She cocked her head to one side and squinted at him, managing somehow even in this grotesque attitude to look ravishingly beautiful.
Suddenly she said, “You wouldn’t be thinking of running away, would you?”
For a second he became pale. Damn the woman anyway!
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said, trying hard to keep his voice from cracking. “I’m too much aware of the penalties if I were caught. Besides, why should I want to run away? You are the most desirable woman I’ve ever known. (This was the truth.) Though you’re not the easiest one in the world to live with. (A master understatement.) I would have gotten no place without you. (True; but he couldn’t spend the rest of his life on this barbarous world.) And it is unthinkable that I would want to leave you.” (Inexpressible, yes, but not unthinkable. He couldn’t take her with him, for the simple reason that even if she would go she would never fit in his life on Earth. She’d be absolutely unhappy. Moreover, she’d not go anyway, because she’d refuse to abandon her children and would try to take them along, thus wrecking all his escape plans. He might just as well hire a brass band and march behind it out of the city and onto the wind-roller in the light of high noon.)
Nevertheless his conscience troubled him. If it was painful to leave Amra it was hell to leave Paxi, his daughter. For days he had considered taking her along with him, but eventually abandoned the idea. Trying to steal her from under Amra’s fiercely watchful gaze was almost impossible. Moreover, Paxi would miss her mother terribly, and he had no business exposing the baby to the risks of the voyage, which were many. Amra would be doubly hurt. Losing him would be bad enough, but to lose Paxi also…! No, he couldn’t do that to her.
The outcome of this conversation with her was that she apparently dropped her suspicions. At least she never spoke of them again. He was glad of that, for it was impossible to keep entirely hidden his connection with the mysterious actions of Miran the Merchant. The whole city knew something was up. There was undoubtedly a lot of money tied up with this deal of the wagon caravan going to the seashore. But what did it all mean? Neither Miran nor Green would say a word, and while the Duke and Duchess might have used their authority to get the information from their slave, the Duke made no move. Miran had promised to let him in on a share of the profits, provided he gave the merchant a free hand and asked no questions. The Duke was quite content. He planned on spending the money to increase his collection of glass birds. He had ten large rooms of the castle glittering with his fantastic aviary: shining, silent and grotesquely beautiful, all products of the glass-blowers of the fabulous city of Metzva Moosh, far, far away across the grassy sea of the Xurdimur.
Green was present when the Duke talked to Miran about it.
“Now, Captain, you must understand just exactly what I do want,” warned the ruler, lifting a finger to emphasize the seriousness of his words. His eyes, usually deep-sunk in their fat, had widened to reveal large, brown and soulful orbs. The passion for his hobby shone forth. Nothing: good Chalousma wine, his wife, the torture of a heretic or runaway slave, could make him quiver and glitter with delight as much as the thought of the exquisitely wrought image of a Metzva Moosh bird.
“I want two or three, but no more because I can’t afford more. All made by Izan Yushwa, the greatest of the glass-blowers. I’d particularly like any modeled after the bird-of-terror…”
“But when I was last in Estorya I heard that Izan Yushwa was dying,” said Miran.
“Excellent, excellent!” cried the Duke. “That will make everything recently created by him even more valuable! If he is dead now it is probable that the Estoryans, who control the export of the Mooshans, will be putting a high price on anything of his that comes their way. That means that bidding will be high during the festival and that you must outbid any prospective buyers. By all means do so. Pay any price, for I must have something created by him in his last days!”