The Fire Seer and Her Quradum (11 page)

“Then it’s a pity you’ll be going home empty-handed,” said Tufan.

“What if we were to perform a Coalition service for you?” asked Taya. “Many of your boys are injured—”

“My servants,” corrected Tufan.

“Your servants,” she said, placating him. “Nindar walks with a limp, and Runawir has a scar on his face.” She wanted to mention Ilinos, but decided that would be a bad idea; it might set Tufan off again. “Old injuries are harder to heal than fresh ones, but Mandir and I could help nonetheless. Perhaps you have ailments yourself that you’d like tended to? Or a sick animal you’d like restored to health?”

Tufan shook his head. “When I want Coalition healers, I send for them.”

Taya met Mandir’s eyes. They’d offered everything they possessed.

“It’s a shame you have so little to offer,” said Tufan. “Out of sympathy for your plight, I shall lower my price.”

“To what?” Mandir eyed him suspiciously.

“One night only with the Coalition woman. She doesn’t have to take
kimat
, and she doesn’t have to stay. She spends one night with me, doing as I command—and the boys go free tomorrow morning.”

Mandir’s chair flew back with a bang as he leapt to his feet. “You perverted
worm
! How dare you even suggest that?”

Tufan grinned, obviously delighted at this response. His guards stepped closer, readying themselves for battle. “I think it’s a generous offer. One night in exchange for two whole lifetimes.”

“You
disgust
me,” spat Mandir. “What decent man could make such an offer? Taya will
never
share your bed.”

“She hasn’t answered yet,” said Tufan.

“The answer is no,” said Taya. “Your offer offends me, as it surely offends the Mothers.”

“What a shame that you think so little of the futures of two boys,” said Tufan.

Taya winced.

“You delight in it, don’t you?” cried Mandir. “You
enjoy
causing pain.”

Tufan grinned, secure in his cocoon of protection.

“I should grind you into dust like an empty seed pod,” said Mandir. “You’ve hurt everyone in this room. You’ve hurt me, you’ve hurt my brothers, and you’ve hurt Shala. But you will
not
hurt Taya.” He advanced toward Tufan.

In an instant, Bel-Sumai darted around the chair, putting his substantial body between the two of them.

Mandir and Bel-Sumai paused to size each other up. Taya judged them to be an equal match physically, but Mandir had his magic and Bel-Sumai had the dog. She began circling the long way around the table so that she could reach Mandir without having to pass by the second guard or Tufan. She had to stop this confrontation before it devolved into something dangerous and illegal.

“If you send that dog at me, I’ll burn him alive,” said Mandir.

Bel-Sumai dropped the leash. “Leave the dog out of this. I don’t need a dumb animal to handle trash like you.” He stepped forward and grabbed for Mandir, but Mandir dodged, and his arm found only dead air.

Bel-Sumai tried again to grab him, and again Mandir ducked aside. Then Mandir called a sheet of fire between the two of them, driving Bel-Sumai backward.

Everyone at the table gasped. Bel-Sumai’s dog, still standing where he’d left it, yelped in fear and then barked furiously.

Tufan rose from his seat. “You dare to attack my guard with magic? In violation of the Accords of Let?”

Taya finally made it around the table to Mandir. “He was only defending himself. We’re done here.”

Mandir’s teeth were bared, and he was breathing like a bellows. Even so, Taya was able to take him by the arm and lead him away from Bel-Sumai.

“Are you afraid to fight me man to man?” taunted Bel-Sumai. “Or are you going to hide behind your magic and your woman like the coward you are?”

Mandir started to turn again, but Taya said, “
Don’t
. Remember the Accords of Let.” Besides, it was clear to her, and perhaps to everyone but Mandir, that Bel-Sumai didn’t really want to fight. He just wanted to save face.

This time Mandir left the room with her and didn’t look back.

Chapter 12

As he headed back to the guest room, trailed by Taya, Mandir felt defeated and helpless. Nine years, and the situation between him and his father had barely changed. Tufan couldn’t physically beat him anymore, but he didn’t need to. Tufan knew many ways to hurt a man, and since his guards and the law protected him, it was impossible to stop him.

