands. They were shaking. She flattened them on the table. There was no color at all in her face. “How very convenient,” she said. “That Rintirry’s here when the news comes about Pirs. How very, very convenient.”

She sat silent a moment, staring at nothing.

“Before sundown. Well.” She forced herself upright. “I doubt there’s a chance Pirs will be back tonight, even if Wuraj comes up with him and nothing’s happened.” She lifted a hand, let it fall, a curious halfhearted gesture as if she were too weary to finish what she’d started. “Aghilo, find Tinoopa quickly; warn her about this descent on us. As soon as you’ve done that, go see Cook, you know what we’ll want. We’re not supposed to know he’s coming, but we’d better cater to his tastes as closely as we can. The supplicants. It’s nearly teatime, anyway. Tell Polyapo to send them away as soon as the list is finished. Um… you know which servants to put with the Artwa. No maids. He’ll have to make do with the bedwarmer he’ll bring with him. Um. As soon as the skimmer’s down, send word round to the women that Rintirry’s come. No girl between eight and fourteen is to show her face or anything else as long as he’s here. They know him, but I want to make sure. Warn Tinoopa about him, tell her if Polyapo tries to send a girl to serve any of that party, she should take care it doesn’t happen; she can use any means she needs to, I’ll back her. Warn her to stay as inconspicuous as possible. For her own sake. Let Polyapo do the greeting and appear to give the orders. Tell her my father-by-law can’t abide dark faces. He’d have her whipped on the slightest suspicion of insolence. That she’s breathing and on her feet would be enough. Be as frank with her as you think useful, I won’t ask what you say to her. So. Anything more? Good. Go, luv, quickly.

She watched Aghilo scurry out, then she scrubbed her hand across her mouth. “Kizra, come here.”

Kizra brought the arranga with her, lifted it to play, but let it fall when Matja Allina shook her head.

“I have to say to you what I told Aghilo to say to Tinoopa. Stay in the background as much as you can. I won’t be able to hide you, not with Kulyari making mischief. She knows the Artwa’s…” She twisted her face in a brief fastidious grimace. “I said he can’t abide dark faces. That’s not the whole truth, child. He won’t have them around him-except in his bed. And the more reluctant they are, the better. In his eyes, this isn’t rape because they are beasts and beasts are put on this world to use as one pleases. But don’t worry, child, you’ll be safe enough.” She rested her hand on the bulge of her son. “Pregnant women are indulged, especially when they carry sons; if I have a fancy to keep you with me, he can’t demand you. And Rintirry has to keep his hands to himself, be thankful for that. Unless he can catch you alone somewhere. After they’re settled in, I want you to sleep in my sitting room. Never leave me when you’re out of it. I don’t want trouble, not now. Ay-Amurra if only Pirs were here…”

She sighed, shifted among the pillows, then grunted as pain seized hold of her.

Kizra hurried around the table, set her hands on Mina’s neck and, did again what she’d done before, transferred calm and relaxation so that the tension in the woman untied itself and flowed away and took with it the pain. She stepped back. “Do you want me to call the men to take you upstairs? You know you’ll need all the strength you have once the Artwa comes.”

“No. I’m not going upstairs, not yet. It’s lovely outside. We’ll have tea in the garden as I planned.” Matja Allina touched her face, looked at the damp on her fingertips from the sweat that was beading her brow. “Yes. Get the lists from Polyapo as soon as they’re finished, you can read them to me later.”

It was warm in the garden; the high mud walls kept the worst of the wind off, the late afternoon sun was still high and bright enough to flush the perfume from the flowers and draw shimmers of heat off the pond; the fountains glittered and murmured, jiltis and flying jejantis hummed and skritched, the new green leaves on the trees whispered together, the flowering plums shed pale pink and white petals that landed on the grass and stirred again as Ingva and Yla played with their cats and chased each other in endless games of tag and catch.