Moontide 02 - The Scarlet Tides (10 page)

‘Poor girl,’ the jadugara said. ‘Life is so uncertain for you. But fear not. You will rest here a time, until you’re ready to push on. I myself will take you to Halli’kut.’ She smiled smugly. ‘The journey will be much faster, and much more comfortable.’

They took her inside, to a room on the ground floor with barred windows. There was a wide bed, many pillows, a smooth tiled floor, cut flowers and pretty linen. And a bath.
A bath!

Arda came in with her, directing a pair of maids with peremptory gestures and monosyllabic commands to fill the bath, bring in Ramita’s few bags, lay out fresh clothes. Ramita sank onto the mattress, which was harder than she wanted but still a thousand times better than the carriage bench. Her whole body ached and her bones felt like they were still vibrating to the movement of the carriage. The smell of her own body when she removed the bekira-shroud was pungent and unpleasant, but at least the bath was filling fast.

Mercifully, they let her wash alone. She sank into lukewarm water, rose-scented and clean, glorying in the luxuriant touch of it. There were jasmine and lavender soaps and rich argan oil to moisturise the skin afterwards: luxuries she’d never known in Baranasi but had become accustomed to at Casa Meiros. She wondered if her mother now bathed like this every day. Were her younger brothers and sisters growing like pampered princes now? Had Jai returned to them? Were they all safe? How would they cope when the money stopped, now that her husband was dead? Had anyone even sent them word? She so seldom thought of her family these days, for their world was so far removed from hers, but just now she longed to see them.

With the gnosis, perhaps I could do it?
But her native caution reasserted itself and she put the idea aside. She could not risk it, not with Alyssa so near. She knew so little. She had no training, only instinct to guide her, and that instinct was saying ‘no’. She sighed unhappily and returned to cleansing herself.

Her breasts were growing larger, her nipples more prominent, and her belly was stretching all the time. She was carrying twins, and would become big quickly, the way her own mother always had.
For generation after generation, her mother’s line had begat twins and triplets, with never a singular birth – they spent half their lives waddling about like ducks.

She emptied a small phial of oil into the water, then arched backwards and immersed her whole body to let the oil soak into her skin. Then she closed her eyes and tried to think.

She had maybe three or four days here, in this place that was far from Hebusalim, but not so far as Halli’kut. It might be her last chance.

And if Alyssa detects what I’m doing, so what? They’ll learn the truth soon enough anyway.

She closed her eyes and pretended she was looking out the carriage window at a specific woman, picturing the face she needed, remembering the brittle nature of its owner, the sharp voice and piercing eyes. She started on as narrow a focus as she could and called softly to the only person left she knew she could trust.

It took time, but not as long as she’d feared. The water had cooled (though it felt no less glorious for that) and her fingertips were puckering from over-immersion when she finally made the connection.

Justina Meiros’ mental voice was utterly incredulous.

Ramita daren’t call louder.

Justina instantly knew what she meant.

Ramita choked back sudden tears. This was not her first attempt to call the daughter of her late husband, and she’d began to fear she’d never manage it.

She felt Justina’s astonishment and they almost lost contact, but when Justina gripped her mind again, it was filled with intensity. Justina’s touch was brutally blunt,
like a dagger-hilt, and she felt it probing deeper inside her; she could almost feel her harsh breath on her skin.

swore
! And I believed him! And Alyssa … it can’t be!>
She sounded stricken.

Ramita fired back.

what?> Justina raged.

Justina’s mental touch blazed like fire and then ice.

Justina’s voice was somewhat stunned.
my
limits …>
It felt to Ramita like she stopped for a moment, then swallowed her disbelief.

Her mental voice became anguished.
am
an utter fool. Damn her!>

Ramita put in, praying Justina’s mental anguish had not drawn attention already.

Justina’s mind immediately refocused. The chill of her mental touch was forbidding. <
I know the Haveli Khayyam. Rashid and Alyssa took me there one spring. How long will you be there?>

.>

Abruptly, she was gone from Ramita’s mind. Ramita lay back in the water, panting slightly. Her belly trembled with the sudden movement, a slithering inside she didn’t at first comprehend, and then she realised her children had moved inside her. She gave a small cry, and clutched her belly tight.
I’ll protect you, little ones. I will save you. Just hold on …

*

All next day Ramita lay abed, frightened to draw attention to herself.
She worried that Alyssa might unmask the gnosis inside her, or read her mind and realise that Justina was coming, but the Rondian jadugara never came near her. She heard her once, her laughter carrying down from an upstairs balcony; the flirtatious laugh was answered by a huskier male voice.
That woman is a slut
, she thought to herself.
The lowliest Untouchable has more self-respect
. The vindictive thought made her feel better.

Inside her, the unborn babies squirmed, a sensation that was both alarming and comforting. Godsingers could be heard in the distance, calling the Amteh faithful to prayer, but as she lay forgotten in her bed, she was content. Justina Meiros was coming and nothing else mattered.

They let her eat in bed, and finally Alyssa visited, at dusk. Ramita had started coughing, laying the groundwork for feigning illness if required, though if Alyssa had the healing-gnosis that would be risky. She wished she knew more of the gnosis, and that she’d tried harder to get to know Justina, though Antonin Meiros’ daughter had been aloof and unfriendly. But Alyssa barely looked at her.

The next day dragged past, as featureless as the last, and Ramita alternately prayed to Parvasi for strength and wept in memory of her husband, only three weeks dead. She longed to reach out again to Justina, for reassurance, but she dared not. The only people she saw were Arda and the maids, when they came to clean her room.