With Tufan, Mandir’s Coalition status counted for nothing. The same laws that protected Mandir from the royal family protected the royal family from Mandir. Tufan could ruin Setsi’s and Nindar’s lives just because it pleased him to do so, and Mandir, for all his size and strength and the magic he possessed, could not prevent it.

Taya said, “Shall we check on Ilinos?”

Mandir wished she hadn’t witnessed his humiliation in the dining hall; he wanted always to be strong for her. “No point, since we can’t heal him.”

“I know
that
,” said Taya.

“Not just because of Coalition law. If Tufan sees tomorrow that we’ve healed Ilinos’s bruises, he’ll beat him again.”

“I figured he would,” said Taya. “I wasn’t suggesting we heal Ilinos, but talk to him. Give him some comfort.”

Mandir blinked. That thought had never occurred to him—but of course it hadn’t; that was his fundamental flaw.
There’s a hole inside you
, Neshi had told Mandir, years ago. He’d said that the more Mandir tried to fill that hole by taking, by demanding things from others, the worse it got, because the hole could only be filled by giving. Taya seemed to know that instinctively, while Mandir kept forgetting. “That’s a good idea. We should do that.”

Mandir found Ilinos’s door, the only closed one along the hallway. He held out his fist to knock, but thought better of it. “Maybe you should talk first. He’ll be scared of me.”

Taya knocked on the door. “Ilinos?”

No response.

She called to him a second time, and that didn’t get a response either. She turned to Mandir. “You don’t suppose he could be dead in there? Or unconscious?”

Mandir thought it was more likely Ilinos just didn’t want to talk. But given the severity of the beating the boy had received, they should take no chances. He opened the door.

Ilinos was lying on the bed, but when he saw them, he scrambled backward so hastily that he banged his head against the wall. “What—” he blurted, then, “get out of here!”

Taya stepped into the doorway. “We came to see if you were all right.”

Ilinos blinked in confusion.

“I want to apologize,” added Mandir. “I lost my head this morning, and what I did to you was wrong. I’m sorry, and I won’t do it again.”

Still no response from Ilinos, who seemed as suspicious of this conversation as he was stunned by it. As Ilinos rubbed his face, Mandir saw the residue of tear tracks. Poor kid. This morning, Mandir had seen himself in Ilinos, as the boy who’d bullied those smaller and weaker than himself. Now he saw himself in Ilinos again, but as the beaten, terrified child who cried in his room at night, comforted by no one.

“I’m
really
sorry,” said Mandir.

“Is there anything we can do for you?” asked Taya. “Are you hungry? Thirsty? Perhaps we could bandage your wounds.”

Ilinos pressed himself against the wall, putting the largest amount of distance he could between himself and Mandir. “Get out.”

Mandir sighed. Ilinos feared that they were laying a trap for him, and if he accepted their help, something bad would happen. Nine years ago, he’d have had the same suspicions. He left the room, beckoning Taya to come with him, and closed the door.

“Does he not trust us?” said Taya.

“He trusts no one,” said Mandir.

They returned to their guest room. Footsteps reverberated about the house, suggesting that the ordeal of supper had ended and his brothers were returning to their rooms.

Mandir collapsed onto the bed, feeling wrung out but not quite so defeated as before. Neshi and Taya were right. Helping Ilinos—
trying
to help Ilinos—had lessened his despair. He and Taya were in no better position than they were before, but at least he felt less sick about it. There was nothing they could do for Nindar, since Tufan would not bargain reasonably, but tomorrow they would make one last attempt at persuading Setsi. If that failed, they would administer the
kimat
and leave. Nothing more could be accomplished here. Mandir hated it, but some missions would be failures. They might as well get used to that.

When Taya joined him on the bed, he pulled her close. They were fully clothed, and he had no interest in sex while under his father’s roof, but holding her gave him comfort.

She kissed him.

“You know how to make a man feel better,” he said.

“I was worried about you in there.”

“About me? I was worried about
you
.”

Taya sighed. “I wonder...maybe I did the wrong thing in turning Tufan down.”

Mandir stiffened, aghast that she would even consider accepting his offer. “No. You were absolutely right, and don’t let yourself feel guilty. That’s what Tufan wants, to put you in a no-win situation so he can make you feel bad.”

