Seasons of War

there? You see it?’
    ‘I do,’ Maati said. It was one of the traveling stars that made their slow way through the night skies.
    ‘It has moons around it. Three of them.’
    He laughed and shook his head, but Vanjit didn’t join him. Her face was still and cool. Maati’s laughter died.
    ‘A star with . . . moons ?’
    Vanjit nodded. Maati looked up again at the bright golden glimmer above the trees. He frowned first and then smiled.
    ‘Show me,’ he said.

13
    T he fleet left Saraykeht on the first truly cool morning of autumn. A dozen ships with bright sails, and the marks of the Empire and Galt flying together from their masts. From the shore, Otah could no longer make out the shapes of the individual sailors and soldiers that crowded the distant decks, much less Sinja himself, dressed though the man was in gaudy commander’s array. Farrer Dasin’s ships still stood at anchor, and the other Galtic ships which had been promised but were not yet prepared to sail.
    Sinja had met with him for the last time less than a hand and a half before he’d stepped onto the small boat to make his last inspection. Otah had made himself comfortable in a teahouse near the seafront, waiting for the ceremony that would send off the fleet. The walls of the place were stained with decades of lantern smoke, the floorboards spotted with the memory of spilled wine. Sitting at the back table, Otah had felt like a peacock in a hen coop. Sinja, breezing through the open doors in a robe of bright green and hung with silk scarves and golden pendants, had made him feel less ridiculous only by comparison.
    ‘Well, this is your last chance to call the whole thing quits,’ Sinja said, dropping into the chair across from Otah as casually as a drinking companion. Otah fumbled in his sleeve for a moment and drew out the letters intended for the utkhaiem of Chaburi-Tan. Sinja took them, considered the bright thread that sewed each of them closed, and sighed.
    ‘I’d feel better if Balasar was leading the first command,’ Sinja said.
    ‘I thought you’d decided that he’d be better staying to arrange your reinforcements.’
    ‘Agreed. I agreed. He decided. And it does make sense. Farrer-cha and the others who’ve followed his example will be able to swallow all this better if they’re answering to a Galtic general.’
    ‘And waiting for them to be ready . . .’ Otah said.
    ‘Madness,’ Sinja said, slipping the letters into his own sleeve. ‘We’ve been too long already. I’m not saying that it’s a bad plan. I only wish that there was a brilliant, well-crafted scheme that had Balasar-cha going out and me following behind to see whether the raiders sank everyone. Any word from Chaburi-Tan?’
    ‘Nothing new,’ Otah said.
    ‘Fair enough. We’ll send word once we get there.’
    A silence followed, the unasked questions as heavy in the air as smoke. Otah leaned forward. Sinja knew about Idaan’s list; Otah had told him in a fit of candor and regretted it since. Sinja knew better than to raise the issue where they might be overheard, but disapproval haunted his expression.
    ‘There is some movement on the question of Obar State,’ Otah said. ‘Ashua Radaani bribed their ambassador. He has a list of men who have been in negotiation to break the eastern cities from the Empire with backing from Obar State. Two dozen men in four families.’
    ‘That’s good work,’ Sinja said.
    ‘He’s asking permission to kill them.’
    ‘Sounds very tidy, assuming it’s true and Radaani isn’t involved in the conspiracy himself.’
    ‘Very tidy then too,’ Otah said. ‘I’m ordering the men brought to Utani. I can speak with them there.’
    ‘And if Radaani refuses?’
    ‘Then I’ll invite just him,’ Otah said. Sinja took an approving pose. Otah thought for a moment that they might be done.
    ‘The other matter?’
    ‘Being addressed,’ Otah said.
    Four of the members of Idaan’s list had been quietly looked into, the irregularities of their behavior clarified. One had been hiding half-a-dozen mistresses from a wife with a notoriously short temper. Two others had been conspiring to undercut the glass trades in the north, setting up workshops nearer the alum mines of Eddensea. The fourth had also appeared on Ashua Radaani’s list, and had no clear connection to Maati.
    Sinja had made it perfectly clear that he thought examining Eiah’s actions was the wisest course. If she was Maati’s backer, better to find it