Rekha's stinging slap rocked Kheda's head sideways and scattered his wrathful thoughts. 'How dare you think I am anything but loyal to Daish,' she hissed furiously.

'Excuse me, Rekha Daish.' He managed to turn his heated thoughts into icy formality. 'As I'll forgive you for presuming on our previous acquaintance to risk such a remarkable breach of etiquette in speaking to me like this. I will see you at dinner. I certainly don't want to see you again before.'Without a backward glance, he turned and walked swiftly out of the building. Two men pushed themselves away from the outer wall where they had been leaning. Both wore the same vivid blue silk that now clad all the household.

'Dev.' Kheda gave a curt nod to either side as they flanked him. 'Jevin. How long were you there?'

'Long enough,' Dev replied smugly. 'Do you want a poultice for that cheek?' he asked with unctuous solicitude.

Kheda ignored the barbarian, fixing his attention on the Archipelago-born slave. 'My lady Itrac will be most interested to learn what Rekha Daish had to say to me.'

'Yes, my lord.' There was a certain wariness in the youthful Jevin's words.

'Go and tell her everything, you understand me?' Kheda paused on the steps of his personal pavilion. 'I'll bathe and come to her as quickly as I can. I want to know her thoughts on this before we dine with my lady of Daish.'

'Very good, my lord.' Jevin loped off with alacrity. 'Everything's ready.' Dev jerked his head towards the warlord's personal pavilion. The slaves on the broad steps bowed low. With a grunt of acknowledgement for the hovering steward, Kheda went inside and crossed the cool cream-tiled hall to the bathroom door.

'Out, all of you.' His scowl cleared the room of a trio of anxious servants in an instant. 'Not, not you, Dev. Keep an eye on the path.'

'There she goes,' Dev observed, peering through the slatted shutters. 'At quite a pace for such an elegant piece.' The drawstring of his trousers was knotted stubbornly tight. Too irritated to try unpicking it, Kheda snapped the cord and kicked the garment aside. Stepping into the deep bath set in the floor, he emptied a ewer of standing water over his head. It was colder, than he had expected on his sun-warmed skin and he gasped. 'Where's she heading?'

'That must be her slave waiting for her at the next bridge.' Dev moved a little for a better view. 'Yes, he's tagging after her like a well-trained hound. She's going back to the guest pavilion.'

'To gather her wits in privacy.' Kheda dipped a handful of aromatic liquid soap from a bowl and lathered his hair and beard briskly.

'I reckon she might try for some privacy with you again before she goes back home,' said Dev with lewd emphasis.

'Then you will play the proper slave for a change and sleep across my threshold to keep her out.' Kheda washed himself vigorously with a soapy cloth.

'I don't think so,' said Dev with distaste. 'I'll find some little maid girl to keep watch on the footbridge and come and warn me if her ladyship goes for a midnight stroll.'

'Find someone to keep an eye on that galley of hers.' Kheda began rinsing away the suds that covered him. 'I want to know exactly when she lets a message bird fly.'

'Do you want it brought down?' Dev suggested. 'I could do that without anyone noticing and you can always blame one of the gull hawks.'

'No.' Kheda ran firm hands over his head and face to force water out of his hair and beard.

'There have been plenty of Chazen courier doves winging their way home over the last ten days or so, from what Jevin tells me. I'll go and check if any of them are bringing news from the west. You'll want to know exactly where the remaining wild men are to be found, so you can plan your new campaign against them properly' Dev threw Kheda a towel as he climbed out of the bath. 'And whatever her haughtiness Rekha Daish might say, Itrac is managing to trade with other domains. At least, she's found someone to give her enough silk to cover your arse in suitable style. Come and see.'

Drying himself, Kheda followed the barbarian through the door that led straight from the bathroom into his spacious bedchamber. Dev lifted two full-sleeved tunics from the broad, low bed. 'The grey or the tan, my lord?' he asked with mock obsequiousness.

'I don't suppose you thought to ask what Itrac will be wearing?' Kheda considered the skilfully cut and sewn garments. The grey was a dark hue shot through with blue like a rainy-season cloud. The tan was a warmer colour with a vibrant golden gloss. There hadn't been time for any embroidery on either, however.'As it happens, I did,' retorted Dev. 'Yellow, so the lad said.'

'The tan then.' Kheda reached for the trousers. 'What gems do we have to dress it up?'

'Precious few.' Dev tossed the tunic across and Kheda pulled it over his head.

'I suppose it's too much to hope that any more of the domain's heirlooms have come to light while we've been away?' The cloth muffled his words.

