laughed and blushed, as if he'd just that moment understood there was another meaning to the phrase. 'We're expecting a third-'
'A third child? But you can't have had two already, in less than a year, surely.'
'We've the two older children, her young brother and sister. And a new one coming. We live out at Dast Welling. She's using her seed money to set up a business. She's very clever. Making healing drinks and such things to rub into sore wounds and — ah-' His knowledge of the finer points of Hundred lore failed him as he rushed headlong into his praise of his new wife. 'She's very happy. Plenty to eat and a good house.'
'The blessings of the gods on you, truly.' Joss had to smile, because it was impossible not to respond to Jagi's joy. 'I'll accept the mount, with thanks.'
An adequate gelding was led forward.
After they'd ridden for a ways through the trees, Jagi said, 'You've ridden before.'
'Before I became a reeve, I rode messages as an apprentice to Ilu, the Herald.' Before Scar. Before Marit. It was difficult to bring that youth into his mind. 'It feels like a different lifetime. In another land.'
And so it did, riding out of the open woodland to see the aftermath of a skirmish. The enemy cadre escorting wagons had been caught and killed to a man. Their archers hadn't protected them
against a powerful ground attack. Now a sergeant was directing the accounting of the captured wagons and a trove of bows and arrows. Jagi's cadre rode past the corpses dragged off the path, young men hooting derisive comments about the equally young men whose bodies had been dumped. There was one corpse with a crooked nose, mouth caked with drying blood, and another with coarse black hair unraveled into a fan around his head. Joss had been young like that, once. Who was to say he might not have been talked into riding with the Star pi Life army, not knowing better? Feeling angry, rebellious, hopeless, or just dragged along by friends?
'Commander?' asked Jagi.
'Do you suppose they were all killed fighting?' Joss asked.
'We've orders to kill every enemy soldier.'
'What if they surrender?'
Jagi shrugged. 'We can't guard prisoners. And we can't leave them behind our lines, can we?'
War was so simple, wasn't it? Much simpler than justice.
They reached an abandoned village on whose unsown fields the army was settling in for the night. In this hot dry weather, most men were simply resting with heads on a bedroll or stretched out on a thin blanket as a ground cloth, but an awning had been raised in the center of the camp.
Jagi took the horse and gestured toward the awning. 'Commander Anji is there.'
'My thanks, Sergeant.'
The guards recognized him and made way. A pair of reeves were standing, giving a report, while Anji bent over a camp table with Chief Deze, Chief Esigu, and a hierophant with a shaven head whom Joss didn't recognize. With his whip, Anji was pointing to various places on the map as the reeves made their accounting. He looked up as Joss walked in under the pleasant shade.
'Commander Joss. We saw your eagle overhead a while ago. Sergeant Jagi found you.'
'He did, indeed. You've made exceptional time. I saw a cohort of Qin soldiers reach your rearguard.'
Anji was neatly clothed, his black tabard straight, no hair out of place, his topknot bound with gold ribbon. 'Yes. What news?'
'We're in control of Toskala.'
The reeves gasped.
Anji nodded, as if it were the news he had been expecting all
along. 'Good. I'll get the details after I finish with these two.' He picked up a rolled scrap of paper lying next to the maps and pulled it open to reveal the writing sacred to the Lantern: it was a message of some kind. 'You'll be interested to know, Joss, that these two reeves killed messengers riding north from Skerru toward Toskala. Lord Radas sent a messenger north to Toskala ordering the garrison there to fall back to Nessumara to build up their forces. Naturally, he does not yet know that Toskala has fallen and its garrison is routed. Nor will he, if we keep intercepting his messengers.' He handed the paper to the hierophant. 'He mentions sending word to this place called Wedrewe, demanding reinforcements for a renewed assault on Nessumara. He's stubborn, I'll give him that. What interests me most is that the message is addressed to a Lord Bevard. He asks him if he knows the whereabouts of Lord Yordenas, and tells Bevard to fly personally to Nessumara to aid Radas in the next phase of the campaign.'
Anji spoke openly of such grave matters, and yet it wasn't clear to Joss if the hierophant and the reeves understood the deeper meaning beneath the exchange.
He replied in kind, saying nothing and everything with a few innocuous words. 'It must be the same Bevard Marit mentioned to me. If this Bevard is still in High Haldia, Chief Toughid may find him, for he's gone hunting with Gold Hall's reeves.'
Anji nodded, then addressed the Copper Hall reeves. 'Is there anything else?'
'That's all, Commander,' said one. 'Chief Sengel wants to know whether to specifically pursue the single cohort that retreated intact to Saltow.'
Anji tapped the map with his whip, touching his own position first before pulling the tip to the thick line marking the River Istri. 'We've a day's long march to Nessumara if we force march. It will surely take two days or more for this enemy cohort to reach Skerru from Saltow. As long as we know they are coming, we can adjust to meet them. For now, do nothing but observe. Our first concern is Radas's army in Skerru, which remains substantially intact since the burning of the forest cover drove them back but did not break them. One cohort has retreated from the west bank to join the others at Skerru. Jodoni will write a message detailing my plans. Go, get food and drink and rest. You'll fly out at dawn.'
'Yes, Commander Anji.' They gave Joss, the two chiefs, and the hierophant a polite nod, and took themselves off.
Joss surveyed the map, noting where fresh lines had been inked in. 'You're filling in your maps as you march. Didn't we already send you copies of maps from Clan Hall?'
Anji examined the unrolled map with a thoughtful gaze. 'You did, and my thanks as ever.' He pushed a knife off one corner and peeled the upper map back to reveal more unrolled maps layered below. 'But if you compare, you'll see the Clan Hall maps haven't been updated in years. By combining current observation and the older versions, I have accurate maps.' He raised a hand, and an aide came forward to roll up the maps. 'Let me call for food and drink. While we eat, give me your report. Will you fly out at dawn?'
'That's another thing we need to discuss.' Joss took the stool offered and sat next to Anji at the table as trays were brought from nearby fires where rice and meat were being cooked. 'Eagles are cursed rare creatures. If we overwork them, we will kill them. And we can't just purchase more from the lendings.'
'If we go too easy, we might lose this war, which leaves us in an equally difficult situation, does it not? We must find a balance.'
'I've released Scar to hunt. I don't expect him to return for at least a full day.'
'Ah.' Anji accepted a pair of cups, into which he poured rice wine, offering one to Joss before he raised his own. 'Then you'll be traveling with the army for a day or two.'
'So I will.'
Anji's smile had a flash of warmth that surprised Joss. 'I expect to you reeves things look different down here on earth. You'll ride beside me, Joss.' His grin grew sharper, both jest and challenge. 'If you can keep up.'
The army rose before dawn and moved out in stages. The vanguard, and the reeve messengers, departed at first light; the second stage included Anji's command unit and plenty of spare horses.
'Did you buy every horse in Olo'osson?' Joss asked.
'Olo'osson supplied us with what we needed, just as villages and towns along the West Track supplied us with food and drink so we weren't slowed down by a baggage train.'
They rode at a ground-eating pace, not so very fast but never slacking, and changed off horses twice.
'It's cursed odd to see so many men all in one place,' Joss remarked as they rode along the curve of one of the many low hills sprouting in this part of Istria, where the land rose into a long ridgeline. Their route overlooked yet more untended fields stepped up the hillsides in terraces. No harvest had been brought in this year across much of Istria. Farmsteads and villages sat empty, no sign of life, everyone in hiding or fled. 'Did no women volunteer to serve in the army?'
