“We could stop.”

“Why, am I too long for you?”

“I bet I can make you forget your rock.”

They both laughed. The shadow of Abdumasi’s legs moved under her and Kindalana made a startled noise, falling forward, one hand braced on his chest.

Tau-indi turned away out of instinctive respect. Their naked bodies were familiar but sex was new and confusing. They did not want to want either Kindalana or Abdumasi, especially because it drew out the uneasy gap of age.

Tau sat there and decided to be happy for them. How happy, how satisfied, how glad, how delighted Tau must be to have this new joy in the Prince Hill mbo.

How happy. How glad.

They prodded at the thought like a bee sting and it made them sick with jealousy—not for sexual want of one or the other of them, but for jealousy of this secret Kinda and Abdu had. Listen to them! Listen to those curious secret sounds, those answers to questions they had asked each other in the past months, with odd silences and shy hesitations. Listen to them becoming less alone.

And to have sex on this rock, on this place for kites. Hadn’t Abdumasi known Tau-indi would come here? Hadn’t Kindalana? Hadn’t they known Tau-indi would hurt tonight? Surely they had.

Maybe Kindalana and Abdumasi had come up here to wait for Tau-indi, to comfort them. And then forgotten all about Tau, because they had found they mattered more to each other.

Tau-indi sat down hard on a stone and put their head in their hands. It was a sign, of course. It had to be this way. The world knew that Tau-indi had to be alone.

Out on the kite rock, Tau-indi’s two best friends articulated that loneliness enthusiastically.

Tau-indi stumbled back down toward the fire.

*   *   *

THE bonfire at the revels went out a week later.

But the war fire burnt up higher.

After the debacle at Kyprananoke, Segu had seized control of war planning away from Lonjaro. As the Mbo’s chief naval power (unless you asked the Devi-naga) the Segu were best qualified to unfuck the grand strategy of Falcrest’s containment. Eyotana Six-Souls was declared War Admiral, and she immediately broke up their armadas into separate swarms to blockade Falcrest’s ports. This would allow Falcrest to win battles by concentrating its forces, but the destruction would be limited to a few places, and a blockade would show Falcrest how hugely outnumbered they really were. Why strike the Falcresti like a big angry fist, if they could be driven off by a bee sting?

Of course, the Lonjaro Princes insisted, they would keep a fist ready, just in case. An army would march up the coast, counterclockwise round the curve of the Ashen Sea, up through Invijay lands to the great Tide Column. Across the Column lay Falcrest’s Butterveldt, where the army would eat everything, steal the herds, and generally force the enemy to reckon the sheer size of the Mbo’s forces. Battle itself would be unnecessary, although a few sporting engagements might be arranged against Falcrest’s militias: fought to the break, not the slaughter.