'No such luck,' the barbarian confirmed as he unlocked a coffer set on a stand beside the bed. 'I'll bet Daish and Ritsem skippers are trading them even as we speak.'

'Keep that opinion to yourself, barbarian,' Kheda warned, 'unless you want me to read your fate in your entrails when some mariner guts you. Archipelagans aren't thieves like you northerners. We'll find most of the loot with those last savages penned up in the west.'

'Which is another good reason to finally see them all dead,' said Dev with happy anticipation.

'So you can try your hand at plundering the wealth they stole?' Kheda challenged. 'Not when Itrac needs those talismans and heirlooms to trade for everything this domain so desperately lacks.'

'You don't think she'll have enough pearls?' Dev stirred the paltry selection of ornaments in the upper tray of the chest with a disdainful finger. 'What do you want out of here?'

'Not pearls, with this colour silk,' Kheda commented as he came to pull a fine gold chain out of a tangle of links. He took off his silver ring with its uncut talisman emerald and threaded the chain through it.

'If you say so.' Dev shrugged. 'I never had to play the lady's maid back home.'

'Just be thankful I didn't end up saving your skin by making you a slave to my lady wife,' Kheda taunted as he slipped the chain over his neck and tucked the ring beneath the neck of his tunic. 'Do you think you would have liked learning how to paint Itrac's face and nails?

What else have we got?'

'Turtleshell and that's about it.' Dev lifted out the padded silk tray to reveal variegated bracelets polished to a mirror finish.

'Those will do.' Kheda pushed a matched pair over his knuckles and thrust heavy gold rings on all his fingers. 'And that belt.'

'This one?' Dev picked out the piece Kheda had indicated with his nod. It was made of plaques of turtleshell joined by chased gold links.

And carefully adjusted to fit me, not Chazen Saril's greater girth.

'And anklets to finish the set?' Dev held out two more pieces with faint derision.

Kheda settled the belt on his hips and secured the clasp before taking the anklets and snapping them around the hems of his trousers, drawing in the loose cloth. 'You don't reckon much to turtleshell, do you? Nor pearls, if you're honest, not for more than they can buy you. Why is that?'

'Probably because I'm an ignorant barbarian with no understanding of their talismanic value,' said Dev smoothly, Or is it because you are a wizard? The savage mages that came with the invaders, they spurned pearls and turtleshell alike, seeking only to loot our gemstones. You claim to have no idea why. Is that the truth?

Kheda let that question pass unspoken and unanswered. 'Whatever Rekha's plotting, I don't think we'll need armoured guards at dinner but you should wear your swords if not your hauberk. Go and get them.'

'Yes, my lord.' Sarcasm and relief weighted Dev's words in equal measure.

'And now I had best go to see Itrac' Kheda smoothed his hair and beard, already as good as dry with the heat of the day slow to fade till the sun was utterly set. So we can decide our strategy before we go to dine with Rekha.

CHAPTER FOUR.

Kheda headed for the door leading from the bedchamber into the hall. Dev followed and slid away towards the rear of the building.

The stocky steward who had been waiting outside the pavilion stepped up smartly and bowed low. 'It's good to see you back, my lord.'

'I'm happy to be back, Beyau,' Kheda replied courteously. 'Is everything in good order here? Please, walk with me to my lady Itrac's pavilion.'Would you tell me if things weren't going smoothly or try to fix any problem before I discovered it, rather than come and seek my counsel? How am I ever going to be wholly at ease with this household or they with me? Daish slaves knew they were free to speak their minds at all times, but we'd known each other since I was a child, for the most part. I don't feel I know anyone here. But never take your servants for granted, that's what Daish Reik always said, or one day you 'll stretch out your hand for something and it'll stay empty.

'We're managing well enough now we've a full complement of servants,' the steward said slowly as they walked across the island into the fast-fading evening light. 'Hopefuls wash up with every tide but I'm not letting them stay unless they were part of the household before - or unless they look as if they'd be handy with a sword.' He hesitated, muscular hands clasped behind his stiff back as he walked. 'I've nearly doubled the warriors in your retinue.'

'Those you're sending away, are they returning to their homes?' Kheda glanced at the man as they reached the first bridge over the shimmering water. Beyau's burly build was ill-suited to the elegantly cut silk of a household slave's formal tunic and Kheda noted that he still affected the close-cropped hair and beard of a fighting man. 'Are you giving them all you can to help them rebuild what they have lost?'

'All we can spare, my lord,' Beyau assured him fervently before hesitating again. 'Touai, who is first among my lady Itrac's attendants, she thinks we could spare more if we weren't maintaining so many warriors in the residence.' 'Do we have the same numbers of swords as in Chazen Saril's day yet?'