“I can’t tell you how loathsome the idea of spending a night with him is to me, but on the other hand—two whole lifetimes, Mandir. Setsi and Nindar. Would a night with Tufan be so much worse than being married off to some stranger, which is what would have happened to me if I hadn’t joined the Coalition? Women put up with it all the time.”

“And it’s a terrible injustice.” Mandir shook his head. “The deal’s a mirage. Even if you do sleep with him, he won’t let the boys go.”

“He said he’d put the deal in writing,” said Taya.

“And what do you think that’s worth, given who he is? No magistrate will rule against him. He’d find a loophole. He’d force you to do more and more heinous things until finally you refused—and then he’d say that since you didn’t keep your end of the deal, he doesn’t have to let Nindar go.”

Taya was silent for a while. “You’re probably right.”

“I know I am,” said Mandir. “I lived with that Mother-violator for years.”

He lay with her, knowing that at some point he must get up, undress, and prepare for bed. But he wouldn’t be able to sleep for a while. His head was full of thoughts, most of them unpleasant, and it would be a while before he could banish them and rest. He was trying to keep in mind Neshi’s words about the power of forgiveness. But how could he forgive a man like Tufan, who was thoroughly evil and unrepentant about it? Perhaps Taya could give him some perspective. “Do you remember the day you bought Soldier?” he asked her.

“Like it was yesterday.”

“Well, just before I joined you at the horse seller’s, I visited my old friend Neshi.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” Taya squeezed Mandir in a makeshift hug. “What did he have to say?”

“A great deal,” said Mandir. “He told me a story—I won’t go into the details; it was about a boy who forgave somebody who had sinned against him. He did it to end a cycle of violence, or at least to avoid perpetuating that cycle. And I think Neshi was suggesting that I should forgive my father.”

Taya paused before responding. “Neshi is a wise man, but he doesn’t know your father. In this case, he may be wrong.”

“Well...” Mandir backed up. “He didn’t actually
say
I needed to forgive my father. He said forgiveness is complicated. Sometimes it’s the right choice and sometimes it’s the wrong choice, and I have to use my judgment.”

“There you go. That’s sensible.”

“But how am I to use my judgment when I know nothing of forgiveness? He said my heart is knotted up with anger and resentment, and I need to forgive in order to let that go.”

“Maybe he didn’t mean your father at all,” said Taya. “Maybe he meant you should forgive your brothers.”

“Maybe, but—”

Someone knocked at the door.

Mandir raised his head. “Who’s there?”

“Setsi.”

Mandir swung out of bed. Taya was behind him as he opened the door. Both Setsi and Nindar were there, looking ashen-faced.

“Is something wrong?” asked Mandir.

Setsi spoke softly, cupping a hand around his mouth so as not to be overheard. “The dogs are out. Someone must have left the gate open, and I swear it wasn’t me. Can you help us get them back before Tufan finds out?”

∞

The sun had set, and Taya was not wild about wandering around the grounds of Tufan’s compound, searching for a passel of half-wild dogs, any one of which would as soon bite her as look at her. “If we find them, what are we supposed to do with them?”

“Get them back in the pen,” said Mandir.

“How?”

“I have no idea. I can’t remember this ever happening before.”

Taya supposed they would figure something out. Perhaps they could use magic and drive the dogs back to their enclosure with fire. That seemed unlikely to work, but at the moment she had no other ideas.

Now that they were away from the main house, Taya saw that the night was a lovely one. Light from a half moon velveted the landscape in shades of dark blue. Wisps of cloud speckled the sky like river spray. Beyond them, she could see the river of light that traveled through the sky country, as well as the brightest of the constellations: the Bull’s Foreleg, the Twins, and the Sage’s Star.

Distant voices, whistles, and footsteps told her they were not alone in searching for the dogs. Many people were moving about the grounds. Perhaps all the brothers were motivated to get the dogs in before Tufan discovered they’d escaped.

She heard a bark somewhere in the distance. She and Mandir exchanged a hopeful glance and headed in the direction of the sound.

They could see just well enough to avoid tripping over rocks and roots, but it was too dark to see the dogs at any substantial distance. They’d have to locate them by sound. As they came nearer, she heard another bark—and then growling and snarling.

She halted, as did Mandir. Neither of them wanted to walk into a dogfight.

“Can we break that up?” she asked.

“Maybe with fire,” said Mandir, sounding uncertain.