come before.
She'd be dead and he… It hit him as in the gut, a blow that made him double over with fear and grief. He'd be alone, without purpose, for that was all that had sustained him during the twelve years he'd labored as Feden's debt slave: the hope of freeing his beloved younger sister.
'Kesh?' Leaping up, she crossed to kneel beside him. 'Is it something you ate? The old bitch didn't even offer you wine, just for the spite of it!' Her hand warmed Kesh's shoulder.
'I'm all right.' He forced his fear under control like a hand pressing billowing cloth back into an open chest in a high wind. 'Do you have to go?'
'Of course I have to go.'
'You're just going to abandon me? And the ginnies, too?'
'They can't come on such a mission. They'll be well taken care of.' She turned to confront the captain. 'He'll be well taken care of, Captain. That's what I expect.' She swiveled her head to glare at the reeve. 'All the charges dropped, just as I said, Marshal. Is it agreed?'
She was a wolf, ready to lunge for the kill, but they were predators, too. Joss was a proud, handsome eagle. Folk had started calling the Qin soldiers 'the black wolves' for their manner of dress, and even though Captain Anji had not been born in the Year of the Wolf as Bai had, he might easily be mistaken for that beast.
Anji's smile showed teeth, a threat. 'Are you questioning my honesty, or my honor?'
She grinned the reckless grin Kesh had come to distrust. 'You're still an outlander, Captain Anji. So we'll see.'
Anger burned in his expression, a tightening of the eyes.
'I expect to be judged in the same manner,' she added. 'Yet you've held a hostage for my honor.'
His shoulders relaxed. 'True enough. I'll treat him as my own cousin.' His wolf's grin flashed. 'By Qin laws of hospitality, I assure you, for in the imperial palace of Sirniaka, any male cousin or half brother of mine is dead by now.'
'I'll see Keshad is well treated,' said Master Calon. 'I know his worth.'
Kesh offered him a grateful nod.
Bai embraced him. 'Courage, Kesh. Keep your eyes open and your heart bold.'
She released him. Let him go.
'I never had anything to do with the charges brought against your brother,' said the reeve to her, 'and I'll thank you not to imply I had.'
Kesh put on his shoes and, with the captain and Calon, descended by the stairs behind Kass. Bai remained in the pavilion, and it appeared she had fallen into a roaring argument with that cursed reeve.
'Whew!' said Kass with an appreciative look toward the pavilion and the pair under its roof. 'She really fancies him, doesn't she? She'll chew him right up, and I bet me he'll love every minute of it. I never saw her go after a man like that before.'
'She's a respectable woman,' said Anji repressively. 'It's ill-mannered to speak of women in such a way.'
Kass laughed merrily. 'You outlanders!' He looked around for someone to agree with him, but Kesh couldn't be bothered and Calon was lost to sight down the path. Kass glanced back a final time. 'Heya! She's slapped him! I knew she had a temper, but-'
A thick curtain of patience cut off their view.
'Slapped him!' yelped Kesh, shifting to go back, but Captain Anji caught his wrist.
'If she didn't fancy him, she'd have slugged him and been done with it,' said Kass. 'That's foreplay for certain folk.'
'I've heard enough,' said the captain.
Branches rattled. Bai appeared on the path, flushed and breathing hard.
'He wouldn't lie down quickly enough, eh?' said Kass.
Her hand darted out.
'Ow! That hurt!' A mark reddened on the lad's forearm.
'You pinched him!' said Kesh.
'Nothing the little pest hasn't earned twelve times over!'
Grinning, the lad rubbed his arm.
Her glare did not cause the flowers to erupt into flames, but it was a close thing. Kesh remembered the woman who killed so skillfully that she couldn't possibly be his timid little sister. He remembered the way the reeve had stared at her after the ambush. Troubled, Kesh had to admit, rather like Kesh was troubled. He wanted to hate that cursed arrogant reeve, but at the moment he wondered if they shared something in common, wondering what kind of person Bai had become, an assassin sent into the north to kill.
'There comes a time when change overtakes the traveler.' Bai pushed past Kass and Kesh, and skirted the captain more politely. 'If you don't mind, I'll walk a little way with you. Where do you go now, Captain?'
He was an odd man, seeming such an outlander one instant and then, with an unexpectedly charming smile, such a familiar one. 'Where do I always go, to find my heart's ease? To my wife, of course.'
16
A trio of hirelings unshackled and dragged open the doors before retreating to the courtyard to await further orders. Sunlight poured a path into the dark interior. Mai ventured a few steps into the empty warehouse, smelling dust, the loft of air above her head, and a faint sweet rotting scent.
Chief Tuvi cut in front of her. 'Let the lads go in first.' She stepped back beyond the threshold as four Qin soldiers entered the building while outside the hirelings took down wooden shutters to reveal rice-paper windows. Each stripe of light revealed
more of the warehouse, a long building with a bench built along one side and windows set above, a row of cubicles on the opposite side, and a complicated structure of roof beams visible all the way to the shadowed cleft within the peak. When the soldiers had checked out every corner, they gave the all-clear and she walked into the hall.
'What was this used for, and why was it closed up?' Mai asked Eliar.
'This warehouse is owned by the House of the Embers Moon. Thirteen years ago they fell into a dispute with the Greater Houses. I need not tell you that the Greater Houses went out of their way to ruin the house's fortunes and destroy its reputation. In the end, the last adult member of the house made public what the gullible thought was a wild accusation: that the Greater Houses were involved in a conspiracy, that they'd allied with unnamed villains out of the north.'
'Which is true.'
Eliar snorted, flashed a grin, then sobered. 'Yes, all too true, which I tried to tell everyone a thousand times for all the good it did. When he vanished, some said he'd been arrested by the militia and sent to the assizes prison. Others said he'd been murdered.'
'He's the one Captain Beron murdered, isn't that right? Master Feden ordered the murder done on behalf of the Greater Houses. And then the temple ordered Captain Beron's murder when they discovered he'd carried out an assassination without their imprimatur. Are the politics of Olossi always this convoluted?'
Eliar heaved a passionate sigh. 'Olossi got off easy. Thanks to Captain Anji. And to you.'
He smiled his charming, flirtatious smile. Chief Tuvi eyed him skeptically. As if Tuvi could possibly think an untested youth like Eliar compared to Anji!
'Anyway,' Mai said, waving Priya and O'eki forward for a look, 'what's that sad tale to do with this warehouse?'
Eliar's gesture, indicating the echoing space, made the silver bracelets on his forearms jingle. 'With no adults remaining to stand in authority over the house, the business was shut down by order of the Greater Houses. All their stock and their contracts and slaves and real estate were placed in administrative hold until the case be resolved.'
'There are child heirs? No adults at all?'
'Eight under-age children. No adults except for hirelings under contract and debt slaves. Many of the hirelings
