Neka!
Sorry, Arman. It was too beautiful not to share.
You shouldn’t have been inside our heads!
Her mental ‘voice’ turned defensive.
I wasn’t. I wouldn’t do that. I was in one of the sailors. I asked him and he said it was all right.
Reji was grinning at him too. “Oh, it’s funny, is it?” Arman snapped. “Wait until it’s your privacy invaded.”
Reji held his hands up. “Look, it wasn’t me making love on the deck. I should have warned you about Kei. He’s not exactly inhibited.”
Arman’s face burned, and he was very glad the puzzled Kesa couldn’t follow their conversation in the least. “I’m never going to have sex again,” he muttered.
Jena handed Karik to Kesa and stood up. She came to him and kissed Arman’s cheek, to his great surprise. “It was really beautiful,” she whispered. “Don’t be ashamed. Your love was something wonderful to see.”
He caught her hand. “I’m not ashamed. I just wasn’t expecting anyone else to watch.”
“Didn’t see much. What I did see was impressive,” she said with an impish grin and a quick glance downwards which made Arman want to sink into the deck. “It was...stimulating.”
For some reason, Reji looked at Jena rather oddly just then. Arman considered the two of them, and wondered if Jena had worked off a little frustration with a certain handsome trader in a quiet corner last night—or if perhaps the trader had wanted to. An interesting development, he thought, and felt rather better about being embarrassed in this manner. “I’ll be sure to let you know when the next performance is,” he said, trying to keep a straight face, even though part of him was quietly horrified at talking openly about something so intimate. He had to keep reminding himself he was Darshianese now. “If we time it right, you could make sure you had company.”
There was definitely a blush on Reji’s cheeks. Jena was shameless of course, and only kissed him quickly again. “That’d be fun,” she said, taking the baby back and sitting down. “Where’s Kei?’
“Fetching food.” They made room for him on the hatch. “How are you, Kesa?”
“I’m well, Sei Arman,” she said in a quiet voice. “Everyone’s been very nice to me, and Jena’s teaching me her language.”
“Call me Arman, my dear. Have you all that you need? Are you comfortable?”
“Oh yes. Everyone wants to help, and Jena’s so kind. It’s almost like having my mother around again.”
The poor girl—denied a mother’s comfort after such a terrible loss. He doubted Mayl had even bothered to enquire after Kesa’s circumstances, and she would hardly have offered her a friendly ear. Jena would give Kesa some kindness for a short time at least. In a day or two, Kesa would be back with her husband. Vikis was a good man, a good ten years older than Kesa, but not a harsh person. He would help her grieve. It was important not to be alone at such a time. He’d discovered that rather painfully.
Jena was taking well to motherhood—or guardianship, he wasn’t sure how she saw it in her mind. He still felt a sharp, undefined pain when he saw the child and thought of what he represented, but Karik was undoubtedly a well-formed child. Probably would take after Mayl with those looks. Time would tell if the boy would grow up as fair in soul as he was in features. Arman wasn’t optimistic, but Jena would at least give him the chance to become a decent human being. It wasn’t anything to do with him, Arman told himself. He shouldn’t be affected in any way. But he still found it hard to look at the child.
Kesa wanted to know what was happening about the war, so he told her it was all over and that everyone should be moving soon. One ship would take the hostages and half the soldiers to Urshek, and then on up the coast to Darshek with the hostages who were returning by that route. That ship would come back to Utuk with some of the Prijian soldiers once Darshian was firmly back in Darshianese hands. The Prij had had to resign themselves to losing six warships for good. It was a real blow, and Arman hoped it would slow the response of the militaristic types like Blikus, who would want to retaliate as soon as the Darshianese left Utuk.
“There you are,” Kei said cheerfully, bearing mugs and a large piece of flat bread. “Hello, Jena, Reji. Kesa, how are you?” he asked in careful Prijian.
She smiled at him. “Very well, Kei.”
He sat down next to her. “You’ll see Vikis again in a couple of days. Are you happy about that?”
