"Haifa yellow squash with stuff baked inside it."

"Can't put anything past you when you put your mind to it, can I?"

Arif said, "I don't like this stuff, Mom." Stafa echoed him immediately. The younger boy was just into that stage.

"You haven't tried it yet."

Aaron didn't think he would like it, either, but it turned out to be good. The boys did right by their portions, too.

Laella had filled the partially baked squash halves with a mix of chopped andsliced vegetables, and slivers of mutton, in a heavy, spicy brown sauce. There were mushrooms and nut meats in there, too. And dates promised for afterwardfor boys who ate their supper.

Old Raheb worked on her meal without speaking. Hers had been cooked longer so meat and vegetables would be easier prey for toothless gums. Tonight sheworked every mouthful twice as long as usual. Aaron pretended not to notice.

Nobody could get quite as fixated as Laella's mother. If one of her fixationswon an audience it could turn into years of high drama.

Look at Taidiki. She had been mourning Taidiki since Dak-es-Souetta. He mightnot have broken had she not been there wailing all the time.

Aaron needed distracting himself. "What do you think of it, Mish?"

Tamisa, Laella's fourteen-year-old sister, completed the household. For a timeafter Dak-es-Souetta there had been other sisters. They had gotten married oneby one. The latest had gone just before Taidiki's mad gesture.

Maybe that had contributed to Taidiki's despair. All those sisters to dowryand no other relatives to soften the blows to his patrimony.

Raheb did not mourn her husband, did she? He had fallen at Dak-es-Souetta, hadn't he? But she hadn't so much as mentioned his name since moving in here.

Tamisa said, "It's all right." Howling praise. About as definite a statementas anyone could get out of her these days. She had changed over the eightyears Aaron had known her. Sometimes he felt vaguely guilty about that, thoughhe did not see how he could be responsible. Too much time spent close to hermother, he thought.

He worried endlessly that Arif and Stafa would drift down the same pathway toa life of quiet despair. He worried about his sons too much, he knew. Childrensurvived childhood. He had. It was being grown-up that was lethal.

Laella said, "When we're done I want to go see if I can do anything forReyha."

"I thought you might."

"Mish can clean up."

"Of course."

"We've known each other a long time. We went through labor together. There wasstill fighting in the streets."

"I know."

"We lay there holding hands and listening to people killing each otheroutside, not sure that somebody wouldn't break in and do something to us."

"I know." There was a part of Laella that could not forgive him for havingbeen a prisoner of the Herodians on that critical day, unreasonable as sheknew that to be.

"Zouki came only a minute after Arif. It was the last day of the war. The dayAla-eh-din Beyh broke the barrier and killed Nakar the Abomination."

"I know." He knew the preamble was all because he would have to take her ifshe was to go see Reyha. And he loathed Reyha's husband, Naszif.

Naszif was an ironwright and prosperous. The Herodians had plenty of work formetalworkers and gave Naszif all he could handle. Aaron and Naszif had been inthe same artillery engineers troop. Aaron was convinced that Naszif hadbetrayed them during the siege of the Seven Towers in Harak Pass.

Three of the towers had been reduced already. There was never a doubt that theHerodians would break through. The defenders were supposed to buy time untilthe defeated of Dak-es-Souetta, the new levies, and the allies could gather onthe Plain of Chordan. The lords of Marek, Tuhn, and Caldera were sendingseventy thousand men.

But someone heeded either cowardice or the Herodian offer of rewards and unsealed the tower's postern. The treachery advanced the Herodian causesufficiently that they were able to reach the Plain of Chordan in time to keepit all from coming together.

"When we heard, we both had the same crazy idea. Name our sons Peace," Laellasaid.

"I know."

"Why don't you like Naszif? You were in everything together."

"That's why. I know him." He had told no one what he believed about Naszif.

Not even Laella.

"But ..."

"I was there and you weren't. The subject is closed. Get yourself ready ifyou're going to go. Arif, Stafa, one story from Nana, then go to bed."

In one year the coast as far as Caldera had fallen to Herod. Not, Aaron wasconvinced, because of the great and so close thing at Dak-es-Souetta, butbecause of one traitor in one tower in Harak Pass.

When he started brooding about it he got himself out of the mood by mockinghimself for thinking someone as insignificant as he could have been so nearthe heart of any crucial historical event.

Yoseh lay on his cot with his hands behind his head, staring into the darknessbetween the ceiling beams. The burn on his face hurt. The ointment didn't domuch to help.

"Why so thoughtful tonight?"

Yoseh looked up at Nogah. He replied with complete honesty. "That man in thatalley. He could have killed us if he'd wanted. All of us. Easy."

"Probably. But he didn't."

"But he did want to. I could see it in his face, behind the fear and surprise.

He hated us and wanted to kill us but it was more important to keep thatlittle boy under control."

Nogah looked at him a moment, then nodded. "Come on. Fa'tad wants to ask youabout it."

The muscles across Yoseh's stomach tightened till he felt like he was havingcramps. His eyes began blinking. He could not stop. "No. I can't."

"Come on, Yoseh. He's only a man."

"He's only Fa'tad al-Akla. He scares the Demon out of me."

Nogah smiled. "It's about time somebody did that, little brother. You'vealways had too much brass for your own good. Come on."

Yoseh rose. He followed Nogah, wondering if this was how men felt as they wentto the gallows.

The Dartar compound was outside Qushmarrah proper, beyond the Gate of Autumn, on a field where the city's soldiers once trained. A thin curtain wall twelvefeet high surrounded it. All the buildings within abutted against this, theirroofs forming a platform for defenders. Everything was crudely constructed ofmud brick painted to protect it from the rain. The wall enclosed about threeacres.

Yoseh and Nogah had to cross the enclosure to reach Fa'tad. Stars had comeout. The air overhead was unusually clear. Camels and horses, goats and cattlemumbled to one another. The smell of hay and crowded animals was strong. "Itmust be about time to send a herd south," Yoseh said.

"Any day now. There are enough men whose time is up to take them."

"You've been here five years, Nogah. Why do you stay?"

"I don't know."

"Foo. I'm your brother, Nogah. I've known you all my life. You would'vethought about it a lot each time before you signed on again."

"Maybe I can do more good here, earning the ferrenghi silver that buys theherds. Down there I'd be just another mouth."

"Not to mention that while you're up here you don't have to keep butting headswith Father."

Nogah snorted. Then he chuckled. "No. Up here I have Fa'tad al-Akla, with whomthere is no arguing. Father you can wear down sometimes."

"Before I left he almost broke down and became human. 'Four sons I send to Fa'tad now. And none of them come back. You come back when your time is done, little Yoseh. You come home.'"

"That sounds like him. And I'm sure he sent some blustery message to hisprodigals."

He had, of course, but Yoseh hadn't bothered to report it. "Yes."

They walked a few steps. Nogah said, "So?"

"He said, Tell my Nogah, my firstborn, to come home. Tell him I am one stepahead of the dark angel and beginning to limp. An heir's place is beside hisfather in his last hour.'"