Shadow and Betrayal

guessed this all at once.
    ‘She came to me not long after you left,’ Amiit said from where he sat. ‘I’m half-partner in her wayhouse down in Udun. We’ve been keeping it a quiet arrangement, though. There’s something to be said for having a whole wayhouse of one’s own without the couriers of other houses knowing it’s yours.’
    Otah wanted to look back at the man, but his gaze seemed fastened on Kiyan. He thought he caught a faint blush rising in her cheeks. She shook her head as if clearing away some unwanted thought and walked in toward the house and out of his view. She was smiling, though. Sinja had also caught sight of Otah in the window and took a pose of congratulation.
    ‘She’s changed her mind, then. About me?’
    ‘Apparently.’
    Otah turned back and leaned against the wall. Its coolness surprised him. After so many days in the cell at the tower’s height, he’d come to think of stone as warm. Amiit poured himself another cup of wine. Otah swallowed to loosen his throat. The question didn’t want to be asked.
    ‘Why? What changed it?’
    ‘I have known Kiyan-cha well for almost a quarter of this year. Not even that. You’ve been her lover for what? Three summers? And you want me to explain her mind to you? You’ve become an optimist.’
    Otah sat because his knees felt too weak to hold him. Amiit chuckled again and rose.
    ‘You’ll need rest for a few days. And some food and space enough to move again. We’ll have you strong enough to do whatever it is needs doing, I hope. This place is better watched than it looks. We’ll have warning if anyone comes near. Don’t let any of this trouble you for now; you can trust us to watch over things.’
    ‘I want to see her,’ Otah said.
    ‘I know,’ Amiit said, clapping him on the shoulder. ‘And she wants to see you. It’s why I’m leaving. Just remember you haven’t eaten to speak of in days, you’re weak from the cell, you’ve hardly slept, and you were abducted last night. Don’t expect too much from yourself. There really is no hurry.’
    Otah blushed now, and Amiit grabbed one last apple and made for the door. Kiyan reached it just as he did, and he stepped back to let her through. He closed the door gently behind him. Otah rose to his feet, suddenly tongue-tied. Kiyan also didn’t speak, but her gaze traveled over him. He could see the distress in it even though she tried to keep it hidden.
    ‘ ’Tani,’ she said, ‘you . . . you look terrible.’
    ‘It’s the beard,’ Otah said. ‘I’ll shave it.’
    She didn’t take up the humor, only walked across the room and folded him into her arms. The scent of her skin flooded him with a hundred jumbled memories of her. He put his arm around her, embarrassed to notice that his hand was unsteady.
    ‘I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again,’ he murmured. ‘I never meant to put you at risk.’
    ‘What did they do to you? Gods, what have they done?’
    ‘Not so much. They only didn’t feed me well for a time and locked me away. It wasn’t so bad.’
    She kissed his cheek and pulled back from him until each could see the other’s face. There were tears in her eyes, but she was angry.
    ‘They were going to kill you,’ she said.
    ‘Well, yes. I mean, I thought that was assumed.’
    ‘I’ll kill them all with my bare hands if you’d like,’ she said with a smile that meant she was only half joking.
    ‘That might be more than the situation calls for. But . . . why are you here? I thought . . . I thought I was too much a risk to you.’
    ‘That didn’t change. Other things . . . other things did. Come. Sit with me.’
    Kiyan took a bite of the cheese and poured herself water. Her hands were thin and strong and as lovely as a sculpture. Otah rubbed his temples with the palms of his hands, hoping that this was all as real as it seemed, that he wouldn’t wake again in the cell above the city.
    ‘Sinja-cha told me you wanted to turn back. He said it was because of me. That your being there kept them from searching me out.’
    ‘Knowing me shouldn’t have that kind of price on it,’ Otah said. ‘It was . . . it was what I could do. That’s all.’
    ‘Thank you,’ she said, her voice solemn.
    Kiyan looked out the window. There was a dread in the lines of her mouth, a fear that confused him. He reached out, thinking to take her hand in his own, but the movement brought her back and a smile flitted over her and was gone.
    ‘I don’t know if you want to