say. Bubbles of blood beaded at his nostrils, sucked in and out. She grabbed her knife, unhooked the harness, and dropped into a crouch beside him. His gaze did not follow her movement, but Tumna squawked irritably.
'Hush!' Nallo snapped. 'Do what you want with him.'
She ducked out from under the raptor's wings and circled around to the other man, who amazingly was not yet dead. Somehow, he was trying to pull himself up the path. She got a foot under his body and shoved him over. She bent, grasped his chin, and held it back to get a full curve. Then she cut deep to sever the windpipe, the foodpipe, and the blood vessels in one strong stroke, as she'd learned to do growing up among goat herders in the Soha Hills.
Battle wasn't much different from slaughtering goats, when you thought of it that way. You killed when you had to, not for any joy you took in it.
Tumna shook the other man loose. She bent her head and nudged him.
'Heya!' shouted Nallo.
By now the cursed basket was half crushed. She cut the gods-rotted thing free, wiped her knife's blade such as she could in two swipes on the weaving, then shoved the blade back in its sheath. Pulling her reeve's baton, she approached Tumna brandishing it as the training regimen had taught her, as if anyone believed eagles actually feared the little stick of a baton that the reeves used to 'train' and 'control' the huge raptors. Tumna, anyway, was perfectly able and willing to rip off the head of her reeve, if her reeve annoyed her. But Nallo had been told time and again that it were better for a reeve to sacrifice herself than to allow her eagle to feast on human flesh.
Yet Tumna was only playing; she wasn't hungry, or inclined to eat; she rolled the body around and gave up, impatient with the corpse's lack of activity. It was only fun when they tried to escape.
'Aui!' muttered Nallo, hot and cold at once.
She heard folk calling, 'Cut us loose, you gods-rotted-'
A dray beast bellowed. A man cursed.
She would have run down to slap some order into them, but Peddonnon had been clear in his instructions: Do not stay on the ground.
Flight gave the reeves their advantage; on the ground, they were easy to kill.
She whistled, and Tumna stretched her wings, looking around as if hoping for more entertaining hunting. Nallo ducked under the shadow of her wingspan and hooked in.
'Up!'
Up.
The eagle's majestic strength carried her. The unbelievable sight of the skirmish unfolded beneath her: the dray master had finally gotten both animals out of the water and was helping the captives free themselves. Some had plunged into the water to recover weapons or gear; trails of red spun out in the water, marking dead soldiers in the current. Three women were coming up the path in Nallo's direction, and Nallo gestured to them, waving an arm to indicate where they should look for the fallen.
Shouts and cheers and the stamping of |eet on earth sent her on her way, just as an audience showed its approval at the Festival contests. She was grinning as Tumna slipped into a weak thermal and got some lift. She couldn't really shout across the gap between eagles, but she found her place in the formation easily enough.
Peddonon flagged a 'follow me,' and they continued south toward the delta, an intense green shivering mass of vegetation ahead. Kanness was laughing as he banked into place; not that she could quite make out the lineaments of his face, but he was a hearty laugher; she knew him well enough by now to recognize how his torso and head looked when he was full-on guffawing.
She didn't feel like laughing, precisely, but it was so cursed good to know they'd finally inflicted some damage. After all the months of feeling like useless observers.
Why in the hells hadn't the reeves done this earlier?
We're not helpless any longer.
That cursed Commander Joss and his gods-rotted outlander ally had been right. Imagine that.
A month ago, the enemy had been dispersed across the plain of Istria and the lower reaches of Haldia, stretching to the Haya Gap, pillaging, burning, and generally causing havoc. Now it seemed everyone was marching toward Nessumara. Barges moved downriver, laden with slaves or building materials. Gangs worked in the western forests, felling logs, which were lashed into huge rafts and floated toward Skerru.
As they flew downriver after the skirmish, she observed with new eyes. That gang of men being marched under guard down-road was not vulnerable because they were guarded by too many soldiers for one wing to attack. Yet there, several mey from the river in heavily wooded hills, a half cadre of men hauling wagons was too far away from foot-based relief to call for help; a single wing could scatter them, and two wings working in concert — if
such a thing could be managed — could obliterate them before their company came to their rescue.
Her hands itched, eager to pull Tumna's jesses, to go on the hunt. To strike a blow.
When the wing passed over the town of Skerru, she saw people like ants boiling, all hard at work building what looked like rafts. Something big was up, for sure.
She, Pil, Kanness, and Peddonon set down on Copper Hall's islet while Orya and Warri remained aloft. Three fawkners hustled over to greet them, a cursed sight friendlier than they had been the first time Nallo had landed here.
'What news?' the first cried as they clustered around Peddonon. 'We're in the hells of trouble here.'
'You must have seen!' blurted the second. 'That gods-rotted army is building walkways to cross the marsh and swamp.'
'The hells!' cried the third, looking at Nallo. 'You've got blood all over your leathers.'
Drying streaks splattered her vest and trousers. Flakes shed from her hands. A spot on her chin itched, and when she raised a hand to rub at it, the fawkners flinched as if they thought she was about to hit them.
'We've been in a skirmish.' Peddonon gestured to get their attention. 'I need to see the marshal at once.'
'You're in luck,' said the first fawkner. 'They're in council now, with the commander and that outlander captain.'
'Joss? Is here in Nessumara?'
'Just came in last night-'
'The hells! Kanness, you stay with the fawkners. Nallo, Pil, come with me.'
The fawkners blurted out a protest but a glance from Peddonon, and the menace of his big frame, silenced them. Nallo and Pil trotted obediently after him as he made his way through the compound to the marshal's cote, a pretty cottage surrounded by a garden on the landward side and with a wooden pier jutting out onto a wide channel. Two low-slung boats had been tied to the pier. A girl, ten or twelve years of age and quite thin, was set to watch them. Two elderly reeves sat on the porch, mending harness. When they saw Peddonon they clambered to their feet. One tapped the sliding door and went inside the cote while the other blocked the stairs.
'I'm here to see Commander Joss,' said Peddonon.
'You're Peddo, right? Where's your eagle perched?'
'I'm Peddonon, sergeant in charge of the contingent stationed at Law Rock. If the commander's here, he'll want to speak to me. If Captain Anji is here, he'll want to hear about the skirmish we just fought.'
'Skirmish?'
The old man's gaze fixed on Nallo, taking in the blood. 'Aui! What happened?'
'I'll give my report to-'
The door slid open, and the other old reeve indicated that Peddonon should go in.
He paused on the porch to take off his boots, nodding at Nallo. 'Go wash yourself off.'
'Where?' she demanded.
He waved a hand, but she wasn't sure if he meant the garden, or the pier, or the barracks. The door slapped shut behind him, and the old reeves stared so rudely! She grabbed Pil and walked to the pier. The heat was beginning to rise, already muggy and steamy here in the delta; in another few weeks it would become unbearable. She swatted at gnats attracted to her sweat, but they only returned, like that cursed army: swarms that would eat them alive if they could manage it.
'Abandoned again with the usual disregard important louts show for their underlings,' she muttered. 'Not one word of praise for our victory.'
'Any decent fighting unit would have made quick work of our clumsy attack,' said Pil. 'The eagles are huge
