Daniel Abraham - THE

to struggle. At worst, we'd find someone who hated me just as much, but

better versed in deceit."

Otah took his seat again. He could feel his brow furrow. If he hadn't

been so tired to begin with, it wouldn't have taken him as long to think

through Danat's words.

"Are you . . ." Otah said, then stopped and began again. "You're saying

you won't have Ana?"

"I thought I could. I would have, if she hadn't done what she did. But

I've spent all night looking at it, and I don't see a way."

"I do. I see it perfectly clearly. High families have been arranging

marriages for as long as there have been high families. It binds them

together. It shows trust."

"You didn't. You were Khai Machi. You could have had dozens of wives,

but you didn't. Even after the fever took Mother, you didn't. You could

have," Danat said. And then, "You could now. You could make one of these

girls your wife. Marry Ana-cha."

"You know quite well that I couldn't. A man of my years bedding a girl?

They wouldn't see a marriage so much as a debauch."

"Yes," Danat said. "And putting me in your place would only change how

it looked, not what it was. I'll do whatever I can to help. You know

that. I could marry a stranger and make the best of it. But I won't

father a child on an unwilling girl."

"Don't be an idiot," Otah said, and knew immediately that it was the

wrong thing. His son's smile was a mask now, cold and bright and hard as

stone. Otah raised his hands in a pose that took the words back, but

Danat ignored it.

"I won't do something I know in my bones is wrong," Danat said. "If it's

the only way to save us, then we aren't worth saving."

Otah watched the boy leave. There were a thousand arguments to make, a

thousand ways to rephrase the issue, to make something different of

these same circumstances. None of them would matter. He let his head

sink to his hands.

There had been a time when Otah had been young and the world had been,

if not simple, at least certain. Decades and experience had made him

sure that his sense of right and wrong were not the only ones. Before

he'd had that beaten out of him by the gods, he might well have taken

the same stand Danat had just now. Do what he believed to be right and

endure the consequences, no matter how terrible.

If only his children were less like him.

There had to be a way. The whole half-dead mess of it had to be

salvageable. He had only to see how.

Voices and argument filled the halls as he made his way through the

palaces. Columns wrapped in celebratory cloth mocked him. Uncertain,

falsely bright gazes met his own and were ignored. The thick air of the

summer cities left sweat running down Otah's spine and the sense of a

damp cloth pressed against his face. There was a way to salvage this. He

had only to find it.

Letters and requests for audiences waited for him, stacks of paper as

long as his forearm. He ignored them for now and sent his servants

scurrying for fresh paper and chilled tea. He sat at his desk, the pen's

bright bronze nib in the air just above the brick of ink, and gave

himself a moment before he began.

Kiyan-kya-

Well, love, it's all gone as well as a wicker fish boat. Ana

won't have Danat. Danat won't have Ana. I find myself host

to the worst gathering in history not actually struck by

plague. I think the only thing I've done well was that I

didn't wrestle our son to the ground when he walked away

from me. I feel like everyone is wrapped up in what happened

before, and I'm alone in fearing what will come after. We

won't survive, love. The Khaiem and the Galts both are

sinking, and we're so short-sighted and mean of spirit we're

willing to die if it means the other bastard goes down too.

I don't mean Ana or Danat. They're only young and brave and

stupid the way young, brave people are. I mean herfather.

FarrerDasin is happy to see this fail. I imagine there are a

./air number in my court who feel the same way.

There are too sides to this, love. But they aren't the two

sides we think of-not the Khaiem and the Galts. It's the

people in love with the past and the ones who./car./or the

future. And, though the gods alone know how I'm going to do

it, I have to win Danat and Ana over from the one camp to

the other.

Otah paused, something shifting in the back of his mind. It felt the way

it had when Kiyan was alive and speaking to him from the next room, her

voice too low to make out the words. He put down the pen and closed his

eyes.

Win Ana over. He had to win Ana over.

"Oh," he said.

"ISSANDRA-CHA. THANK YOU FOR COMING. YOU KNOW MY SON, I THINK," OTAH said.

The sun touched the hills to the west of Saraykeht. Ruddy air rich with

the scent of evening roses came through the unshuttered windows. A small

meal of cheese and dried apple and plum wine waited for their pleasure

on a low lacquered table. Issandra Dasin rose from her divan to greet

Danat as he came forward.

"Issandra-cha," Danat said and returned her welcome.

"Danat needs your help," Otah said. Danat glanced over at him, surprise

in his gaze. "You see, your daughter has convinced him that it would be

wrong to marry an unwilling woman. I can argue it to be the lesser evil,

but if we two work together, I think the issue might be avoided altogether."

Issandra returned to her seat, sighing. She looked older than when Otah

had first met her.

"It won't be simple," Issandra said.

"What won't be simple?" Danat asked.

"Wooing my daughter," Issandra said. "What did you think we were talking

about?"

Otah took a bit of dried apple in his mouth while Danat blinked. Words

stumbled over the boy's tongue without finding a sentence.

"You won't have a different girl for fear she'll hate you and lie about

it," Otah said in the tone of a man explaining the solution of a simple

mechanical problem. "Ana, we are all quite aware, isn't going to hide

her feelings on the matter. So if she chooses you, you can believe her.

Yes?"

"We have a small advantage in that her present lover is something of a

cow," Issandra said. "I suspect that, had the circumstances been

otherwise, she would already have grown tired of him. But he's a point

of pride now" She fixed Danat with her eyes. "You have a hard road

before you, son.

"You want me to seduce your daughter?" Danat asked, his voice breaking

slightly at seduce.

"Yes," Issandra said.

Danat sank to a cushion. His face flushed almost the color of sunset.

"I thought he might deliver an apology," Otah said. "It would give him a

reason to speak with Ana-cha in private, separate him from the political

aspect of the arrangement, and place him in her camp."

"Apologize for what?" Danat said.

"Well, for me," Otah said. "Express your shame that I would treat her so

poorly."

"She'll smell that in a heartbeat," Issandra said. "And if you begin by

giving her the upper hand, you'll never have it back. Ask an apology

from her. Respect her objections, but tell her she was wrong in humiliat

ing you. You are as much a pawn in this as she is. And do you have a lover?"

"I ... I was..."

"Well, find one," Issandra said. "Preferably someone prettier than my

daughter. You needn't look shocked, my boy. I've lived my life in court.

While you poor dears are out swinging knives at each other, there are

wars just as bloody at every grand ball."