'She didn't look any too pleased.' Dev came in from the corridor wearing a crooked smile.

'Quiet!' As Kheda walked back into the warlord's private sitting room, a blur of green and scarlet beyond the high windows caught his eye.

A flurry of fig-thieves erupted from a spread of rustlenut trees on the distant heights that loomed beyondthe forbidding outer wall of the fortress. Kheda shaded his eyes with a hand to see a yellow-banded eagle slice through the hysterical flock. Then a second eagle appeared, sending the little birds darting this way and that in terror. The first predator swooped low, wheeling and disappearing into the topmost branches of the copper-leafed trees. Then the second reappeared seemingly out of nowhere to scatter the fig-thieves again. Each eagle flapped its mighty wings and rose high into the air with a plump corpse in its talons.

Kheda caught his breath as a third eagle darted out of a stand of ironwood trees barely visible against the shadows of the high ground. It looked as if it would fly straight into the lower of the original pair, only veering away at the very last second. The startled eagle tumbled ungainly through the air, letting go of its prize. The attacker was ready, stooping to catch the lifeless fig-thief before vanishing into the dark-green gloom. The bereft eagle flapped disconsolately after its mate, venting its rage in a harsh scream. A thread of that mournful, angry cry floated through the air to brush Kheda's ear.

'What is it?' demanded Dev.

'An omen,' Kheda said slowly, 'in the arc of the sky where one looks for portents for the self. What are the stars in that reach of the sky?' he mused, speaking more to himself than to Dev. 'It's the Bowl, still hidden below the horizon, though. Token of shared food and drink, so of mutual support and faithfulness.'

'Which means what?' Dev persisted. 'For you or for Chazen?'

'The eagle is a warlord's symbol,' Kheda said slowly.

'So are you the one robbed or the opportunist snatching advantage?' asked Dev, idly amused.

'My lord?' An apologetic knock at the outer door startled warlord and barbarian alike.

'Tasu?' Kheda whirled around. 'There were three eagles, a pair and one other. Three always signifies a potent omen, that much we can be sure of - usually notice of something entirely unexpected, according to my father. What do you have to add?'

The old man advanced through the anteroom. 'Could you see which birds were cock and which were hen, my lord?'

'No,' said Kheda slowly, 'which could have been significant. Was that some wiser female robbing an inexperienced younger sister? Can we expect Janne's rapaciousness to defeat Itrac?'

'What were the little birds?' wondered Dev mischievously. 'Aren't they all part of this?'

'My father always said there's unlooked-for wisdom in chance words.' Kheda stared at him. 'You may be right, for all you're an ignorant barbarian.'

'That's me.' Dev grinned.

Tasu coughed uncertainly at this exchange. 'Fig-thieves are no innocents, my lord. They're pests with their incessant sneaking into storehouses and granaries and they foul whatever they don't plunder. Little short of fire scares them off,' he concluded thoughtfully.

'Do you suppose they signify the invaders?' Kheda wondered. 'Am I the yellow-banded eagle throwing them all into confusion?'

'Or is that the dragon?' asked Dev slyly. 'Or if you're the first bird, is it your present wife or your former who's flying off with a plump dinner?'

'You're not really helping.' Kheda warned Dev off with a scowl.

Or is that more unlooked-for wisdom in an ignorant mouth?

'This might be some kind of warning.' Tasu frowned. 'Such noisy birds carry their alarm to the whole forest. None of those eagles will hunt successfully in these woods today.'

'Perhaps the eagle is the dragon,' Kheda said slowly. 'It's certainly spreading alarm among the wild men, according to the Mist Dove's dispatches.'

'Is there anything in the night skies to make sense of such an omen, my lord?' Tasu asked humbly.

'The Diamond, the warlord's talisman, is sharing the sky with the Sea Serpent, token of unseen forces at work. There's a warning there but it counsels self-sufficiency as well,' Kheda mused. 'And both are in the heavenly arc where one looks for omens for siblings and anyone close through friendship rather thanblood.'

Itrac may not he a true wife to me hut she must count as close as a sister in this so-called marriage of ours.

'Is there anything significant in direct opposition?' prompted Tasu.

'The Opal,' Kheda said briefly, 'which unlocks emotion and rides in the arc of travel and ambition, along with the Sailfish whose self-assured boldness can so easily slip into exaggeration. Maybe that's why Janne Daish has journeyed here so confident that she'll secure all she wants,' he said sourly.

