army'
Under cover of this conversation, Pil tugged at her sleeve. 'I think we should go back,' he muttered.
'My thanks to you,' said Nallo, 'greetings of the dusk.'
She slurped down the last bits and set off, Pil striding alongside. 'What is it?' she asked.
Then she heard shouts rising over the twilight clamor.
Pil edged into a trot as folk looked up from their shopping and eating and chatting; foreheads wrinkled; a man harrumphed irritably; a child whined, 'Come on, Ma, come on.' The knife sharpener's whetstone creaked to a halt as he forgot to pump. A noodle vendor's ladle tipped sideways as she strained to hear, and the steaming noodles slithered out to plop on the ground.
'Move.' Pil broke into a run, pulling out his reeve's baton.
She fumbled as she slipped hers out of its loop. A tumult of shouting lifted as in a wave to wash over them. Dogs began barking and howling, the cry taken up throughout the city. Something had gone horribly wrong.
As they reached the Silk Street gate, Pil used his baton to shove folk aside as they cut across to the brick- paved walkway reserved for official business and hopped over the dividing rail. At first, the lane ran clear of traffic as far as they could see alongside Canal Street, and Pil ran full out with Nallo pounding along behind.
She glanced back. A surge like a rains-swollen flood roiled in their wake, people rushing toward Guardian Bridge. Was that a
person crumpling to the earth, trampled by the press of those stampeding behind? The hells! They'd be crushed.
The approach to the bridge lay in the open space where Bell Quarter and Flag Quarter ended at the locks. A crowd was always waiting for passage over the bridge. Pil ruthlessly drove through the people clogging the walkways, using the baton as leverage to prod people out of the way.
'Heya! Watch that-'
'Cursed reeves-'
One side of the bridge was roped off for official traffic, but the press of people trying to get over the bridge had spilled over. Pil tucked up beside the railing and smacked bodies to move them out of the way so he and Nallo could squeeze past. The bed net caught on something, or someone, and was dragged off her shoulders. She let it go.
It took forever to get over the span, and as they pushed down to the spur where the stairs that led up to Justice Square began, panic hit the square in front of the bridge. Screaming drowned all other sounds. Flailing bodies plunged into the spillway pool and the empty locks.
'Let in the water! Let in the water!' a voice cried.
'Release the locks!'
'They've breached the gates!'
Like a storm, riot crashed down: the clatter of weapons, the dogs gone wild, and most of all the terror of thousands wailing and roaring until she thought her heart would burst from fear. Within the bodies pushing toward the single gate guarding the stairs, she had lost Pil.
'Nallo!'
She spotted his topknot, and she brought her baton into play, slapping and whacking. 'I'm a reeve! Let me through!'
They fought their way to the gate, where a dozen frightened militiamen held the entrance, wicker shields overlapping to make a tight wall over the gap.
'What's going on?' demanded one lad, his voice breaking.
'We need to get to our eagles! Let us through!'
A slim crack opened. She and Pil squeezed past, and the crowd surged forward as the poor guardsmen tried to close up. They kept
moving up. With night coming down it was hard to see, but with the rail under one hand they could guide themselves. A thousand steps were carved into the rock, wide enough that some might descend as others ascended, although today everyone struggled upward. Those who were slow hugged the rock face, and those who were stronger climbed along the outer rail, shouting at anyone who didn't get out of their way. Winded and sucking air, she and Pil reached Justice Square at the crest of the promontory only to stumble over folk collapsed on the ground right in their way.
Guardsmen carrying lit brands came running. 'Move out of the way! Let those behind keep climbing!'
Pil staggered to the wide balcony that overlooked the city. The din rising off the city was indescribable, floodwaters drowning everything in its path. Lamps and torches flickered in the streets below like will-o'-the-wisps, darting at random.
'The hells,' Nallo muttered. 'Best we get to Clan Hall'
Four complexes fenced Justice Square, all swarming with lamplight. The night fire burned at the tip of the promontory beside Law Rock. They cut left to the gate into Clan Hall, and were immediately stopped by the reeve standing watch.
'Any more with you?' he demanded. 'Ah, the hells, thank the gods it's you, Nallo. Heya, Pil! What is going on down there?'
'Peddo?' she said. 'I thought you'd know something.'
'The gates have been breached,' said Pil. 'The army has attacked. There's panic'
'How can the gates be breached? They're reinforced, doubled ranks of walls, a second ditch and entrenchment…'
'Sometimes,' said Pil in a calm voice that cut through Peddo's mounting hysteria, 'the Qin commanders bribe a local man who is discontented to open the gates. Maybe here, also? It is the easy way.'
'No, that's not possible. Why would anyone betray-'
'Heya! Is that you, Peddo?'
'It is. Volias?'
'The same. We need a count of reeves. How many were caught down in the city — Nallo! By the Witherer's mercy!' He caught her arm, hugged her, and let go to slap Pil on the shoulder. 'The hells!' His voice broke, he sucked in air. 'The hells! It's what I think, isn't it? They've breached the gates.'
'We think so,' said Nallo.
'Good time to attack,' said Pil. 'No moon.'
'No moon means the eagles won't fly until dawn,' agreed Volias. 'Peddo, why are you on gate duty?'
'Likard sent me. Commander was called away, over to Assizes Tower. Some kind of council meeting, I don't know. Her, and Ofri, and the legates, and-'
'Every senior reeve not off duty, twelve all told. I've been looking for them. Listen, I sent those two new fawkner's assistants over here to hold the gate, although I don't see them here, curse them. You grab every reeve you can find, and have them kit out. Ready to go. We'll need to release all the eagles.'
'They'll not fly at night,' said Peddo.
'Maybe not, but it's better if they're not trapped.'
'What do you think is happening, Volias?'
'I don't know. Pil, you have military experience. You and Nallo come with me.'
'Where are you going?' asked Peddo.
'To Assizes Tower. To find out what in the hells the council is doing over there. And why in the hells they didn't ask for oil of naya sooner. Eiya!'
Peddo laughed, tight and tense. 'Didn't know you had it in you to prance around giving orders, Volias. Thought all you did was snipe.'
'You and your grandmother.' Volias slapped him on the chest.
Peddo swung at him.
'Stop it!' Nallo cried, and they both looked at her, and she realized they weren't fighting, they were just tipping back the lid to let a trickle of steam escape.
'And while you're at it,' added Volias, still shouting to be heard above the onslaught of noise, 'send Kesta to find Captain Ressi. Someone's got to block those steps.'
Usually at night Justice Square lay in peaceful slumber, deserted except for the rounds made by the fire watch. Tonight, the three reeves pushed through a churning crowd, every person arguing and complaining, no one
