Ana stroked the polished wood as Savi pulled open the doors. The Archigos gestured to them as Savi closed the chapel door, remaining behind in the corridor. Ana glanced around; there was no one else in the chapel. She was pleased none of them were there now. This is your vatarh and matarh? She sucked in her own breath in surprise as well—the families of the acolytes in her class had been given a tenth of that sum.
That is quite. His mouth closed and he swallowed. Ana could see him toting up accounts in his head. The Archigos had noticed the internal greed as well, Ana realized. He favored her vatarh with a dismissive smile. You will have no voice in that, nor will you receive any further dowry for her. To Ana, the Archigos seemed to be smothering laughter. The Archigos uttered a blessing over the robes, then handed one set to Ana.
Taking off her tashta and putting on the robes, she realized that she was also severing herself from her old life and putting on a new one. She came out from behind the screen, holding her yellow tashta folded in her arms. Sala, beaming, hurried forward to take it from her. FA R R E L L Her vatarh nodded his approval, tears glistening unashamedly in his eyes—she wondered whether he was truly proud of her, or only saddened by what was being taken from him.
My clerk, as I said, is waiting outside to take care of the fund transfer while you wait. The Archigos waited, silent, until the chapel doors had closed again behind them. Then he turned to Ana. Your matarh, her illness is grave. She was incredibly fortunate to survive at all. I remember all the funerals years ago when the Fever was at its height here in the city. Faintly, the dwarf smiled.
Every day. Or was it something else? At the touch, the woman stirred, turning her head slightly but still staring off vacantly. Tell me the rest, and tell me the truth now. Tell me the truth, here where you can. She wondered how she would be able to tell Vatarh how it had gone so badly so quickly. She could imagine his face going slack, his shoulders slumping and his will shattering inside him.
Just the smallest help. Just enough that. Her hands lifted. Fell back to her sides.
She could barely speak. Her voice was little more than a whisper. But I watched her suffering, watched my vatarh suffer with her. Does anyone?
I was always alone with her when I tried. I made certain of that. At her look of shock, his stern face relaxed.
Your hands and tongue are safe for now, Ana. Show me. Use it as you wanted to use it. Ana took a long breath. She could feel the Archigos staring at her as she closed her eyes and brought her hands together.
She could feel it now, a warmth between her still-moving hands, a glow that penetrated her eyelids and sent blood-tinted, pulsing streaks chasing themselves before her. She opened her eyes.
Her matarh was staring at the brilliance she held between them. The brilliance darted out, striking her matarh and seeming to sink into her. As Ana touched her matarh, she felt again the wild, black heat in the older woman: patches of it in her head, around her heart, in her lungs. She could feel it through her hands: as if Ana herself had the Fever, as if it could crawl out from her matarh into herself. She pushed it back, back into the maelstrom of the Ilmodo, and the heat rose so intensely that she thought her hands would be burned.
She lifted her hands away from her matarh, unable to hold the power any longer. Abini jerked in her seat, a shuddering intake of breath as if she were a drowning person gasping for air. Her eyes went wide, and she gave a long, low wail that held no words at all. She sank back, her eyes closing.
And so much older. She felt too weary to stand, and sank down alongside the carry-chair, gathering the woman in her arms. The servants peered around the opening. Ana glanced at him; her matarh turned in her carry-chair and laughed. He gaped, almost comically, caught in a half-stride. We have witnessed a special blessing.
She thought she saw her vatarh rushing to them, but the shadows in the chapel were growing darker and the candlelight could not hold them back. The darkness whirled around her, a night-storm. She laughed. That means I only have twelve more years to live.
The courtiers gathered around them laughed.