'What exactly has any of that to do with eagles?' Dev wondered with spurious innocence. 'And forgive me, my lord, but we're supposed to be going to dine with my lady Itrac and our guest from Daish.'

'Indeed,' said Kheda heavily. 'And what a delightful prospect that is.' He turned to Tasu. 'What brought you here? Have any more courier doves arrived?'

'No, my lord,' the old man said apologetically. 'Though I did check right before I came to see you. It's just I found something about sharks. You said you were curious about their lore, what with the omen-'

'Yes,' said Kheda, diverted. 'What have you found?'

'There's this.' Tasu took a heavy book bound with red-tooled black leather from under his arm and opened it. 'In an otherwise positive context, a shark can be an encouragement to perseverance.' He tapped smoothly flowing writing below a detailed portrayal of all manner of sharks. 'You see, there are sharks, many of them, that must keep swimming otherwise they drown.' He frowned. 'Which is a curious fate for a fish. I'm sorry, my lord, it's not much but it's all I found. A shark can be a sign that you must just keep on going, keep doing all you can.'

'Otherwise we're all sunk,' said Dev quietly. 'There might just be something in that.'

Kheda looked at him. 'We're doing all we can, aren't we? I certainly trust Risala to keep going north at best speed.'

'I'm sure we're all doing everything we can,' said Dev meaningfully, 'whether or not we can see each other doing it.'

'I'll bid you good evening, my lord.' Tasu shut his book with a brisk clap. 'I wouldn't want to intrude further.'

'You're not and thank you.' Kheda grinned. 'I'll see you tomorrow.'

'Good night, my lord.' Tasu withdrew with a low bow. 'What now?' asked Dev tersely.

Kheda jerked his head towards the bath chamber. 'Try again.'

The wizard groaned and turned but another knock on the outer door halted him. He went to open it instead.

'My lord.' Beyau was twisting his warrior's hands together with some considerable emotion.

'I take it we're ready to offer Janne a dinner to equal any Daish could present?' Kheda shot Dev a wry look. 'We'll keep the conversation strictly limited to the food and the seasonings. Itrac will follow my lead there.'

'It'll be a splendid meal, my lord, but it'll just be you and my lady Itrac who will enjoy it.' Beyau couldn't keep the indignation out of his voice. 'My lady Janne Daish has just sent word that she wishes to dine alone in her suite tonight.'

'Daish courtesy is certainly lessened of late,' said Kheda with sudden irritation. Then he smiled with patently false sympathy. 'The exertions of the voyage must have caught up with her. She's neither as young as she was nor as tireless as she thinks she still is. Make sure our household offers every comfort that a woman of her years might welcome.'

'I can think of a few suitable things, my lord.' Beyau chuckled before schooling his face into proper immobility. 'So where will you dine, my lord?'

'I certainly don't want to miss out on such a feast even if Janne Daish is so weary.' Kheda glanced in the direction of the various wives' apartments. 'And everyone's had a long and busy day, so I see no need to have the whole household dancing attendance on me and Itrac. We'll eat in my private audience chamber, with just our own slaves to waiton us. Let the kitchens know; I'll tell Itrac. Dev, you tidy up in here and then help set things out for the meal.'

'Yes, my lord,' the barbarian replied stolidly.

'Of course, my lord.' Beyau bowed low before turning to go.

Then all the servants and the slaves who aren't waiting on us can eat their food hot from the kitchens, instead of waiting for we exalted three to tire of the plenty and allow them the cooling leavings. That should win me some goodwill, and that never goes amiss.

Kheda walked through the corridors and courtyards, nodding to acknowledge the servants and slaves busy with the constant care of the residence. Garden servants in workaday cotton were removing faded blooms from the splendid arrays of flowers or sweeping the spotless tiles with rustling palm-frond brooms. Inner-household slaves protected their silk sleeves with long, soft cotton gloves as they polished finger marks from gleaming brassware and adjusted painted hangings showing vistas of all the differing isles of the domain.

He knocked on the door to Itrac's private sitting room. Jevin opened it. 'My lord.' He bowed and looked past Kheda for Dev. 'You're alone?'

'Dev's arranging my private audience chamber for our meal.' Kheda entered the room. 'It seems Janne Daish finds herself too weary to dine with us. I see no point in the two of us rattling around the banqueting hall.'

