Hundred?

I'm just a hill girl born to goat herders! I'll never get used to this!

Following Kesta's eagle, Arkest, Tumna dropped toward one island among many within the branching arms of the great river. Nallo laughed with the blend of fear and thrill she'd not yet gotten used to. The wind rumbled in her ears. The city flew up to meet her, and Tumna banked to overfly the largest parade ground, where Kesta and Arkest were just setting down. Nallo counted four parade grounds, separated by a maze of walls and lofts, as Tumna veered toward an empty one. Jessed eagles concealed in lofts called out in challenge, but Tumna ignored them. Extending her wings to their greatest extent, she raised her talons to make a perfect landing on a massive wooden log set horizontal to the ground.

'Whoop!' Nallo shouted. Tumna chuffed, shaking herself as Nallo unhooked from the harness and dropped to the ground. Two fawkners jogged out from the lofts.

'Heya! I'm Nallo, out of Clan Hall. Greetings of the day.'

'Yeh, yeh, you're new, aren't you? Your eagle did all the work, that's for sure. What's your eagle's name? Anything we should know?'

The brusque voice brought her up short. 'She's called Tumna, and' — she paused to get their attention — 'she ripped off the head of her last reeve.'

'Deserved, no doubt,' said the stouter one, who did all the talking. The wiry one nodded with a sneering grin.

They were experienced fawkners and she a novice reeve, not even yet able to steer her eagle properly. Sparring with them was not a battle she could win. 'We're here to pick up rice and nai for the siege.'

'So we heard. You can't possibly ferry enough sacks of rice and nai by eagle flight to feed Toskala.'

'We're not feeding Toskala, only the defenders up on Law Rock.'

'Why stay in Clan Hall at all? Why not evacuate? Copper Hall could use reinforcements at our main hall on the Haya shore. And Horn Hall is abandoned.'

'We can't abandon Law Rock and Justice Square to those who mean to overthrow the law.'

The fawkner shook her head. 'Maybe not. But we're overrun with refugees from Istria and Haldia. We're starting to see hungry and sick refugees out of Toskala, and for sure there are more to come, eh? Our reeves are buried under fights and altercations all along the roads, even with the militia out patrolling.'

The wiry fellow spoke up for the first time. 'Seems selfish of you Clan Hall reeves not to disperse to reinforce the other halls. Work together. Be of some use.'

'We're not giving up Law Rock,' snapped Nallo. 'Now, can you show me where we're to pick up the grain? I hope the merchants of Nessumara are more polite than you.'

'Whoof! Don't cross this one, eh, Arvd?' said the woman before she hawked and spat on the dirt. Hostility was easy to see in the creases of her mouth. 'You've got that gods-rotted old Silver to bargain with. He'll suck you dry.' As one, they took a step back as Sweet pulled up neat as you please to land on the other side of the parade ground. 'The hells! We heard rumor an outlander had jessed, but we didn't believe it. Is he human?'

'As human as I am,' Nallo retorted. 'Although I wonder about you two, not even giving a proper greeting and then speaking ill of some old man I've never even met.'

'Whew! My ears are burning!' They sauntered away to get a look at Pil.

She turned back to Tumna, awkward with the hand signals. 'Remain' was easy enough, a sweep and clutch sketched in the air. Then she ran after the fawkners. 'Heya! Where am I supposed to go?'

Copper Hall's island was larger than Argent Hall. To make it all more confusing, this parade ground was rimmed on all sides by buildings, lofts, barracks, storehouses, even a smithy roiling with smoke and noisy with beaten strokes, wang wang wangl Her head hurt already, and in addition to the iron sting wafting from the smithy, there crept into her nostrils a slimy fragrance that dwelt in the air the same way a winter byre full of goats has a smell as much texture as scent.

'To the docks,' they shouted back before they approached Pil. He had climbed up the ladder to the fawkner's board just below the perch to examine Sweet's wings. Sweet was a good-tempered bird, less territorial than most not so much because she was friendlier but because she seemed bored of going to the trouble of posturing over each least perch. Nallo suspected that

things wouldn't go so smoothly if you really crossed the old bird.

Pil satisfied himself on the matter of the wing feathers — how he fussed over that eagle! — and descended the ladder. His exchange with the fawkners was briefer than hers had been; then he jogged to meet her, gesturing toward a gap between the smithy and a warehouse.

'That way,' he said.

The experienced reeves assured her she'd eventually get the hang of retracing, on earth, ground she'd flown over. Pil could already backtrack easily. She hurried after him, the fawkners staying with the raptors.

He stopped short, and she barreled into his back.

'Oof! Aui, Pil, what's-?'

Few things surprised Pil, but right now he was gaping like a dumbstruck child. A creature, human in shape but stout and hairless, had backed out of the enclosed smithy to slop a bucket of steaming water over the paving stones. Its skin, like coals, was charred black and broken with veins of fiery red.

'A demon!' murmured Pil.

With the clamor hammering within the smithy and the distance between them, no ears should have been able to catch that muttered comment, but the creature swiveled its head as if identifying distance and direction.

'Heya! Are you two the other reeves from Clan Hall?' A steward came running down the alley between smithy and warehouse. She wheezed to a stop beside them, bent to rest hands on thighs as she caught her breath. 'Hunh! Eie! Your other reeve…' A spate of coughing calmed her. 'She needs a hand there at the dock. Old Iron-goat-shanks is in full spout.' Excitement gave air to her voice. 'Despicable man! We hear a rumor he's getting a new bride from Olossi. Poor lass. They're already running bets in the hall over how long she'll survive his beatings. Two years, maybe; five if she's strong. I'm Ju'urda, by the way. I hope those cursed fawkners Arvi and Offina weren't rude. My apologies on behalf of the hall.'

'What is that?' Nallo gestured toward the smithy.

'Eh?' She looked around in the manner of someone who can't see anything except what she expects to see. 'What?'

'That, uh, that — oh, the hells!' Cursed if the creature wasn't already looking in their direction as if it could hear every word

over the boom and hammer coming from inside the confines of the smoky forge. 'It's a delving, isn't it? Just like in the tales.'

'A delving?' asked Pil.

'Country cousins, eh?' Ju'urda laughed in a way that stung, but immediately she tipped back her head and spoke past them, not shouting as a normal person would have to, to have a hope of being heard above the racket. 'Heya, Be. These are reeves visiting from another hall. One's an outlander and the other has never seen your kind before. Their apologies.

It raised an arm to acknowledge her speech and glided back inside the smithy carrying the empty bucket.

'The delvings can be cursed touchy, not that I blame them,' said the steward. 'It doesn't pay to insult them. Your grandchildren might find themselves with a ban still held against them when they least expect it.'

'What is a delving?' asked Pil.

'No time.' She glanced at Nallo. 'How in the hells did an outlander get to be a reeve?'

'No time,' said Nallo with a grin meant to have an edge, but Ju'urda laughed with real amusement, then set off at a trot, leading them down the alley. Nallo could see nothing of the hall grounds or the city beyond because they were hemmed in by buildings, none more than two stories tall and all with railings along the flat roofs and canvas set up over bare roof beams as if folk lived up there, too.

Ju'urda was soon flagging, although the jog seemed easy enough to Nallo. Pil, of course, was as tough as any man she'd ever met. Born, raised, and trained as a Qin soldier, he would die rather than show weakness.

Which made it all the more curious, Nallo supposed, that when he saw a creature he did not recognize, he immediately identified it as a fearful demon. Maybe they had more demons in the lands outside the Hundred. The gods had ordered the Hundred; naturally they had desired variety, for weren't there three languages spoken in the

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