wife, you will find her better prepared to answer your questions and deal wisely with your concerns.'
Volla examined the captain, then gave a swift and rather admiring once-over in Joss's direction, enough to sweeten his grin. 'I'll see what I can do. Guri, what do you think?'
'I think he's not your type,' said the censor, tilting his chin toward Joss. 'I don't trust them when they're that handsome and they know it.'
She chuckled as Joss felt himself redden. Then she sighed. 'It isn't only rumor that discontented lads have walked north looking for adventure and never come home. That debt slaves in greater numbers than usual have vanished up country as runaways. Villages have been burned. The roads aren't safe. Trade is hurting. We must be prepared. I just don't know why we need outlanders to raise and train companies. What's wrong with the likes of Censor Guri, here, and Kotaru's ordinands, and the local militias? No offense meant, Captain Anji.'
Captain Anji had a tough hide, able to take these repeated slings without showing their impact.
'No offense taken, verea. Your militias and ordinands are sufficient for local traffic, but in terms of disciplined troops who can act in concert at range, and under severe conditions, you need a different sort of training, a thoroughgoing element of toughness. That's what my troops can provide. We are the skeleton of a new fighting force, one that will protect Olo'osson. Every man willing to take up arms can receive the same training.'
'I don't see we have a choice,' said Guri. 'It's true enough that Kotaru's legions are trained to serve local matters and local manners, not to march in cohorts under the command of a single general. But this is my question. Put our men under control of the city, then what's to say the city doesn't decide it controls us? Neh, Marshal?'
'The man's got a point,' said Volla.
'It's a fair enough question,' said Joss. 'But these aren't ordinary
times, Censor Guri. If the Northerners attack again, having learned from their last attempt, we can't fight back as a scatter of small units. We'll be crushed.'
'Let me tell you something about my mother's people, the Qin,' said Captain Anji. 'Our ancient enemies are demons who live in the west. There are a lot of them, I assure you. They steal young men and women from our people when they can.' His gaze drifted to a point somewhat above his listeners' heads, and for a pair of breaths he stared pensively into the sky. By the way his jaw tensed, he was thinking about a matter that displeased him. Then he blinked, relaxed, and continued.
'Why have the demons not overrun us? Because we have a var — a king — while demons always fight among themselves. They have no leader, no general. So we ride as a united people, and they scatter themselves into tribes.' With a half smile, he nodded at Volla. 'Not that I'm comparing you folk to demons.'
She snorted, pleased with his turnabout joke.
'But bear in mind,' he went on, 'that those who lead the northern army don't care about niceties of Hundred custom. You can take your chances with an army in which you have some say, or you can take your chances with the invaders, who won't stop to ask your leave. That's how I see it. I came here to make a home for myself. I don't want to ride to war. I want to live with my wife and raise my children — if I have many children, as I hope — in peace. So I'll do what I must, to get what I want.'
At dawn, Joss rose after too little sleep, washed his face, dressed, and slouched out to the gates of the temple. Thank flu that Volla had kept the assizes polite, swatting down witnesses and offenders who threatened to become unruly or loud. She had kept him supplied with a good stock of decent wine. His head ached, but so far it was a dull throb.
A number of locals, some he'd heard from yesterday evening, had gathered at the gates of the temple, come to purchase vials of oil of naya — best-quality water-white — from the Silver merchant before the troop rode on. Anji finished delivering instructions to the five soldiers he was leaving behind in Storos, then walked over to Joss.
'If one of the reeves can return me to my company after I've
assured myself all is well with Mai, I'd be doubly appreciative,' he said, pulling on gloves.
Joss rubbed the back of his neck, hoping to to find the root of the ache and smooth it out. 'Your company is not riding straight back to Olossi?'
Anji shook his head. 'We must set up additional training camps and muster in as many recruits for training as possible, immediately. Just as you're training reeves — and I'm training more soldiers — in the Barrens.'
'Ah, yes. In the Barrens.' Joss nodded toward the gate. 'Do you have an arrangement with the Silvers?'
'With the Ri Amarah? What do you mean?'
'Isar is selling oil of naya. A precious commodity, found within lands you've now claimed, in the Barrens.'
'King's oil — that's what they call it in the empire — is renowned for its healing properties. The Ri Amarah concentrate on physic and ointments, items easily carted in small amounts and used for healing. Which they sell at a fair price, and make available to all, not just the wealthy.'
'Captain,' said Joss with a laugh, 'was that an answer?'
Anji's smile when it came was full with real amusement. Aui! The man had dimples. Who would have thought it!
'Better to speak truth to the man on whose harness my life will be dependent, eh?' he said. 'Lest, like an arrow, I be loosed to fall to earth.'
'I'd not loose you for anything less than, say, stealing your beautiful wife.'
That was the wrong thing to say. Anji's grin vanished, but after all he was still looking at Isar. The other Olossi merchant was talking to various local men and women, but she hadn't brought anything to sell to the villagers.
'I've been betrayed three times, Marshal. I don't give my trust easily. The Ri Amarah have dealt honorably with me, and given sanctuary to my wife.'
'I was joking about stealing your wife,' said Joss hastily.
Anji raised a gloved hand as a customer dismisses an offered cup of cordial at an inn. 'I know it. You're an honorable man, and you're too old for her anyway.'
The silky way the words slipped out made Joss wince.
'And there's your weakness,' added Anji, a wicked gleam sharpening his straight-lipped expression. 'You're vain of your good looks and your ease with women.'
'Ouch. So what's your weakness, Captain?'
'Not for me to say.'
'Your love for your wife?'
'Not at all. She is my strength. It's not my place to go naming my weaknesses. That would be like showing my enemy where I'd placed my most inexperienced tailmen.'
Joss laughed. 'You're a hard one to catch out.'
'I trained in a hard school, the palace school of the imperial palace in Sirniaka.'
'Would the Red Hounds who serve the emperor really track you into a foreign country?'
'Track the emperor's half brother? Especially now that the emperor is facing a revolt from his cousins over whose claim to the throne is most legitimate? My brother considers me a danger to his position, and my cousins likely more so, as I am the only other surviving son of Emperor Farutanihosh, who was their father's older brother. Or do you think Tam was killed by the demon you're calling a Guardian?'
'He was murdered with a poisoned knife. And your other soldier poisoned as well.'
'Seren's life was saved by Ri Amarah healing, I remind you. He and Tam had nothing to do with the demon girl, ever. Indeed, Seren complained bitterly about her traveling with the company. Many of the men did. They wanted no demon to bring ill luck down on us.' He stroked his tightly cropped beard. 'Listen, Marshal. The local militia has looked into the death of Tam. But if the deed proved to be of local origin, some malcontent, would the Olossi militia hesitate to turn on one of their own?'
'You don't trust them, even though you are — as I believe — their new commander?'
'I'm an outlander in their eyes, however appreciative they might be that my men saved them. That's another reason I must recruit more widely. I mean to create an army out of men drawn from all over the region who will be trained under banners, not with their
local cousins but with strangers. They will learn to be loyal not to their village but to Olo'osson.'
'A dangerous thing, an army,' said Joss. 'As Censor Guri pointed out.'
'As you must all know by now, seeing what havoc an army can wreak on an unprotected population.
