by their clans get their pleasure if their partner's not to their taste, or if one is not fashioned that way? Even if they do like each other, how do they learn new tricks, keep things fresh, eh?'
'It's not our way,' said Tohon. 'A man marries.'
'That's it?' Edard pulled a comical grimace. 'Only to have relations with the person your clan chose for you? Never to worship the Merciless One?'
'A man may have more than one wife, of course. If he can afford her. Keep them satisfied. A mistreated wife can appeal to her family and raise a feud. Everyone knows that.'
'And a woman can have more than one husband?' Eridit asked with a teasing grin. 'Like they say the lendings do? That sounds fun.'
'That would not happen. Also, a man may go to the brothel for relief. Or buy a slave for a concubine.'
Eridit frowned. 'What about women? What are they to do? For relief?'
'Women aren't so free,' said Tohon. 'If you were my daughter, or my wife, I'd have to whip you for such behavior.'
'The hells you would!'
Tohon had a sweet smile. 'We are not in my country. Now we are Hundred folk.'
'I'm going to sleep,' said Edard.
Rain spattered the rocks. On the outcropping above, where he was keeping watch, Veras swore as he scrambled for shelter.
'This smoke is getting to me,' said Ladon. 'I'll go over where we — eh — anyway, it's dry there.' He walked out, hunched under his short cloak as if he was still embarrassed. Edard followed him. Zubaidit strolled to the mouth of the overhang, where she leaned against the rock and stared into the night, her head tilted at a pensive angle.
Tohon hooked the pot's handle and lifted it off the fire, setting it on the dirt nearby and covering the mouth with a lid. 'If I may say so, lass,' he said to Eridit in a pleasant voice, 'you do yourself no honor by teasing the men so they are set against each other. You may get attention, but you do not get respect.'
She crossed her arms over her chest. 'You don't intimidate me, Tohon. I get masses of respect, flowers and gifts heaped at my feet.'
'Have you ever killed a man?'
'I've slain many! They fell at my feet. And wept with pleasure.' She looked Shai up and down with such a pressure of sensuality that he wished he had the courage to beg her to stop. Her dark eyes and thick lashes were beacons. Her hips slid sideways as she leaned toward him.
'Shai's a good boy, but he's young and untested and likewise raised in a town where a lad like him hasn't much chance to meet a woman like you. Anyone can kill a man who is unarmed and unprepared.'
She shifted away from Shai, her gaze fixed on the scout. 'Aui! Are you saying I can't seduce you, Tohon?'
'You can't. Marry me, maybe. But I don't think we'd suit.'
She laughed so hard that Zubaidit turned from her contemplation of the rain and walked back to the fire. 'I'll win this duel. I'll wager you on it.'
'When I scout, I don't play games.' Despite the even tenor of his voice, the words were a warning that cracked her so hard she got to her feet and stamped outside into the rain, pouting.
He studied his palms in the light of the fire, unaffected by her
outburst. 'What think you, Zubaidit? Split up Ladon and Veras, and they will get smarter. Together, they goad each other. If one is reckless, the other must be, also. Edard is strong, but he is no leader.'
'He's well connected. Branches of his clan run river transport all over the Hundred. If anyone can hauls soldiers by boat or move oil of naya in bulk to combat the northern army, they can.'
'I see his value. But he needs a guiding hand, and he will not take one. As for her, she should be at home birthing healthy children.'
'Are you saying a woman has no place on this expedition?'
'You are a woman. Eridit is skillful at disguise. She collected useful information in Horn three days ago. And that tale she sang had real power. But she has never actually killed a man. We cannot know if she is prepared for what will come. Why did the temple council send her?'
'And the Hieros agree to it? I don't sneer at her ability to disguise herself, ask questions, and chant tales. She's proven herself more valuable so far than the militiamen and the ordinand. Because truly, I ask myself if those four are the best Olossi could put forward for such a crucial expedition. Have we become so ill prepared, all of us?'
'We soon find out.'
'So we will. I'm going to sleep.'
He nodded. 'I will take first watch. I wake you later.' He began scraping clean the used se leaves. 'Shai,' he added, without looking up, 'best you catch some sleep, also.'
'And I wish you would stop talking so much, little brother,' said Zubaidit from her blanket.
Stung, Shai sheathed his knife and wrapped up the carving in a strip of cloth. 'Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and be proved one.'
'Wit to go with those brawny arms!' Chuckling, she yawned and turned over.
He settled against the rock wall, where even if it rained hard, he'd be sheltered. When he closed his eyes, he thought of Eridit. He was hot all over. Impossible to sleep in this state. He herded his thoughts to cooler pastures. Stuck without horses, they'd trudged east-northeast for many days, careful not to stray into the Lend. Edard had suggested again and again that they return to Olossi and get
new gear, but Tohon and Zubaidit had refused. Horses were useful, but not necessary. Like himself, he thought as he drifted off to sleep.
Shai did not like to think about things that bothered him. If he did, then he felt as if they nipped at his heels wherever he walked. As Eridit was doing this morning as he trudged a final time over the remains of a battlefield.
'It has to be the battle where your brother was lost,' she was saying. 'Everyone I talked to in Horn agreed there had been a cadre of outlanders with the troop. No one had seen anything like them. The time is right, if you think he could have died three years ago.'
He stooped to turn over a rock. Bugs swarmed over white roots, like thoughts hiding from the light. He settled the rock back in place.
She went on. 'The odd thing is, no one knew where the outlanders came from, or where they were going. Or who the men were who attacked them and wiped them out.'
They reached the highest point in the tumble of rocks where they had made their camp. Shai halted in the shadow of a huge rock to survey the grass and scrub growing in the hollow beyond. There were remains scattered all the way from the banks of a distant stream cutting down the far slope to these outcroppings, as though the men fighting had done it on the run.
'The folk I talked to said everyone died in the battle. But I think a few of the outlanders were still alive. From what folk let slip, the Horn folk came through afterward and slit the throats of the wounded rather than try to heal them. The other group ran away.'
'Folk lie.'
'It seems likely.' She rested a hand on his elbow.
He shifted away.
'Don't tell me you've never had sex.'
He turned away so she wouldn't see how red he was. 'I went to the temple in Olossi.'
'One time, I hear.'
'I've been to brothels in Kartu Town.' Only twice, but he needn't say that! Anyway, the girls there had been glazed on sweet-smoke, unable to distinguish one man from another.
'Some things in life can't be bought or sold.'
'You keep slaves here.' He met her gaze defiantly. Let the Hundred folk preen and spout about their temples; that didn't make them better than the people of Kartu Town.
'Sure we do. There are folk who like that a person hasn't any choice. I think it's disgusting.' She pressed his shoulder back until he was caught against the rock, then leaned against him. 'What do you think?'
