Hearts in Zenith (Four Husbands and a Lover)

44. Hunting the Stranger

She ignored my scowl, my twisting fingers, my gnashing teeth. She ignored me. Her light-brown eyes turned grayer with tears. "He said that? Kozima?"

"Yes, he said that. You didn't just sit around rubbing your loins around my husband, did you? You've listened to him, yes? Because if you had listened, you'd know that the pretty boy is smarter than he lets on. He even has a cunning of sorts. He has... I don't know... the manly wiles?"

A thousand warriors on a battlefield had tried to murder me with their glares and had failed. So I took Anastasia's pathetic attempt at a glare on the chin without flinching.

"Let me explain," I went on. "I reckon he said it because you're capable of grand things, Anastasia. But you never move on your own. You wait for someone to push you, like in a game of marbles. Before my first wedding, it was Kozima—"

She pursed her lips, no doubt remembering the day. I smiled at the same memory too and pressed the attack. "Tell me who it was this time? Certainly not Kozima. Then who? Who pushed you into this conspiracy against me?"

Instead of answering, the stubborn shrew struggled to dislodge my fingers from her robes, scratching my hand when she could have kicked me in the stomach.

"Naturally, it's better to charge in like you do, never giving a thought to the destruction and misery you leave in your wake," she spat at me. She spat out the words, that is, then she just spat, like a mangy cat.

I rolled my eyes better than Miccola. "Let me help you, Anastasia. She was a Scorpia assassin. A bit tall for a woman, but a bit too short for a man. She was rather plain. Sallow skin, narrow lips, mousy hair—"

"He. It was a man."

I let go of her robe. "And how do you know—Oh!"

It was plenty clear by the spiteful look on her face how she knew the assassin's sex, but she told me anyway. "Bedding someone who wants you dead was titillating."

The innkeeper's words came back to me. ′Gala has mercy on our souls if men loiter without a chaperone.′

A scorpia assassin roaming the city streets was unwelcome news, but a male Scorpia was worse news somehow. Not sure why. It just felt this way.

"Give me his name," I growled.

She pinched her lips.

I shook her. "Come on. What name did you whisper after he left his ugly print on your sheets?"

"He looks prettier between the sheets than on the streets. As for the name, I didn't ask, and he didn't volunteer."

Or he did, and she wasn't telling.

I shoved her away from me. "If your nameless lover comes back, thank him for the gift from me—he'll know—but tell him to come out into the open and come fight me like a woman, until he's dead... or I'm dead."

The jab was nice, but her information didn't get me much further than my guess. And Kozima was waiting for me at home. My anger was all used up. I sighed. "You have my thanks. Go wash the slobber off your chin and look for another fragile soul to succor. Kozima and I are leaving for Char-Kermen."

She narrowed her eyes—would you believe it! She still wouldn't give up on her delusions... or did Kozima run to her for solace again while I was at the birthing retreat? Regardless, what did she think Kozima would do, leap overboard from the ship carrying him away and swim for the Gala's Rock?

I massaged my neck. "Anastasia, I offered Kozima an uncontested divorce. If he wanted, he'd be back here with you now."

"May Mansoora send a thousand storms on your journey to Char-Kermen," she replied pleasantly. "May you be sick from it till your guts pour into the Southern Ocean. May the Scorpia assassins find you."

So much for doing her a favor!

"Prayer and contemplation are good for the soul," I reminded her.

I was through the door before ducking back in for another question. "Since you obsess over me so much, did you sniff out who picked my name for the naming day? My mother would have been dead by then, but perhaps she had made her wishes known to the priestesses?"

"Go fornicate with the Bhutas, Ismar! Or with your horse. Or pluck a dozen more dirty barbarians out of their yurts and fornicate with them—"

I didn't stay to listen to the rest of her suggestions, despite finding some of them surprisingly tempting. That one about Ondrey in particular... Ah, I missed being in bed with him already.

I wished Kozima was more adventurous.

Not that I was unlucky in my husbands, but I heard of women who were even luckier. Their husbands had been willing to share the same bedroom. Did the Tenets made a mention of this? I should ask Pheodoxia for a quote.