On Fire's Wings - Christie Golden [86]
Please take care of the One we both know. I understand you can tell her nothing, but keep a kind eye upon her.
My deepest regards to you and wishes for your continued good health.
Tahmu read and reread the note. Jashemi had not written names or any identifying terms, as they had agreed, and had used a code they had contrived when Jashemi was young. For a long moment he thought that some of the comments were in another sort of code, so strange did they seem to him.
Other lands beyond the mountains? No one had ever heard of such a thing. Of course, most clan leaders had very specific priorities that did not go beyond which other clan they would raid this season. But even he, who prided himself on being more farseeing than others, had never entertained such a thought.
For a moment, he wondered if Terku wasn’t playing a cruel trick on Jashemi. It would not be out of character for the wily old man. But Jashemi would not be taken in so easily. He would have tried to verify something on his own, as he had said in the letter he had done.
But Tahmu had heard nothing of this! He had spies far and wide, in every clan. He had scouts who had ranged to every corner of the country and returned. He had….
Despite the heat, Tahmu suddenly felt a chill. Such people were his, of course, as he was Clan Leader, but Halid commanded them.
One of four things was true, and none of them was pleasant.
Jashemi had been the victim of a cruel joke, one that Terku had gone to great lengths to execute.
Tahmu’s scouts and spies were idiots, failing to listen and report properly.
Halid was controlling the information he received from the spies and not reporting it to Tahmu.
And worst of all: Jashemi could be hearing the kulis again.
A knot formed in Tahmu’s belly. Of the four, the best option was the first, that somehow an elaborate prank was being played on his son. He hoped that was the case, but Jashemi was no fool.
The other three were unthinkable. He passed a hand over his face, wiping away sweat that felt cold to him, and began to compose a reply to his son.
Chapter Seventeen
The weeks crawled by, and not an hour passed that Jashemi did not think of Kevla. He missed her more than he thought possible.
His discussions with Shali had proven enlightening, and having gotten what information he could from her, Jashemi began to befriend some of the men who were close to his station, Shali’s brothers and Terku’s Second, a man named Melaan. Melaan seemed to Jashemi at first to be a peculiar choice for a Second. Halid was an enormous bull of a man, heavily muscled, tall, and powerful, if treacherous. Melaan was tall but slender, and seemed perpetually lost in thought.
But if Terku trusts him with so important a position, then there must be something there that I am not seeing, Jashemi thought as he sat under the stars, sated from the evening meal.
He, Melaan, and Terku’s youngest sons Raka and Kelem were all enjoying the slightly inebriated feeling that a full belly often produced. They stared up at the stars, and for a moment Jashemi permitted himself to become lost in their beauty and the old tales: of the First Clan Leader kneeling before the Great Dragon, who dictated how the clans should live; of the eight spirits who guarded the rain and river waters; of the Sand Maiden who tempted the First Clan Leader into lying with her, resulting in, logically enough, the First Clan.
He closed his eyes, wishing he had not thought of the last myth. For it was no Sand Maiden he saw, but Kevla, her face alight, reaching for him. Jashemi took a deep breath and deliberately turned his thoughts away from that dangerous path.
“It is a peaceful night,” he said, “to think that somewhere men are fighting.”
“The stars are above us all,” said Melaan. “They care nothing for our petty joys and quarrels. They shine on death and birth all the same.”
Jashemi turned and regarded him in the dim light. Melaan