21
IT WAS STILL mid-afternoon, but the light had turned ominous, reflected off a huge bank of clouds that gathered over the escarpment. Enveloped in greys and darker greys, cloud castles reached for the zenith of the sky. Filaments of white took turns to block one or both suns, casting ghostly half shadows when only one sun vanished.
Mikandra went back to the guesthouse where Jocassa was no longer at the table in the courtyard. A few Mirani men she vaguely remembered from the party last night sat on the fountain’s edge. They fell quiet when she came into the courtyard. One of them lifted his hand in tentative greeting. Oh no, they didn’t trust her.
“Do you know where I can find the bathroom?”
One of them pointed. “Dunno that you call it a room.”
Another man guffawed.
Mikandra went to
