Courtship Rite

15

JOESAI WAS WORRIED, yet not ready to worry seriously. He had Teenae’s note and he was angry at her for slipping out of his protection in the town where two Kaiel families had been murdered; but she hadn’t promised to be back before dawn, and Getasun was only one diameter above the horizon. Noe, bless her, would not have gone without consulting everybody, but Teenae was Teenae. She liked secrets. Five of his men watched for her quietly.

Damn! I’ll spank her bare wheatcakes when I catch her. Restless, he left the inn and paced up the long quay. If they’ve hurt her I’ll hang their screaming skinless bodies for the bees to hive on.

He turned and saw Eiemeni approaching along the granite with Oelita and four of her fierce men. The way of their walk was foreboding. They were in a hurry. Her robes flapped in the sea breeze.

It was going to be the news about his wife. In a flash he suspected that Oelita had met his deception with a deadly counter-deception. I’ll kill her if Teenae is in danger! When Oelita was close enough so that he could see her face he knew his conjecture was right. “Teenae!” he hissed as he quenched his anger and poised himself with a tempered soul, ready for anything, emotionless.

“The Mnankrei have your wife! It’s my fault!” Her voice was stricken.

Of course he did not believe her. She had taken his headstrong child bride and was now paying off Joesai in the coin of some grisly joke. “Explain yourself.”

“Your wife left my place and four thugs took her. Two of my guards, who had been following her for protection, tried to interfere. The thugs left one unconscious. The other followed to spy.” A tall, deeply scarred man bowed. Oelita went on breathlessly, “I don’t know why they took her. Perhaps they thought she was me.”

“The ones who challenged you with a Death Rite?” he asked without letting his face show a flicker of disbelief.

“The Mnankrei? Yes. I don’t understand them,” she said.

Now there was a bluff for a temple’s game table! “Where is she now?” What is your price?

“On their ship. It arrived yesterday, warning of famine to the south.”

Joesai nodded to Eiemeni and his man left on the run. Oelita’s face was compassion. He did not know what to say. She seemed to be able to lie as well as he lied. He dared not openly voice his suspicion of her for fear of walking into a trap Oelita had set for him. His respect for her deviousness increased enormously. Not content to organize a defense against attack, she was returning the attack ruthlessly. It had never happened to him before. “I love that woman,” he said darkly, locking his eyes with the heretic. “Whosoever harms her, I shall destroy.”

Oelita touched his arm. Her treacherous sympathy enraged him.

“Why was she with you?” he asked.

“We were discussing a publication scheme I’ve had in mind for a while. We hardly talked about it. We played kol and chatted about gentleness and the reasons why people should not destroy each other. Your wife thought she might be able to help me get a book of mine printed.”

So that’s how you reached her, he thought in an aside to Teenae. He cursed himself. All the time he had spent with Oelita escorting her back to Sorrow along the coast, she had known who he was and was plumbing him for weaknesses, preparing her counter-offensive. She had audacity to flaunt herself in front of him now. But there was nothing he could do but pretend innocence while she pretended innocence. “I want her back,” he said.

“They’re still here.”

“Who?”

“The Mnankrei.” She pointed impatiently. “Their ship.”

He had to grant her a chagrined smile. She constructed her story well. A Mnankrei freighter was indeed at anchor far out in the bay, its sails furled. He did not believe for a moment that Teenae was aboard. “What do you suppose they want of her?” he said with muted sarcasm. “Ransom?”

She stared at the ship with hatred. “What do you suppose they want of me? I will get her back for you. I have a score to even with them.”

“That sounds brutal coming from the mouth of the Gentle Heretic.”

She smiled briefly and tweaked his nose. “There are ways to even scores without being brutal, my chitin-hearted man. Watch me! I am not powerless. They think to use your wife to trap me. I will trap them!”

Eiemeni trotted back along the quay. “She is held in yonder ship. It is confirmed.” Eiemeni had his eyes fixed on Joesai.

For the first time Joesai looked out at the ship with alarm. He braked his alarm. Best not to rush too fast, he thought. Eiemeni was not old enough to be aware of the intricate turnings which a trap might take. A magician could convince you that his head was full of pebbles.

Joesai explored different theories. If Oelita had an alliance with the Mnankrei then the deception of the Mnankrei Death Rite would have been transparent from the beginning. But if there was such an alliance then Oelita was truly dangerous and rescuing Teenae would pose grave risk and might not even be possible. I will be forced to negotiate with Oelita.

She left, promising to be back. Joesai gathered the key strategists of his group at the inn for a game council, awaiting further intelligence. Rumor spoke of Mnankrei priests at the temple offering the Stgal to bring in wheat if that should prove necessary. Finally one of Joesai’s scouts returned with a grin. He had boarded the Mnankrei ship as a “port inspector” and indeed caught a glance of Teenae below decks while pretending to check harbor regulations. She was naked and manacled.

That was all Joesai needed to know. “We’ll sink the ship,” he said. When I get Teenae back, I’ll keep her in irons myself, he thought gruffly, not meaning it. Then he called a planning session.