Shadow and Betrayal

Kaiin from the real danger, then it worked, most high. Danat will be the new Khai Machi.’
    ‘Ask him when he comes. He will be the Khai Machi, and if he has done as you said, then there’s no crime in it and no reason that he should hide it.’
    ‘A poet was attacked—’
    ‘And did you die? Are you dying? No? Then don’t ask sympathy from me. Go, Maati-cha. Take the prisoner anything you like. Take him a pony and let him ride it around his cell, if that pleases you. Only don’t return to me. Any business you have with me now, you have with my son.’
    The Khai took a pose of command that ended the audience, and Maati stood, took a pose of gratitude that he barely felt, and withdrew from the meeting room. He stalked along the corridors of the palace seething.
    Back in his apartments, he took stock. He had gathered together his bundle even before he’d gone to the audience. A good wool robe, a rough cloth bag filled with nut breads and dry cheeses, and a flask of fresh water. Everything that he thought the Khai’s men would permit. He folded it all together and tied it with twine.
    At the base of the great tower, armsmen stood guard at the platform - a metalwork that ran on tracks set into the stone of the tower, large enough to carry twelve men. The chains that held it seemed entirely too thin. Maati identified himself, thinking his poet’s robe, reputation, and haughty demeanor might suffice to make the men do as he instructed. Instead, a runner was sent to the Khai’s palace to confirm that Maati was indeed permitted to see the prisoner and to give him the little gifts that he carried. Once word was brought back, Maati climbed on the platform, and the signalman on the ground blew a call on a great trumpet. The chains went taut, and the platform rose. Maati held onto the rail, his knuckles growing whiter as the ground receded. Wind plucked at his sleeves as the roofs of even the greatest palaces fell away below him. The only things so high as he was were the towers, the birds, and the mountains. It was beautiful and exhilarating, and all he could think the whole time was what would happen if a single link in any of the four chains gave way. When he reached the open sky doors at the top, the captain of the armsmen took him solidly by his arm and helped him step in.
    ‘First time, eh?’ the captain said, and his men chuckled, but not cruelly. It was a journey each of them risked, Maati realized, every day. These men were more likely to die for the vanity of Machi than he. He smiled and nodded, stepping away from the open space of the sky door.
    ‘I’ve come to see the prisoner,’ he said.
    ‘I know,’ the captain said. ‘The trumpet said as much, if you knew to listen for it. But understand, if he attacks you - if he tries to bargain your life for his freedom - I’ll send your body down. You make your choice when you go in there. I can’t be responsible for it.’
    The captain’s expression was stern. Maati saw that he thought this possible, the danger real. Maati took a pose of thanks, hampered somewhat by the bundle under his arm. The captain only nodded and led him to a huge wooden door. Four of his men drew their blades as he unbarred it and let it swing in. Maati took a deep breath and stepped through.
    Otah was huddled in a corner, his arms wrapped around his knees. He looked up and then back down. Maati heard the door close behind him, heard the bar slide home. All those men to protect him from this half-dead rag.
    ‘I’ve brought food,’ Maati said. ‘I considered wine, but it seemed too much like a celebration.’
    Otah chuckled, a thick phlegmy sound.
    ‘It would have gone to my head too quickly anyway,’ he said, his voice weak. ‘I’m too old to go drinking without a good meal first.’
    Maati knelt and unfolded the robe and arranged the food he’d brought. It seemed too little now, but when he broke off a corner of nut bread and held it out, Otah nodded his gratitude and took it. Maati opened the flask of water, put it beside Otah’s feet, and sat back.
    ‘What news?’ Otah asked. ‘I don’t hear much gossip up here.’
    ‘It’s all as straightforward as a maze,’ Maati said. ‘House Siyanti is calling in every favor it has not to be banned from the city. Your old overseer has been going to each guild chapter house individually. There’s even rumor he’s been negotiating with hired armsmen.’
    ‘He must be frightened for his life,’ Otah said and shook his