'As you wish, my lord.' Itrac stood in the middle of the room, wearing a shimmering gold gown cut close to flatter her slenderness. Kheda noted both anger and apprehension in her eyes, and with her paler skin, he could see the hint of a blush underlaying the rose powder on her cheekbones. Her gold-painted lips were pressed tightly together. 'Or we can dine in the banqueting hall if you'd rather,' he offered.

'What?' Itrac looked at him, momentarily confused. 'No, I'd rather it was just the two of us. As you say, it's been a long day. And I've had about all I can stomach of Janne,' she added in a sudden rush of anger.

'She's been walking in and out of my rooms ever since she arrived, as if she were mistress here. She won't take a hint, from me or the servants, and that slave of hers is deaf to anything Jevin says to him.

She kept reminiscing about how informal we'd all been when Olkai and Sekni were here.'

'You should have sent word to me.' Kheda saw Itrac flinch at his harsh tone. 'No, I'm not cross with you, just with her discourtesy. But why didn't you send word? I thought we agreed we'd meet her together.'

'I didn't know how to get rid of her without being insulting. It seemed silly to make a fuss, when she was being all sweetness and sympathy and offering compliments on how well I'm managing the domain.' Itrac bit her lip, twisting her long, gold-tipped fingers among the graduated strings of yellow lustre pearls that reached to her waist. 'Then I realised she was treating me like a little girl who's been out in the sun too long. And she kept reminding me that Olkai and Sekni are dead and gone, even though she was saying how proud they would be of me.'

Indignation rose above the tremor in her voice as she went on. 'And now, after we've disrupted the entire household to try to provide a fitting banquet, when she was the one setting us all awry by arriving early, she says she's too tired to join us!'

I used to admire her manoeuvrings, when they were to further Daish interests. It's not so amusing to be on the receiving end of such manipulations.

'So now she's got you wound to such a pitch that you'll be awake half the night fretting or fuming and she'll have the advantage of you in the morning when it comes to negotiating your trades,' Kheda pointed out. 'Let's not fall into that trap. Let's just commiserate with her weariness and do all we can to make her comfortable. She'll thank us profusely, at the same time letting slip some hint that we're falling short of perfect hospitality - which, of course, she forgives, after all we've been through. Which we will, of course, ignore.'

'And what if she spreads tales of our inadequate welcome to the other domains?' Itrac twisted one of the thick gold rings she wore on every finger.

Kheda paused for a moment's thought. 'I think you might share your concerns that she's become sadlyexacting in her old age. We're sorry for her, seeing how her insecurity must be gnawing at her. As soon as Sirket marries, after all, she will lose all her status and need to find another home.'

He realised he was pacing back and forth across the room and stopped abruptly.

'I don't think anyone will believe that janne's going senile,' Itrac said, subdued. 'She already knows we want to trade pearls for gems. I wasn't intending to talk trade at all, not till tomorrow, but she kept coming in chatting about this and that. She was telling me what we needed and how she would help and if T hadn't said no and told jevin to escort her back to her rooms, she'd have probably set sail tonight to put everything in hand as if I'd agreed to it all.' She looked at Kheda, beseeching. 'That must be why she's feeling so insulted.'

'That's why she's withdrawn, now she realises she's underestimated you,' Kheda corrected. 'I think you'll find she's more inclined to treat you as an equal tomorrow. Anyway, it's me who insulted her.' 'How?'

Itrac asked, wide-eyed. 'Firstly for her discourtesy in coming to my private apartments before we'd publicly received her.' Kheda hesi- tated. 'And she thinks she can get all the pearls she wants from us because we're so desperate to pay some barbarian for tales of how to kill the beast. I've put her right on that, never fear. Hold out for a fair trade and she'll back down, trust me.' He took one of Itrac's gold-ringed hands and gave it an encouraging squeeze. 'Because if she starts making trouble for us, we can start making trouble for her.

Remember, she really doesn't want anyone knowing just how poor the Daish pearl harvest has been, not officially.'

'I don't know how to say things like that, not without making an open threat.' Itrac looked at him anxiously. 'Olkai always used to deal with that kind of thing.'

'Just do your best, Kheda encouraged. 'It's not as if there will be wives from other domains whispering behind their hands as they gauge your skills.'

'I suppose not,' Itrac allowed, with an inelegant grimace. 'Jevin, leave us,' she said abruptly. 'Go and see if Dev needs any help.'

