jogged out from the vanguard to meet him: the captain, accompanied by two women in sergeant's badges. The woman standing to the captain's right was past the first bloom of youth, tall for a woman and thick with a laborer's strength. Her eyes widened as she took in Joss; she shook her head with the twisted half frown of a woman who wants to laugh but isn't sure she ought to. She carried a stubby spear in her left hand and a short sword sheathed at her side. A long leather pouch was slung over her back.
The captain stopped a stone's toss away, rubbing his chin with
the back of a hand as he examined Joss with a crooked half smile, as a man might not quite smile when he realizes he's lost a bet.
Bai sauntered forward, grinning that cursed grin that made Joss flush. 'Reeve Joss. Come to my rescue.'
'I'll expect a reward,' said Joss, with a smile that stopped her in her tracks.
The other sergeant snorted.
The captain said, on a sharp sigh, 'I see you two know each other.'
'Not in that way, if not for lack of trying,' said Zubaidit. 'Don't be jealous.'
'How can I be jealous for what I've never possessed? Reeve Joss, I'm called Arras, captain of Sixth Cohort. This is Sergeant Giyara. So tell me, reeve, why would you come down from your safe haven in the sky to parley with the captain of an army whose men you know are eager to kill reeves?'
These were cufsed interesting currents, truly.
Joss turned his smile on Sergeant Giyara, who smirked in the way of a woman who was immune to his charm but enjoyed watching the effort. 'The first time Zubaidit and I met, she tried to kill me. So I suppose I feel I still have the advantage. Tell me, Captain, are you marching into battle?'
'We're marching to meet up with Lord Radas, as ordered. What battle?'
Joss indicated the hazy sky. 'That's dust, churned up by fire and battle. Captain Anji has broken Lord Radas's army.'
'So you might claim. If I join up with the other Saltow contingent, we can flank the enemy and drive him back.'
'You might, although I doubt it. Toskala is fallen to an uprising. Reeves from Gold Hall ought to be falling on the garrison in High Haldia today. Your side has lost, even if the limbs still function. You can retreat with your men and lose the war another day, or you can surrender.'
'I can kill you at this moment,' said the captain, not in an angry way, just pointing it out as a comment between friends.
'You haven't killed me. And I think you won't. I've given you fair warning, because Zubaidit marches beside you. Let me take her and go.'
'She's our hostage,' said the captain.
'Cursed spy,' said Giyara without much heat, eyeing Zubaidit
sidelong. Without looking at the other sergeant, Bai smiled provocatively, and Joss's ears flamed. Had she had sex with the other woman? Was that her game? The hells!
'For a man of your experience,' said Bai in a voice whose purr made him think she'd seen into his mind as easily as might a cloak, 'you're as innocent as the sky is blue in the dry season, Reeve Joss. I need to tell you that my brave comrade Shai killed the woman who wore the cloak of Night. He rests in one of those invalid wagons, badly hurt. I have to stay with him. Tohon would never forgive me if I let him die.'
Joss's heart went cold; his limbs seemed paralyzed; his mouth went dry.
'Did you release her cloak to the gods, as is fitting?' he croaked.
'I gave it to Captain Arras.'
The captain didn't even glance at Sergeant Giyara, who stood loyally beside him with a pouch slung across her back. An innocent burden, to the naked eye.
'I beg you,' Joss said to Bai, 'release it.'
Captain Arras shook his head. 'You comprehend my dilemma, Reeve Joss. I'm torn between my old commander and the prospect of a new one. A traitor has earned a short life, don't you think? I need a cursed valuable treasure to bargain with, and while the life of that young outlander we're hauling along in the wagons seems useful, I don't think it's enough.'
Joss glanced at Bai and lifted his chin. A quickly drawn sword, and a pair of lunges, would take care of the captain and sergeant; they could release the cloak. Then he realized she wasn't armed. Arras laughed. 'I like you, reeve. You think the way I do. She agreed to walk unarmed. I've a Guardian's cloak and a veiled outlander to bargain with.' Horns blatted in the distance, a call to arms. 'Now, if you'll excuse us, we've got a battle to fight. Best you move aside, and let us march.'
They were almost seven hundred men. He was one reeve, not quite ready to die pointlessly. He stood aside, and let them march.
41
Arras climbed up into a wagon's bed to address his soldiers, who were straining eagerly for news. They had heard the horns' cries from ahead. They'd watched the captain's conference with the reeve.
'I've brought you this far,' Arras called. 'You may have wondered why we retreated from the attack on Nessumara. You may have wondered why we did not march out in company with the Saltow survivors. Why we left our camp slaves behind in Saltow rather than bring them with us.' He surveyed the assembled cohort but saw no man or woman there who looked angry or suspicious. They trusted him.
'As your captain, I have always put your welfare first. Maybe you think I'm a'generous man, a merchant who gives out rice cakes to children just to see them smile.' That caught and released a few chuckles. 'Maybe you think it's occurred to me that I can't be a captain without a cohort to command, and so it should. What is a captain, except a man with soldiers to lead? What is a commander, even a lord commander, except one who holds the reins of an army? So I ask you, if a commander proves again and again through his actions that he is no wise commander, ought a captain to follow him even into disaster? If a captain places the welfare of his loyal men above all things, shouldn't he pause rather than leap blindly? If a captain who wants his men to stay alive, to fight again, to earn a decent reward, sees that those who give orders don't know what they're doing and are leading their army into a mire, isn't he required to change his path?'
He had their full attention.
'Who will feed us if we burn down all the villages, trample every field, and drive away the farmers? Most of you hail from such villages. Have you ever wondered what in the hells we're doing? What end it serves? Does it serve your families and clans? Does it serve us? For what reward are we fighting?'
They had settled into a stillness like that of children listening to the most ancient of tales, bound as by the sorcery of the storyteller. So far, it was working. Even his subcaptains, for whom this was not entirely a surprise, were nodding.
'I'll tell you, I'm tired of this. This isn't fighting. A soldier ought not to be proud of bullying the helpless. Of stringing up men and women from poles just to watch them suffer. I don't fear a fight. You know that, who served with me in High Haldia. Nor do I fear death more than any other. A fighting man always takes a chance with death. But there are better commanders to serve. And I know where they are. Right up ahead, as that reeve has given me to know. Lord Radas's army is not invincible. They're losing now. Toskala has thrown off its garrison. High Haldia's garrison will go down likewise. An army from Olossi has marched all the way here, and it's them who fight out there, them who have a leader who knows how to deploy his forces and take charge.'
These revelations shocked them. They muttered restlessly, and he raised a hand to call for silence. They quieted at once.
'How can it have happened, you wonder? That we who have fifteen or more cohorts are struggling now? We're struggling because of poor command. Squandered units. Terrible planning. Because of arrogance and ignorance and blindness and pride. Yet aren't we trapped where we stand? Aren't we caged by our past choices? Neh, it's never too late to take a chance on a new path. Everything we do is subject to a thousand chances. So I'm asking you, if you trust my judgment, take a chance with me now.'
They cheered. Not one hesitated or turned away.
