“I would not have chosen this place to talk,” he said quietly, and I was aware of the utter silence in the room, of the women straining to hear what he said. “I would have talked with you privately, but I have much to do, and you are elusive.”

“I go out often, lord, hunting with Kallai.”

“I have heard that you manage your falcon well,” he murmured. “I would have liked to have gone hunting with you sometime.”

He hesitated, and I sensed unease in him. I wondered why he had come, why he seemed so perturbed. He turned suddenly and made an angry gesture towards the listening women. “Have you all nothing to do?” he cried, and they leapt into action. But they were nowhere near as noisy as before, and they all happened to be working in places nearby that gave them a good view of Amasai’s back. I suppose even his back looked fine, straight and lordly as it was. And they could look easily at his hair, rippling long and golden in the fire’s light. I had to be content with what the edges of my eyes could see, though he stood within an arm’s reach of me, and looked into my face.

“I am going away, Elsha,” he said. “Look at me, will you?”

“The women will see,” I said.

“Then turn your back to the fire. No – then I cannot see your face. Oh, damn the women!” He looked away, bent his head, and sighed. “I am going to the northern territories,” he said, his voice very low. “My high lord has made me commander of his army.”

“I didn’t know he had an army,” I said, surprised. “Does he need one?”

“He has always had an army, to protect our mines and towns against invasion. But more than ever, he needs one now. There are rumours of insurrection in some of the larger mines. The Quelled are becoming restless. I saw that look, Elsha. Joy, was it? By God, you frighten me.”

“I hardly have the power for that, my lord.”

“You have more power than you know. Are the women watching us?”

I glanced past his shoulder. “Like hawks, lord.”

He sighed again, heavily, and glanced down at his hands, clasped on his jewelled leather belt. He dropped his voice so low that I could hardly hear. “Elsha, listen. I will not see you again. That pains me. When – if there is a time when you are no longer his handmaid, will you come to the northern territories, to me?”

“Lord, I thought I am to be his handmaid always, until he dies, or until I displease him. The women said his other handmaid died, and the one before that was—”

“Elsha! Elsha, I did not come to talk women’s tattle. We have so little time. Will you promise me this one thing – that when you are released, you will come to me?”

“Why, lord? It is a soldier you want, not a handmaid. I’ve never held a sword, or shot an arrow, or—”