Another World Lies No Farther Than That
Both denser and sparser were the houses of Steiraf compared to those of Koshat Dreivis. The town had none of the narrow walkways warded from rain by the eaves of the surrounding buildings. Instead, wider streets would have separated the town's buildings into blocks had they been straighter and more regular than they were. Evidently the Kairs refrained from asking the people to give up their homes on the assurance they would soon move into better ones, which according to Loigwin was a common practice when municipal reorganization became desirable. Within each street-defined segment, residences seemed to lean against one another for support just as the residents did. Many were not even circular.
The path to the Kair domicile, or perhaps to the execution site, led past no such delightful contrivances as Poiskops Bodan-Tin scattered around his town, though there was a splendid clock tower in a Mabonn style: about two stories tall, four-faced, and crowned by a dome. All the innovative equipment went directly to the secluded grottoes of rumor.
As for the house itself, it constituted an entire complex of yards and outbuildings surrounded by its own wooden barrier equal to the outer town wall in craftsmanship if not in height. The main building's appearance suggested either the Kairs or Bodan-Tins had hired the other's architect, most likely on account of the excellent job done by that sajaitin (non-euphemistic).
In some of the yards, employees who wore stoles bearing the Kair shield over sleeveless shirts measured, cut, rolled, and packaged some material doubtless suitable for transformation into cummerbunds at that post-dinner hour during which they required lanterns to carry on. In others, dyes were applied. That was the work Dirant was able to see for sure from the entrance; past that, he thought women may have been weaving those famous tapestries he would like to be able to afford someday, though not so that he could buy one.
Kargin ushered them through the main entrance to an indoors scene far more active than what Poiskops allowed in his domicile. Business went on behind every curtain to judge by snatches of conversation intelligible over ubiquitous murmurs and rustles. Employees crossed the central court from and to every direction. The ceaseless use to which the chambers were put might cause a person anxious about the health of the residents, a new family doctor for example, to wonder when and where everyone slept until he at last observed their long, long breaks when the sun rose highest.
At the far end of the house, past a curtain too thick and heavy to be considered one any longer much like an athlete who long ago accepted a coaching position, the Kairs kept a room that smelled wealthy and looked it, too. The ornamented jars lined up near the walls, probably Obeneutian, were being wasted if not filled with diamonds and pungent oils from other continents. Display cases covered in glass and resting on gold and ivory bases held the family's treasures such as a dirty old coin, a rusted sword with frayed cord wrapped around the hilt, a chipped bell, and a yellowed document. A ring of chairs, their feet lost in the black carpet's high pile, faced the plushest seat Dirant had ever seen. It sat on a strip of blue carpet that led to the door. One of the chairs held Gretlin while the kingly station comforted a lady trending toward agedness.
Some might have said her to be well into it, but only the rare person who lacked both manners and a survival instinct. Then again, commenting on her age may have been an act of insightful courtesy because, contrary to the usual tendency, she looked to be embracing her future more than her past by throwing off all fashion and huddling within an array of shawls so dense and intricate that a team of extraction experts ought to have been standing by in case she wished to stand up. Nevertheless, she managed somehow to read pages bound between plain brown covers. A ledger, Dirant dared to conjecture despite knowing nothing of Drastlifan commercial aesthetics. The woman closed it and laid it aside on a nearby table; both actions caused Gretlin to flinch.
The meeting was of the private kind, the proof being that the lady introduced herself. “Weisaf Kair,” she said, and against expectation her voice was not lost among the soft slithers and squeaks of material and furniture as she adjusted herself to face the visitors. If anything, the odds favored her against Poiskops Bodan-Tin in a shouting competition. “And you are?”
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After a round of introductions, everyone sat down except Kargin. “It's just happenstance that I'm here, or should I call it good fortune? I think so. The impatient tides are the roads I take however, so again, please accept my regards, Eizesl Nein-Cadops-Bain, Sajaitin Rikelta, Seifis.” He stepped out at a pace barely short of a rush, much as when a gentleman wishes to absent himself from company so as to make crucial adjustments to his portfolio without revealing he overheard a private conversation held in a corner of the drawing room which carried powerful implications for such. If Loigwin had ever managed to hide surprise in his life, it was not then.
