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piloting a boat across an ocean of night, and woke to remember only fragments, pieces of spangled darkness and an endless journey.
    One day, and we would depart.

Seventy-Five
    THAT MORNING as we gathered at the table to discuss the night’s doings, yet another of the women of Tisaar came to pay a visit upon the widow Yevuneh, mentioning as she did how her nephew’s skiff sat loose-tied and untended along the southeastern reach of the harbor, nearly in the very shadow of the city walls, while he served a turn in the army patrolling for bandits. Lest we miss the hint, she cleared her throat several times loudly.
    “Thank you, my lady,” I said to her. “It is a piece of wisdom indeed.”
    Afterward, we left the city to pay a last visit to the Jebean encampment. And this time, I told the truth-the whole truth-to Tifari Amu and the others. They heard me out with courtesy.
    “What happens if you fail,” Tifari asked, “or are captured in the attempt?”
    “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “Only that it is unsafe for you to be here if we are discovered. I don’t even know what will happen if we succeed. If you leave ere sundown, my lord soldier, you will have a day’s lead on any pursuit.”
    “And your horses?” He gestured. “The donkeys?”
    “Yours,” Joscelin answered him in his faulty Jeb’ez. “It is the least we can do.”
    Tifari frowned. “You ask us to abandon you.”
    “No.” I shook my head. “I would have you save yourselves. If all is well, we will follow, and meet you at the place where we made camp, by the bathing-pool.” Nkuku laughed, and I colored a little. “That place, we can find, and it is on Jebean soil.”
    “You would make cowards of us,” Bizan said contemptuously. “Fleeing in the night!”
    “Queen Zanadakhete and Ras Lijasu did not send you here to die for a D’Angeline cause,” I said.
    “No,” Tifari said thoughtfully. “But our honor is our own. What about the boy? To whom will you entrust his safety?” He looked at Imriel, then; we all looked at Imriel.
    “ What ?” Imriel’s voice rose sharply. “What is it?”
    “Imri.” I took care to avoid any tone of placation. “Choose wisely. I promised you I would not leave you, and I will hold to that promise, and Joscelin, too. But our path is fraught with danger. You have done much in Tisaar. Any debt you owed to Hyacinthe and the Tsingani is settled. If you go with Tifari Amu, you are more like to be safe. I can give him letters, to bear to Ras Lijasu, who will see them honored. And I will rest the easier for it.”
    “You keep offering me the same choice!” Imriel’s dark blue eyes welled with tears, which he ignored. “Do you never listen ?”
    Joscelin stirred, adjusting his vambraces, eyeing me without speaking.
    “I listen,” I said to Imri. “Do you understand what is at stake, love?”
    He nodded. “Hyacinthe was your friend. Your one, true friend.”
    “It’s not that simple-” I began, then stopped. It was that simple, “Imriel.”
    “He didn’t care what you were,” he said to me. “ Who you were. That’s what you said. That’s what you told the women. Love as thou wilt !”
    “Yes,” I said carefully, looking at Joscelin.
    “Imriel,” he said in soft D’Angeline. “Phèdre is right. It is yours to choose. Only choose wisely, for your life is precious to us.”
    “Wisdom!” Imriel drew in a harsh breath and hiccupped, coughing. “You keep saying and saying about wisdom! Look at what the Sabaean women have risked for wisdom’s sake. I know, Phèdre. I watch their faces, like you taught me; I listen when they are not speaking. Their people, all their people! What will you risk?”
    Joscelin raised his eyebrows at me. “He argues like a sophist.”
    “He argues like his mother,” I said, resigned.
    “I do not !” Imriel said, quivering with fury.
    “You do,” I informed him. “My lord Tifari, it seems the boy will accompany us, may Blessed Elua have mercy upon us all. Your decision is your own. We will learn it upon our return, one way or the other. I will pray Amon-Re keep you safe.”
    “Thank you, lady.” Tifari Amu bowed from the waist. “I will do the same on your behalf. If you do not find us here ... I pray we meet again.”
    Thus did we take our leave of the Jebeans and reentered Tisaar, wandering the city in the midday sun. The quaint lake-front harbor was settling into its noon torpor, fishing boats ashore, the morning’s catch netted and