What do we do if the boy comes upon him working magic?

Kheda realised there was nothing he was going to be able to do about it. Itrac plainly had something pressing to say to him, holding tightly to his hand when he would have withdrawn it.

'Janne seemed most concerned that I shouldn't ask too much of myself as Chazen's only wife.' Itrac swallowed, looking down at her feet. 'She was sure you'd have more sense than to look to father a child in such troubled times. She said everyone knew that I'd chosen Saril for love and that this marriage is only a safeguard for me. She said your taste had never really run to virgins, that you'd left Sain to come to you in her own time, since that was also purely a marriage of alliance. She said Olkai would have told me the same, if she'd lived.'

'While she tried to persuade me that I should scorn you and allow one of my children by Daish to claim Chazen,' Kheda interrupted. 'Janne's very good at dripping honeyed poison into unwilling ears. I wonder she didn't hint at some inadequacy in the marriage bed on my part, that you'd not be missing much.'

He realised Itrac was pulling away, rebuffed by his churlishness. He took both her hands in his and leaned forward to kiss her scented cheek. 'I told her to mind Daish business while we minded Chazen's, the two of us, as we see fit, in our own time, without her interference or anyone else's.'

Itrac turned her head to meet his kiss with her soft lips, her eyes closing on the diamond glint of a tear beneath her lashes. 'I think I'm ready to be a proper wife to you, Kheda,' she breathed. 'And Janne can go -'

A loud knock at the door startled the two of them apart. 'My lord?' It was Dev. 'Your dinner's ready, my lord.' He bowed to Itrac. 'My lady.'

'I'll be along in a moment.' Itrac slipped away into her dressing room. 'Don't wait.'

Kheda looked at Dev, who was grinning broadly in the doorway. 'What's amusing you?' he asked finally as they reached the corridor leading to his personal apartments.

'Jevin tells me I'll be sleeping out in the corridortonight.' The wizard smirked lasciviously at Kheda's side.

'Finally decided to exercise your rights there, have you?'

'I haven't decided.' Kheda scowled. 'Though it seems Itrac has. I'm wondering how Janne will read it-'

'What was Tasu saying about shark omens?' Dev silenced him with a backhanded slap to the chest. 'You should stop looking over your shoulder and up at the skies and all around the compass and just do what's in front of you. Or who's in front of you,' he amended with a lewd chuckle. 'You've every right to take Itrac in any way you want. You've had that right for half a year now and, Saedrin save us, your stones must ache like you've caught them in a vice. What more is there to think about?

Itrac's a choice piece. Or isn't she quite what you fancy? So close your eyes and imagine she's Risala.'

Kheda halted and shoved Dev hard against the wall, knotting a hand in his tunic. 'Shut your foul, ignorant barbarian mouth-'

'You could do with something to ease your tension, sure as curses,' Dev continued, entirely at his ease.

'And as it happens, I think this household and the whole domain would be usefully reassured to see their warlord throwing a rope to their lady at long last. Come to that, I think she might benefit from a little firm reassurance herself. She'll certainly be fit for nothing in the morning if you turn her down tonight, now she's got her nerve up. That bitch Janne will see it in an instant and take all the advantage she can, you know that.'

'You know-' Kheda broke off, unable to deny the unpalatable truths in Dev's words.

'I'm a faithful slave who is supposed to give you honest advice,' the barbarian said viciously. 'So listen when I give it. You've been saying how we need keep everything sailing along on a nice even keel till Risala and the Green Turtle get back, and that's not going to be any time soon. This is no time for you to rock the boat. Now get your hands off me before I break your face,' he concluded in an undertone.

'My lord?' Beyau appeared further up the corridor, his voice uncertain.

Kheda let go of Dev and stepped back. 'We're just coming.'

'Our lord and lady only require their personal slaves.' Dev looked past him to Beyau.

'That's right.' Kheda forced a smile. 'The rest of you can take some time for yourselves.' He walked slowly back towards the open door where the tempting scents of a sumptuous dinner sought to draw him on.

So I'm cornered, with no option but enjoying an intimate dinner with every delicacy and beautiful, willing Itrac as the final dish. When I'd rather be sharing dried meats and stale water on some crowded trading beach with Risala, with no more than the chance of just talking with her.

So much for a warlord's absolute power.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.