Kushiel's Avatar - Jacqueline Carey [234]
"I do." I laughed. "Though I am more like to ask for maps and guides than the moon and stars, my lord Ras."
He staggered and put a hand to his chest. "She wounds me! Ah, she wounds me, Muni, this one with skin like new cream. What of you, lady?" Lijasu turned his winning smile on Safiya, taking her wrist to bestow a token upon her. "Will you, too, break my heart?"
Safiya stammered and blushed, unprepared for his attentions; I daresay as a scribe's daughter, she never expected to return from perdition to find herself the object of her prince's flirtations. He jested equally with Kaneka, who bore it with amusement, and he treated Joscelin with a warrior's courtesy, according scarce less to Imriel.
I liked him; it was impossible not to do so. For all his flirtatious ways, he took his duties seriously. An escort for Safiya was arranged in short order. In the interim, we adjourned to his study to pore over maps.
"Here, you see," he said, pointing to a broad plain alongside the Tabara River, "is Debeho; your home, Lady Kaneka," he added, sparing her a sly glance. "There is a man, a soldier of my guard, who is from the highlands very near there, and it is he I will release from his duties to guide you. And here ..." his finger traced a winding route amid the mountains along the river, stopping shy of a vast inland lake. "Here is where our borders end, and the lands of the descendants of Makeda begin." Ras Lijasu tapped the map. "There are bandits along the way, my lady of Terre d'Ange, who will not heed the Queen's seal; highland tribes never brought to heel. Are you sure you must venture thence?"
"Yes," I said. "I am."
He gave a gusty sigh. "And who knows what welcome the Sabaeans will give you! Well." He rolled the map and extended it to me. "Take it."
I did, with gratitude.
We went, all of us, joining the procession to see Safiya restored to her family. Her father fell to his knees, weeping; all told, there was a good deal of weeping on both sides. I had learned a bit, by then, of how she had come to be enslaved in Drujan. One did not ask such things, in the zenana of Daršanga. Women volunteered it or kept silent; one did not ask. Safiya's father had entrusted her unto the keeping of a caravan-guide, to maintain the accounts, on a journey to Iskandria. It was there that the Skotophagoti had claimed her.
Queen Zanadakhete had spoken true: the bone-priests had never penetrated Meroë.
Of Kaneka's case, I knew less, for she was reticent on the subject.
We made merry after Safiya's restoration; it had been a joyous homecoming, and we celebrated it into the small hours. I was glad, after all that had transpired, to see with my own eyes a member of the Mahrkagir's hareem returned to the bosom of her family. It felt a victory.
In the morning, Ras Lijasu's guide came for us.
He was mountain-bred, Tifari Amu, with skin the color of cinnamon, keen features and a quiet, capable manner. He and Kaneka conferred at length, arguing over the map, arguing over the number of donkeys required to bear our goods, arguing over everything; Kaneka truculent, the Ras' guide calm and insistent.
"I think she likes him," Imriel observed.
"Yes." I hid a smile. I had taught him well. "I think so, too."
Their arguments were settled, and the matter decided. We would strike south for Debeho, and thence on to the fabled land of Saba.
There were politics involved; there are always politics. It is a fact of life. Relations between Jebe-Barkal and Saba were nonexistent. We would test the waters for Queen Zanadakhete, our embassy owing naught as it did to Jebean politics. It was somewhat they could disown; a favor to the Lugal of Khebbel-im-Akkad, if need be.
I didn't care. Let them use us as they would. I was glad we were going.
SIXTY-EIGHT
OUR COMPANY consisted now of myself,