The man lifted desperate brown eyes. Blaise nodded encouragingly. “Remember, you have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Hate replaced confusion, and the Tarhiji buried the blade in Aleh’s chest.

Blaise laid a hand as if in blessing on the Tarhiji’s sweat-matted hair. “You may keep my sword. A gift of thanks from the Raiyis of House Vayawand.”

A cheer tore the air, and then the frenzy struck all the blind, and they rolled over the remaining Zal’hma at’ Irg. Durg wasn’t sure if at the end they were using weapons at all. A cold finger traced a line down the length of the Morakh’s back.

More to banish his unease than any real desire to discuss the event, Durg said, “Rodaleh was well into festival preparations. We can use their goods in place of House Vayawand’s. It should save us substantial expense.”

They moved from the gardens into the House. Tarhiji servants filled the doorways, anxious for a glimpse of the conqueror. Blaise bestowed offhanded smiles and waves on them.

“Great, but I’m still not going to this little party.” Blaise stepped over a body crumpled in the center of the hall.

Durg kicked it aside. “You must, you are Raiyis, and it is our most holy, most important celebration.”

“My grandfather’s going to be there!” Raw panic edged the words.

Closing his eyes in pained reaction, Durg prayed for patience. “What can he do? Female, pregnant, and our spies report that my Lord Zabb has wrested the House from her grasp. She is helpless.”

Blaise was shaking his head violently. “You don’t understand how tricky he is. He’ll get to me somehow. I’ve told you to kill him, but you won’t do it! I won’t be safe until he’s gone!” The boy’s voice was spiraling upward, and Durg was horribly aware of the listeners.

“Hush, don’t show your fear!” The glimmerings of a plan began to form. “And my lord, there is a way to neutralize your grandfather. And one which I think will give you pleasure.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Hi. You got stuck for my lunch. I know you won’t take money, so try these.” Jay thrust out the bouquet of flowers and smiled down at Hastet. He peered past her shoulder to the room beyond. It was an occupational hazard of detectives.

The view was heartening. She was a slob just like him. The room was a cluttered mess. A pair of shoes cocked shyly across each other as if ashamed of their position in the center of the room. Brightly colored pillows spilled off a sofa and onto the floor. There was a plate with a half-finished meal on the floor among the pillows. It was apparent that Hastet was not a furniture sitter. She sought the low ground.

The holo was on. At first he thought it was a newscast of a bunch of psi lords. Then he realized they weren’t pretty enough, or delicate enough. They were half-starved Tarhiji actors prancing around pretending to be psi lords. Unfortunately it didn’t look like a satire. Another piece of the puzzle about the relationship between ruled and ruler clicked into place.

Hastet was still eyeing the flowers. “You really are hopeless,” she finally said. “You don’t give flowers to one of the bitshuf’di. And an odd number of flowers are either for your wife or your mother. When you’re courting, it’s an even number. And you never bring red – that’s the color for the dead.”

“You people are opaque. Is anything simple in this culture?”

“Only dying.”

She was still blocking the door. “May I come in?”

“Why?”

“I want to apologize.” That didn’t seem to be winning any points. “I want to understand.” That got her. Curiosity replaced hostility.

“What?”

Jay sucked a breath past his teeth, prepared, spoke. “Let me be up front about something – I’ve been snooping. So I know a little about you.” The pupils widened until the warm brown eyes seemed an implacable black. “And knowing what I know, I don’t understand,” he gestured toward the holo. “Why are you watching a soap opera about the trials and tribulations of a psi lord? Why don’t you just rise up and kill them all?”

“They read minds. Or have you forgotten? And what are you doing off your leash?”

“I got a dispensation from big daddy Taj.”

Probably because the news out of Vayawand just kept getting scarier, Jay reflected, and they probably figured he wasn’t going to head off to Vayawand on his own. They had figured right.

With a quick flick of the wrist, Hastet threw the door fully open, pivoted, and walked back to her pillows. It was grudging, it was unspoken, it was an invitation. Jay accepted and entered.

Just as his knees were buckling to drop him onto the pillows, a critter stuck its head straight up out of the cushions and let out a hiss like a tire deflating. It looked like a cross between a ferret and a feathered snake, with teeth that wouldn’t be out of place on a moray eel. Jay dived one way while the critter dived back into the safety of the pillows.

“Please excuse Haupi. She’s a little shy,” Hastet said, her voice catching on a chuckle. Despite his alarm, Jay had to admit that a smile became her. The lines about her mouth and between her brows softened, and there was that dimple again. Jay was a sucker for dimples.

“You don’t get many visitors,” Jay correctly deduced.

“No,” Hastet admitted.

“Takisians just keep getting dumber.”

The presence of so many guards had Jay’s wee-wee trying to run for cover. It was the first time he’d actually entered Rarrana since Tisianne’s seclusion. It was Lillyshit day, or whatever the hell they called it, so supposedly it was okay for him to be there, but it still put him in fear for his dick.

Tisianne was arranging flowers and taking a long time about it. Jay’s idea of flower arranging was a jelly jar and water. He had to admit the results so far were really pretty. Tis picked up one blossom, and the air was filled with a gentle chiming.

“Oh cool, is that the flower?” Meadows asked.

“Yes.” Tis offered it to the ace.

Jay reached out and lifted a blossom from the table. Several of the guards tensed. Jay cringed back into his chair and folded his hands in his lap. There was a smile lurking at the corners of Tisianne’s mouth as she tossed him a flower. Jay hid his embarrassment by studying the lilac and white blossoms. They were hard, and the stamens apparently acted like the clappers of a bell. He noticed wounds on the stem.

“They pulled off the thorns.”

“Yes,” Tisianne said. “They don’t do that for the men who enjoy this art. It’s funny because men are really far more vulnerable than women.” She selected another flower from an overflowing basket. “What news from the wide world, Jay?”

“You’ve heard as much as I have, and it’s all shitty -”

Zabb walked through the doors of the suite, and Jay, Mark, and Tis all stiffened.

“Cousin,” Zabb said, and gave Tisianne a buss on the cheek.

“Is there some reason that you are allowed to annoy me with impunity?” Tis asked in that sharp, snotty tone that always made Jay’s teeth ache.

Zabb smiled sweetly down at his cousin. “I’m the Raiyis. All women are my daughters… potential wives. I can see you whenever I choose in whatever manner I choose.”

“And I may choose to put that grandiose fiction to the test,” Tis challenged.

“Let’s not disturb the beldams again, shall we?” Zabb dropped with a sigh into a chair.

“Then leave me alone. Haven’t you done enough to me?”

“You’re lucky I didn’t -”

“Kill me.” Tisianne selected another bloom from the overflowing basket. Continued in that same sweetly soothing voice. “Yes, every day as I look about me, consider my situation, I am again struck with how much I owe you.”

Meadows stepped in. “Hey, man, it’s like you said. You can visit us anytime. We only get to see Jay once in a while. Why don’t you split and come back later?”