hapless refugees all the way to Candra Crossing from which staging area the refugees could slog the rest of the way to Olossi on roads made safe by Captain Anji's militia. It took a cursed long time to transport hundreds of people hundreds of mey, one at a time, but just seven days ago Nallo and Pil had lifted off with the last two. Now, at last, he might send messengers to the other halls to get their news and call for a council to coordinate plans. Meanwhile, Clan Hall's stores were running low, and it took too gods-rotted long to haul sacks from Candra Crossing. You couldn't feed a reeve hall, even a small one, one sack at a time.
Smoke billowed skyward in the distance. He tugged on the jesses to shift Scar's trajectory, and Badinen and Sisit followed. The lad handled the eagle cursed well for someone without a single day's training.
Seen from the sky, events unfold like tales: burning cottages and shouting farmers, bawling sheep and barking dogs heard intermittently as the wind changes. Folk fled a village; soldiers set torches to thatched roofs while others heaped wagons with sacks of rice and nai, cages of chickens, baskets of radish and rope. The villagers saw him; he knew by the way tiny figures hesitated, waved arms, then stumbled onward.
With the lad in tow, and him alone, he could not stop. What could he do for them beyond telling them to run and hide? He had the luxury to rage, on high, yet as always it seemed he could do nothing to stop injustice. For that was not the only village under attack along the coastal plain near his own birthplace. Smoke rose in bloated, expanding pools, dissipating as plumes reached the upper air. The watch beacons along the shore were on fire up and down the coast.
Had the army reached the town of Haya? Beyond it, to his childhood village?
The hells! Copper Hall's high bluff was surrounded by a full cohort. Incredibly, the army had brought up a fleet of fishing boats and coast-hugging trading ships that were roping in the skiffs and shore-boats used by Copper Hall's population to fish and collect kelp. The cohort had massed on the landward side to cut off retreat by foot, forcing thereby every eagle remaining in Copper Hall to take off from the training ground — no difficult feat, naturally, but those fawkners and assistants and slaves who
had not already gotten out were trapped, so every eagle leaving was weighed down by a passenger.
An intelligent mind commanded the enemy. Archers launched volleys as each eagle banked up, vulnerable before it caught an updraft. Two eagles were already down. One lay lifeless, both reeve and passenger sprawled dead in the harness. The other was wounded, a wing trailing uselessly as it struggled to right itself on an injured leg. In its fury it dragged the harness, its reeve limp and unresponsive but the passenger fighting to get out of the tangle. Joss winced as arrows punctured the helpless eagle's flesh; blades flashed in sunlight as armed men closed in for the kill.
Another raptor was hit, but it kept climbing. Struggling. Listing. Tumbling into the sea as its reeve and passenger unhooked just in time to fall free into the rolling waters.
Blessed Ilu! How could this be happening?
He had taught Badinen four flag commands, the least you needed to know. Now he flagged: Stay aloft.
He sent Scat'down the well-remembered landing path to the training ground just as a huge yammering shout rose from the gatehouse where soldiers had broken through. The raptor thumped down hard. Two eagles launched from the adjoining parade ground as Joss unhooked and dropped out of his harness.
Masar recognized Joss with a start of amazement, quickly controlled. 'Can you take a passenger? What of that other eagle, the one with you?'
'He's freshly jessed and the eagle is still a fledgling. I can take two. Scar's strong enough.'
'Strong enough, but you can't risk two. Arrow shot — they're so close now-'
Beyond the gate, guardsmen fought a hopeless rearguard to buy time, but the clash ended with a shout cut off in the midst of a word. Hammering shuddered on the closed gates that walled off the training ground. There were three eagles left, in addition to Scar, and seventeen fawkners, hirelings, and adolescent debt slaves watching with not one begging for passage despite the army killing their comrades outside.
'Masar! I can take two.'
Masar's age already weighed on his shoulders; he seemed to wilt, his spirit burdened until it might break as he scanned those who remained.
'You two,' Masar said, 'and you three.' The five he indicated
were experienced fawkners, not the youngest by any means. Not the prettiest. That unfortunate distinction went to a young woman whose strained expression trembled, then firmed, as she realized — or perhaps she had already known — that she was to be left behind.
'Jenna,' the marshal added, 'take the rest to my cote and hide in the cellar. They'll burn everything, but you can wait it out as long as they don't find you. We'll send sweeps and pick up the survivors as we can.'
'Yes, Grandfather.' She turned to the others. 'Move!'
'Masar!' Joss cried as the girl led her companions away. 'You can't possibly be leaving-'
'We must save the experienced fawkners,' said Masar. 'You take Gerda and Eiko, they're the smallest.'
Two small-boned women trotted up. They had the wiry toughness of fawkners who have survived many years caring for the raptors. Their expressions were fixed and bitter. Eiko carried a spare harness and leashes.
He weighed their builds, Eiko's height. 'Eiko, you first and Gerda below,' he said, knowing full well that the outermost person took the greatest risk of being hit. They nodded. They'd faced death before. He had often thought fawkners were the most courageous people he knew.
In silence the last reeves hooked in themselves first and the five fawkners after. One by one they flew, Masar lifting with his eagle Shy only as the gates came down. Up and up, with arrows flying. Gerda grunted, rocking in the harness. Scar's trajectory staggered momentarily; the raptor dipped, then caught a draft and pushed sloppily upward.
Two eagles were hit, their wings a broad target, but they labored on. One passenger shrieked, caught in the leg, his blood raining down over the compound as the enemy swarmed in. Torches were thrown onto thatched roofs of the outbuildings, while the gates of the big storehouses were thrown open. Copper Hall's guardsmen and hirelings lay scattered throughout the alleys and at walls and gates, having given their lives to allow others to escape.
Joss tugged on his jesses to get Scar turned north.
'Reeve,' said Eiko, 'Gerda's hit.'
Unbelievably, he hadn't even noticed. No doubt he'd been too busy searching for sign of Masar's pretty granddaughter.
He reached past Eiko's torso and patted Gerda. His hand came away slick with blood. Impossibly, she had been hit in the throat, her life's blood pouring down her chest and legs. She hadn't made a sound, hadn't even kicked or thrashed, just crossed the Spirit Gate that quickly.
'She's dead,' said Eiko. 'I'll cut her loose.'
'Eiya! Are you sure?'
'She's my good friend and comrade. I'm not about to cut her loose to settle an old score or save myself. She'd tell you to do it, to spare the eagle.'
His breathing pinched, making it hard to force out words. 'Do it.'
She fished a knife from her vest and sliced the leashes. The body plummeted. He looked for Badinen because he could not bear to watch the impact. The lad trailed behind obediently. The hells knew what he was thinking now. If Eiko wept, she did so silently.
Lightened, Scar found a thermal and rose. Wind blustered against their ears. After a while Scar tipped out of the thermal and started the long sail to Clan Hall.
'If you don't mind my asking,' said Eiko, 'I don't know your name.'
'I'm Joss.'
'Joss?' The timbre of her voice changed.
'Yes, that Joss.'
She snorted, finding a moment of humor in a grim day. 'Aren't you the new commander at Clan Hall?'
' I am.'
'Copper Hall in Nessumara is under siege and couldn't have taken us anyway. They've not had the room for a full complement for generations.'
Each reeve hall housed by custom six hundred reeves, although at any given time many fewer were actually present in the halls: some eagles would be absent for their breeding season in Heaven's Reach; many would be out on patrol or, in more peaceful days, presiding over assizes. If what Marit said had been true, then in the days long
