Janne said something to Safar before bowing prettily away and gliding across the room to join the two of them. 'Taisia, my dear.'

'Janne Daish.' Taisia's greeting was formal but her embrace was fond.

'You're leaving Itrac to their tender mercies?' Kheda watched Mirrel and Safar flank the girl, Mirrel laying a proprietorial hand on her arm.

'Just long enough for them to look like insensitive pigs harrying her in her time of grief.' Janne did not need to turn round to see this happening. 'Taisia will rescue her in good time.'

'I do have much to discuss with her.' Taisia nodded.

'I wouldn't leave it too long, if you don't want outright tears,' Kheda advised. 'Or a fight. That new body slave of hers is giving Mirrel's man and Safar's a very hard look.' He shifted his head to catch Telouet's eye and his slave idly separated himself from a fawning gaggle of slave women to drift into Safar's slave's line of sight.

Let's just make it plain Itrac's new body slave won't be without allies if some Ulla men feel inclined to hunt him through this warren of a fortress should they get the chance.

'I'll speak with you later, Janne.' Taisia left them to deftly sweep Itrac away from Safar with a plea for news of Olkai's last days that could not be denied.

Kheda kissed Janne's satin cheek. 'You look exquisite tonight, my wife.'

She smiled confidently. 'I'm glad you approve, my husband.'

Kheda glanced at Itrac, now safely in conversation with Taisia and Ritsem Caid. 'You've dressed her like one of our own, I see.'

'Just to keep the Ulla and Redigal women guessing.' Janne fixed Kheda with a steely look. 'She will not be marrying into the Daish domain. You had better tell Ritsem Caid you're having second thoughts on that score.'

'Why?' Kheda felt unexpectedly wrong-footed.

'I will not countenance anyone so grievously afflicted by magic coming within our family circle.' Janne's smile was serene but her words were bitingly precise. 'Marry her and I will divorce you as will Rekha and we'll take little Sain with us. Then we'd seek aid from all our brothers to help us set you aside in favour of the children.'

Kheda was stunned into silence by the effort not to let his shock show in his face.

'As for Sirket, I'll make him zamorin with my own hands before I let him make such an accursed marjjage.' Janne stood on tiptoe to brush a kiss on Kheda's cheek.

He found his voice from somewhere. 'You don't think we should discuss this further? If she ends up the key to securing the Chazen domain, will you see her married to Ulla Safar?'

'There are ways of ensuring the question of Itrac's future won't arise for a while yet.' Janne shrugged, adjusting her fabulous pearls. 'I must go and discuss a few things with Moni Redigal.'

She kissed Kheda again and walked gracefully away. As she did so, Chay Ulla stepped up with a smile that was more of a smirk. 'Daish Kheda, I've been waiting an age to speak to you.'

'And now you have my whole attention.' Kheda inclined his head first to Chay and then to the pretty girl with her.

Chay was a tall woman with skin a shade lighter than her dark brown eyes, handsome rather than beautiful though her strong bones were unexpectedly flattered by the style of dress Mirrel had dictated for the Ulla wives.

She seemed an unlikely choice for Ulla Safar, who demanded beauty as a prerequisite in his wives, even more so given Chay had brought no particularly valuable alliances to their marriage bed.

She whirled round to draw the girl closer with an impulsive hand. 'Daish Kheda, this is Laisa Viselis, well, for the moment,' Chay simpered.

'I am honoured to meet you.' Kheda bowed.

And why would Viselis Us be trusting one of his younger daughters to this bitch? You can smile all you want, Chay; I've seen the cruelty in your eyes is a perfect match for your lord and husband's malice.

'My lord of Daish.' The girl, demure in tunic and trews not unlike Itrac's, bobbed an answering courtesy.

Chay favoured him with an insincere smile. 'Laisa has heard some most peculiar rumours about your father's death.' Her words were just loud enough to be sure everyone at hand could hear.

The girl's hazel eyes widened, startled. 'I didn't—'

Chay's hand tightened mercilessly on Laisa's. 'I thought it best she heard the truth from your own lips.'

Do you know that one of your maidservants told Telouet how you send your body slave to catch mice for your house cat to torment while you watch?

Kheda smiled reassurance at the girl. 'It's a simple enough story.'

Never fear, Chay, I've had more than enough practice making the telling of it entirely unremarkable.

'Daish Reik, my father, had climbed to the top of his observatory tower, where he kept certain birds he favoured for augury. It was his custom to let them fly at dawn, so he might read their movements in conjunction with the early skies.'

And now I understand why he valued such moments of solitude and reflection and guarded them so jealously.

'That morning,' Kheda shrugged, 'the parapet gave way and he fell to his death.'

'Entirely unforeseen.' Chay shook her head in false wonderment.

'How shocking for you,' Laisa stammered. 'To suffer such a bereavement.'

'It was a long time ago.' Kheda nodded with calm resignation. 'One learns to live with such things.'

'If only there had been someone to read the omens as the birds flew.' Chay pretended concern. 'Daish Reik had just released them,' she explained to Laisa before turning to Kheda with a glint in her eye. 'Do you suppose he saw something in their flight as he fell? That he died without being able to share?'

Are you just looking for your usual amusement in someone else's pain, Chay, or does Ulla Safar want to stir up all that old speculation, that Daish Retk had seen some appalling catastrophe predicted for the domain, so unspeakable that he had thrown himself to his death? Does he think that will distract us all from this invasion of Chazen?

'The rains had been unusually heavy that season, the stonework was old, the mortar crumbling.' Kheda addressed himself to Laisa, voice untroubled. 'My father's death taught me that no one, no matter how potent, how exalted, is proof against a sudden fall.'

Chew on that, Chay, and may it choke you.

'How he could have let his own observatory fall into such disrepair.' Chay shook her head again. 'You had to demolish the whole of the tower, didn't you?'

'It was sound enough but I chose to rebuild, out of respect for Daish Reik's memory.' Kheda continued to look steadily at Laisa.

After taking the tower apart, stone by stone, down to its very foundations in a search for some answer.

'My father had been busy seeing to the needs of our people after some devastating storms. Perhaps he waited too long before seeing what damage had been done to his own compound,' Kheda continued evenly. 'I read in his death the ultimate confirmation of his words to me in life, that a warlord should pay attention to every detail, see that every thing, every person, no matter how humble, plays its part in supporting the power of a domain and its lord.'

And I considered every other possible interpretation, as well as searching the crumbled parapet for any sign of evil intent behind the calamity, Janne and I scoured every book of lore for some hint as to how to read such a startling portent.

'My father has always told me it is for my brother to speculate on such matters,' the girl said uncertainly.

'Your father is a wise man,' Kheda assured her. 'It is a warlord's highest duty to read and interpret the auguries and omens that guide his domain and its people, just as it is a wife's highest duty to ensure their continued prosperity.' He didn't need to look to see Chay scowling at the implied rebuke.