“Oh yes!” She was much prettier when she was happy. “Only I’ll miss you all. Everyone’s been so kind...so different to what we’ve been told about you and...I....”
Kei looked at Arman, clearly not picking up all her rapid Prijian. Arman explained. “She’ll miss the company, the kindness. She has no one except the brother, and I doubt he really understands what it’s like to lose a child.”
“Her husband?”
Arman shrugged. “A man isn’t as good as a woman at this kind of thing, it’s a fact of life. And Prijian men aren’t known for their sensitivity,” he added wryly. Jena gave him a grin at that.
“I don’t know, you’re pretty sensitive, especially that little place—”
“Kei!”
Kei gave him his patent innocent look. “I was just proving the flaw in your argument.”
Kesa watched the back and forth between them in complete confusion. “Kei says the Darshianese will miss you too,” Arman lied, though it wasn’t really a lie. Already the former hostages had taken her up as a bit of a pet, which was probably good for all of them. Pity it was to be of such short duration.
Kei understood what he’d said. “We Darshianese could do with getting to know the Prij,” he said quietly. “If we’re to have true peace, I mean—we have to make friends with each other.”
“It will take more than a few individuals. I fear it will take change at the very top of Prij society, and that’s not likely to happen for a good many years.”
“We can only do what we can do,” Reji said. “Kei’s right. We need to build bridges.”
“I won’t deter anyone from trying. I just warn you it will take a lot more than being friendly to a kind young girl like this.” Arman smiled reassuringly at Kesa, who smiled uncertainly back.
At this point, the baby decided to wake up and express his displeasure over something. “I think he needs changing,” Jena said, getting to her feet. “I’ll take him down below. Kesa, would you like to come with me?”
Kesa would, and so would Reji. Soon, Kei and Arman were left on their own. “Reji seems to be getting rather attached to Jena,” Arman said, accepting a bit of the bread Kei tore off for him.
“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Kei said, looking in the direction his friends had taken. “Ah, well, it won’t be for long,” he said with a sigh. “Jena will be home in four or five days.”
He leaned against Arman, who put his chin on Kei’s shoulder. “You’ll miss her,” he said.
“Yes, very much but I can’t see any reason why I would ever see her again. I’m not the only one of us who’s made friends we’ll regret losing.” He heaved another sad sigh. “I wish our country wasn’t so large. Not like yours when you can across from one side to another in a day or so.”
“Well, that’s on Kuplik. We have hundreds of islands, not counting the territories. To cover them all would take much more than a day.”
“Yes, but most of them have no people on them. Maybe we can build one of those wagons you were talking about and then we can race up and down the length of Darshian in a week.”
Arman kissed his cheek. “I doubt that’ll ever be possible but if we had a network of people like Reis, we could fly everyone between the two ends. That seems a rather large waste of resources though. But you said people travel between the clans. Why would Jena never visit?”
“She’s their healer, Arman. Like I’m Ai-Albon’s. We can’t just wander off the way Reji can. People need us.” He became solemn again, and buried his face in his mug of milk. There was something definitely going on in Kei’s head. For such an open person, he could be downright secretive. Poking him didn’t seem to work. Arman would have to be patient.
He wondered if he should tell Kei about Jena, and decided Jena would probably waste no time doing that herself, and get a lot of pleasure out of it, so who was he to deny it?
It was nice, sitting like this, now the weight of the negotiations was off his shoulders. Now he could hand responsibility over to other people, like Reji, who’d be in charge of the caravan getting people home, or Lord Meki who would make the decisions concerning south Darshian. Arman wasn’t needed any more. He could have stayed on Utuk to work with Lord Peika, who’d asked him to continue to act as a translator and advisor, but he couldn’t do that to Kei—or himself really. Even though he had real regrets at leaving Kuprij, he had none about being with Kei, and however apprehensive he was about how he would fit into Ai-Albon, it had to be better than enduring the endless scorn of his fellow nobles, and the constant reminders of his betrayal, which would never disappear no matter how much the Prij prospered as a result of this settlement.
