An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows Page B

you can wake the dead. His throat was slit two weeks ago. Whether for what he told me or some other pettiness, I can’t say, but dead is dead, and Ashasa alone shall judge him. But Matu should return any day now – it’s why we sent for you when we did.”
    â€œIs it?” asked Pix, acidly. “Well! I’m glad to know that someone, at least, is worthy of your confidence.” With that, she pushed back her chair and stood. “If nothing else, surely I can be trusted to see that our guest is given fresh clothing? If Zech’s ever seen the linen cupboard before, I’ll cut my braids.”
    Gwen watched in silence as Pix stormed out. As much as she found Yasha wearying at times, the ex-courtier was no better, always so quick to take offence and quicker still to act, as though she were incapable of remembering that her status had been lost when Leoden took power. But then, Gwen supposed, that was as much her fault as anyone’s, which ought to make her more tolerant. It didn’t, of course – Pix had been just as exhausting as a courtier, if not more so – but at least then she’d gotten her way often enough to be tolerable.
    â€œTell me,” she said, when Pix’s footsteps were no longer audible, “did you really send Matu just because he’s a better fighter?”
    Yasha snorted with laughter. “Goddess, no! I needed him out from underfoot, and fast. It’s one thing him bedding down with Vekshi girls, but Kenan women have no idea how to raise a child without twining themselves round its father and half his friends, and one of the town ladies had started claiming the babe she carried was his. It wasn’t, of course – and who is she, to try and spite the maramet so? – but word got about, and several other persons who’d been hoping to snare him in mahu’kedet began to get a bit, shall we say, tempestuous. All a load of nonsense, of course; Pix might not think it, but Matu’s sensible enough to have Teket’s Kin seal off his fertility until he’s ready to use his cock the way Ashasa intended. He’s all too lamentably Kenan that way. Honestly! It’s enough to drive a sensible woman mad. I’d forgive him, if only he’d give Sashi or Yena a child.”
    â€œAnd I suppose it didn’t hurt this plan that Pix was left in the dark?”
    â€œOh, Gwen. You do me a disservice.” Yasha dimpled her cheeks like the sweet old grandmother she sometimes pretended to be, and occasionally even was. “Of course I have every faith in her. But sometimes going without does a body good, as well you know. I was only acting in her own best interests.”
    Gwen raised an eyebrow. “Intellectual deprivation as a form of self-betterment? You’re in danger of turning philosopher on us all.”
    â€œI’ll thank you not to sully my ears with such talk,” said Yasha, taking a dignified sip of mege. “I’m a respectably settled matron.”
    â€œNot the words I’d have chosen,” said Gwen, “unless, in my absence, respectably, settled and matron have suddenly become synonymous with smuggler , spy and politically devious expatriate .”
    Yasha hmph ed, a disapproving sound entirely at odds with her smug expression. “Young people nowadays,” she muttered grandly. “Always prone to exaggeration.”
    Gwen choked on her drink.
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    A week ago , if anyone had told Saffron she’d one day be elated at the prospect of bathing in a tin tub full of cold water, she would have assumed they were either drunk or speculating about life after the inevitable zombie apocalypse. Or both, the two states being far from self-contradictory, but either way, she wouldn’t have considered it a likely outcome. Now, however, just getting clean felt blissful. Her school clothes were disgusting, streaked with sweat, blood, vomit, dirt and assorted other substances; removing them