On Fire's Wings - Christie Golden [68]
That night, she sat alone in her small room. She had gathered some sandcattle cakes and even a few sticks, so that the fire would burn longer. She was nervous at what she was about to do, but resolute.
She laid the fire in the small fireplace, and said quietly, “Burn.”
Kevla was no longer startled or amazed by the fire that leaped into being at her verbal command. She stared into the fire, letting her vision soften around the edges. Faces and images started to form in the flame.
“Show me Yeshi,” she whispered.
At first, there was nothing. Then the flames shimmered and twisted, reforming into a familiar face.
She had done it. She had ordered the flames to show her a specific person, and they had obeyed. She grinned a little, flushed with her achievement, then concentrated.
There was another figure. Kevla blinked and rubbed at her eyes, striving to distinguish features. But the flame was not as exact as the eye, and as the two lovers embraced the image became blurred. She wondered if her little fire was too small. Perhaps if she had a larger fire, she could see more detail.
But how would she do so? It was hard enough to have a fire in her room at all. She could try to see in the larger fires in the kitchen, but Yeshi would not be with her lover during those times.
Kevla sighed and poured water on the small fire to extinguish it. She would simply have to keep trying.
And so she did, every night for the next several nights. She was embarrassed at doing so, but she felt certain that it was important. The fire was limiting in that it only showed Kevla images that were directly in front of it. If Yeshi were in her bed, the fire would not show her. Only when Yeshi and her lover passed directly before the fireplace in the bedroom she shared with Tahmu did the flames reveal the two to Kevla, and that did not happen every time Kevla scried. And never did Yeshi’s lover obligingly turn to look fully into the fire. Kevla couldn’t even tell if she saw one man or many, only that she was certain none of them was Tahmu.
About two weeks after she had begun her nightly observation, as she blushingly watched Yeshi and her lover entwined before their fireplace, Kevla realized she could understand words. That was something new—up until this point she could only see people in the fire, not hear them. She bent forward, her ears straining for anything of import. Her blushing increased as she realized that the two lovers were not speaking of anything Kevla needed to hear, only murmuring endearments and crude words. If only Yeshi would speak her lover’s name!
Some nights, Yeshi slept alone. Sometimes, she accepted Tahmu’s caresses. On such nights, Kevla quickly ended her spying.
More time passed. Still Kevla learned nothing useful, and she grew to find the activity extremely distasteful. But then, something happened while Tahmu was away that vindicated her gut instinct that Yeshi needed to be watched.
The great lady and her lover were finished by the time Kevla sat down to observe. Kevla was grateful for that, even with the indistinct images the flame showed her. The man sat behind Yeshi and brushed her hair. Again, his face was too indistinct for Kevla to make out his features. He was bearded, of course; all the men wore beards save Tahmu and Jashemi. He was large and muscular, and Yeshi sometimes winced as he attended her. Kevla couldn’t help but think that if any of her handmaidens had pulled her hair so often, Yeshi would have had them beaten.
“I like it when he is gone to a far corner of the land,” said Yeshi. “We can take our time.”
The man planted a kiss on Yeshi’s naked shoulder. “It is still too short a time to lie with you, my beloved. A lifetime would be too short.”
Kevla inhaled swiftly. She had heard that voice before, but where? She felt certain that she knew this man.
Yeshi did not reply, only continued gazing into the fire. Her lover moved on to rubbing her neck. She sighed and leaned against him.
“I can offer you no more than a lifetime,” she said, “but we will have at least that. Have you thought more on it?”
Kevla