Kheda nodded as Beyau shook his head. 'Then you can take on every likely swordsman until we do. The domain must present a decent Show of force to our neighbours.'

Not that all the swords of the Archipelago could turn aside the magic of the savages, if they invade again.

'And you're right to encourage those who are coming back to return to their homes, to rebuild their villages,' the warlord continued. 'We need all hands working the land, not outstretched for unearned food.' Then Kheda hesitated in his turn. 'All able hands, that is. Are there many coming back unable to make shift for themselves, out of injury to mind or body?'

Is that one of the mysteries we might solve in hunting down the last of the savages? Why did they imprison so many of our people and treat them so abominably?

'No.' Beyau looked grim, dark scowl gilded by the sun on the far horizon. 'Those who were held captive by the savages mostly just come back to die, my lord, if they come back at all.'

Dying of despair as much as the injuries they suffered being starved and beaten and worked till they dropped.

'Whereas you came back to take up your father's role.'

Kheda paused to look the thickset man in the eye. 'Don't think I don't appreciate that.'

'We'll be ready for them if they ever come again.' Beyau looked away, out over the southern waters, sword hand straying to the crescent dagger at his belt.

'We will,' Kheda assured him.

As long as you keep Dev happy, and keep his true nature a secret, so you can meet sorcerous fire with sorcerous fire. Can you really afford to send him away once he's satisfied his curiosity about the savages?

But what will these people think if they ever uncover such a deception?

Kheda gestured towards one of the islands on the outer edge of the reef where long huts surrounded a pounded expanse of sandy soil. 'I take it you're drilling the swordsmen yourself?'

Beyau looked uncertain. 'I know it's not my place-'

'We're none of us in the places we held before the invaders came,' Kheda said unguardedly. 'Your father may have been the residence steward but you were rising fast in the ranks of the guard - Itrac told me as much. There's no one better to train them, is there? Tell me honestly,' he commanded, seeing the man's reluctance.

The steward squared his impressively muscled shoulders. 'Jevin just isn't used to assuming command, my lord, and some of the older ones aren't inclined to take orders from a lad as young as him. I thought it best to step in till you returned.''Good. Then you can continue taking charge until you find someone fit to be raised to captain. Dev's less experience of command than Jevin,' Kheda said bluntly, 'and there's nothing a barbarian can teach an Archipelagan about swordplay'

'No, my lord.' Beyau's voice was neutral but a grin plucked at the corners of his generous mouth.

'Mind you,' Kheda said thoughtfully, 'Rekha Daish's body slave, Andit, he's both experienced and old enough to command respect among your would-be warriors. Your younger boys could learn some useful tricks from him, if you invite him to share in the daily training sessions while he's here. I take it Jevin has extended the usual courtesies to him?'

'I wouldn't know, my lord,' said Beyau stolidly, 'but I was thinking I might breakfast with him and Andit tomorrow.'

So Jevin still needs a hint or two. Let's hope Andit will know how to give a few tactful suggestions to a lad thrust into precedence over a residence guard with no elder body slave's example to follow. That wouldn't compromise his loyalty to Rekha Daish.

They walked across the islet to the next bridge in thoughtful silence.

'Where are we dining tonight?' Kheda asked as they crossed the gently flexing planks. 'And who is dining with us, besides Rekha Daish?'

'A banquet is to be served in my lady Itrac Chazen's great hall.' Beyau didn't hide his unease. 'With all the shipmasters invited.' He waved a hand at the various galleys and triremes safely anchored around the reefs.

'Whose idea was that?' Kheda frowned as they reached a sandy nub of reef where walkways branched off in several directions across the corals.

'I believe it was Rekha Daish's suggestion,' Beyau answered neutrally. 'My lady Itrac agreed it would be a splendid way to celebrate the turn of the year.'

'Then you must have a great deal to organise. Don't let me keep you. Unless there's anything else?'

'No, my lord.' Beyau bowed low.

Kheda dismissed him with a nod and walked on alone.

So Rekha has some plan to show all the shipmasters - what? That she and I still share the familiarity of husband and wife? That I still find her desirable? That Itrac has none of Rekha's poise or her daunting experience in the complexities of trade?

Itrac must want to make a fight of it, though, otherwise she'd have come up with some reason for the three of us to dine alone. Or would she have thought of that in time? I don't think I need any omens to tell me this isn't going to be a relaxing meal.

