the main army. Such hostages can be cleansed if anyone in Toskala rebels.'
'The hells!' murmured Vassa.
The pain in his body swelled tenfold, as if he were thrown once again into the courtyard of the Thirsty Saw to face the Guardian's penetrating gaze. 'Of course no one will dare attack the garrison if they fear for the lives of their kinsfolk. Aui!'
'I need to let my allies know of this, as well as other observations I've made. Can you get me up the rock?' She looked at Vassa. 'For I think you know something, verea, that you're not saying.'
'Vassa?' he said, indignantly. 'Do you know something you've not shared with me?'
She patted him on the knee. 'You are not my husband, to be privy to my clan's secrets. Nor are you local, Nekkar. You've only lived in Toskala thirty years. I was born here.' She leaned forward to regard the assassin with a stare from which the other woman did not flinch. 'To help you puts us in deadly danger. We must live here while you will leave.'
'A fair concern, verea,' replied the spy, 'so I'll offer you a trade. Help me get a message to the reeves. When it comes time for your clan, or this temple, to hand over a hostage to the army, I'll go in place of one of your own. If I can't reach Lord Radas here, I have to go with the army. This is my chance. What do you say, verea?'
'Eat the rest of that porridge before it congeals,' said Vassa, in that way she took with the apprentices, to whom she was devoted although she lived in the compound next door and spent most of her day cooking for her clan of mat makers.
Zubaidit ate slowly with an effort that made it clear she was starving.
'They'll notice her southern way of talking at once,' said Nekkar, not sure whether to laugh at the thought of sticking one in the eye of the army, or weep at the chance of disaster that might engulf them were they to be caught.
'I served Hasibal for my apprentice year with a troupe of festival entertainers,' Vassa said with a sweep of uplifted chin that captured their attention. Nekkar smiled to see her brightness come alive after so many days smothered in anguish. 'We'd have to stage it, like actors do over in Bell Quarter. My clan could let her pose as the southern bride of my nephew, gotten in a trade deal. We'd hold her back when the army comes round, make it
seem like he and all of us are besotted. Get them to choose you as if against our will. It would be tricky. Not least due to his charms. He's a handsome lad.'
'I'll take that risk, if I must.' Zubaidit grinned in a way that made Nekkar laugh softly.
'A hierodule, indeed,' he murmured.
'I serve the Merciless One,' she agreed. 'And the reeves?'
'I'll talk to my people,' said Vassa. 'And they'll talk to other people. It's dangerous, with this curfew, but there is one hidden path. Can you be patient, verea?'
'I can be as patient as I must be.'
5
Stuck all day up on Law Rock because Tumna was out on her hunting day, Nallo had had enough.
'Sit your stinking ass down and keep your mouth closed, ver.' The snap in her voice made the cursed merchant take a startled step backward, out of her face. 'I'm tired of hearing you complain, and so is everyone else, neh? You'll have your turn to get your rations and make your complaints when it comes to you.'
'I'm a respected guildsman! You've no right to talk to me in that way, some village girl thinking she's as good as me just because-'
'Just because I have an eagle that can rip your head off? End of the line, ver.'
Nallo signaled to the firefighters who made up what passed for a militia atop the rock. Using their fire hooks as prods, the young men chivvied the furious merchant out of his place and to the back as he protested in an obnoxious voice while onlookers smirked. He'd made no friends with his demands for special treatment.
She surveyed the folk waiting in line for their daily rations. 'We mean to hold Law Rock. So you've got to bide your time, do your part, accept your rations, keep calm. Those of you who can train to fight, will train. Those who are hoping for a lift off the rock will have to wait your turn.'
At the head of the line, on the long porch fronting the militia barracks where many of the stranded people slept, a shaven-
headed clerk sworn to Sapanasu the Lantern made a mark in her accounts book as the fire captain ladled out a ration of rice porridge to a woman with two children hanging on to her taloos. The clerk called for the next person in line, and bent forward to hear his name.
We're Toskala's last defenders, Nallo thought, and a sad herd of bleating goats we're proving to be.
The cadre sergeant beckoned. 'Heya, Nallo! You're called to a reeve's meeting.'
'Hold the line,' she said to him. 'Anyone who bawls out of turn gets sent to the back like that one. Better we had a sack of mildewed nai than him. At least we could dump the rotten nai on anyone trying to clear the steps.'
'Heh, that's a good one.' The firefighters liked her irritable temper and sharp tongue, although few others she'd known in her twenty years had appreciated it. 'Wish I'd seen your eagle rip the head off those men who killed the two eagles on Traitors' Night.'
But Nallo remembered how her friend Volias had dropped dead beside her in the instant his own eagle had expired. That her own eagle, Tumna, had slaughtered the murderers didn't make her feel better. 'I'd have ripped off the heads of those gods-rotted, hells-bound traitors if I'd gotten to them first.'
'Aui! I'll bet you would have!'
She trotted over to the gate that led into the reeve compound, where she found Pil waiting. She paced beside him into Clan Hall, an impressive complex with its skeletal watchtowers where eagles could perch, the two vast lofts for shelter, a long, narrow parade ground for training, and a sheltered garden tucked away behind it all near the edge of the cliff where the commander of Clan Hall had her office and chamber. The commander was dead, of course, murdered with so many others on the night they were all now calling 'Traitors' Night.' Odash, the old reeve who had acted for years as hall steward because he was too crippled to fly, had taken the cote's porch for his headquarters as he tried to keep Clan Hall functioning.
The forty-eight reeves remaining, not counting the four who were on patrol and the thirty-three who were in some stage of flying individual refugees down to Nessumara and returning with sacks of rice and nai, gathered in the commander's courtyard. Seventy-two fawkners, stewards, hirelings, and slaves were also
stuck up on the rock. Odash sat on a three-legged stool, looking as exhausted as ever.
He raised a hand and everyone quieted. 'We've held this rock ten days. We're helpless to stop the murders going on below. However, we've now established communications with the city, via the auxiliary basket on the north cliff. Yesterday a message was left in the basket. Here's the news: There's been extensive looting. The army is forcing all refugees to leave the city. Anyone who speaks out against the army, and people who have ties with militia or specific clans are executed immediately. A governing headquarters has been set up in Flag Quarter. Taxes are being levied compound by compound. Wherever weapons are found, they are confiscated. A curfew's been established. The markets are closed, and people are hungry.'
Pil made a gesture that caught Odash's notice.
'What is it, Pil?'
It wasn't easy for Pil to speak up, but he managed to force out words. 'The army wants to rule the city. If people have hunger and have fright, they then will obey the ones who rule, if they fear them.'
'That something your people used to do, out in foreign lands?' demanded one of the older reeves, a man named Vekess. He eyed Pil with suspicion.
'It is an effective method.'
Some of the reeves hissed, but Kesta moved closer to slap Pil on the shoulder. 'Cursed glad you're here with us, Pil. Gives us some insight into what these gods-rotted criminals might be doing.' She bent her fierce gaze on Odash.
The old reeve made a business of clearing his throat to focus attention back on himself. 'My contacts want to send a person up here to meet with us.'
