Chapter 1 #2
Saadrin folded her arms and looked away, and managed to keep the sour cast to her expression to the minimum. She was getting what she wanted and she obviously hated the fact that she owed it to Kai.
Ziede stepped to Kai’s side. He could feel her relief and gratitude through her heart pearl, though she didn’t let it show in her expression.
She had just gotten Tahren back, she didn’t want to see her have to fight her Blessed relatives, even Saadrin.
Kai told her silently, We need to handle this very carefully.
Ziede’s brow furrowed as she considered potential strategies. We can slip into the city and go straight to Nibet House. That was the residence that the Enalin delegation used in Benais-arik. They’ll offer us hospitality without question and Tahren can ask for an escort to the council.
Kai let out a long breath. They needed to send a message to Avagantrum.
They needed clothes and supplies, having lost everything useful they had collected during their canal journey in the flood at the Summer Halls.
It would be a longer trip home from Benais-arik, especially if Saadrin wanted to keep the ascension raft.
Tahren still needed time to recover, whatever she said.
There was one place where all this could be done conveniently and safely.
We can stay at the Cloisters until Tahren’s finished with the council.
Ziede said, that will work, then ruined it by adding, Ramad will know better than to look for you there.
Kai glared at her. I’m not worried about seeing Ramad.
Ziede squeezed his shoulder and didn’t comment.
If Kai was traveling here for the first time and had no idea they were about to reach the outskirts of a city, Benais-arik would still announce its presence well in advance.
First the converging of small canals into a big one lined with rushes and scrub trees but with the water free of any overgrowth that might obstruct boats.
Then the roads curving in across the grassy plain, some well-traveled and dotted with occasional resting places, usually a copse of trees shading a few wooden shelters or a stone dome protecting a well.
From above, the old roads were still etched on the landscape.
These had been the main routes before the Hierarchs, but they led to places that didn’t exist anymore.
From the surface they were mostly buried under grass and dirt, only the occasional boundary stone visible.
The raft passed over a few tumbled ruins that had once been villages or large farmsteads, but the signs of life—long canal boats or flitting skiffs, ox-drawn wagons and striding wallwalkers—was a reminder of survival that Kai would never grow tired of watching.
Then farmlands overtook empty fields, with scattered trees pruned into cone-shapes to shade the delicate greens and other plantings, with the hardy crops stretched out around them in concentric circles.
Dry stone walls enclosed clumps of houses.
Little cookshops and tiny temporary markets sprung up along the widening road.
Then finally bustling caravanserais with gardens and stables as in the distance the domes and towers of the city rose up, golden in the glow of late afternoon.
Sentry posts had marked their approach already; Kai caught flashes of light reflected off mirrors that meant messages were passing below.
It wasn’t uncommon for ascension rafts to come and go, especially during the coalition renewal.
But the news about the conspiracy must have spread through the Rising World cohorts by now, and the presence of a raft and where it would land would be reported to the city garrison.
Dahin dropped the raft a little lower and slowed to follow the main eastward canal in over the city’s outskirts.
It was mostly houses below now, older extended family compounds with their own gardens, interspersed with clusters of two- and three-story dwellings of sun-dried brick, constructed for refugees and ex-soldiers.
The streets were shaded by acacia and eucalyptus trees, interspersed with the basins of the canal docks and the water markets where boats drew up to sell their goods.
Closer to the city’s center, the streets were wider and lined by larger stone buildings.
Domes were carved and painted in traditional designs, scenes, and figures from Arike legends and history, though with everyone’s clothes and hair and armor and weapons far more elaborate and unwieldy than anything anyone would ever have had in reality.
The curved walls were dotted with latticed windows and balconies to allow the wind to weave through the rooms and corridors.
Benais House was in the central cluster, along with the older city assembly and law courts.
The envoy houses were all in the same area, interwoven with the grand market and public gardens and clumps of private houses that had survived both the Hierarchs and the post-war rebuilding.
