baton and sword swinging from his belt, his pack slung over a shoulder. Was there dirt on his face? Was that why everyone was staring?
An escort accompanied him through camp, folk turning to watch. Women, wagori drivers, stopped stock-still and stared; one whistled boldly as Joss blushed and the soldiers snickered. The command awning had sprouted wings, and a pair of curtained private chambers, but the central area looked the same as ever: a long low table, many camp stools, soldiers and reeves clustered in a meeting. Two rings of black-clad Qin guards eyed him with various expressions of dismay except for the one local man who looked him up and down with a smirk of appreciative interest.
He recognized Kesta from the back; she turned, having heard the murmur following him, and took a step back. 'Joss! The hells!'
He stepped under the central awning as Anji rose from his camp stool. The captain cocked his head, eyes narrowing as he examined Joss with the expression of a man who has just conceived an intense distrust, but he said nothing as Kesta strode forward and grabbed Joss by the arm.
'The hells! You went missing, and I didn't know — So I came to report — But that hierodule said she'd seen you before the battle's end — I didn't know-' Tears streaked her face.
He was panting, sweating, dizzy.
'Aui!' Kesta's grip burned on his bare arm. 'You look ten years younger, Joss, and twice as handsome. If that's possible, which I would have doubted. What happened to you?'
He and Anji's gazes had locked. It wasn't, Joss thought, that Anji was envious of him, or that he desired Joss's looks or charm for himself. It was that Anji was sure that a man as handsome and charming as Joss must lure away any beautiful woman who is offered such a choice. Therefore, let a woman — let Mai — not be allowed to face temptation, not as his first wife had been, coaxed away by a handsome outlander.
Yet how is it possible to fence in temptation unless one controls every road and gate?
'Joss!' Kesta shook him with an impatient grimace born of years of friendship. 'Have your wits been addled?'
Joss blinked, and after all, Anji looked like an ordinary man, bemused but concerned.
'Bring drink, and food,' the captain ordered, and men ran off as Chief Deze and Chief Esigu moved up to flank Anji as though they wondered if Joss meant to strike. 'Do you need to sit, Joss? You look dazed.'
T killed Lord Radas.'
The words sucked out the last of his strength. His legs gave out, and Kesta tugged him up before he hit the ground; an instant later, a stool appeared and he sat hard, sagging forward, head in hands. Trampled grass was crushed beneath his boots. The leather of his boots looked oddly mottled, charred and flaking, as though he had walked through fire. Why hadn't he been burned? Marit had told him that anyone who tried to take a cloak off a Guardian would suffer terrible agonies. Masar had died.
A cup of cordial was thrust into view, and he downed it, the sharp flavor slamming straight into his head.
'Can you repeat that?' asked Anji.
'I killed Lord Radas. The lord commander is dead.'
Within the stunned silence, commonplace noises rolled on: horses whickering; a fire crackling; fat sizzling; a knife being sharpened whsst tvhsst; a woman's cheerful whistle as she wound down the old familiar tune, 'Oh to clasp a man like that in my arms!'
A guardsman poured more cordial into Joss's cup, and the tinkle of falling liquid shook him out of his daze.
He looked at Kesta. 'Is there a fawkner here? Scar needs tending, his harness shed for the night. I just-'
'I'll take care of it.' She released him. 'I was just afraid something had happened to you, Joss. If that's all — killed the gods-rotted demon, the enemy commander — the hells! Wait until I tell the other reeves!' Her grin was as bright as a lamp. She swatted him on the shoulder, spoke a courtesy to Anji and his chiefs, and strode away into the gathering dusk.
.'Where did it happen?' asked Anji in a low voice. 'Where is his cloak?'
'At an altar right where the Istri splits at Kroke's Ridge. As for his cloak-'
He met Anji's gaze again, but it was only a man like himself who looked back, worn by days of travel and given strength by the ferocity of his determination. What kind of man was Anji,
really? A man who had killed a Guardian and bound its cloak in chains because he thought thereby that he was saving the Hundred from the rule of demons. But the Guardians weren't demons, not as Anji defined demons. They were just men and women, who might do the wrong thing believing it was the right one, or the right one hoping for the wrong; they might rise to the best in themselves or fall into what was worst in their hearts. You could not choke justice into existence. It had to live in the bones of the land.
'On law shall the land be built. I released the cloak to the gods.'
Anji's eyes narrowed, a flicker of anger that flashed like a blade's edge. Then his expression smoothed, and he took a step back as two soldiers came forward, bearing trays that they set down on the camp table beside the unrolled maps.
'Eat with me,' said Anji, and yet the words sounded more like a command than a request.
'I'd like to know,' said Joss, hearing words pour out of his mouth as impelled by a lilu he hadn't known dwelt inside him, 'if you have some objection to what I did, considering you may have had other ideas of what would best serve the Hundred.'
'My concern is solely to win this war. Lord Radas's death aids us. Your courage and determination are to be praised, Commander Joss.'
The appreciative murmur that greeted these words reminded Joss that he and Anji were not alone. No, indeed; Anji sat at council with many men — all men, an odd enough sight to Joss's eye. Chiefs Sengel, Deze, and Esigu sat closest to Anji, flanked by Captain Targit and two Qin chiefs unknown to Joss. Captain Arras was sitting at his ease among several militia captains, two wearing the kroke badges common in Nessumara and another wearing Skerru's forked lightning. Arras leaned over and whispered something, at which they grinned. There were other captains: a pair wearing badges from Horn and six bearded men most likely from Olo'osson. No reeves. No merchants or artisans. Not a single priest. All military men.
A tiny jeweler's chest, bound with chains, sat tucked between Arras's feet.
Anji set down his cup. 'And if Lord Radas is truly dead, then we have a significant hope of victory.' He broke off, his gaze catching on movement behind Joss.
Reeves approached, caught by the gatekeepers before they could come too close, but a stockier man striding in their wake pushed between them.
Joss leaped up with a grin. Tohon!'
Sengel stepped forward on one side, Deze on the other, like shields. Tohon's gaze flicked from one to the other, assessing their movement and his risk, but his jaw had a determined jut that made Joss step aside, making space for him.
'Did you find Wedrewe?' Anji asked casually. Yet his own cursed chiefs subtly shifted position as if they had some notion that Tohon — Tohon! — might be a threat.
'I did. Commander, I hear you've found Shai. That he's grievously injured.'
'We've recovered him. He lives. After you give your report-'
'I'll see him now,' said Tohon in a friendly tone no man could possibly misunderstand. 'My report can wait, if the lad is doing so poorly that, as I heard as I walked through camp, it's rumored he's like to die. Where is he?'
Sengel coughed as might a man reminding a comrade he's forgotten his manners, but Tohon's gaze was fixed on Anji and did not waver.
Anji gestured to one of the curtained chambers. 'The hierodule is nursing him.'
'That's something,' muttered Tohon. He nodded a greeting at Joss, then looked again, as taken aback as a man might be to wake and discover his wife has become a kroke. 'What happened to you?' The words were only a reflex. His brow creased; a frown darkened his expression as his thoughts scouted elsewhere. He walked to the curtains and vanished within. It had grown so silent under the awning that Joss heard the murmur of voices, male and female, as Tohon and Zubaidit greeted each other, but he could not make out what they were saying.
'Commander?' asked Sengel, so softly Joss heard the word only because he was standing next to Anji.
