She stood on the porch of the house with Anji, fanning herself as they watched the procession wind away from the benches. Twenty-seven couples in turn offered spikes of purple twilight-stupor at the flat boulder sacred to Hasibal. Bright red blooms of blood-star and falling-shields woven into necklaces draped the stone walls of the Thunderer’s enclosure. They strewed petals beneath the Herald’s gate, a path from west to east. The procession, accompanied by the singers, continued down to the market square.

Mai folded up her fan and, taking Anji’s arm for balance, indicated the steps. “Now they’ll go to the Lantern, the Witherer, the Lady, and the Merciless One. Then we’ll gather here in front of our house for rice wine and a feast.”

The kitchen yard was bustling, but he scanned the settlement sprawling below, the brick wall, the embankment, the green fields and, beyond all, the pale countryside, dotted with herds of sheep and tendrils of smoke where shepherds had set camps. Above, eagles circled. “Should you walk so far?”

“Would I be healthier if I lay in bed? Is that how Qin women spend their days when they are pregnant?”

His grin, like the day, was bright. “No, it is not. But you are getting very big, close to your time. Naturally, I worry. I have spoken to the Ri Amarah women. Maybe, after all, I must return you by ship to Olossi, so you can give birth surrounded by their medicine and sorcery.”

“I wish you had thought of that before you exiled me here.”

“Maybe so, but I am impressed with what you have built.”

More people—the entire settlement, really, except for the women cooking in the kitchens—had fallen in behind the procession as the singers switched rhythms and began to chant a complicated and somewhat lewd tale that everyone seemed to know, about a blind woodcarver and the blacksmith who courted her by forging fine tools for her use. Voices were raised in answer to the singers, punctuating the long descriptive verses with quick refrains: “Too sharp!” “Too dull!” “Just right!”

Mai surveyed the settlement. “I have not built it. They are the ones who built it.”

“Yours is the overseeing hand that guides them.” He looked at Tuvi, and the chief nodded. They began walking down, guards ahead and behind, Priya and Sheyshi following. “That girl who knew about herbs and plants—why did she refuse Tuvi?”

“They wouldn’t have suited. I have someone else in mind for Chief Tuvi.”

“Do you? Does he know?”

“Of course not! These matters must be dealt with more subtly.”

“So it seems.”

She braced her hand on his elbow as they negotiated a rough patch of ground. Taking a breath, she ventured onto new ground. “I hear a rumor that you fought a battle.”

“Was that meant to be subtle?”

“No. But I worry, so if you tell me the details, then I’ll worry less because I will not be weaving stories in my own mind to pass the days while I wait for you to return.”