Lies of Light by Philip Athans Page B

find her standing by the rail of my ship. She had swim… swum… I don’t… but she swam there in the dark of the night at great risk, and with motives I am having trouble understanding.”
    “She can’t have been trying to steal from you,” Osorkon said.
    “I do not have reason to believe that.”
    Ran Ai Yu let her fingertips brush a blooming rose as she strolled past a particularly healthy bush. The ransar’s garden was impressive for a private residence, though the palaces of Shou Lung had gardens far larger. She’d noted the ransar’s gaze darting from bloom to bloom as they walked and could see that he appreciated the foliage and the peacefulness of the place. Somehow, it didn’t match the man.
    “She is haunted,” the Shou merchant said. “Phyrea?”
    “Spirits have attached themselves to her,” she explained. “One of my men is sensitive to such things. Even without his counsel, I would have seen it in her myself. She speaks to people who can not be seen.”
    The ransar shrugged and said, “Maybe she didn’t swim to your ship alone.”
    Ran Ai Yu skipped a step. Her hesitation elicited a
    scant smile from the ransar. She hadn’t considered that possibility—that Phyrea might have been accompanied by some number of compatriots cloaked in spells of invisibility—but somehow it simply didn’t ring true.
    “Nothing was missing of my cargo or personal items,” she said. “I am sure she was alone.”
    “And you have a sensitive man____”
    Ran Ai Yu let that pass.
    “Would you like me to inform the master builder?” he asked.
    “If you feel that would be proper.”
    Ran Ai Yu let her gaze drift up from the flowers to the towering ramparts of the Palace of Many Spires. One tower in particular struck her eye. It was newer than the others and possessed of an ethereal beauty that was out of place in the otherwise underwhelming city of Innarlith.
    “I find it difficult, sometimes,” the ransar said, “to determine precisely what is and what isn’t proper. It can plague one, don’t you agree?”
    “With all honor and respect, Ransar, but I do not. I have come to know many of the ways of Innarlith, so to me I am not surprised by what you have been so kind to confide in me, but in my realm we are schooled from our youngest age—from before we can even speak—in the ways of polite and civilized society. We are taught always to know what is proper in any situation. It is the blood and sinew of our very culture.”
    What she’d said seemed to please him, and he replied, “Well then I guess I will have to rely on you to tell me if it would be proper for a man like me to ask to see a woman like you in a social setting.”
    Ran Ai Yu was struck momentarily dumb. She wasn’t even entirely certain what the ransar was asking.
    “I am certain we will encounter each other again at receptions and such,” she said. “My business demands that I-“
    “Tell me if you are uncomfortable with my advances,
    Ran Ai Yu,” he said, his voice sending a chill down the Shou woman’s spine.
    “I am uncomfortable only because I have been here so long, and have been unable to unload precious cargo for trade in Innarlith,” she said.
    He sighed at the change in subject and said, “There are men in this city who are inflaming the passions of the working class, though I have no idea of the purpose behind it. I strive diligently, I assure you, to take matters in hand. You will unload your cargo when limited resources make it possible.”
    “It is warm today,” she said.
    Ransar Osorkon grunted in the affirmative.
    “I arrived on the twelfth day of Alturiak,” she said. “Though I greatly enjoy your city and its people, now it is four months gone by, the warm winds of summer blow, and still my ship is at anchor in the harbor.”
    “Take your complaints to the harbor master,” the ransar replied.
    Ran Ai Yu nodded and changed the subject. “I have been to visit the site of the canal that Ivar Devorast constructs