and there were no horses available and no reeves who had the leisure to haul a person as unimportant as he was, he headed for Olossi on foot. It was an easy path, a one-cart road raised on a berm over a flat plain, but a full day's walk.
He walked between dry fields awaiting the rains, the afternoon heat beating down over him, but he didn't mind it. He had a hat
with a brim to shade his face and neck; he stripped down to his kilt, knotting his jacket and trousers and stuffing them into his pack. The heaviest thing was that cursed sack of gold the Qin princess had gifted him. Overhead, eagles and their reeves departed Argent Hall in staggered flights, hauling sealed ceramic pots containing oil of naya. Kesh trudged.
At twilight, he spotted lamps to the east on a path running parallel to his own. He hurried across a dusty fallow field and caught up to a train of wagoners rigged out with lanterns, driving supplies through the night to Olossi. They were all female, and happy to have a young man with such fine eyes and such a pleasant expanse of bare torso to admire since the young men in their villages had joined up with the militia months ago.
'You're not in the militia?' they asked him as they took a break to water and rub down their dray beasts.
He lounged against the foremost wagon, sipping juice their leader had offered. 'I'm an agent for the command staff. I was on special assignment.'
'Then why are you walking to Olossi, eh?'
'The army has requisitioned all the horses.'
They knew it, for sure! And their dwindling rice stores were drawn down, too, with planting yet to come and it to be accomplished with a smaller workforce than normal due to so many lads and men gone with the army. But it was a small price to pay for not having to fear their villages would be burned like all those villages along West Track. They set off again, and their leader, a woman old enough to have girls of marriageable age, questioned Kesh closely about the Qin. Was it true they treated their wives and wives' clans well? Were there still soldiers looking to marry into local families?
'If you're truly interested, bring your offer to the captain's wife, to her compound in Olossi.'
'They say she's a sharp bargainer. Got the better of the old council of Olossi. I don't know if I'd have the courage to face a woman like that. Have you met her?'
Kesh laughed, hoping the night hid his flush. 'She'll treat you fairly. Or you can go to one of the training encampments where Qin soldiers are stationed.'
'There's a camp near us with a few Qin in residence, training the others. They took their pick of well connected girls. Not that they were rude about it, mind you. They took what seemed best
to them. Anyway, all that militia have marched. While here we sit, waiting.'
'You're not waiting, verea. You're working.'
She shifted the reins to move the dray beasts across a transition where the one-cart road merged onto a wider two-cart path on a massive berm that speared straight south over the plain. The waning quarter moon was rising in the east. In the wagon behind, young women were giggling as they talked.
'Work's a thing I'm accustomed to.,-.yillages burned, refugees starving in the fields, roads unsafe — that's nothing I ever want to get accustomed to. I make my offerings to the gods and pray that our army defeats the enemy and brings peace. That would be worth plenty, neh?'
O'eki had returned to Olossi with the ships transporting the new Qin cohort and their horses. At the Qin compound in Olossi the big man welcomed Keshad with such a genuine smile that Kesh was taken aback. The chamber, large enough to house ten clerks, was silent, with only a single guard, a local man, standing at attention at the open door into the warehouse.
'Where are the other clerks?' Kesh asked after he'd covered his discomfort by washing his feet, hands, and face.
'Hu! I let them go because they weren't experienced enough. I keep the compound books myself. I hired the Haf Gi Ri house to keep track of the army's expenses and revenues.'
'The Haf Gi Ri house? The Ri Amarah women?'
O'eki was cleaning his brushes and closing down his accounts for the day. Both doors were open in the accounts office, but no breeze blew through to cool them.
'In exchange for the contract, the Haf Gi Ri have undertaken to make no sales to anyone supplying the army. That way they can't enrich themselves on the side by cheating the books.'
From the warehouse rose a genial exchange of greetings between locals. Indeed, there was not a single Qin soldier to be seen except for crippled Seren, who had command of the compound guard. A familiar figure clomped into the chamber from the warehouse, still laughing at a joke he'd left behind. Seeing Kesh, he coughed to silence. His silver bracelets, running three-quarters of the way up his arms, jangled as he stopped short. He had every bit of skin covered except hands and face, just like in Sirniaka.
'Eliar.' Kesh rose.
'You're here!' said Eliar, with a flash of surprise before he looked away. He placed a bundle of accounts books on O'eki's writing desk. 'I've brought today's accounting early. We've a festival tonight, and the women closed up the books early.'
'Why are you surprised to see me?' asked Kesh. 'I'm a hostage, you must have known I'd be dragged back here in time. In a way, I'm like your sister-'
Eliar turned his back on Kesh. 'My sister is dead.'
'Of course she's not dead-!'
'I'll thank you not to speak of her.'
'You're the one who loses in that bargain. I see you have more bracelets, eh? Were you rewarded for your part in our southern expedition?'
Eliar tensed as he clenched a fist. 'I'm getting married. The engagement's been sealed. My bride arrives any day now.'
'How can she do that?'
'A female reeve will bring her. It's all been arranged.'
'Just as your sister would have been hauled off to Nessumara- Wait! Which bride? The one they arranged for before? The one from Nessumara? The one they meant to trade Miravia for?'
Eliar lunged, fist cocked, but O'eki interposed his bulk between them. 'I'll thank both of you pups not to bark. My thanks, Eliar. As always. Here's our book. I'll see you tomorrow.'
There he stood with the immensity of a mountain, implacable and immovable, as Eliar grabbed the accounts book and left.
'So,' muttered Kesh, 'the Ri Amarah settle their problems by pretending they don't exist.'
'I still hear barking,' said O'eki. 'I'm no longer a slave, Master Keshad. I'm factor here, with certain privileges. One of them is that I want you to shut up about this. It's a waste of my time, and I value the Ri Amarah, even if you do not.'
Kesh bit back a retort.
O'eki smiled. 'That's better.'
'You're a cursed sight cleverer than anyone has ever thought you were, aren't you?' said Kesh.
'I'm a patient man. Now that I'm here, Master Keshad, I don't intend to lose what I've so unexpectedly gained, nor do I intend to suffer through two young men wrangling out of hurt pride and unmet lust. Do you understand me?'
But Kesh smiled. Lust was nothing. Lust passed. What he felt was not lust.
'I realize I am a hostage in this household,' he said, 'but with your permission I'd like the evening free to run a few errands.'
'You're free to go. I'll be sending you back to Astafero in the morning by reeve to arrange for another consignment of oil of naya.'
'Won't that clean out their stores?'
'The naya seeps will keep producing, won't they?'
'So they will. Why don't they lift it all out by eagle?'
'The eagles can only take two vessels at a time. There's still stock in Argent Hall to move, so why waste the reeves' time by making them lose two days flying to Astafero and back when we can ship in new supplies for them to carry once they've lifted the old?'
