Shadow and Betrayal

and you’d be a decent soldier,’ Sinja said as they walked. ‘You’re too cautious. You’ll lose a good strike in order to protect yourself, and that’s a vice. You’ll need to be careful of it.’
    ‘I’m actually hoping for a life that doesn’t require much blade work of me.’
    ‘I wasn’t only talking about fighting.’
    When they reached the farmhouse, the stables had four unfamiliar horses in them, hot from the road. An armsman of House Siyanti - one Otah recognized, but whose name he’d never learned - was caring for them. Sinja traded a knowing look with the man, then strode up the stairs to the main rooms. Otah followed, his aches half-forgotten in the mingled curiosity and dread.
    Amiit Foss and Kiyan were sitting at the main table with two other men. One - an older man with heavy, beetled brows and a hooked nose - wore robes embroidered with the sun and stars of House Siyanti. The other, a young man with round cheeks and a generous belly, wore a simple blue robe of inexpensive cloth, but enough rings on his fingers to pay for a small house. Their conversation stopped as Otah and Sinja entered the room. Amiit smiled and gestured toward the benches.
    ‘Well timed,’ Amiit said. ‘We’ve just been discussing the next step in our little dance.’
    ‘What’s the issue?’ Sinja asked.
    ‘The mourning’s ending. Tomorrow, the heads of all the houses of the utkhaiem meet. I expect it will take them a few days before the assassinations start, but within the month it’ll be decided who the new Khai is to be.’
    ‘We’ll have to act before that,’ Otah said.
    ‘True enough, but that doesn’t mean we’d be wise to act now,’ Amiit said. ‘We know, or guess well enough, what power is behind all this - the Galts. But we don’t know the mechanism. Who are they backing? Why? I don’t like the idea of moving forward without that in hand. And yet, time’s short.’
    Amiit held out his open hands, and Otah understood this choice was being laid at his door. It was his life most at risk, and Amiit wasn’t going to demand anything of Otah that he wasn’t prepared to do. Otah sat, laced his fingers together, and frowned. It was Kiyan’s voice that interrupted his uncertainty.
    ‘Either we stay here or we go to Machi. If we stay here, we’re unlikely to be discovered, but it takes half a day for us to get news, and half a day at least to respond to it. Amiit-cha thinks the safety might be worth it, but Lamara-cha,’ she gestured to the hook-nosed man, ‘has been arguing that we’ll want the speed we can only have by being present. He’s arranged a place for us to stay - in the tunnels below the palaces.’
    ‘I have an armsman of the Saya family in my employ,’ the hook-nosed Lamara said. His voice was a rough whisper, and Otah noticed for the first time a long, deep, old scar across the man’s throat. ‘The Saya are a minor family, but they will be at the council. We can keep clear on what’s said and by whom.’
    ‘And if you’re discovered, we’ll all be killed,’ Sinja said. ‘As far as the world’s concerned, you’ve murdered a Khai. It’s not a precedent anyone wants set. Especially not the other Khaiem. Bad enough they have to watch their brothers. If it’s their sons, too . . .’
    ‘I understand that,’ Otah said. Then, to Amiit, ‘Are we any closer to knowing who the Galts are backing?’
    ‘We don’t know for certain that they’re backing anyone,’ Amiit said. ‘That’s an assumption we’ve made. We can make some educated guesses, but that’s all. It may be that their schemes are about the poets, the way you suggested, and not the succession at all.’
    ‘But you don’t believe that,’ Otah said.
    ‘And the poets don’t either,’ the round-cheeked man said. ‘At least not the new one.’
    ‘Shojen-cha is the man we set to follow Maati Vaupathai,’ Amiit said.
    ‘He’s been digging at all the major houses of the utkhaiem,’ Shojen said, leaning forward, his rings glittering in the light. ‘In the last week, he’s had audiences with all the highest families and half the low ones. And he’s been asking questions about court politics and money and power. He hasn’t been looking to the Galts in particular, but it’s clear enough he thinks some family or families of the utkhaiem are involved in the killings.’
    ‘What’s he found out?’ Otah asked,
    ‘We don’t know. I can’t say what he’s looking for or what he’s found, but