Arif laughed and hugged his neck. Stafa repeated, "We got you now, long-leggeddemon." But Aaron's remark did not go over well elsewhere. Raheb grumbledsarcastic agreement. Mish's eyes sparked with rebellion. She muttered toherself. Laella looked put upon.

"Problem?"

Mish surprised him by answering. "Mother thinks I was flirting with a Dartarsoldier." She spoke each word almost as a separate sentence and loaded everyone with the infinite, weary exasperation of the very young.

"That's enough of that, Mish," Laella said. "Mother! We've been through italready."

"Dartar?" Aaron asked.

"You should've seen, Dad," Arif said. "There were hundreds of them. Thousands.

With camels and everything."

Stafa said, "Forty-three," which was his favorite number of the week and meanta lot instead of any specific number.

"Dartars? What is this?"

"They came this morning," Laella said. "A hundred. Maybe a few more. They putmen outside all the entrances to the maze and then they went in. They tookprisoners."

Raheb said, "And about time that cesspit was cleaned, too. Maybe those Dartarmaggots are good for something, after all."

Which led Mish to a caustic remark. Her mother responded. Laella snapped,

"That's enough of that! You're both old enough to know better." She pinchedher temples between thumb and forefinger. "I'm yelling at my mother and sisterlike they were kids squabbling."

"You need to get out. Let's go for a walk. Up to the Parrot's Beak."

"I haven't done the marketing yet. It was too rowdy out there while theDartars were here."

"Never mind. We'll manage. What happened to the Dartars?"

"After they were here a few hours messengers came and they all went awayagain."

"Probably because of the new governor. Come on. Let's go walk."

She saw it was important to him, so she collected her shawl.

"I want to go, Dad."

"Me, too." Stafa still clung to his leg, grinning, stubborn as a barnacle. Hedeposited Arif on the floor.

"You boys stay with Nana."

"Aw, that's not fair. You don't never let me ..."

"Yeah, you long-legged creep. I hate you."

Aaron rolled his eyes toward heaven. "Let's sell them both to the Turoks." TheTuroks were nomads who ranged south of the Takes, reputedly so ferocious eventhe Dartars feared them. Turoks seldom visited Qushmarrah. The only TuroksAaron had seen he'd been unable to distinguish from Dartars.

Selling the children to the Turoks was a family joke. Laella completed theritual. "The Turoks wouldn't take them. They're too mean. You boys behave forNana. Mish, you can make mountain bread. There're beans soaking in the crock.

There's cheese. There're odds and ends. Put something together."

Mish put on her martyr's disguise, filled the house with her agonizedadolescent sighs.

Raheb shook her head in disgust and took herself back outside to abort asquabble provoked by proximity.

"Are you going?" Laella asked, Aaron suspected more sharply than she intended.

"I still have this grinning goiter on my shin."

Stafa giggled.

Laella peeled him off amidst a one-child chorus of hate-you-moms and depositedhim amongst blocks Aaron had made from scraps from the shipyard. Arif observedsourly. Aaron hugged him. Laella twisted her shawl around her head and acrossher face and followed Aaron into the street. She said, "Give me time to relax.

Mom and Mish have been at it all morning."

He grunted. He had no intention of saying anything till he had relaxedhimself. In some way.

They did not exchange a word all the way to the Parrot's Beak.

The acropolis was crowded. The parade for the new governor was still breakingup, with soldiers moving back to their barracks or garrisons or duty stations.

They moved through the traffic and found a place in the shade of the Beak.

They settled. They remained silent. The breeze tugged at their hair andclothing. Clouds banking beyond the Brothers suggested some rain moving inlater.

Laella waited.

"I want to tell you about something. I don't really want to talk about it. Idon't want to answer a lot of questions." The trouble with talking with Laella was that she always asked a thousand questions that had nothing to do withanything, about half of them vaguely accusatory. Interposed would be two orthree questions that were too much to the point.

"It's about what's been bothering you?"

"Yes." That was one. "Just let me tell it."

She bit down angrily.

"This has been eating at me for six years. Last night it came to a head. Ihave to make a move. But I don't know what." Before he finished that his hand was moving. He laid a finger across her lips as she started to open her mouth.

"Six years ago one of the men in my company opened a secret postern gate andlet the Herodians into the tower we were holding at the Seven Towers. Healmost got me killed. He did get half the men in the outfit killed. He almostgot me sold across the sea as a slave. They were going to do that with all theprisoners that had trades. Till they decided that would cause more hate inQush-marrah than it was worth. He got a lot more people killed here in thecity."

He lapsed into several minutes of silence. Laella bemused him by keeping herpeace. It was not like her to recognize a time for quiet.

"Do you know that if we'd held the pass for two more days the allies and thenew levies would have had time to assemble on the Plain of Chordan?"

Laella nodded. "Everyone says."

"We could've held out for another week. We knew it and they knew it. They wereso desperate they started trying to run cavalry past us at night. Not theDartars. Fa'tad is too smart to let his men get massacred the way we massacredthem."

Laella was frowning. "Is there a point to this?"

"Maybe I'm straying. But I want you to know that the Herodians knew theycouldn't win if they didn't get to the Plain of Chordan first. Even withFa'tad to help. People who were on our side forget that part and just jabberabout Dak-es-Souetta. Maybe because everybody who ever thought they wereanybody in Qushmarrah was there and they don't want their defeat to be lessimportant than one man opening a postern gate. I mean, how could all thosetens of thousands of men getting killed be less significant?"

"You think you know who did it."

"I don't think I know. I'm not guessing. I know."

"Naszif."

He was startled into open-mouthed silence.

"It explains so much, doesn't it? Why you've always been the way you are abouthim. How he's managed to do so well without working very hard at it. Youshould hear how Reyha worries about his making so much. And you kept thisbottled up all this time."

"There's Reyha. And Zouki. And the war is over and lost."

"And no bitterness? No urge to get even?"

"Hell, yes, there is! I got a father and two brothers under the ground on the Plain of Chordan. Pop was too old to go to Dak-es-Souetta. Tuddo and Rani weretoo young ... Yeah. I'm bitter. Yeah. I hate. But what happens to Reyha andZouki if you take Naszif away? The war didn't leave them anyone else at all."

Almost shyly, like the first time they had been allowed to be together alone, she touched his hand. "You're a good man, Aaron. Thank you for telling me."

"I'm not done yet."

"There's more?" "You didn't pay a lot of attention to Naszif last night, did you?"

"I ignore him as much as I can." She smiled. "I don't like him, either. Even Reyha doesn't like him very much. But a woman has to live with what she has to live with. What about Naszif last night?" "He made me have to make my decision all over again. And it was hard enoughthe first time, and living with it."

"Why again?" Straight to the point today. None of the usual nonsense.

"Because at the end last night Naszif was practically bragging that he's a bigman in the Living."