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slain woman. What more evidence of power was required? But knowing and knowing
were different things, at these borders of the half-world, and Crispin was
pretty certain he remembered Zoticus denying being able to foretell the
future, when asked. Had he lied?
Possibly. Why should he have told all the truth to an angry mosaicist he
hardly knew?
But why, then, should he have given that same stranger the first bird he'd
ever fashioned, dearest to his own heart?
The dead, Crispin thought, stay with you.
He looked at Shirin and her bird and found himself remembering his wife and
realizing it had been some days since he'd thought about
Ilandra, which never used to happen. He felt sorrow and confusion and the
effects of too much wine.
'We had better go back out,' Shirin said. 'It is probably time for the
wedding-bed procession.'
Crispin nodded. 'Probably.'
She touched his arm, opened the door to the kitchen. They went through and
back out to rejoin the party.
Page 74
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A little later, Crispin found himself in the darkening street among carried
torches and music-makers and bawdy songs, with soldiers and theatre people and
the usual cluster of hangers-on joining the loud parade as they led Carullus
and Kasia to their new home. People banged things, sang, shouted. There was
laughter. Noise was good, of course: it frightened away any evil spirits that
might blight the marriage bed. Crispin tried to join in the general merriment,
but failed. No one seemed to notice; night was falling and the others were
more than loud enough. He wondered how Kasia felt about all of this.
He kissed bride and groom, both, at their doorway. Carullus had leased a set
of rooms in a good neighbourhood. His friend, now a genuinely high-ranking
officer, held him close and Crispin returned the embrace. He realized that
neither he nor Carullus was entirely sober. When he bent to salute Kasia he
became aware of something new and subtle about her, and then realized with a
shock what it was-a scent: one that only an Empress and a dancer were supposed
to wear.
Kasia read his expression in the darkness. They were standing very close. 'She
said it was a last gift,' she whispered shyly.
He could see it. Shirin was like that. Kasia would be as royalty for this
night. A rush of affection for this girl swept over him now.
'Jad love you and your own gods defend you,' he whispered fiercely.
'You were not saved from the grove for sorrow.'
He had no way of knowing if that was true, but he wanted it to be.
She bit her lip, looking up at him, but said nothing, only nodded her head.
Crispin stepped back. Pardos and Vargos were standing by. It had turned cold
now.
He stopped by Shirin, eyebrows raised. 'A risky gift?' he asked.
She knew what he meant. 'Not for one night,' she said softly. 'In a bridal
chamber. Let her be an Empress. Let him hold one.'
As those who hold you do? he thought suddenly, but did not say. It might have
been in his face, though, for Shirin abruptly looked away, nonplussed. He
walked over to Pardos. They watched bride and groom pause on their threshold,
amid jests and cheering.
'Let's go,' said Crispin.
'Wait!' said the bird.
He looked back. Shirin, hooded and cloaked now in the darkness, stepped
forward again and laid a gloved hand on his arm. She said, beseechingly, and
to be heard,'I have a last favour to ask. Will you escort a dear friend home?
He's not quite ... himself, and it isn't fair to take the soldiers from their
celebrating now, is it?'
Crispin glanced beyond her. Swaying unsteadily, with a wide, entirely
uncharacteristic smile spread across his face and eyes glazed like an enamel
icon of some holy figure, was Pertennius of Eubulus.
'But of course,' Crispin said evenly. Shirin smiled. Her composure had
returned, very quickly. She was a dancer, an actress, trained.
'She says you are not to take any sexual advantage of the poor man in his
disordered state.' Even the accursed bird seemed amused again.
Crispin gritted his teeth, said nothing. Carullus and Kasia disappeared
within, to a last lewd chorus from the musicians and the soldiers.
'No, no, no, no!' said the secretary, stepping forward too quickly from behind
Shirin. 'Dear woman! I'm well, I'm entirely well! In fact
I shall . . . escort you home myself! Honoured! Honoured to-'
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