Our Lady of the Islands (39 page)

“I know,” she said numbly. “I’ll take care of everything. As soon as I have time.”

I came here trying to save her
, Reikos thought, watching Sian’s husband leave the yard, head down, humiliated.

When they’d found no one left but fleeing servants and distracted soldiers in the Census Taker’s burning mansion, Ennias had suggested they head for the Factorate on Home, since that was where the women had been bound if all had gone as planned. On Home, Ennias had learned from soldiers he knew there that the Factora-Consort was still missing and that no one even knew who Sian Kattë was. That’s when Pino had suggested looking for them here. He’d known where Sian’s daughter Maleen lived, of course. They’d left the sergeant at the Factorate to serve the embattled Factor there, and made their way back up through all the madness breaking out on Cutter’s and Three Cats. … Only to destroy her marriage, and disgrace Sian before her family.

Reikos had come intending to tell Sian that he understood, at last, how blindly he’d been treating her — for years now. How much better he would be henceforth … He had intended to tell her that he loved her as he had never loved, nor ever wished to love, any other woman.

But one could hardly speak of love at such a moment. Especially when that moment was his fault. Always charging to the rescue. Always landing her in even greater trouble than he’d found her in. He looked up at her, standing sphinx-faced in the doorway, watching Arouf go. Did she need saving? It did not seem so.

So, what were they doing here?

“Will you come in, then?” Sian asked, looking first at him, then at Pino.

“Are we … wanted?” Reikos replied.

Sian looked back into the house, toward her son-in-law and daughter, then turned back to him. “Have you somewhere else to be?

He shook his head.

“Then come inside,” she said wearily, turning to go in herself.

Reikos looked at Pino, who shrugged at him. They started for the doorway.

“Mother, you’re not really leaving him. Are you?” Reikos heard the daughter say.

“I’m … so sorry,” Sian said to her. “For everything that’s happened here tonight.”

“But,
are you?
” Maleen pressed.

Sian nodded, clearly struggling not to cry again. “Yes, Maleen, I’m sorry. But there’s really nothing left there to go back to now.”

Sian’s son-in-law gazed stolidly at Sian, then turned to hug his weeping wife.

“I’ve been scolding him all afternoon,” Maleen said wretchedly. “Yelling at him for making such ridiculous accusations.” She looked at Reikos, who wished with all his heart now that he’d just refused Sian’s invitation to come back in. “How much of what he said is true?”

The other woman there had retired to a latticed, teakwood bench across the room, as far away as possible from everyone by now, though she still watched with clear concern. Reikos wondered who
she
was, and wished he’d had the sense to plant himself much further off as well, but was afraid even to move now.

“I have never thought of touching Pino,” Sian told Maleen. Reikos saw the look on Pino’s face as this was said. Had Sian seen it too? No, of course not. She was clearly blind to all of Pino’s looks. Perhaps the boy was luckier than he knew. Just now, at least. Or maybe not. “But your father and I … have not been lovers either, for a long, long time, Maleen.” Sian turned almost fearfully to Reikos, who just managed not to drop his head into his hands. “We had a kind of understanding about all of that. At least, I thought we did. It was one of those things … as many things become when you’ve been married long enough. … Or even too long, it appears.”

Maleen shook her head, and looked away. “I can’t believe this. It’s like I have been living in some other world.”

“You were living here. In your world, where you belong,” Sian said. “With Haron and Biri and Jila. It is Arouf and I who have been … out of touch. I don’t know how to tell you — now — how sorry that makes me. How determined I am to change that much, at least. If … you can forgive me, and allow it.”

“I’m still not even sure what all I’m supposed to be forgiving you for.” Maleen’s eyes darted skittishly around the room. “Who are these people, really? Where have you been? What is really going on?” She gazed at the other woman. “Please, tell me who you are, and why you and my mother need to leave again tonight.”

Reikos looked back at the other woman too now, more sharply, understanding only then that she was not just some friend of Maleen’s family, some stray neighbor. If she and Sian were together … and had to leave
tonight
— “
Oh, by all the bloody gods
,” he murmured.

Seeming to have just then reached the same conclusion, Pino looked at Reikos with round eyes, then, staring at the woman, went half-spastically onto one knee. Everybody stared at Pino, as Reikos wondered if he ought to do the same. He was no bloody Alizari. He’d never even seen the local royalty. Was he supposed to bow?

“Get up!” the woman said in obvious alarm. “What are you doing?”

“Aren’t you …” said Pino. Sian shook her head, too late. “The Factora-Consort?”

The woman’s brows shot up. “How can you … think such a ridiculous thing?” she backpedaled bravely.

Maleen’s eyes darted back and forth between the woman and Pino, who got uncertainly back onto his feet.
The lad has all the sophistication of a newborn puppy
, Reikos thought. Of course they had told Maleen and her husband some concealing story.

“She’s right,” Maleen said to Pino. “What a ridiculous thing to …” She looked back at the woman, who was still gazing at Pino, trying very hard to make distress seem irritation. “I’ve only ever seen the Factora-Consort from a distance,” Maleen said. “But she looked not at all like you.”

“Of course not!” the woman said, as if offended at the very thought. “I don’t know what this boy’s been drinking, but —”

“Why did you tell us you’d been imprisoned by the Census Taker?” Haron asked, looking at the boy with an expression that told Reikos all their masks were off, or just about to be. The man was clearly no one’s fool.

Far too late, Pino looked uncertainly to Sian for guidance.

“Oh … oh …
no
,” Maleen murmured, shaking her head as if she feared for her own sanity. “Don’t tell me this.” She spun to face her mother. “It can’t be true! You
weren’t there
.” She glanced in panic back at Pino, then at Reikos. “Not
all
of you! I laughed at him! He said you were behind this, and I laughed!”

