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.Whatever they are.” He drew out the packet and opened it, took the pen Habiba offered, and quickly sketched the characters of his name.Habiba smiled, gracious in victory.“I’ll have the servants put you in guards’ quarters after all.As your first duty, you will work with Kaydu on training.”Master Jaks nodded.“I suppose I’ll have to keep her chain, now.”“In time, you will find that it weighs lightly at the throat,” Habiba replied.“It is the chains you cannot see that bind you.“For the boys, silver.” He held out a chain to Bixei, who set it around his neck as if it had been a gift, and not a symbol of his servitude.He did not offer the chain to Llesho’s hand, but settled it himself around the neck of the boy.And something in his eyes told Llesho that the last words to Master Jaks had been meant for him as well.Not the chains he could see, but the ones he couldn’t.Still, the one he could see was coming off just as soon as he was out of the overseer’s office.“Bixei,” the overseer asked, “does the life of a warrior suit you?” and Bixei answered, “Yes, sir,” with speed and a bit of arrogance considering that he could not, at that moment, stand under his own power.“I am a fighter by trade, sir.”“Perhaps not yet,” the overseer commented, “But with time.I think you have, indeed, found your calling.Take him to the infirmary,” he said to Master Jaks.“When he is healed of his wounds, we will decide where to put him.”“Yes, sir.” Master Jaks managed to make his bow ironic.Llesho wished he could do that, and decided that he was in enough trouble as it was.“As for you.” He studied Llesho’s closed face with a serious frown.“I have been led to believe that you will be pleased with your accommodations.You can train with the guards, and then come here for scribal training with the clerks.Once you settle in, we’ll see.”Llesho didn’t like the sound of that “We’ll see.” Habiba had said nothing about sending him off to decorate his lordship’s bed or chaining him with the poisons in an alchemist’s workroom, which meant he was already ahead of where he’d been.With an effort, therefore, he subdued his panic, determined to wait and see where this next step would take him.In the meantime, he would learn all he could.But he seriously wondered how this put him any closer to his goal.Chapter TwelveHABIBA summoned the litter bearers and instructed them to take Bixei to the infirmary.As they left the overseer’s office with their burden of objecting gladiator-in-training, a young woman with dirt streaking her nose and sweat beading at her temples squeezed past them in the doorway and bowed carelessly.Then she wrapped her arms around Habiba’s neck for a quick hug.Presently she released his neck, but held onto his arm while she gave Llesho a swift glance that inventoried him down to his toes“So you found him,” she said, and grinned.Llesho stared at her like she’d sprouted a second head, while the color rose in his face.“Let me introduce my daughter,” Habiba said, “Kaydu, Master Jaks.I believe you have already met our young friend.”“Yes, indeed,” she said.“I’d put my money on his skill in a blooding fight, but in a fight to the death, I would bet on his opponent even if it was my great aunt Silla.”As a slave, Llesho realized he shouldn’t have been surprised that what seemed to be a courtesy introduction quickly turned into an analysis of his potential in the ring, but it rankled.He straightened his spine with a bit of the regal tilt to his chin he reserved for humiliating situations.Master Jaks shot him a warning glance, though, and he lowered his eyes, chastised.Until he decided for himself whether he was among friends or foes, he knew it wasn’t safe to give the sharp-eyed witch and his daughter any more to study about him than they already had.But Master Jaks rolled his eyes with a slight shake of the head.Too late, then.Habiba had already seen, and had already drawn his own silent conclusions behind sharp, hooded eyes.“You think he won’t kill?” the witch asked his daughter, as if Llesho weren’t even in the room.“I can hear, and speak,” Llesho reminded them.“If you want to know something, ask me.”“Llesho—” Jaks began with a stern frown.Habiba raised a hand to stop the teacher, and turned the blazing intensity of his scrutiny upon Llesho for a moment before the naked calculation disappeared behind a blandly polite facade.He tsked a reprimand, but did ask, “Have you ever killed a man, Llesho?”“No, but—”“Then you don’t know how you will react when the time comes.”“Neither does she—”At Habiba’s silent command Master Jaks had stood a little apart from the verbal skirmish, his arms crossed over his chest as if to hold in check his own worried response to the questioning, but he spoke up now.“Kaydu is right, of course.At least, he would not kill in the games—I am sure of it.”“We don’t train gladiators here, as you well know, Jaks.We need to know if he could kill in battle, or to save his life, or the life of his charge against assassins.”Llesho would have objected again that they were still talking about him as if he weren’t there, but Habiba’s words robbed him of anything to say.Assassins?“I don’t think he would kill at all, for any reason, now,” Kaydu continued her assessment.“Certainly not to save his own life—he’s been taught he’s worthless for more than half of it.Maybe, though, to save someone else, but it might destroy him if he had to do it.”“You haven’t seen him work with a knife,” Jaks said.“He only knows one way to handle the traditional Thebin blade; I suspect he was lethal even at seven.And I’m not sure he hasn’t killed before, though he certainly hasn’t since he came to Pearl Island.”“If he has, the memory is buried deep,” Kaydu said [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]