Seeing Chazen islanders on all sides as well as servants and slaves, Kheda went on his way with a calculatedly carefree expression, acknowledging dutiful obeisance with a smile. By the time he reached the wide island where the first wife of Chazen always dwelt, his face felt tense and his shoulders stiff under the heavy weight of the unspoken expectation he saw on every face.

The central pavilion was huge, a hollow square offering luxurious accommodation for the extended household customary for every noblewoman of an Archipelagan domain. Wings on either side would house her faithful retainers and those craftsmen she summoned from time to time to consult on the domain's wealth and prospects. Lesser quarters for her countless servants and slaves were tucked discreetly away at the rear.

Kheda went up the broad, shallow steps and pushed open the wide double doors to enter the spacious hall that occupied one whole side of the building. The floor was tiled in soft green and the lofty walls were decorated with hangings of translucent silk painted with seascapes in countless shades of blue. There was room for Itrac to meet with every diver and polisher whose pearls and turtleshell she would trade for the good of the domain.

Two servants were unrolling a thick carpet of mottled-blue silk with white and silver fish darting through a pattern of green seaweed and a border of multicoloured squid. They froze at Kheda's entrance, along with a waiting crowd of household slaves, their arms full of sapphire cushions. Outdoor servants in undyed cotton appeared at a side door carrying long, low tables and an indignant exclamation died away to nothing as whoever had uttered it realised thatthe warlord was among them.

'Don't let me interrupt you.' Waving away dutiful bows, Kheda walked across the hall and out through the tall doors on the far side into the enclosed garden beyond. It was hot and still, the mingled perfumes of vizail, jessamine and white basket flowers heavy in the air. Grey and scarlet shadow-finches were clustered in a corner of their aviary at the heart of the garden and barely chirruped as Kheda passed.

Three different gaudy glory-birds in a spinefruit tree watched him without stirring a feather.

Kheda walked slowly towards the steps leading to the central entrance to the fourth side of the pavilion's hollow heart. Doors on either side stood closed and barred. The apartments for those children of the domain grown to an age of discretion and ready to learn all their complex duties from their first mother stood in echoing emptiness.

Even if Itrac invited me to her bed tonight and my seed took root, it would be many years before I had a son grown into his strength or a daughter grown to the wisdom needed to rule in her own right. I had sons and daughters in Daish and I loved them more than I thought possible. Could I ever love children born here in the same way?

Would Rekha come here as a Chazen wife? Janne would have no right to stop her bringing her younger children, the ones below the age of reason - Vida, little Mie and Noi.

You could see your daughters taught all they would need to know to rule Chazen. Vida could be promised to some lesser son of Ritsem or Redigal and the other two married to the heirs of those domains. Ritsem Caid and Redigal Coron were always your friends. Chazen would be more secure in its alliances than it has been for generations.

Wouldn't that be doing your duty by these people?

'My lord Chazen Kheda.' Jevin's precipitate arrival beside him interrupted the perfidious notions that Kheda found so hard to shake off. The youthful slave opened the door with a smile of relief. 'Your lady wife is pleased to see you.'

'And I to see her.' Kheda recovered himself and went inside.

Itrac Chazen's personal audience chamber was an airy room floored with the Ulla domain's most prized lustre tiles. The sunrise-pink walls were hung with draperies of white silk painted with a riot of colourful birds flitting among nut palms and lilla trees. A low table of creamy marbled halda wood in the middle of the floor was surrounded by plum-coloured cushions. Kheda noted a litter of the thin silver cylinders that courier doves carried clasped to their scaly legs and slips of coiled paper fine as onion skin. Reed pens lay across an open inkwell in the midst of them.

'I was glad to hear you'd returned safely. How fares our domain, my husband?' Standing by the table, Itrac Chazen wore a gown of sunshine silk shot with a blush of pink, the whispering pleats of the full skirt belted close to her slim waist with a heavy golden chain. The modest bodice rose to a high neck, leaving her slender arms and shoulders bare. She wore a triple-stranded collar of lustrous pink conch pearls and bracelets of the same sea gems. More gleamed in the net of fine braids woven from her own long hair, holding the wealth of midnight locks off her face to cascade down her back to her waist. Subtle paints of gold and shell-pink made an exquisite mask of her eyes and mouth.

'Well enough, my lady wife. I visited every major island and every group of lesser ones and the spokesmen brought me word of each village. There were few enough healers bringing illnesses or injuries for my advice and I didn't need to sit in judgement on any disputes. Our people are busy rebuilding their homes and their lives and looking forward to a better future.'

Whereas you're looking thinner than is good for you and even Jevin's skilled hand with a cosmetic brush can't hide your weariness and apprehension. Though I see determination in your eyes. That's better than the grief and confusion when we first came here.