'I go to the Merciful One for refuge. Accept my prayers out of compassion. Peace.'
Footsteps pattered on the ground like a fall of rain. He opened his eyes as Yudit crouched beside him.
'The sergeant's dead,' she whispered. 'They'll think I did it, and they'll kill me. But I was just lying there. A ghost came in and stole his spirit.' Shivering, she clutched his arm.
'Who's dead?'
'The sergeant.' She pressed two objects into his hands: the wolf ring and the belt buckle.
'Get inside.'
Shaking, she crawled past him. Whispered questions greeted her. He eased out from the threshold and crawled to the corner of the shed, from which he could see down the central village path. No ghost emerged from the building where the sergeant slept. Maybe the sergeant's ghost had already passed through Spirit Gate. Or maybe Yudit, in her fear, had been mistaken.
A bird chirped, the herald of dawn's coming. Men slumbered. The watch paced. One man by the north path, just becoming visible, swayed as though dozing on his feet. An aura of gray touched the treetops as more birds assayed their predawn song. There was something he ought to have understood and acted on, but had missed.
'Heya!'
He ran back to the threshold. The south path guard was waving his hands, running toward the camp; he tripped and fell hard, cursing. Within the shelter, the children were already awake and alert.
A woman wearing a lord's cloak rode into the clearing, white cloth unfurling like wings as she raised a staff to command their attention.
'You ass-kissing turds. Rise as I command!' The voice carried without being a shout. Its resonance hung in the air as men scrambled up.
An armed woman rode beside her. He blinked twice, before he recognized her: Zubaidit! Had she betrayed them?
As the two females rode forward, his mind sorted out what he thought he was seeing from what was right in front of his face. The cloak was Eridit, but her bearing so changed and her aspect so frightening that it was hard to see in this cloaked woman the recklessly self-absorbed young actress who had dandled the other three men and afterward thrown Shai down beneath the overhand and, well, wicked him.
'Lord Radas sent me! Why are you loitering here when you are needed in Haldia? We are angry at your disobedience! Get your gear! Move out quickly!'
Her gaze passed over Shai as if she did not recognize him. Zubaidit, measuring the movements of the men as they grabbed gear or slouched out of lean-tos and ruined houses, marked him. Both women were dressed more conservatively than he was used to seeing them, far less flesh exposed; Bai was accustomed to having a lot of freedom of movement, while Eridit had just liked flaunting it. But now Bai wore a shift under her laced leather vest, and leather trousers for riding, while Eridit wore richer garb, a silk tabard and flowing trousers whose bright blue color shone in the rising dawn light. Her glossy black hair was twisted up on her head and held in place by lacquered sticks.
Twist and his cronies formed a tight knot, blocking the path into the village. They looked skittish, but they held their ground. 'I see no winged horse,' Twist said, although his voice quavered.
Eridit raised a hand, as if giving an order.
A hiss sounded. An arrow buried itself in Twist's throat. He crumpled, as the men around him shouted in fear and bumped into each other in their haste to get away from the stricken man. His body spasmed, legs pumping as he gurgled.
'We do not tolerate disobedience,' cried Eridit, and even Shai shuddered at her imperious fury.
A man came running from the byre. 'Heya! Heya!' Sweating and gray, he stumbled to a halt as he stared at the two mounted women with suspicion and fear. 'Sergeant's dead. Not a cut, or welts, or bruises on his throat. He's just dead.'
Zubaidit's gaze flickered, and Eridit glanced at her sidelong, the
moment passing quickly as the soldiers gabbled in alarm and confusion.
'Thus are those who disobey us, punished!' cried Eridit. 'Gather your gear. Move east. Quickly, now. Quickly.'
Cowed, they hastened to their shelters and pallets.
One brave man shuffled forward with head bent to touch fisted hands. 'What of the prisoners, lord?'
Neither looked toward Shai.
'Leave the prisoners!'
'Er, eh, as you command, lord. But what of the two favored ones the lord cloak, Lord Bevard, commanded us to bring safely to camp? And what of the lackwit? The lord cloak promised he would tear our hearts out if we did not do as he ordered.'
'Show me the prisoners,' said Eridit in that same full-throated voice, deeper than her speaking tone.
'You there, woodchopper! Get them out.'
Shai ducked inside the shelter. Every child was standing, ready for anything, as he'd trained them to be. 'File out in your banners. Stand close beside the door. Be ready to duck back inside if I tap my shoulder. Run like crazy for the woods on the north if I tap my head.'
They filed out. Bai looked them over, her grim expression unchanged.
Eridit's anger scorched. 'These are no longer your responsibility. I know which are chosen by Lord Bevard. I am responsible now. You have your orders.'
Incredibly, the soldiers formed up in a ragged line and jogged out of the clearing and away down the southeastern path, their hulking forms vanishing into the trees one by one by one until — Merciful God! — they were all gone.
The children stared numbly after them. The rising sun brought the trees into color. In the long silence, birds twittered. They stood there for what seemed forever, unable to move. Shai's skin was atwitch like a thousand bugs crawling.
The brush beyond the path rustled. Vali began to sob. Shai clamped a hand over his mouth.
'Hush, Vali, hold it together!'
Tohon trotted out of the trees, carrying his bow. He jogged up to
the two women, nodding at Shai as he halted. 'They're moving off at speed.' He looked at Eridit. 'That was done well, lass.'
Her high color sank to a dull sheen. She dismounted hastily and took only three steps before she doubled over and retched, heaving until she had nothing left to bring up.
'Where did you get the horses?' Shai could think of nothing else to say.
'That horse has no wings,' said Dena. 'The lord has a winged horse.'
Tohon surveyed the children, then caught Bai's attention. 'I'm going to track the soldiers. These young ones are a complication. Best if they return to their homes.'
'Don't you think they would have done so long ago if they could have?' cried Shai. 'They can't possibly walk so far now, even if they could find their way, which I doubt. Most would starve along the way or be captured again. The lord went back toward Olo'osson looking to round up more of the soldiers routed at Olossi. Do you want to send them walking back into his hands?'
'Work it out,' said Tohon. He loped back into the forest on the trail of the soldiers.
'Why ever did they leave you alive, Shai?' asked Zubaidit.
'The cloak took me for a lackwit.'
Eridit rose. 'Can you blame them?' She spat, grimacing at the taste. 'Aui! You've talked more just now than I heard you talk the first month we were out.'
Shai tapped his shoulder, and the children hustled back into the shelter, even Vali, who was forcefully sucking down sobs, trying not to break out weeping.
'Why did you come back?' he said. 'I assumed you would just go on with the mission.'
Bai shrugged. 'The less you know, the less can be tortured out of you. We figured if you reached the camp, you'd be questioned. We couldn't take the chance they'd learn of our situation from you.'
He considered the cold nasty feeling he'd had in the presence of the cloak. 'It's true. He was sending me to be questioned by the commander of the army.'