It would also make life easier for his brother and father, not having their traitor relative always on display. He wished there had been time to see Tijus. He hoped his father was wrong about Temir but feared he was not. His father’s line was to die out after all. Once that would have caused him no regret at all. Now....
Kei nudged him. “Why are you so sad?”
“Thinking about my brother.”
“We could find a way for you to visit him, maybe.”
Arman shook his head. “It’s best if I don’t, for his sake. Besides, I have no idea how he’ll respond to all this, and I fear I’m not strong enough to be flayed again by someone I care about.”
Kei put his mug down and put his arm around Arman’s waist. “History will honour you,” he said in a low voice. “And the pain will ease.”
“History means nothing to me. I know the pain will ease, I just...don’t think I can endure any more just now. I’m a coward, I know.”
“Some coward,” Kei said with soft sarcasm. “Give me your leg, I’m going to massage it and then you can start your exercises again. If you and I are to ride to Fort Trejk, you need to be fitter than you are.”
“You want to do that here?”
Kei raised one fine eyebrow at him. “After last night, you’re worried about people seeing you do some leg raises?”
“You set me up. This was all part of your evil plan. Now if I object to anything, you’ll bring last night up and say nothing could be as embarrassing as that.”
Kei grinned. “Discovered, all of it. But it’s too late—now you’re a willing pawn in my hands.”
“Your own helpless hostage. However will I cope?”
“With aplomb, Arman. It’s the only way to go.”
Rearranging himself and putting his leg into Kei’s lap, Arman thought that was probably right.
~~~~~~~~
The ceremonies were over finally—not swiftly enough for Kei, seeing how even the brief exposure to the censure of his former friends and colleagues sent Arman into a depression again. The Rulers opted for a short but flashy entrance, having Jera and Neris float everyone over the top of the palace on a raft of fire, while Meda took the rain drops from the showers which had come over Utuk by noon and turned them into spinning balls over the heads of the crowds. It made quite a large impression, at least on the ordinary folk.
This time, the troops were left behind—it was now obvious even to the most stubborn Prij the Rulers didn’t need their protection. Instead, the soldiers and former hostages stayed on the ships, getting ready for departure. By the time Kei and the rest of the group returned, everything was in hand. All they needed to do was to wait for the tide and the smaller boat which would bear the Lord Commander and two senators along with the troop ship to Urshek, where the removal of Prij soldiers would begin.
Arman asked for some time alone, and Kei let him have it. In the meantime Kei had things to talk to Reji about, and to Jena. After Arman’s comment earlier, he’d paid more attention to those two and, yes, perhaps Arman was right. Reji definitely admired Jena, and they were getting on very well. More than that might come if they were to have more time together, but they would part in less than a week.
Kesa had agreed to travel to Ai-Rutej and stay there until Karik moved successfully onto the jombeker milk. Jena could have done it sooner, but she said she felt with the inadequate bottles (for the only ones available on the ship were those used for hand-rearing jombeker kids) and the stress of the travel, it would be troublesome to do that before they had stopped moving. Kesa didn’t mind at all. Kei and Arman were to travel to the fort and pass on Lord Meki’s command for the troops stationed there to move south as soon as Kurlik Pass was clear, and to ride back to an agreed meeting point on the road to Ai-Rutej with Vikis. He would then go with his wife to the village and there have transport for both of them arranged back to Urshek and then to Utuk.
In theory at least. Kei couldn’t help but worry Ai-Rutej would refuse to help at all, since Gyek and the others had been so unfriendly and two months longer without their people wouldn’t have sweetened their attitude. There was also the question of Ai-Vinri. Arman had been personally banned, as had all Prij, and that ban extended to babies as well as full-grown men. The former hostages on the ship weren’t hostile, but Kei couldn’t see any reason why they would argue Arman’s case strongly. That might mean splitting up the returning group.