The Fire Seer and Her Quradum (8 page)

“It will be worth his while,” added Taya.

His partner was optimistic as always, but Mandir doubted they could make Tufan a tempting offer. All of Tufan’s vital needs were met; what he desired, and what he traded for, was amusement. Tufan’s amusements were not something he or Taya should be involved with. Still, when Bel-Sumai turned his skeptical gaze from Taya to him, he nodded agreement to support her.

“I’ll see what he says.” Bel-Sumai opened the door and slipped into Tufan’s room with his dog in tow. Taya craned her neck, as if hoping to see inside.

The door closed, and they were left alone.

After a moment, the door opened and Bel-Sumai returned. “The prince will not see you.”

“He refuses to see a Coalition representative, on a matter of business?” said Mandir. “Has he read the Accords of Let?”

“Your green-and-silver isn’t fooling anybody,” said Bel-Sumai. “It doesn’t matter that you’ve joined the Coalition. You’re trash, like all the other boys.”

“Hold on now, nobody here is
trash
—” Taya began.

Mandir squeezed her arm to silence her.

“Tufan says that if you have a proposal to make to him, he’ll hear it at supper, with the whole family present,” said Bel-Sumai.

“At supper,” Mandir repeated incredulously. That was exactly the scene he’d hoped to avoid. Which was, no doubt, why Tufan had set it up that way. The man was as clever as he was nasty.

“We’ll come to supper, then,” said Taya.

He wished he possessed her happy idealism, that he could believe, as she did, that a reasonable bargain could be struck. But Mandir had lost his innocence a long time ago.

∞

“So much for getting out of here quickly,” a disgusted Mandir said to Taya as they walked down the hallway, vaguely in the direction of their guest room.

“What does that star tattoo mean?” asked Taya. “I’ve never seen it before.”

“It’s the mark of a palace guard,” said Mandir. “Most of them will have just one star. Bel-Sumai has two, which means he’s a veteran and particularly trusted by the king. Though he must have done something bad to be assigned out here a second time.”

“It’s a punishment to be sent out here?”

“Often it is,” said Mandir.

“So all the guards will have the tattoo? Either one or two stars?”

Mandir nodded. “Also, all their names start with the honorific
Bel
.”

“If we can’t talk to Tufan until supper,” said Taya, “what do we do between now and then? I can’t see that there’s anything to be gained by talking to Setsi again.”

“No. His mind was made up.”

“Did you want to speak to any of your brothers?”

Mandir shook his head. “If Haban were still here, I’d pay him my respects.” And make him an apology. “But he’s gone now, escaped this place, and good for him.”

“I think we’ve spoken to them all now, anyway,” said Taya. “All except Ilinos.”

Ilinos—Mandir had forgotten about him. Now that she mentioned it, he wouldn’t mind meeting this half-brother he hadn’t seen since he was a small boy. Having observed Runawir, Shardali, Yanzu, Setsi, and Nindar, he had some idea of what the dynamic would be like at supper. But Ilinos was an unknown, and he didn’t like unknowns. “We should meet Ilinos.” He altered course toward the dining hall.

Runawir, Yanzu, and Shardali were at the table, playing a game on a marked board with small carved figures. The game must be something they’d acquired after he’d left the household, since he was not familiar with it. Runawir and Yanzu played, while Shardali looked on.

“Mandir.” Runawir acknowledged him without looking up.

Small details, like which brother spoke first in a group, gave Mandir hints as to the household’s hierarchy. Runawir appeared to be at the top, with Yanzu second and Shardali third, unless Ilinos fit between them somewhere. “Where can we find Ilinos?”

Shardali giggled.

Mandir gave him a reproachful look and glanced at Taya out of the corner of his eye, worried about her reaction. She raised a brow at his brother’s odd behavior.

“Down by the river, probably,” said Runawir.

Mandir was wary of rivers since Taya had nearly been killed in one, by a jackal-summoned flood. “Why there?”

“To do laundry,” said Runawir.

Yanzu smiled, not in a nice way. “He had a problem with his shirt.”

Shardali erupted with another giggle.

Disgusted with the three of them, Mandir left the room before his brothers could embarrass him further.

“What was that about?” Taya asked, when they were out of earshot.

“Someone must have played a prank on Ilinos,” said Mandir. “Shardali was laughing because he was pleased the target wasn’t him.”

“Do they always act like overgrown children?”