The Rising World’s Assembly didn’t stand out next to the far more elaborate Arike buildings, but that didn’t disguise its importance.
Other coalition cities had Rising World Assembly buildings, but Benais-arik’s was the oldest and largest.
As Dahin brought the raft around, Kai caught a glimpse of the old palace on the far side of the city center.
It was enclosed in walls that had been outmoded even in Bashasa’s time, a relic of the Arik’s martial past. That had been over long before the Hierarchs arrived, and the palace had been partly a home for the current ruling Prince-heir’s family and partly a place for housing and entertaining important guests.
It was still that now; Bashat lived there.
Their destination, Nibet House, was on the outer edge of the circle of envoy houses.
It was only two stories tall, built of local sandy gray stone and heavy wooden beams brought down from the forests of Enalin.
The low stone wall around the entrance garden and a scatter of olive trees hid the view of the first level but the big windows on the second floor were all open to catch the breeze off the canal, their carved wooden screens and storm shutters propped open.
From the House’s undisturbed calm, and the general air of business as usual from the streets around it, Kai thought Bashat must not have given in to any impulses to challenge Enalin over its failure to support the Imperial renewal.
Dahin aimed for an open stretch of grassy land between Nibet House and a copse of tall trees. There were no supplication towers in Benais-arik, or any other Arike city-state, since the last one had been burned and toppled during the war, so it was as good a landing place as any.
Warned by the raft’s slow descent, an Enalin official came out the open gate from the House’s walled garden.
They were a short and heavyset figure, with dark brown skin and long dark ringleted hair tied back.
They wore a light yellow Enalin-style caftan with painted designs, but no formal robes.
In this season, the afternoon was a rest period for most of the city, when the sun was too hot for any strenuous activity.
It wasn’t a custom the Enalin practiced in the cooler climate of their home region, but all the envoys followed it here.
As the raft thumped down on the grass, the official watched with a quizzical expression, but didn’t speak.
This was Enalin hospitality, which allowed guests time to sort themselves out and declare their intentions before questioning why they might be here.
A few curious house pages, all children around Sanja’s age, appeared in the doorway.
Tahren opened the gate in the raft and stepped out. She lifted a hand in greeting and said, “Tahren Stargard asks the gift of a favor from the Warden of Nibet House.”
“Please address me as Setar-en, and Tahren Stargard has no need to ask, any assistance will be gladly offered.” Setar-en’s gaze was alive with curiosity now.
They had clearly recognized Tahren and probably Ziede as well.
Dahin had slumped down on the bench beside the steering device, his face turned away.
“Is the matter urgent, or is there time for the House to extend its welcome to you and your companions?”
That might have been a polite way to say that they appeared to be a disheveled group that looked obviously in need of some sort of help.
Tahren said, “The House’s welcome would be a gift indeed, but Immortal Marshall Saadrin has a prisoner who we must present to the Rising World council immediately.
” She didn’t bother to gesture to Saadrin, who had just dragged Vrenren out of the raft.
“This concerns the conspiracy between rogue factions from Nient-arik and the Blessed Lands that I understand was revealed during the coalition renewal.”
Setar-en’s brow furrowed in concern. “I will assemble an escort and accompany you myself. The ambassador is attending the council in the assembly hall today. The Tescai-lin was called to affairs in Belith, at Ancartre, but we will send word to them of your safe return.”
“That would be much appreciated,” Tahren said. It would be much less awkward for Tahren and Saadrin to drag an Immortal Blessed prisoner through the streets with an escort from Nibet House.
Ziede stepped out of the raft and Kai started forward, but Dahin, still crouched below the railing, grabbed a handful of his battered coat and stuffed something into the inside hem pocket.
It was flat, like a book or a packet of paper.
Sanja and Tenes, following Ziede, hadn’t seen.
Kai sighed and stepped down from the raft.
Whatever it was, he would worry about it later.
As Setar-en turned back toward the House, Kai said, “I would ask if a message is to be sent to the Tescai-lin, that they could also be told that Kaiisteron is with Tahren Stargard.”