stayed in one for a time. It was under nearly constant attack. People died.”
“I am sorry,” she said, meaning it. “We are also aware of colonies built upon the same principles Tanis follows, where both Opiri and human citizens are welcome.”
“Colonies, not cities,” Daniel said. “Before I was sent to Vikos, I heard of them. But it was said that they were no safer than the human settlements outside the Enclaves. Even if they managed to maintain their principles of coexistence, it wouldn’t mean much if they couldn’t defend themselves from the Citadels and rogue raiders.”
And was that, Isis wondered, why Daniel had come all the way to Tanis...to find a place that could defend itself and would still permit him to live in freedom?
She wanted...needed for him to see that Tanis was that place.
They left the central avenue and entered the maze of narrow streets between the residential buildings of Bes’s ward. The little Opir wasn’t there, and most of the human residents had gone to their jobs for the day. The older children were in school, while the younger ones stayed with one of their parents or a caretaker.
The buildings were neat and well-kept, with flower boxes on windowsills and decorations on doors and walls. The small neighborhood plaza was green with trees and grass, crisscrossed with well-tended paths. A few older humans congregated near a bench, gossiping among themselves. They grinned and shouted greetings to Isis, their eyes shining. She acknowledged them with a wave of her hand. A group of children walking with their teacher brought her a bunch of hand-picked flowers. Daniel looked on in silence.
As they turned the corner from one street onto another, a middle-aged man stepped up to speak to Isis, dipping his head in a gesture of respect. He told her of plumbing problems in his building, and Isis promised to see that Bes looked into the situation. Several other men and women approached with similar concerns, ranging from quarrels with neighbors to questions about the Council elections coming up in two months’ time. Again, Isis assured them that she would speak with Bes as soon as she was free.
One young mother emerged from her ground-floor residence to greet Isis, holding an infant in her arms. Joy flooded Isis’s heart, as it always did when she saw mother and child. Once humans had brought their children to her to be blessed, and mothers had prayed to her for the health of their families.
So very long ago.
The mother slipped the infant into Isis’s hands, and Isis kissed the boy’s soft, round cheek. Daniel gazed at her with a slight frown between his brows, as if he could not imagine her with a child in her keeping.
“Hold him,” she said, gently laying the infant in Daniel’s arms.
He held the child awkwardly; not as if he had never done so before, but with an almost excessive caution, as if he didn’t trust himself to do it properly. After a moment he returned the infant to its mother with a nod and a half smile.
“Thank you, Lady Isis,” the woman said, backing up a few steps before returning to her apartment. Daniel stared after her.
“The boy’s eyes,” he said. “He’s a half-blood. His father was Opir.”
“The child’s a dhampir, yes. Did I not tell you that we have mixed couples in Tanis? Not as many as I would wish, perhaps, but it is a new beginning.”
“Have you ever had a child, Isis?”
She was too surprised to be angry over the impertinent question. “You know it is possible?” she asked.
“I learned in the Citadel that Opir women could give birth in a mating with a male human. It was kept secret because no Opiri wanted to admit that a female of their kind could have a child by a serf.”
“Then you know the origins of the Darketans.”
“Humans call Darketans ‘Daysiders.’” He looked keenly into her eyes. “Unless you spent all your time since the War wandering in the wilderness, you know that the Citadels take them from their mothers when they are hardly more than infants and treat them little better than serfs, even though they rely on them to do their daytime spying in the zones around the Citadels.”
“We do not do that here,” she said. “Our Darketans come to Tanis to live full lives as equals. And female Opiri in Tanis can choose to have children by human males if they wish. There’s no shame attached.”
“And how often has it happened?”
A sharp pain struck Isis’s heart as she spoke. Yes, she could have borne a child, if she had ever found a male human for whom she could care deeply enough. But she had never sought one out. It had always been her work to nurture others, and bearing a child would bend her attention away from those who most needed her.
“It’s ironic that the Citadels never objected to the wartime practice of Opiri males forcibly impregnating human females,” Daniel said.
Ironic, Isis thought. Hypocrisy. She was hardly proud of what Opiri had done during the War, even though she had never been part of it.
But Daniel’s voice had hardened, and she wondered why the subject seemed so personal to him. He claimed he didn’t hate Opiri, but his words suggested otherwise.
“Why did you wish to know if I’d ever given birth?” she asked, quickly changing the subject.
“It seems as if it would be natural for you.”
She relaxed. “Is that a compliment?” she asked.
“It’s clear that you would love your children, as all these people seem to love you.”
Her mind flew directly to his accusation that she used her power to influence others. Isis was tempted to end the tour there, even though Daniel had hardly seen any of the city. But he was already walking on, his gaze quick and probing as he looked up and down the streets.
She caught up with him. “What is it you wish to see?” she asked.
“Another neighborhood,” he said. He paused by the small Lawkeeper station situated at the northern border of Bes’s ward.
“What is this?” he asked.
“There is a Lawkeeper station set up at every border between wards,” she said, feeling once again as if she had to justify Tanis’s laws. “We find these to be practical locations, and they can easily be found by any citizen.”
“Then they aren’t meant to hinder movement between wards?”
“Of course not! Any citizen may visit any part of the city.”
“And are stations located in the Opir wards as well as the human ones?”
“Naturally,” she said, “though the stations are located at the base of every tower except the one inhabited by the Nine.”
He seemed satisfied with the answer, and they continued past the guard station into the next ward.
It was overseen by Hera, who, Isis knew, very seldom visited her people. Isis rarely came here herself, and almost at once she noticed that something was not quite right. There was refuse in the streets, and no planters of flowers