“Yes, but don’t underestimate them. The crimes they commit are very adult.” And if Mandir hadn’t left this household when he did, he’d probably have grown up just like them.

They headed out of the house and into the sunshine, where they turned toward the river. In the valley, one always knew where the river was.

As they descended the bank, a shout rose up behind them. “I didn’t do it!”

Both of them froze.

“That sounded like Setsi,” said Taya.

“I think you’re right.” Trouble was brewing, and for once, Mandir might be able to do something about it. Until Setsi took
kimat
and destroyed his magic, the boy was entitled to Coalition protection.

They ran back up the bank.

In the open ground between the main house and the stable, Setsi was arguing with a bigger boy. A wooden bucket sat between them. Mandir guessed, based on the bigger boy’s apparent age of sixteen or seventeen, that he was Ilinos.

Ilinos grabbed Setsi by the shirt and yanked him toward the bucket.

Mandir ran forward and stepped between the boys. “What’s going on?”

Ilinos retreated a step. Mandir filed that information away about him:
easily intimidated
.

“Who’re you?” demanded Ilinos.

“I’m Mandir, and this is my partner, Taya. We’re Coalition representatives.”

Ilinos relaxed. Apparently he wasn’t afraid of the Coalition.

“What are you fighting about?” asked Mandir.

“He threw my shirt in the piss pot.” Ilinos pointed at Setsi. “He needs to go to the river and wash it.”

Setsi was indignant. “I never touched his shirt.”

Mandir didn’t need to ask even one more question; he knew what had happened. When he’d lived here, he’d been in Ilinos’s place many a time. One of the older boys would spit in his food or smear shit on his bed, and since he was too small to retaliate against them, he’d go after one of the younger boys—Haban or Shamas—instead. He’d make them clean it up, or beat them senseless if they refused. Meanwhile, Runawir and the others took pleasure in watching the drama they’d created. “I’m sorry about your shirt, but Setsi didn’t do it.”

“How do
you
know?” sneered Ilinos.

“I’ve been at the stable all morning,” said Setsi. “Ask them. They saw me there.”

“You lie, and so do they,” said Ilinos. “You’re all liars.”

Mandir’s jaw clenched. He’d known Ilinos for less than five minutes, and already he hated him. Ilinos was a coward and a bully, simpering to the strong and terrorizing the weak. He was trash, like Mandir’s brothers, and like Mandir himself, before he’d learned better.

“Setsi was in the stable,” said Taya. “We can vouch for him.”

Ilinos, apparently not persuaded, darted around Mandir and punched Setsi in the chest. The blow laid Setsi flat in the dirt.

Mandir’s ears roared, and the blood galloped through his veins. One moment he was on his feet, watching the two boys. Then, next he knew, he was on the ground, pinning Ilinos into the dirt while he punched him in the face and chest. Each blow felt enormously satisfying.

“Mandir!” Taya cried.

Her voice sounded distant, easy to ignore.

Hands seized him by the shoulder. He whirled with his fist raised, prepared to strike—but in front of him he saw not one of his hated brothers but the woman he loved.

That sight banished the demon that had overtaken him. He lowered his fist, horrified that he’d even raised it in her direction. He looked down and saw Ilinos in the dirt. The boy was beaten and bloody—and choking from the pressure of Mandir’s hand on his neck. Mandir let go. Great Mothers, what had come over him?

Ilinos scrambled to his feet and pelted, stumbling, toward the main house. His footfalls raised dust clouds behind him.

Taya’s arms were folded. “Well done.”

Mandir had no excuse to offer. The monster inside had emerged once again, and his ears still rang from it. He looked down at his skinned knuckles. Then he recalled the boy he’d been trying to defend in the first place. “Setsi, are you all right?”

“You scared him off,” said Taya.

Mandir turned and saw Setsi running toward the stable.

“That went well,” he muttered, getting to his feet. His knee hurt; he must have banged it when he’d taken Ilinos to the ground.

“What possessed you to do that?” said Taya. “We’ll never get Setsi to go with us now.”

Mandir flexed his knee, testing it, and grunted at the pain. “I’ll go over there and apologize.” Maybe after he’d given everyone, especially himself, a little time to cool down.

“You can’t keep doing this,” said Taya. “Losing your head and then apologizing, as if that makes it all better. You looked like you were about to hit me when I tried to pull you off him.”

