On Fire's Wings - Christie Golden [94]
“Sahlik!” she screamed as she twisted in the implacable grasp of two of Yeshi’s servants. “Sahlik, help me, she tried to poison Tahmu…please! Help me!”
She screamed the last two words over and over, craning her neck to try to find the elderly servant. Hard hands clamped over her mouth. Kevla squirmed, fighting to escape, fighting to warn someone, fighting to breathe. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she knew no more.
Tahmu was pleased with the new irrigation system his men had devised. It would be a good year for the crops. He smiled as he turned Swift from the Four Waters and headed home.
The smile faded as he saw black smoke curling up from the house. He clapped heels to Swift and the horse sprang into a gallop. As he drew closer, he realized that the fire was coming from the kitchens. His heart contracted.
Kevla….
A small figure was running toward him. He recognized the youth as one of the kitchen servants. The boy was now waving frantically, and Tahmu slowed as he approached.
“Fire!” the boy gasped.
“I can see that,” Tahmu snapped. “Was anyone hurt?”
The boy nodded, leaning forward with his hands on his knees as he gulped air. “Your wife, great khashim. Her hands were burned. Asha is with her now.”
Tahmu saw that his rhia had been singed. “Is it bad?”
“Yes, khashim.”
Tahmu felt sick. “Will she have the use of her hands? What does Asha say?”
“I have not spoken with him, great lord.”
When he was done talking to the boy, he would ride to Asha’s hut. The youth was skilled and had been well taught. He would do all he could. It would have to be enough. Pleas to the Great Dragon would be in order.
“How did it start?”
The boy’s eyes were enormous as he replied, “Kevla.”
Tahmu’s heart sank. Yeshi would surely insist on a terrible punishment. Curse the girl’s carelessness! “What happened? Did she get too close to the fire?”
The boy shook his head solemnly. “Great lord…she made the fire. It flew from her hand like an arrow of flame.” Tears of fear filled his eyes. “The khashima named her…kuli.”
This could not be. Tahmu refused to believe it. Kevla was just a girl, a Bai-sha, not a demon. His mind raced back to that day so many years ago, when he had held her in front of him as they rode, just as he would a pure-blooded daughter. He thought of watching her dance in the square, of standing demurely by Yeshi, of her uncomplaining adaptation to life in the kitchens.
This was not a kuli. This was just a young woman.
“Yeshi said this?” he asked. “You are certain?” He knew he was grasping at straws, but perhaps, just perhaps, Yeshi was trying to turn a common kitchen accident into a way to destroy the young woman she hated.
The boy nodded. “Yes, great lord. But we all saw it. Yeshi just said it first.”
Tahmu began to tremble. Was it possible? Had he truly unleashed a kuli upon his household?
“There is one more thing, great lord,” said the boy. He looked even more frightened now than he had earlier, if such a thing was possible.
“Speak,” Tahmu said, in a hoarse voice.
“Kevla said that the khashima was trying to poison you.”
“Poison me?” The words were yet another blow. Yeshi disliked him, he knew that much, but poison him? Surely not. If Kevla had done what this boy said she had done—and he would speak to Sahlik, she would not participate in any slanderous campaign Yeshi had contrived to start against Kevla—then she was indeed a kuli, and her words were lies.
Asha was waiting outside the House for him. Anticipating his lord’s question, he said, “Great lord, Yeshi will recover. The burns are bad, and will leave their mark, but if Yeshi will let me tend her properly and obey me when I ask her to move her hands in certain ways, she will not lose the use of them.”
“Good,” Tahmu said. “May I see her?”
“Yes, but only briefly, my lord. Rest will help her heal.”
Tahmu nodded his understanding. A crowd was starting to gather. It was to be expected. He was the head of the Clan; when something like this