Part 23 (1/2)

”But Maxard, why do you look so dour!” A smile broke out on her face. ”This could support Argali for years! How did it happen?”

”You tell me.” He came over to her. ”Just what did he give you out there today?”

He? She lowered her arms. ”Who?”

”Havyrl Lionstar.”

She would never have guessed Lionstar would see to his debts with such phenomenal generosity. This was so far beyond any expected recompense for Photax and Lystral's family, she couldn't begin to comprehend his intent. ”Why did he send it here?”

”You tell me. You're the one who saw him.”

Hai! So Maxard had heard about the river. ”I didn't know he was watching.”

”Watching what?”

”Me swimming.”

”Then what?”

Baffled, she said, ”Then nothing.”

”Nothing?” Incredulity crackled in his voice. ”What did you promise him, Kamoj? What sweet words did you whisper to compromise his honor?”

She couldn't imagine any woman having the temerity to try compromising the huge, brooding Lionstar.

”What are you talking about?”

”You promised to marry him if he gave you what you wanted, didn't you?”

”What?”

His voice snapped. ”Isn't that why he sent this dowry?”

Dowry? Sweet Airys, now what? ”That's crazy.”

”He must have liked whatever the two of you did.”

”We did nothing. You know I would never jeopardize our alliance with Ironbridge.”

Her uncle exhaled. In a quieter voice he said, ”Then why did he send this dowry? Why does he insist on a merger with you tomorrow?”

Kamoj felt as if she had stepped into a bizarre skit played out for revelers during a harvest festival. This couldn't be real. ”He wantswhat? ”

Maxard motioned at the storeroom. ”His stagmen brought it today while I was tying up stalks in the tri-grain field. They spoke as if the arrangement were already made.”It suddenly became all too clear to Kamoj. Lionstar didn't want the ruins of an old palace, the trees in their forest, or Photax's crops.

He wanted Argali. All of it.

Strange though his methods were, they made a grim sort of sense. He had demonstrated superiority in forces; many stagmen served him, over one hundred, far more than Maxard had, more even than Ironbridge. With his d.a.m.nable ”rent” he had established his wealth. He had even laid symbolic claim to her province by living in the Quartz Palace, the ancestral Argali home. Any way they looked at it, he had set himself up as an authority. Today he added the final, albeit unexpected, ingredient-a merger bid so far beyond the pale that the combined resources of all the Northern Lands could never best his offer.

”G.o.ds,” Kamoj said. ”No wonder Jax is angry.” She set down the light threads, the remnants of her good mood vanis.h.i.+ng like a doused candle. ”There must be a way I can refuse this.”

”I've already asked the temple scholar,” Maxard said. ”And I've looked through the old codices myself.

We've found nothing. You know the law. Better the offer or yield.”

She stared at him in disbelief. ”I'm not going to marry that crazy man.”

Maxard brushed back the disarrayed locks of his hair, his forehead furrowed with lines that hadn't shown anywhere near as much yesterday. ”Then he will be within his rights to take Argali by force. That was how it was done, Kamoj, in the time of the sky s.h.i.+ps.” He squinted at her. ”I'm not sure my stagmen even know how to fight a war. Argali has never had one, at least not that I know about.”

”There must be some way out.”

It was a moment before her uncle answered. Then he spoke with care, as if treading through shards of gla.s.s. ”The merger could do well for Argali.”

Kamoj was sure she must have misheard. ”Youwant me to go through with it?”

He spread his hands out from his body. ”And what of survival, Governor?”

So. Maxard's words came with sobering force, as he finally spoke aloud what they dealt with implicitly in every discussion about the province. Drought, famine, killing winters, high infant mortality, failing machines no one understood, lost medical knowledge, and overused fields: it all added up to one inescapable fact, the long slow dying of Argali.

The province wouldn't end this Long Year, or next, maybe not even in a century. But their slide into oblivion was relentless. With the Ironbridge merger, they still might struggle, but their chances improved.

She and Jax had regularly visited each other to discuss the merger. At worst, Jax would annex her province, making it part of Ironbridge. She would do her best to keep Argali separate, but if she did lose it to him, at least her people would have the protection and support of the strongest province on this continent. Although Jax didn't inspire love among his people, he was a good leader who earned loyalty and respect.

And Lionstar? Yes, he had wealth. That said nothing about his ability to lead. For all she knew he would drive her province into famine and ruin.

”Hai, Maxard.” She rubbed her hand over her eyes. ”I need to think about all this.”

He nodded, the tension of the day showing on his face. ”Go on upstairs. I'll send a maize-girl to tend you.”She went stiff, understanding his unspoken implication. ”Lyode always tends to me.”

”I need her elsewhere tonight.”

”Youneed her? Or Jax?” When he didn't answer, her pulse surged. ”I won't have my people flogged.”

Kamoj headed toward the door. ”If you won't tell him, I will.” She dreaded confronting Jax, but this time it had to be done.

Maxard grabbed her arm, stopping her. He held up his other hand, a tiny s.p.a.ce between his thumb and index finger. ” Ironbridge is this close to declaring a rite of battle against us. I've barely thirty stagmen, Kamoj. He has over eighty, all better trained.” He dropped her arm. ”It would be a ma.s.sacre. And you know Lyode. She would insist on fighting with them. Will you save Lyode and Gallium from a few lashes so they can die in battle?”

Kamoj shuddered. ”Don't say that.”

His voice quieted. ”With the mood Ironbridge is in now, seeing you will only enrage him. He can't touch you yet, so Gallium and Lyode are the ones he will take out his rage on.”

Knowing Maxard was right made it no easier to hear. Kamoj wondered, too, if her uncle realized what else he had just revealed.He can't touch you yet . She spoke with difficulty. ”And after the merger, when the rages take Ironbridge? Who will pay the price of his anger then?”

Maxard watched her with a strained expression, one that reminded her of the wrenching day he had come to tell her that the village patrol had found the bodies of her parents frozen beneath ma.s.ses of ice in a late winter storm. She had never forgotten that wounded time of loss.

He spoke now in an aching voice. ”Does it occur to you that you might be better off with Lionstar?”