She was fading towards sleep, well after the third night-bell, when Hamid swaggered in, posturing like a street tough. ‘What do you want?’ she asked him warily.

‘I’m just locking down the wards,’ he told her, whatever that meant. ‘You were asleep the last two nights and missed it.’

Go away
… she said groggily, only then realising that she’d not spoken aloud but with her mind. She froze, praying he’d felt nothing, but no such luck.

The young man stared at her curiously, his eyes coming alive. ‘Did you do that?’

‘Do what?’ she answered, feigning ignorance.

He leant towards her. ‘I’m sure I—’

She felt his quicksilver, ferreting mind inside her, an invasion she cringed from, then he squealed in triumph. ‘You have it! You have the gnosis!’ He stood, his eyes filled with greedy wonder. ‘Lady Alyssa said this could happen. This is glorious, lady. You are blessed with a child of Meiros, a new magus to serve Ahm!’ He bent and kissed her swollen stomach, to her utter revulsion. ‘Ahm be praised! This is glorious news!’
And I am the one who will deliver it
, she heard him think.

‘Please, I—’

Hamid seized her hand. ‘We must give thanks to Ahm! A child of Meiros! And you, you are now one of us! A magus, another magus to serve the Hadishah – do you understand, lady? You are one of the magi now! Oh, this is a night of miracles!’ He prayed fervently over her while she watched him with fear and bemusement. He reminded her a little of Kazim, boyish and excitable. But dread of Alyssa sent her into desperation.

I can’t just lie here. I have to do something!
If she had a weapon she would have used it, but he was a warrior. How could she best him? She cast about, and her eyes fell on the heaviest thing in reach.

I have to try …

She clutched at her belly. ‘Please, Hamid, help me get up. It isn’t right to just lie here to receive guests. Especially at this moment.’

She saw his mind flurry, desperation to run and tell the world warring with his sense of propriety. She saw questions form in his mind: How did women receive women anyway, especially pregnant women? Should he call a maid? What was the right thing to do?

‘Hamid, please?’ She thrust a hand at him, demanding his assistance, and he reacted instinctively, helping her to her feet. She pretended to sway, then stood, feigning dizziness. ‘Thank you,’ she panted, edging closer to the thing she wanted: the chamber pot beside the bed.

He saw her reach for the heavy basin and immediately turned his back. ‘Er, I should go …’

‘Wait!’ she said quickly, which at least stopped him, though he didn’t look back, in case he saw something a young man shouldn’t.
Oma bless you for your manners
, she thought with a strange sort of
fondness as she picked up the chamber pot. She’d used it an hour ago, so keeping it from sloshing as she raised it over her head was tricky.

‘My lady?’ he asked, half-turning his head anxiously.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, and smashed the chamber pot over his head, wincing as he crashed to the ground in a spray of broken pottery and piss. He twitched, quivered and went still.

Now what do I do?

*

Alyssa Dulayne let the last of the evening light kiss her shoulders as she tossed her head lightly and laughed at Taldin’s latest tale. He was ex-Ordo Costruo, like her, a part-Keshi lady’s man with an amusing imagination. He liked to conjure illusions to embroider his tales, making them play out before the eyes of the company. And when they were alone together, his imagination and body were pleasingly versatile. She was currently viewing the world through a pleasant alcoholic glow and her body was aglow with the languid heaviness of arousal.

‘More wine, Alyssa?’ Taldin purred in her ear, his breath and beard tickling.

She giggled and thrust the glass at him. ‘Fill me,’ she replied, her voice emphasising the double meaning.

‘To the brim,’ he said, raising the bottle. Below the balcony spread the gardens, a vivid green patch on a darkening brown quilt that stretched away towards the jagged skyline of Sagostabad, the largest city in Kesh. It was home to millions and the smoke of the evening cooking fires and hearths was billowing into the sky as if the city were ablaze.

‘I’ll hold you to that,’ she replied gaily. She leant against the balcony and looked out at the view, and then turned back to Taldin. The handsome quarter-blood was not just adept in illusion, but also at animism and morphing, a quicksilver blend of skills reflective of his fluid mind. He knew that this was just a temporary liaison, and she found his attitude refreshing in this world full of desperate clingers-on.

She nuzzled his face, giggling throatily, opening her lips to receive his tongue. She liked his dark skin, the attractive contrast against her pallor. They licked each other’s lips, making hot promises with their eyes.
I like this one
, she thought, and wondered for a brief moment what the servants were making of them.

Somewhere below, she heard a faint, vivid flaring of the gnosis: Hamid, stupid naïve Hamid, crying aloud, and as quickly silenced. She froze, instantly wary.

Taldin heard it too and wordlessly they stepped apart, shields flaring. Taldin moved towards the stairs – but no shields Taldin was capable of raising would have saved his life that night.

A woman in midnight-blue robes appeared in the far corner of the balcony, floating out of the twilight gloom: a white face in a cloud of black hair. She gestured with her right hand and stone tiles peeled from the balcony floor and flew at Alyssa: a torrent of lethal stone.

Alyssa gave a small shriek and flew to one side, gathering her shields in time to deflect the stones, but Taldin was neither swift enough nor strong enough to do the same and she saw a square stone slab the width of his torso slam into his chest corner-first. He rebounded off the balcony, his ribcage already shattered, then a further torrent of stone pulverised his skull, turning the face she’d been kissing three seconds before to meat jelly and broken bone, nothing more than a dark smear in the rubble.

Justina Meiros turned to Alyssa. ‘So, my darling.’ Her hard, acerbic voice throbbed. ‘Shall we dance?’