Page 26 of The House of the Red Balconies

Hylas filled one of the bowls with tea, put the buns for his own breakfast on the tray, and brought the bowl and the basket of buns in to set on the chair beside Zo’s bed. Zo was lying down again. There were dark smudges under his eyes that were not from his makeup.

“Don’t let the tea get cold,” Hylas advised, and went back out, sliding the screen shut behind him.

It felt the same, after all. Nothing had changed; he had just awoken to how things really were. Hylas smiled to himself as he sat in the sun outside Zo’s door and drank his own tea.

CHAPTER 9

“I’m sorry,” Mutari said as she showed Hylas into one of the small, glittering, daytime sitting rooms at the House of the Peacock. “I wish I had good news for you. But it’s become complicated, I’m afraid.”

“I appreciate your help,” said Hylas quickly. “I hope this isn’t—hasn’t been—too much trouble for you.”

“Not at all.” She seated herself, arranging the folds of her dress. He took the couch opposite her. The table between them was covered in a clutter of papers and scrolls rather than dishes of food. “I’m as eager as everyone else for that aqueduct to be built. Especially now that more visitors are coming to the island. But the difficulty is that the Glifian envoy has just been recalled.”

“Oh. That … sounds bad.”

“Yes, it’s terrible timing for us, although it was only to be expected, since the change of regime in Tetum. If only I’d come back from my trip a few days sooner, I might have been able to do something about this before he received the letter—we could have sneaked it in.” She shook her head regretfully. “I’m truly sorry.”

“What? But, immortal gods, it’s not your fault. If this were—I mean, in most places, surely, I’d have been able to go to see the Gylphian envoy myself and put the case before him, instead of the—the roundabout way that … ”

He trailed off, afraid of being rude. It wasn’t that he thought she shouldn’t be an integral part of getting engineering projects approved on the island, just because she was a woman, or a companion. Or, well, maybe on some level he did think that, and he realized he didn’t want to.

“It isn’t exactly direct,” she agreed, smoothing her skirt with her lacquered fingernails. “And it can be inefficient. But it is how the women who populate the houses which bring most of the wealth to this island can have a say in the island’s fate. It isn’t as if we can vote in any assembly.” She laughed gently. “Even the men of Tykanos can barely do that. Our governor is appointed by Pheme, and the army and navy control everything else. The only things decided by the local assembly are where to dump the rubbish and who is in charge of cleaning the streets.”

“I understand,” said Hylas, and he hoped she could see he was trying. “I—I just want you to have your aqueduct.”

“I’ll tell you what. I will write to some people I know in Tetum who are close to the court. They’ll be able to tell me if a new envoy has been appointed yet and what is known of him—that way I will be able to begin planning in advance how to approach him.” She looked at him from under her lashes. “You know. Who might catch his eye, and so on.”

If she was trying to make him blush—and he thought she probably was—she succeeded. “I hope—that is, I hate to think of any woman having to s-sacrifice herself in any way to—to—that is, if there’s anything I can do … ”

She shrugged elegantly. “If he likes older redheads, I will certainly let you know.”

Hylas must have been beet-red by this time, to judge by the heat of his face, but to his surprise he could also laugh. “Let us hope you don’t have to, er, to rely on me in th-that way,” he managed.

“I have been inhospitable this morning,” she said, sitting up straight on her couch. “Forgive me. I have not offered you tea.” She reached for the clutter on the table and began gathering things up.

“Oh, that’s all right. I had tea at home before I left. I—I lodge at the Red Balconies.”

“Do you? Is Theano still there? I haven’t seen her in so long. But perhaps you don’t talk to the girls.”

“No, I—I do know all the companions there a little. Theano is there. She … she has a child. Leta. She is … ” He didn’t know the baby’s age, so he held his hands apart an appropriate amount. “About this big.”

“Truly! I didn’t know.”

“Perhaps I shouldn’t have told you.”

“No, no. Theano and I were good friends, before Aula took over the Red Balconies and forbade any of their girls from coming here. We used to visit each other and even host together, you know. But that’s very different now—not entirely because of Aula, customs have just changed, but it’s certainly true that she bears everyone at the Peacock a grudge because she felt she never got her due here.” Mutari rolled her eyes. “So Theano has a little girl. How I would like to see her!”

Hylas’s mind was filled with schemes for how they might arrange a meeting. He could find out when Theano was going to the market, for instance—surely she must sometimes go out to the market—and bring a message to Mutari. Then his gaze fell on one of the scrolls on her table, and he read the tag on it.

“Is that a copy of The Bronze Dolphin?”

“Oh, yes. It’s so good. Have you read it?”

“No, but I’ve heard of it.”

“This one’s mine. Would you like to borrow it?”

He hesitated, remembering what Zo had said about the tea houses not lending each other books. If she knew that he was taking it to share with other companions—well, specifically with Zo—but she already knew he lived at the Red Balconies, and she was friends with Theano.