“I’ll never hit you, I swear it.”

Taya eyed him. “Did you hurt your leg?”

“My knee.” A fitting punishment, though inadequate.

“Sit down and let me heal it.”

Mandir sank gratefully to the ground. He’d been afraid she would never touch him again, now that she’d seen his old self emerge, the one he thought he’d banished. He opened his mouth to apologize again—and then closed it. Apologies did not impress Taya. Nor should they. Words were cheap.

She sat beside him in the dirt, placing her hands on his knee, one on top of the joint and one below. She closed her eyes briefly as she called to Mother Lalan.

Mandir closed his eyes too. Just feeling her hands on him was healing. The rage leaked out of him, drop by drop. As his nervous energy drained away, he felt the shame of what he’d done. He’d meant to defend Setsi from a bully. Instead he’d acted the bully himself. He’d have been within his rights to hit Ilinos once in retaliation—a proportionate blow, no harder than the one Ilinos had given Setsi. Smarter still would have been to use his magic to frighten Ilinos away.

Thinking about it made his head hurt. He lowered his head into his hands.

“Tell me the truth, Mandir. What happened?” Taya asked softly. “I don’t blame you for being angry with Ilinos—I was furious myself, when he hit Setsi. But it was like you were yourself one minute and someone else the next.”

“I was—” He hesitated. “It’s hard to explain.”

“Make an effort,” said Taya.

Mandir spoke in a low voice. “Ilinos was me, when I lived here. I was scared to take on the bigger boys, so I picked on the smaller ones instead.”

“Ah.”

“I saw what he was doing. I saw it from the outside, and I hated him so much.
So much
, Taya.”

“You have to control it,” said Taya. “That wasn’t your old self you were beating; it was your brother. He might have deserved a single blow, but not what you meted out. Why didn’t you just summon fire and frighten him a little?”

Mandir closed his eyes. “I don’t know.”

“And now you’ve scared Setsi as well.”

Mandir let out his breath. His knee felt better. It hadn’t been badly injured, and Taya, though she was a disciple of Isatis rather than Lalan, was a more than competent healer. “I’ll go over there now and try to fix it.”

“Not everything is fixable, you know. Some things you have to not break in the first place.” Taya kissed him lightly on the shoulder, and Mandir thanked the Mothers that she seemed to have forgiven him, at least for now.

Chapter 10

As they walked toward the stable, Taya watched Mandir carefully. She’d known it would be hard on him, being at his father’s house, but she hadn’t expected him to lose his temper so badly. If he lost control just from watching one boy pick on another, what was going to happen at supper tonight? Tufan was sure to be worse than Ilinos.

When she’d watched Ilinos bully Setsi, she, too, had flashed through some uncomfortable memories. If Mandir had seen himself in Ilinos, he wasn’t the only one. Long ago, she had been a target of Mandir’s bullying.

But now she observed that bullying arose from fear. Ilinos was a scared little boy. Mandir, at Mohenjo Temple, had also been a scared little boy. It was illuminating to see, at long last, that such behavior came not from strength but from weakness.

In the stable, Setsi and Nindar stood in the aisle, talking in whispers. When they saw her and Mandir, they backed away. Setsi cast a look over his shoulder, as if seeking an escape route.

“Where’s your tutor?” Taya asked brightly, trying to sound friendly and nonthreatening.

“Drunk,” said Nindar.

“Hungover,” said Setsi.

Taya bit her lip. “Is he often drunk? Or hungover?”

Setsi shrugged, and Nindar was silent.

She felt another pang of sympathy for the boys. The one good thing about living in Tufan’s household was that Tufan, as a prince of the realm, gave his boys an education. He’d given one to Mandir, who’d entered the Coalition reading and writing fluently, an advantage that she, a farmer girl, had not enjoyed. But if the new tutor was a drunk, Setsi and Nindar were being denied even that.

“I’m sorry about what I did,” said Mandir. “I saw Ilinos hit you, and I overreacted. It was foolish, and it was wrong, and it won’t happen again.”

Setsi and Nindar exchanged a glance, and Setsi spoke. “We’ve heard stories about you, from before you left.”

“I imagine they don’t paint me in a favorable light,” said Mandir.

“No,” said Setsi.

“Can we sit down somewhere and have a talk? I want to explain to you why I lost my head. I’m not making excuses. I just want you to understand why you’re not in any danger, even though I scared you just now.”