"They know what is at stake. They're afraid. Schultz, too. That's why they're joking."
"They're joking because they just followed you into a horde of angry Canim and walked back out again in one piece," she replied. "The battle energy had to go somewhere."
Tavi grinned. "True."
She tilted her head. "I'm curious. What did you accomplish, other than arranging a duel with one of the more dangerous beings we have encountered?"
"I started a conversation," Tavi said.
Kitai eyed him for a moment, then said, "They are right. It is annoying when you do that."
Tavi sighed. "It'll work, or it won't. Talking about it can't help."
She shook her head. "And your other plan. Will it work? Will we get there in time?"
Tavi stopped walking and regarded her. "I think there's a chance. A good chance." He turned to her, bowed formally, and asked, "Ambassador, would you do me the pleasure of joining me for a late dinner this evening?"
Kitai arched a white eyebrow. A slow smile spread over her lips. "Dinner?"
"It is the way things are properly done," he said. "You might wear your new gown."
"Gown?"
"I had it delivered to your tent while you were gone. I think it's lovely. Tribune Cymnea assures me it is elegant and tasteful."
Both her eyebrows lifted now. "In all of this, amidst everything you are doing, you made time to get me a gift."
"Obviously," Tavi said.
Kitai's mouth curved up into another slow smile. She turned and sauntered away, hips swaying a little more than was necessary. She paused to say, "There is hope for you yet, Aleran." Then she continued on her way.
Tavi frowned after her. "Kitai? So... you're coming to dinner?"
She didn't answer, except to laugh and keep walking.
Chapter 10
Amara suppressed an irrationally intense urge to have Cirrus choke off Senator Valerius's supply of air. She supposed she didn't absolutely need to choke him. Not fatally, anyway. She might be satisfied enough with merely watching him turn purple and collapse - but the man was so detestable that she scarcely trusted herself. So instead of murder, or a pleasant near murder, she folded her hands calmly into her lap and forced herself to remain calm.
Bernard leaned over, and murmured, "If I asked you politely, do you think you could strangle that smug idiot from all the way up here?"
She tried to suppress the giggle that surged up out of her belly at his words but was only partly successful. She covered her hand with her mouth but nonetheless earned a number of irritated glances from those in the amphitheater's audience.
"Tonight's script is for a tragedy," Bernard scolded her quietly, leaning close to put a restraining hand on her arm. "Not a comedy. Contain yourself before you upset the audience."
She fought down another laugh and punched his arm lightly, turning her attention back to the ancient Senator Ulfius's quavering recitation of obscure lineage. " - son of Matteus, whose title did not pass to his eldest, illegitimate son, Gustus, but to his younger and properly invested son, Martinus. Thus, is the precedent established, my fellow honored Senators, my lords in attendance."
Senator Valerius, a saturnine man of middle years and tremendously dignified appearance, began to applaud with long, elegant hands, and there was irregularly spread support of the gesture. "Thank you, Senator Ulfius. Now if there are no further - "
One of the seventy or so men seated on the floor of the amphitheater cleared his throat loudly and rose in place. His hair was a thicket of white spikes, his nose was laced with red from drinking too much wine, and his knuckles were swollen almost grotesquely from repeated brawling. A bandage on his right hand testified that not all of it had been in his youth, either.
Valerius adjusted the drape of purple cloth that denoted his status as Senator Callidus and eyed the other man. "Senator Theoginus. What is it?"
"I thought I might exercise my right as a member of this Senate to voice my thoughts," Theoginus drawled, his slow Ceresian accent coming through with broadly overdone exaggeration - a deliberate counterpoint to Valerius's classically trained, firmly northern intonations. "Assuming the Senator Callidus still intends to chair this august body in accordance with the rule of law, of course."
"Every moment wasted is a moment that could have been used preparing ourselves to face the enemy," Valerius responded.
"Indeed," Theoginus said. "Does that include the moments spent on your quite excellent manicure, Senator? I'm sure the shine of your nails will dazzle the vord before they can get anywhere near us."
A low laugh, as scattered as the previous applause, went through the audience. Amara and Bernard both added their own voices to it. The bandages on Theoginus's knuckles made an even more stark contrast to Valerius's appearance. "I think I like him," Amara murmured.
"Theoginus?" Bernard replied. "He's a pompous ass. But he's on the right side, today."
Valerius was far too polished to show any reaction to the laughter. He waited for it to vanish, and for another quarter minute after that before answering. "Of course, Senator, we will hear what you have to say. Although I ask, for the sake of the brave young men preparing to face the enemy, that you keep your commentary concise and to the point." He bowed his head slightly, gestured with a single hand, and seated himself gracefully.
"Thank you, Valerius," Theoginus replied. He hooked his thumbs in the folds of his robes, thus ensuring that the bandages on his right hand remained highly visible. "With all due respect to Senator Ulfius for his prodigious knowledge of Aleran history and Aleran law, his argument is specious and deserves to be laughed out of this amphitheater."
Ulfius rose, making spluttering sounds, his bald, speckled pate turning bright red.
"Now, now, Ulf," Theoginus said, giving the other Senator a broad, jowly smile. "I meant to go about that more gently, but Valerius says we've got no time to spare for your feelings. And you know just as well as I do that Parciar Gustus was a slobbering madman who murdered half a dozen young women, while Parcius Fidelar Martinus was the first serving Citizen to be named to the House of the Faithful after the Feverthorn Wars - and that was only after he twice declined Gaius Secondus's invitation to join the House of the Valiant."
Senator Theoginus snorted. "Trying to compare those two to Gaius Octavian and Gaius Aquitainus Attis strikes me as pure desperation - especially given that you have no evidence to prove that Octavian's birth was illegitimate."