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him from the other side of the room but did not break in conversation with her assistant. Elder Ora Masura of the Temple of Tira waved to him from the hall. Masura was a splendid, regal old woman, and one of his mother’s many lovers. She came around the table and asked to take his hands.
    He consented, only because he did not want to draw her suspicion; he was exhausted and angry, and he feared what he would say. She took his scarred hands in her smooth, cold palms and blessed him.
    “It’s been a decade since I saw you last, hasn’t it?” she said. “I wish it were under better circumstances.”
    In truth, it had been twelve years since he sat with these people. He could have gone a lifetime without sitting here again.
    Gaiso dismissed her assistant and rounded on Ahkio. “Has the Kai passed, then? Is that why you’re here?”
    “Are you questioning my right to be here?” Ahkio said softly.
    Gaiso looked taken aback. “What did you say?”
    “I’m so sorry, Ahkio. No one wanted this,” Masura said.
    “I wanted twenty babies,” Gaiso said. “I was made Elder Ora of Oma’s temple instead. We don’t all get what we want.”
    Masura made a sound of distress. “Don’t speak as if your life decisions were not made just as politically as your cousin Tir’s.”
    “For a clucking, drunken little bird,” Gaiso said, “you spend far too much time aggravating cats.”
    “I see you’re all getting along as expected,” Nasaka said from the doorway.
    “Who else is coming?” Ahkio asked. He wanted to see the reactions of the other Elder Oras to Kirana’s death.
    “Just Ora Almeysia,” Nasaka said. “Elder Ora Koralia of Sina’s Temple and Elder Ora Saraba of Para still haven’t sent a response. Ora Dasai will be here, of course. He’s bringing up the sanisi now.”
    “It’s curfew for the novices,” Gaiso said. “Ora Almeysia will be doing a bed check. Let’s start without her. I don’t want to keep that sanisi waiting any longer.”
    Nasaka nodded to Ahkio. “I see you found your seat.”
    “I expected you wanted me in another.”
    “That will do,” Nasaka said.
    Ahkio glanced next to him at the seat of the Kai, his sister’s seat. He wanted to sit there just to spite Nasaka, but though he made to press himself out of his chair, the rest of his body would not obey him.
    He heard footsteps in the hall.
    A young Ora entered – one Ahkio did not know – and made a sweeping gesture as the sanisi pushed up ahead of him. The emissary’s rudeness was shocking.
    “May I present Shao Taigan Masaao, a sanisi messenger from Saiduan,” the Ora said.
    The sanisi was tall, taller than Ahkio expected. He easily towered head and shoulders above Ahkio, like some giant. For all that, he moved like water, with a slightly hunched posture that made Ahkio wonder if he’d been injured.
    “Which of you is the Kai?” Taigan asked.
    Ahkio put his hands on the table and made to stand.
    Nasaka waved him back, said, “I’m afraid you’ve reached us at a difficult time.” She had not yet made it to her chair, the one at the right side of the Kai seat, reserved for the Kai’s religious and political advisor. “Let us sit–”
    “What I have to say is for the Kai,” Taigan said. “We have very little time to chatter on about complications and niceties and backward Dhai customs.”
    “Excuse my tardiness,” Dasai called from the hall. He limped in, leaning heavily on his cane. “Thank you, Ora Chali,” he said, dismissing the sanisi’s escort.
    Chali looked more than happy to leave them, and ducked past Dasai into the hall.
    Taigan peered at each of them in turn. His gaze settled on Ahkio. “You’re no Ora,” the sanisi said. “What is your function?”
    “I am the Kai’s brother,” Ahkio said.
    “Ah,” Taigan said. “A boy. Yes, this explains much. You’re not gifted, though, are you? You’re not who I was looking for. Is this all there is? No other relation to the Kai? I have no time to