edge.
'I'm Volias.'
'Greetings of the dawn, Volias.' She was careful to seem warm without being effusive. In the market, she would have to work doubly hard to overcome his readiness to take offense, his surety that he would be rejected or mocked. 'Are you come from Argent Hall? I am anxious to hear news of the captain.'
His shoulders relaxed slightly. 'I came through Argent Hall, but I've no message from the captain for you, verea. I'm here from Clan Hall.' He shifted his gaze to the chief. 'I'm taking the lad, Pil, like you requested, Chief Tuvi. It's been agreed he can train at Clan Hall.'
Tuvi nodded.
'Why?' Mai asked. 'Is there a problem because he is Qin?'
'Pil is no longer appropriate for the Qin troop,' said Tuvi.
'Because he is an eagle rider, not a horseman? I thought Anji agreed that if the eagle chose him, then he would be allowed to train as a reeve.'
'That's not why.'
In the Mei household, she had learned when a man's expression told you he had nothing more to say on a subject. So she smiled with her blandest face, and nodded politely at the waiting reeve to show he could leave.
He blinked, as though the sun had gotten in his eyes. 'Listen, verea. I have got news for you, now that I think of it.'
'From the captain?' The eagerness broke in her voice. She coughed to control it, smoothed a hand over her belly. In answer, the baby moved rather like a fish might slip around within grasping hands.
'Neh, I never saw the captain. These days I mostly fly messages between Clan Hall, Nessumara, and Argent Hall. Joss some weeks past told me to keep an eye open for a scouting party sent out by the temples and council. Naturally they've been keeping under cover, so I didn't expect-'
'Did you see Shai?'
The reeve's frown made her heart go chill.
'It happened that I spotted the scouts outside Horn, combing through the remains from a battle fought a few years back. It was a stupid thing to do, coming to earth. A band of men attacked them. I had to fly out immediately. I don't know what happened. Likely they hid. There was plenty of cover.'
The chief caught Mai under the elbow. He whistled sharply, and said to a guard, 'Priya's in the market. Also, a drink.'
The reeve's words kept stinging. 'Maybe I alerted the bandits, or maybe they were already stalking them. I'm sorry if my flying in to warn them brought about the attack.'
'Best you find a place to sit down, Mistress,' said Tuvi in a firm voice.
'I warned him about the demon, though,' finished the reeve.
As the sun rises, shade retreats. Light lanced her eyes, and one moment she was standing, and the next seated awkwardly on the ground with Chief Tuvi kneeling beside her.
'There, now, Mistress. We'll get you a cup of rice wine. Then we'll take you back to the house.'
Down here she had settled back into shadow, but her head still hurt as though she had been standing in the sun all day. 'What did 1 do?' she whispered.
'You wisely sent warning,' said the chief sternly, 'given the serious nature of the demon's threat. As for the rest, the scouts knew the risks. Those you are not responsible for.'
But his words, like the shade, offered no comfort.
40
A whimper woke Shai just before dawn. It took him a moment to remember where he was: starving, thirsty, and a prisoner of a remnant of the army that had been defeated at Olossi and now fled north toward their allies. He was curled around Eska, the youngest and weakest of the girls. She still slept, her thin face looking gray and unhealthy in the twilight. He uncurled to a crouch, surveying the captives. He'd quickly learnt that the children who were not yet fourteen — the ones who hadn't celebrated a ceremony called their Youth's Crown — were not abused even by these crude soldiers except of course that they were daily hit, whipped, and at risk of being killed. The older ones — the eldest besides him was sixteen — were not so fortunate.
Yudit's eyes were already open. Seeing him, she nodded but stayed curled on the damp ground, knees tucked up to her chest as if that could protect her from the nightly assaults. On hands and knees, anxious not to alert the soldiers, he negotiated the cluster of prisoners until he tracked down the one crying: Dena, the other twelve-year- old whose hair the cloaked lord braided.
He placed a hand on her back. 'Hush now,' he murmured. 'I'm here.'
He knew better than to warn her that crying could get her murdered. They all knew, and to say it aloud would only frighten them more. Nor did he bother to ask what was wrong. If they wanted to speak, they would; otherwise, he respected their silence.
She pressed her face against his chest until her shudders ceased. 'Shai, you'll always stay with us, won't you?'
'I'm here.' The dawn whistle blew twice. 'Get up now, Dena. Roust your banner. Get them up and moving.'
'Yes, Shai.'
Judging it safe to rise as the soldiers were now beginning to move, he hurried over to Yudit. 'How are you this morning?'
'I can manage,' she said wearily. 'Jasya and Wori are bleeding again.'
'I'll keep an eye on them. Get your banner together.'
She began moving children toward the stream to drink before they formed into marching ranks. Mercifully, it had not rained last night and their clothing mostly remained dry but for dew and the moisture seeping up from damp earth. Four days ago, a boy sick with a phlegm-ridden cough had been cut out and killed before Shai could get to him. Now Shai watched constantly for signs of increasing sickness.
He walked through the assembling banners and chose the six strongest children. When the call came for prisoners to take down the canvas under which the soldiers sheltered, he led this group through their routine: stakes pulled, rope coiled, canvas shaken out and rolled up and bound onto the packhorses. He slouched through the tasks, grinning at the soldiers.
'Cold today,' he said to the sergeant. 'Didn't rain last night.'
'A wise observation,' replied the sergeant. 'Now get on with you. We're moving out.'
'Need wood chopped?' he asked a cadre of soldiers, who laughed as they shouldered axes and staves.
He peered into the surrounding woodland, but the lord — who always slept well away from the camp — had already departed on his daytime scouting. The watchful boy walked into camp lugging folded canvas over his thin shoulders.
'Vali,' said Shai, stepping closer. 'You are well today?'
The lad shrugged, his gaze downcast instead of prying.
'Dena was crying this morning,' added Shai.
'It's my fault. I asked the lord for more food last night. Like you asked me to do. He got angry. I guess he took it out on Dena.'
'Neh. It's my fault for suggesting it. It was brave of you to ask. Never doubt that.'
'Heya! Heya! Up now! Get in line!'
The sergeant strode along the line with whip in hand. He was the kind of man, Shai had decided, who liked to wield his power to make people cringe, and he had a habit of whipping at dawn whichever girl he had raped the night before. There he strutted, and Shai quickly cut back to the line, falling in beside Yudit just as the sergeant reached her with whip raised. Shai made a show of blundering forward, just in time to catch the slash across his own back.
'Cursed idiot!' The sergeant raised the whip again, but the line lurched forward as the vanguard got moving,
