Flux

is quite sufficient.”
    “They’ve been so kind to us. And they’re really good people, aren’t they?”
    “Yes.”
    “Have you been wondering where Yuening’s husband is?”
    “Um…no,” Miner admitted, embarrassed. He’d been so preoccupied with their own problems he hadn’t given nearly enough thought to their hosts.
    Ennek shrugged one shoulder slightly. “It hadn’t occurred to me to wonder either. But yesterday her parents told me.” By the grim look to his mouth it wasn’t a pleasant tale. But Miner waited patiently while Ennek finished his second cup of tea and then, wordlessly, Miner refilled it.
    “It’s Akilina,” Ennek said at last. He was nearly whispering, Miner supposed in case a bird was near the shuttered windows, spying on them. “She’s…she’s not fond of children, I guess. I don’t know why. Some people just don’t like them. And she also is very serious about wanting to limit the size of the population in her territory. She thinks too many people would put a strain on the land.”
    “I suppose she’s right about that,” Miner said.
    “Maybe. But she places strict limits on childbearing. People are only allowed to have babies if she gives them permission. It’s been years since she gave permission to anyone in Jiangbei, and she rarely gives it elsewhere.”
    Miner remembered how he’d noted the lack of young people in Akilina’s village and nodded. Then he asked, “But women will become pregnant, permission or no. I mean, I know there are some methods that might be used to try and prevent a baby from being conceived, but they’re not foolproof. My sister Faentia, for example. She was in love but my parents said she was too young to be married. And then one day she started sobbing at dinnertime—right out of the blue—and admitted that she was expecting. Maybe she and her boy had been a little careless. My parents weren’t too pleased about it, but in the end they helped arrange the wedding and everyone was happy. She had twins and they were little hellions.”
    Ennek had been listening to Miner’s little story with a small smile, but now his face grew serious again. “You’re right, Mine. Conception can’t always be avoided. And if Akilina learns that an unauthorized baby has been born—and you’ve probably guessed by now that she knows nearly everything that happens in her realm—she demands that the baby be killed.”
    Miner’s stomach lurched. “Killed?” he croaked. He had a vivid flash of memory: Marsa giggling in his arms, her face smeared orange with strained squash.
    Ennek nodded solemnly.
    “That’s…. Gods, En. That’s…that’s the most horrible thing I’ve ever heard.”
    “Wait. It gets worse. Yuening and her husband were given permission to have a baby and they did. The little girl. But not long afterward, and despite their efforts, she became pregnant again. She considered just ending the pregnancy—Luli has herbs for that, I think—but couldn’t bring herself to do it. Their son was born. And of course Akilina found out and ordered them to murder him.”
    “What if they refused?”
    “Then she’d destroy the entire village. She’d done it before.”
    “Gods!”
    “She gave them an alternative, though. She told them the baby could live—if his father died in his stead. That would keep the population even, right?”
    Miner knew what he would have done, given that option: he would have sacrificed himself to save Marsa. “So Yuening’s husband…?”
    “Slit his own throat. He was a young man, Mine.”
    Miner thought about children who would grow up never knowing their father, and he gritted his teeth.
    Ennek set the empty cup on the wooden floor, where it made a tiny clattering sound. “There’s nothing we can do to bring him back. I’ve never heard of any wizard having power over the dead, and thank the gods for that. But we can make certain it doesn’t happen again.”
    “How?”
    “We’re going to have a little chat with Akilina.”

    ***

    Luli’s tea seemed to ease Ennek’s hangover symptoms, but he still looked tired so Miner tucked him back in and took the tea things away. Luli was waiting for him in the courtyard; she took the tray and handed him a bowl of rich noodle soup. Miner slurped it all up and then looked around for a way to keep himself busy.
    At first he tried to help Luli, but she was doing something complicated with a loom and skeins of fine yarn and his attempts to assist were so