Seasons of War

folded pages lay inside, sewn at the edges and sealed with Eiah’s personal sigil.
    ‘You didn’t send them?’
    ‘It was true about the trade fair. We did find one. It wasn’t very good, but it was there, so we stopped. There are Galts everywhere now. They came to Saraykeht at the start, and apparently the councillors and the court are all still there. There are others who have fanned out. The ones who believe that my father’s plan is going to work.’
    ‘The ones who see a profit in it. Slavers?’
    ‘Marriage brokers,’ Eiah said as if the terms were the same. ‘They’ve been traveling the low towns making lists of men in want of Galtic peasant girls to act as brood mares for their farms. Apparently eight lengths of copper will put a man’s name on the list to travel to Galt. Two of silver for the list to haul a girl here.’
    Maati felt his belly twist. It had gone further than he had dared think.
    ‘Most of them are lying, of course,’ Eiah said. ‘Taking money from the desperate and moving on. I don’t know how many of them there are out there. Hundreds, I would guess. But, Maati-cha, the night I left? All of the Galts lost their sight. All of them, and at once. No one cares any longer what’s happened with my brother and the girl he was supposed to marry. No one talks about the Emperor. All anyone cares about is the andat. They know that some poet somewhere has bound Blindness or something like it and loosed it against the Galts.’
    It was as if the air had gone from the room, as if Maati were suddenly on a mountaintop. His breath was fast, his heart pounding. It might have been joy or fear or something of each.
    ‘I see,’ Maati said.
    ‘Uncle, they hate us. All those farmers and traders and shepherds? All those men who thought that they would have wives and children? All those women who thought that even if it hadn’t come from their body, at least there would be a baby nearby to care for? They think we’ve taken it from them. And I have never seen so much rage.’
    Maati felt as if he’d been struck, caught in the moment between the blow and the bloom of pain. He said something, words stringing together without sense and trailing to silence. He put his face in his hands.
    ‘You didn’t know,’ Eiah said. ‘She didn’t tell you.’
    ‘Vanjit’s done this,’ Maati said. ‘She can undo it. I can . . .’ He stopped, catching his breath. He felt as if he’d been running. His hands trembled. When Eiah spoke, her voice was as level and calm as a physician’s announcing a death.
    ‘Twice.’
    Maati turned to her, his hands taking a pose of query. Eiah put her hand on the table, papers shifting under her fingers with a sound like sand against glass.
    ‘This is twice, Maati-cha. First with Ashti Beg, and now . . . Gods. Now with all of Galt.’
    ‘Is this why Ashti Beg left?’ Maati asked. ‘The true reason?’
    ‘The true reason is that she was afraid of Vanjit,’ Eiah said. ‘And I couldn’t reassure her.’
    ‘Children,’ Maati said. The pain in his chest was easing, the shock of the news fading away. ‘I’ll speak with Vanjit. She did this all. She can undo it as well. And . . . and it does speak to the purpose. We wanted to announce that the andat had returned to the world. She’s done that in no small voice.’
    ‘Maati-cha,’ Eiah began, but he kept talking, fast and loud.
    ‘This is why they did it, you know. All those tests and lies and opportunities to prove ourselves. Or fail to prove ourselves. They broke us to the lead first, and gave us power when they knew we could be controlled.’
    ‘It looked like a wiser strategy, if this is the alternative,’ Eiah said. ‘Do you think she’ll listen to you?’
    ‘Listen, yes. Do as I command? I don’t know. And I don’t know that I’d want her to. She’s learning responsibility. She’s learning her own limits. Even if I could tell her what they are, she couldn’t learn by having it said. She’s . . . exploring.’
    ‘She’s killed thousands of people, at the least.’
    ‘Galts,’ Maati said. ‘She’s killed Galts. We were never here to save them. Yes, Eiah-kya. Vanjit went too far, and because she’s holding an andat, there are consequences. When you slaughter a city? When you send your army to kill a little girl’s family in front of her? There are consequences to that too. Or by all the gods there should be.’
    ‘You’re saying this is justice?’ Eiah asked.
    ‘We made peace with