“Who — said I was behind what?” Sian asked.

“Father said this whole war was your fault!”

“That’s absurd!” Sian protested.

“That’s what I said,” said Maleen.

“The war is my fault,” said the strange woman, looking weary and resigned now. “And my husband’s, and Escotte Alkattha’s … and the gods only know who else’s, but not your mother’s.”

Maleen simply stared at her, incredulous. “You … are clearly not … in any way the —”

“She is without her usual cosmetics,” Sian said quietly. “And her hair is dyed. As you will see now, if you look. We should do something about that if we can before we go, my lady.”

Maleen just went on staring at them both and shaking her head.

Reikos had watched Haron watch the rest of this exchange with less surprise than calculation on his face, seeming already to have accepted what his wife could not. “My lady,” Haron said calmly to the Factora-Consort, “may I ask why the Census Taker had imprisoned you and my wife’s mother to begin with, and whether that is why the Factor burned his hall this morning?”

What a sensible man
, Reikos thought.
I’d hire him as crew in a heartbeat. Hell. He’d probably do a better job as captain than I do.

“The Census Taker never knew he had me,” the Factora-Consort answered, just as calmly now, having clearly given up whatever pretense they’d been trying to perpetrate. “I was only there pretending to be Sian’s maid.”

“Her
maid
?” Maleen squeaked.

Still watching the Factora-Consort, Haron put a reassuring arm around his wife.

“He was holding your mother prisoner because he didn’t want her to heal my son,” the lady told Maleen. “I was there trying to get your mother out without his knowing, to avoid the very war it seems we’ve started now.” She glanced at Reikos and poor Pino. “These two men have been in the Census Taker’s dungeon for several weeks for trying to protect Sian. Whatever else you may think of them, you have that to thank them for.”

And now I owe you a debt, my lady
, Reikos thought gratefully.

“But, my lady,” Haron said, “why did your husband —”

“I wish I knew,” she cut him off with a sympathetic look. “I’m sure that all of this must make even less sense to you now than it did before, but I’m afraid we really haven’t time to explain further. And I am counting on you all,” she glanced pointedly at Pino, “not to breathe a word of what I’ve said here, or even of our presence tonight, to anyone, for any reason, until I or Sian have given you clear permission — if ever. Can I ask that of you all?”

“Yes, of course, my lady,” Haron answered.

“I’m … yes, if you’re …” Maleen ducked her head and started wiping at her eyes. “I’m so sorry. This is just so much more than I … was prepared to … to know tonight.”

“Or ever, I am sure,” Sian said sadly. She went hesitantly to her daughter, who raised her arms in a clear invitation. When they had held each other for a while, Sian said, “I will explain everything as soon as it is safe to, dear. I promise. May I come back to see you when we’re done with all of this?”

“You’re still my mother. Aren’t you?” Maleen asked with a brave little grin.

“Oh, yes, my love.” Sian gave her another hug. “That part was always true. More than ever, now, I think.” She looked up at Haron. “Thank you both for being so tolerant and … understanding. We will fix as much of this as can be fixed.”

“Sian,” said Haron. “I think there must be so much we have yet to understand. But I suspect we must thank you as well.” He turned to Reikos, who forced himself to meet the man’s eyes, then to Pino. “And even both of you?”

“I care about your mother deeply,” Reikos said to Maleen. “I have never wanted anything to hurt her. If I have failed in this, then not even she will ever close that wound.” He looked at Sian, begging her to see what he could not say here or now. If ever.

Pino looked at no one anymore, Reikos noticed, feeling the lad’s desolation like another pin pressed through his heart.

“And I am sorry to intrude again at such a time,” the Factora-Consort said, “but I am led to understand you own a boat. Might we borrow it?” She glanced at Reikos. “Unless your vessel is docked here on Malençon somewhere?”

“Sadly, no, my lady,” Reikos replied. “The
Fair Passage
is still in her berth on Cutter’s. At least, I hope it is.”

The Factora-Consort looked back at Haron, who said, “My lady, how could I refuse you anything you need?”

“You can, though,” she replied. “I feel bound to be quite clear about this. I may already be no one’s Factora-Consort.”
What a brave woman
, Reikos thought, feeling suddenly more surrounded by his betters than he had since boyhood. “If my husband and I lose this fight, as we might have done already, for all I know, I may be in no position to return your boat at all — or even to replace it. So, you see, you can refuse me, if you’d rather.”

“I’ll sail you to wherever you are bound, myself,” said Haron, drawing looks of alarm from both Maleen and Sian.

“Thank you.” The Factora-Consort smiled at him gratefully. “That will not be necessary, though. Sian and I have two brave and clearly very capable men to escort us. Your wife and children need you here.” She turned to Maleen, who seemed, at last, to have accepted the impossibilities surrounding her. “Whatever happens next, I wish you and your family well, dear. I will always remember your gracious hospitality at such a trying time. Your mother and I have had much time to become acquainted, and I must tell you, I have never known a more remarkable woman in my life. Not here in Alizar, or in any of the continental courts that I once frequented. I owe her more already than anyone will ever likely know. Far more than I can hope to repay, whether … she is able still to heal my son or not.”

Reikos watched Maleen gazing at her mother, clearly seeing much there she had never guessed before. “Someday,” she said, “you must tell me. All of it. Even the parts you think might hurt me.”

Sian nodded. “I love you, daughter. I will love you better from now on.”

As I will love you better too
, Reikos thought.
Whether you can love me anymore or not.