slavery, and mean to free him. So let's go. Before the army moves on.'
He laughed. 'Moves on? Lord Radas's army has reached its target.'
The siege of Toskala had commenced.
The flight of reeves swung wide around the road until it reached the upper reaches of the River Olossi, here not wide but swollen to a green churning roar with the flood rains. They glided southwest, strung in a line at varying elevations along a valley's edge. Each eagle bore a reeve and a soldier.
Anji, harnessed in front of Joss, said, 'Look there. A ford.'
A rockslide broken off from a treeless ridgeline had filled part of the river, boulders and debris sunk halfway across and thereby making the shallows hard to defend. This time of year, the remaining deep channel boiled with white water. A booming sound pounded at intervals like a smith hammering on an anvil.
'Where's the next crossing?' shouted Anji.
'The Westcott ferry.'
They covered about eight mey, passing hamlets and farmsteads set back from the river although mostly the land here was forest cover sprinkled with clearings, moister than the Barrens but not as lush as the countryside in the east.
They sighted a substantial village and the Rice Walk, which on the Westcott side of the river became known as the Lesser Walk. Folk in the fields spotted them. A figure ran into the village, and in
its wake the rest fled toward the palisade. By the time Scar touched down in the nearest fallow field, sixty or more people stood at the gate with adzes, hoes, rakes, axes, spears, and staffs balanced in their hands.
Anji unhooked, and then Joss, but the reeve approached alone along a raised walkway between fields.
'Greetings of the day,' he called. He addressed the eldest person, a stoop-shouldered man with the weathered face of one who has spent years working under the sun. 'I am Joss, marshal of Argent Hall, come on urgent business. I hope you'll give me your respectful attention.'
The old man walked forward accompanied by a middle-aged woman in a good quality silk taloos and a younger man carrying a spear. Joss heard his flanking eagles land.
'If you've come for one of us, we'll not allow your depredations,' said the old man. 'Not unless you present proof beyond doubt of guilt.'
Maybe shock showed on Joss's face, because folk pointed at him. 'Have reeves come here and demanded you give up individuals into their custody?'
'Last year it did happen. Said they hailed from Horn Hall. They took five young people. Into custody, so they said.'
'Horn Hall!'
'Know you of Horn Hall?'
'The hells! Last year I had reason to visit Horn Hall, and found it abandoned.' He wanted to slap himself until he woke up. Another mystery, and one he had no time to solve.
'Folk can say anything they want,' agreed the elder. 'There are plenty of rogues abroad these days. I'm called Menard. What's your business with us, and why have you brought so many eagles?' He gestured skyward.
'Rogues are my business,' said Joss, wishing he had a drink. 'I don't know if you've had the news, but at the end of the Fox year an army out of the north attacked Olossi.'
'Might have heard a rumor of it. Might have had some trouble ourselves recently. Might have. I'm not saying we did.'
'A coalition of reeves, Olossi militia, and outlanders come to make their fortune in the Hundred banded together to defeat this
army. Most of the defeated survivors fled north over months ago, but some hid out on the Olo Plain. This group have finally made their move to get home.'
'What's that to do with us?'
'They're marching up the Rice Walk. They'll hit this ferry and want to cross. They're being led by a man who pretends to be a Guardian.'
The elder whispered for a bit to his fellows, then turned back. 'The Guardians are long vanished from the Hundred. Everyone knows that.'
'Maybe so, but I'm not the only one who has seen abroad creatures who in all parts resemble Guardians except that they rule not in favor of justice but against it.'
'Sounds like demons to me. What's it to us?'
'You don't dispute my tale. Or ask to hear more particulars?'
'I don't.'
'Then you've heard rumors, or have seen what I speak of. As for Westcott, the companies that now march up Rice Walk will not show your town any mercy, once they cross the river.'
'You wish us to hold the ferry and defend the shore. This we can do easily enough. We've pulled the ferry to our side. We control its movements from the winch. Anyway, the river is swift this time of year. They'll not cross without our permission. They'll have two day's rugged march north to Hammering Ford, which is no easy crossing. There's neither ford or ferry south of here until Storos-on-the-water. That's a long way.'
'I'm glad to hear you have your territory so well scanned, Menard. So tell me. What defense have you against demons?'
'Why, the same as you reeves. Or are you here to tell me you have a plan in mind and wish our help?'
Joss grinned. 'That's exactly what I'm here to tell you. We haven't long, for we're not that far ahead. We've plans to make and snares to set. As for your people, those who have heart and strength to fight are welcome to join us. All others should flee to refuge.'
'I low many march in this army?' asked Menard grimly.
'Three hundred or so.'
They dropped back to confer with the villagers, but the conference
was a short one. Soon the trio returned. 'What do you want us to do?'
Joss beckoned, and Anji walked up, surveying the assembly as they stared and muttered. 'This is Captain Anji, commander of the Olossi militia by request and consent of the Olossi council.'
'He's an outlander.'
'So he is. Olossi would be a ruin today if not for him.'
By their expressions, they weren't convinced.
'If you'll hear me out,' said Anji, facing their skepticism without any sign of discomfort, 'I'll tell you that I consider myself a Hundred man now. I have an estate in the Barrens. I have a pregnant wife.'
'A cursed beautiful one,' said Joss in the tone of a jealous man, which got a laugh.
'Go on,' said Menard, who with the others had relaxed a bit at the mention of a child. If a man had children, and land, then he had something to defend.
Anji indicated Joss. 'The marshal here will be sending four reeves, in pairs, to fly north and south to patrol the river and give us warning should the enemy decide to attempt a river crossing elsewhere. I'll need you to detail twenty or thirty men, if you have them, who can march at speed to any point of contact, should it be necessary.'
'What about the village?' asked the woman.
'We've brought a cadre of trained militiamen from Olossi to aid with the defense here. Ver, I'll need three of your largest and sturdiest fishing nets and your heaviest stone weights. We will require all of the arrows, javelins, slings and stones you have in case they try to force their way across the river. Move the livestock out of the village and conceal it. We'll need, in addition, brave souls to remain in the village, working as if nothing is amiss, to lure in the demon. They'll be armed, ready to fight if we're forced to engage.'
They listened eagerly. They'd been expecting this, Joss saw. They'd had trouble, and scant hope of defeating new trouble should it come. Because in times like these, trouble would come. Scar spread his wings, to catch the sun, and the villagers took a nervous step back.
Grinning, Anji examined the crowd, nodding at folk to acknowledge them. Young men, especially, moved toward him, despite the
big eagle. 'Know your vulnerabilities and defend them. Think how, if you were your enemy, they might overcome you. Prepare for the unexpected. As for the demon, I intend to confront him myself.'
