A waiting man looked us over, then nodded grimly and held the tent flap open for us to enter. Two of the guards followed us, nocked arrows at the ready. I heard again the flapping rush of wings. There was a thud as the croaker bird landed on top of Kinrove’s pavilion. Soldier’s Boy gritted his teeth but did not grant him a glance.
Within the tent was an almost familiar scene. Kinrove, fat as ever, nearly overflowed his cushioned chair. Tables of prepared food awaited his attention, while feeders came and went from them. Galea, his first and most favored feeder, stood just behind him, her hands on his shoulders. They both kept silent as we approached, but the woman did not take her eyes off Olikea’s bundle. Her breathing seemed to quicken as we approached Kinrove. When we were still a good distance from him, he lifted his hand, and “Stand there!” the guard escorting us commanded us. At the same moment, Kinrove’s magic wrapped us and held us where we were. “Put down what you are carrying.”
“They are gifts for Kinrove. I only ask that he hear me out, and he can keep every item that is there,” Soldier’s Boy replied. Before the guard could reply, he rested the blanket on the earth and then opened it wide. With a grunt, he went down on one knee and then two. He began to arrange the jewelry and treasure on the blanket, looking down at it as he did so. “All of this once belonged to Lisana, my mentor. The value of what is here is beyond reckoning. All of this, I offer to Kinrove.”
“In exchange for what?” the Great Man demanded skeptically.
“If you will only listen to what I propose. That is all.”
Olikea took a sudden gasp of air, and then spoke. “And for my son. For Likari. Give him back to us, free of the dance, and all of this is yours. And the Ivory Babe, the greatest fertility charm ever known among the Specks!” She drew the cover off the image as she spoke and then held it aloft, cradling it as carefully as if it were a real child. “Give me back my son, Galea and Kinrove, and I will give you this, that you can have a son of your own.”
Galea’s hands tightened on Kinrove’s shoulders. She leaned down to whisper in his ear, and the mage scowled in annoyance, but listened. He took a deep breath and puffed it out through his lips. But then he said grudgingly, “Kandaia. Go to the dance. Watch for the boy Likari, and when he passes, touch his shoulder and say to him, ‘Kinrove bids you stop and follow me.’”
Olikea gave a cry of joy and clutched at Soldier’s Boy’s arm. “I will tend you as no Great One has ever been tended before. You can speak to me as you wish, use me as you wish, and ever I will still be in your debt.”
“Hush,” he said to her, firmly but without harshness. His eyes had not left Kinrove’s face. With Olikea’s help, he rose to his feet and then said quietly, “Greatest of the Great Ones, will you hear what I have to say? I give these treasures and I speak these words at Lisana’s bidding. She has given a task to me. It is beyond me. And so I come to ask a boon of you.”
“What is this?” Olikea asked in a small, breathless voice.
“What I told you,” Soldier’s Boy replied calmly. “My larger ambition.”
A strange expression wandered over her face. It took me a moment to identify it, and then to my shock I knew it: jealousy. “You came here to do her task, not mine,” she said bitterly.
He turned to her, took her hand, and met her eyes. “I will not speak another word until Likari is given to you.” He turned his gaze to Kinrove. “Given to you, whole and freed of the dance. That is the price of the fertility child. Give back Olikea’s child. Make a child of your own, and someday I hope you will look down into his face and imagine what it would be if a cruel and endless dance stole him from you.”
A flush of anger passed over Kinrove’s face, and I thought to myself that this was not the time to bait the Great Man. Soldier’s Boy had run his head into the noose. Should Kinrove decide to tell his guards to kill us he could easily keep everything we had brought and suffer no loss at all. But Soldier’s Boy either did not realize this or did not care. He turned his gaze back on Olikea and smiled down on her. I could not recall that he had ever before done so. “At least to you I will manage to keep my word. One promise kept in my whole life.”
She opened her mouth to say something but Kandaia had returned, her hand on the shoulder of a skinny lad. For a second I could not recognize Likari. He had gone through a growth spurt. He was taller but thin, thinner than I had ever seen him. His skin and his hair were sweaty and dust clung to him. He stared about the inside of the tent, his eyes dazed and unblinking. Olikea gave a cry. She strained toward the boy, but Galea cried out, “The charm! First the charm, then your son!” I had never heard such ruthless need in a woman’s voice. Kinrove lifted his hand, and Olikea jerked to a halt.
