4. Esag
ESAG
The crib had been sitting on the workbench with three legs since the middle of the night, long enough for the glue on the joints to set.
The fourth leg still needed a few final touches and a coat of oil, and then Esag would carry it into the secondary bedroom and put it under the window where Tula wanted it.
The problem was that he'd abandoned the leg last night to carve four faces that were now staring at him from his worktable, and they needed finishing, too.
The baby wasn't coming anytime soon, so the crib wasn't urgent, but Tula wanted it ready, and pleasing her mattered more than anything else because it wasn't good for her to get upset. It affected the baby.
He really shouldn't have wasted time carving those damn faces.
He hadn't decided to do that. He'd reached for the leg, picked up a block of cedar instead, and then done it again, and then twice more. Now the sun was coming up, and there were four small heads lined up on his table.
It didn't make sense.
He didn't know which four guards had been selected to accompany Khiann, and he hadn't been invited to the clinic to take a look at them, so where had this obsession come from?
Were the Fates trying to tell him something?
The heads weren't good work, not only because they were crude and unfinished. He had no idea whose faces he was carving, so how could he get them right?
Esag put the knife down and rolled his shoulders.
Behind him the door opened, and Tula stepped into the doorway, barefoot, which she wasn't supposed to be in his workshop, with all the wood shavings on the floor. She stayed there, one hand on the frame and the other on her belly.
"You didn't come to bed."
"I'm sorry. I've been possessed." He waved at the four figurines. "They wouldn't leave me alone until I carved them, and now they're complaining about the shitty job I've done."
He hoped the humor would soften her temper, which was legendary, and pregnancy hormones were making her even more irritable than usual.
"Who are they?" She came the rest of the way in, and he knew better than to comment on her bare feet and the wood shavings on the floor, or, Fates forbid, rush to swoop her into his arms.
He would get the silent treatment at best, or the dreaded icy glare at worst.
"I don't know. Those are the faces my hands produced, and sometimes they know better than my mind."
She nodded. "You carved me, and you didn't know why."
"That was a cosmic connection." He smiled. "I doubt that's the case with Khiann's guards."
"Who knows?" She chuckled, picking up one of the heads, turning it over, then setting it back down.
"You know what bothers me?"
Esag braced for the scolding. "That I get obsessed with my work and forget to go to sleep?"
"Yeah, that too." She leaned against his worktable, arms crossed over her belly. "But that wasn't what I was going to say. It occurred to me that I was sleeping above them for decades. The Fates could have at least let me dream of them, so I would know, but there was nothing."
"The Fates were merciful. You couldn't have helped them, and the knowledge would only have given you nightmares. Sometimes it's better not to know."
"I'm not upset." She reached over and straightened the third head so it lined up with the others. "I'm just sharing my thoughts with you. You don't need to say anything."
Esag stifled the urge to roll his eyes.
He never knew when Tula wanted him to offer advice or solve her problems, and when she just wanted him to listen. He wished she would just say it plainly so he wouldn't have to guess.
He picked up the fourth leg. "I should focus on finishing the crib."
"The crib can wait. You should go see them."
"They didn't send for me." He reached for the sandpaper.
"Do you have to wait for an invitation?" She arched a brow. "Can't you just go?"
He shook his head. "No one is allowed in there except the medical staff, Annani, and her children."
"That's not right." Tula pushed away from the table. "He was your best friend, and you loved him like a brother. She knows that."
He nodded. Tula was right. Annani should have allowed him to see Khiann and the other four immortals, and it stung that she hadn't.
Had she ever thought of him as Khiann's friend?
Or had he been only a servant in her eyes?
Maybe she was still angry at him for how he had treated Gulan?
"Well, I'll leave you to your carvings." Tula leaned in and kissed his forehead. "Come to the house when you're done, and I'll make you breakfast."
He caught her hand and brought it to his lips. "I don't deserve you."
She laughed. "Some might say you got exactly what you deserved, and not mean it as a compliment."
"Point them out to me, and they will never dare repeat it."
"My hero." She planted another kiss on his forehead and then sauntered out.
Esag returned to the leg and was about to finish sanding it when the door opened again. Roven and Davuh came in without bothering to knock, which they never did no matter how many times he scolded them for it.
"Good morning," Roven said.
"You should knock before you come in," Esag reminded them. "Fifteen minutes ago, you would have walked in on Tula in a sheer nightgown, and I would have been forced to kill you."
Davuh laughed as if Esag had told a joke.
"I'm not joking."
"Fine." Roven cleared wood shavings from the bench and sat.
Davuh walked to the worktable, picked up the second head, and held it at arm's length.
"This one isn't bad. Who is he supposed to be?"
"I don't know."
"Khiann should have taken all ten that Ahn offered him," Roven said.
"It wouldn't have mattered." Esag returned to sanding even though the leg was done. He needed to keep his hands busy. "They would have been lost just like Khiann and the four he took with him."
"Or not," Roven said. "I can't wait for them to wake up and tell us what happened."
Davuh nodded. "When do we get to see them?" He looked hopefully at Esag.
"I don't know." He was pretty sure he was sanding off too much wood, but he couldn't stop. "No one's told me anything. Besides, we know what happened. An earthquake swallowed Khiann's caravan the same as what happened to the one Gulan was on."
"Right." Roven stood. "We were on the way to class when we saw you were in the shed, so we came to see what you were up to, but we need to go." He motioned for Davuh to follow. "Training starts at seven-thirty sharp, and Bhathian doesn't tolerate tardiness."
When they left, Esag examined the leg and cursed under his breath. It was too skinny now, so he would have to sand the other three to match it.
At half past nine, Alena called with an update. "He's trying to talk, but he can't yet."
"Does he understand when spoken to?"
"We're working on it. We also need to figure out who the other four are because I don't want to keep calling them John Doe numbers One through Four."
He looked at the shavings in his hand. "Take pictures. I might recognize them."
"That's a brilliant idea. I should have thought of that."
"It would be even better if I were allowed to visit them in person."
She sighed. "I'm sorry, Esag. I'm not the one making the rules."
"I know. I'm not angry at you."
"You shouldn't be angry at my mother either. She's waited five thousand years for this."
"So did I."
"She guards her time with him jealously. He is her truelove mate."
Esag let out a breath. "I get it. I don't like it, but I understand."
After the call ended, he picked up the broom and started sweeping the floor of his workshed, and long-forgotten memories surfaced.
At Khiann and Annani's wedding, Gulan had carried Khiann's ring, while he had carried Annani's, both on silver trays. They had climbed the steps on opposite sides of the dais and hadn't looked at each other because Gulan had been angry with him.
Unbreakable alloy, Annani had said in the vows. It should have withstood the test of time, and Esag wondered whether the ring had been in the chest with Khiann.
Navuh wouldn't have bothered about taking it off because it had no value beyond the sentimental, but then Navuh was a cruel bastard, so he might have kept it as a trophy to torment Annani with.
He should mention that to Alena the next time she called him with an update, and ask her whether the ring had been found.
For some reason, he thought it was important, perhaps because one day Khiann would remember his wedding and want his ring.