The Kairs ignored that. Guests might adopt whatever outrageous expressions they liked as one of their many prerogatives. Weisaf folded her hands which thereupon became hidden in countless folds. “I hope I'm not wrong to think that wasting your time is an offense harder to forgive than anything our Gretlin has done this time, Eizesl. In Koshat Dreivis was he, permission unasked and not given?”
Loigwin kept his head slightly lowered in what Dirant surmised to be a conciliatory attitude. “It will be well if he need answer to Woksan above, though there is a penalty for every indiscretion, but there may be more than that.”
“We expected it might be serious. He's been told how it's best for him to behave. Go ahead, silly.”
That sounded like a plain description rather than an affectionate nickname. Gretlin bore it. He did look sullen, but nature deserved the praise for that rather than his attitude. “Sure. Nobody's wasting time unrecoverable, right? Here's the thing whole and complete, right? The big Eizeur, that's Helsodenk Nifkleskir, wrote and said he'd pay me to go to Marshland, meet him, watch for a compatriot of his, watch out if persons certain showed up, just general matters and inoffensive. Nothing to bother a stanbrops over, affirmed?”
Weisaf closed her eyes and inhaled. “Most learn to watch their feet after they fall off a cliff but a single time, stumbler.” Her tone persisted in its evenness. Familiarity doubtless aided here, since Loigwin looked as if he had just bitten into bread not cooked all the way through. Whatever stanbrops meant in a dictionary, its usage was evidently not appropriate in those surroundings.
“A stanops, right, sure. He's busy with affairs people like me can't conceive.”
Weisaf elaborated on an oligarch's proper duties. “Making laws they don't themselves follow and parading around Dubwasef, upstarts in an upstart capital is what they're busy with, but that's no excuse for you. Pardon me for interrupting, Eizesl. We have to push the point right away lest it forever be forgotten, dog-like. Go on, Gretlin.”
The young man thus addressed may have been, rather than a mere natural henchman, the ideal henchman. The forbearance he exhibited against insults which must have moved others to tears or violence gave the visitors a better opinion of him. In one respect. Regardless, he went on. “I remember now the big Eizeur wrote suggesting, not saying it outright and simple but like sketching a map, he'd thank me if I didn't get permission first because he was coming over with the guy's nephew, who wanted his arrival unpredicted. Storm-like more than sun-like, right? I didn't get the course of that so good, but I know I'm not smart and we've been doing Nifky jobs for a long time. Uh, forgiveness, that's jobs for Eizeur Nifkleskir. So I did it, and I made sure that Adaban seffif turned up—”
“What was that?” That drove Weisaf's voice up for the first time.
“That seifis of Adaban heritage who flings a fan adroitly as anyone, but I stuttered just now, forgiveness. Then there were those cavalry goons, too. I carried out my tasks to the uttestmost, but in a report thorough I can't leave out I was supposed to meet this Tand coming in named Essar but never saw him. That was weird. But the nephew showed up as foretold. I wasn't sure if he knew me so out of sight like hopes and worries I kept, right? All until today, because, look, I know how strange this'll strike the ear, but I'm awake and aware and serious.” Gretlin leaned forward after looking around to spot anybody who dared employ the classic spying technique of standing in the middle of the room. “I think somebody's trying to make that stanops a former stanops! Well, the solitary reason there's no proverb that reminds us the place to be when a stanops goes over the side is anywhere else is just this: nobody needs to be told that, right? That's why I ran.”
“Gretlin.” Weisaf had wrestled her voice back to normal, a certain twitch in her hands notwithstanding. “Blameless was that one maneuver of all you've attempted, and wise. You've grown up a little after all.”
“Aw, what can I say to that, grandma?”
Apparently nothing, since his grandmother, provided that was not one of those terms of affection of which there had been no hint among the Kairs to that point, addressed Loigwin next. “This is no new information to you, Eizesl.”
“Not so new as my journey hither, yet newer by far than it is to my companions. Allow them to ask questions and a gift to me and Stanops Bodan-Tin will it be that is lighter than birth and little else.”