'Could be a trap,' said Vekess.
'Cursed well could be, but there's little danger for us if we haul the contact up in the auxiliary basket. The one in the basket and those who must set him there are the ones who might be caught.'
'That's fair to let them take the risk,' said Vekess. 'They're more expendable than eagles.'
'Reeve Vekess is right,' said Pil unexpectedly. 'There are few eagles, and many people.'
At Vekess's flush, some chuckled. Pil's mouth quirked, as it did
when he was practicing archery and scored a solid stream of bull's-eyes.
'It's a fair argument,' agreed Odash. 'I'll give the signal. Expect someone to come up in the basket tonight.'
The meeting dissolved into the usual chorus of indignant comments and exchanges of angry recriminations, not for any of the assembled reeves, of course, but for the army, the traitors in Toskala who had opened the city gates to let in the enemy without a fight, the other reeve halls that had not responded to their pleas for help. The general disorganization of it all. A wind wafted the smell of rotting waste off the city; as the breeze turned, Nallo caught the sweet scent of the late-blooming vine roses growing in the troughs that rimmed the commander's cote. The sliding doors were closed tight. Odash slept on a pallet on the covered porch, like a dog waiting for its master to return. She couldn't decide whether she found it touching, or idiotic. Sheh! What was she thinking? He was doing his best, accustomed to carrying out the orders of a leader who had been horribly murdered just ten days ago.
'Heya!' Simultaneous shouts rose from the watchtowers. 'Eagles coming in.'
Reeves ran for the parade ground.
Kesta said, 'That's Peddo and Jabi. Aui! There's Scar!'
The eagles came in with wings outstretched and talons lifted, thumping onto the big perches in the middle of the parade ground. Unhooking, the reeves dropped from their harness and stepped out from under the shadow of the eagles.
Peddonon, grinning as usual, called out. 'Heya, Kesta! How'd you fare at Copper Hall?'
Her shrug was a negative. 'They arranged for us to get supplies off the local merchants. But they wanted us to retreat from here and reinforce them. So, we're on our own.'
'Iron Hall? Gold? Bronze? Are the reeves who flew there back yet?'
'Bronze Hall wouldn't even let our messenger meet with the marshal, just said they'd consider sending a legate, typical brush-off. Iron and Gold said they were too overstretched to spare even a single reeve to meet with us — but we're welcome to keep them up to date on our situation.'
Peddonon's grin widened. 'So I win! I told you he would come himself. What do you owe me?'
'A kick in the ass, just like always.'
The reeve sauntering forward beside Peddonon Nallo knew well enough, for he'd been the one who had first tried to coerce her into becoming a reeve, back when she'd been a refugee out on the roads. She had not understood then that no person chosen by an eagle had a choice about becoming a reeve. Nevertheless, he had handled it poorly, for all his charm.
He made a big show of greeting everyone, and truly everyone did know him; he'd left a posting at this hall to become marshal of Argent Hall in the southern Hundred less than a year ago.
'How are you faring?' He strolled up to her with an irritating smile on his handsome face. How she hated people who assumed you would be happy to see them just because they were so good-looking, even a man as old as he was, fully forty years if he was a day. 'It's Avisha, isn't it?'
'It's Nallo. Avisha is my stepdaughter. The pretty one.'
He blinked. 'That's right.' He laughed at his awkward words. 'I meant, that's right that you're Nallo and she's Avisha. She got married.'
Nallo flushed, thinking of poor Avisha, orphaned and kinless with two small siblings to protect and thereby having no better option than to marry one of the Qin soldiers because they were rich and without wives. 'I hope he'll treat her well.'
Pil said, 'Who chose her?'
'It doesn't work quite that way,' said the reeve, scratching his clean-shaven, noble chin. 'I've forgotten your name.'
'It's Pil, Marshal.'
'Pil. That's right. Men can offer, but it's the woman who must accept or refuse.'
'How likely is it that a woman will refuse if her entire clan insists?' asked Nallo curtly. 'How much of a choice does a poor woman have if she has only one offer?'
Marshal Joss's glance at her was keen. 'That's right. In this case, your pretty stepdaughter had more than one suitor. One was Chief Tuvi.'
Pil whistled under his breath, but said nothing.
'However, she chose a tailman. A decent fellow, everyone says.'
'Jagi,' said Pil, and an unexpected grin flashed.
Joss shrugged. 'I don't recall the name.' He smiled winningly again and walked over to greet Odash. The two men moved down the alley between barracks and storehouse toward the
commander's cote, and most of the reeves followed in a shuffling, uncertain crowd, not sure what to expect or what to do now that help had come from the south in the form of a single reeve known to be a drunk and a womanizer. Nallo walked to the gate, Pil pacing alongside her.
'Will he treat her and the children well?'
'He will.' The certainty in his tone brought tears to her eyes.
'Good, then. Good.'
She settled against one of the gateposts and, crossing her arms, stared out at Justice Square. The rations line had gotten shorter; about forty people, including the fuming merchant, waited to receive their portion. Others had retreated to the porches to sit in the shade. From the direction of the militia barracks came the call and clap of drill.
'Heya, Pil.' Kesta smiled, and settled in beside Nallo. 'They want you to report on the incident you observed on the river.'
'Now?'.
'Now.' Her smile collapsed into a brooding frown as Pil strode off toward the commander's garden. She looked at Nallo. 'So here we stand, surrounded by countless enemies, plagued by self-important merchants, and hoping we can fly in enough food to keep us going while we stick it out here more for the show of the thing than for any purpose. Does Clan Hall even serve a purpose? Do the reeve halls want to work together to battle this army, or are they only going to look after themselves?'
'If they do that,' said Nallo, 'we'll fall one by one.'
'You don't need to tell me that. When the commander and senior reeves were murdered on Traitors' Night, I felt like the reeve halls were murdered, too. She did her best for all these years to be a fair and effective commander. Yet who now listens to Clan Hall? Why should they? We're as barren as a woman without a basket, as impotent as a man with no plow.'
'There has to be something we can do!' But in swiping strands of hair off her sweaty forehead, Nallo measured the fragility of her words, how they might penetrate the air with seeming force only to dissipate as if they had never been uttered. 'Maybe Marshal Joss can do something.'
Kesta mopped her own brow as in imitation of Nallo. 'So here we all wait to see what Joss will say and what Joss will do! Eiya! I don't know whether to laugh or to cry'
'We've been fortunate so far with the provisions from Nessumara,' Odash was saying as Joss picked up his cup of rice wine and, with a grimace, set it down without drinking. 'But it can't go on forever. We'll need another source of rice and nai. We've flown off forty-eight refugees, mostly children, but that still leaves us with one hundred and fifty-seven in the reeve hall, ninety-eight firefighters, militiamen, and ordinands, thirty-eight clerks of Sapanasu, and four hundred and sixty-three refugees from Toskala of whom two hundred and three have stated they are able and willing to join the defense of the rock.'
Joss turned the cup around. 'I'm not sure reprovisioning is our biggest problem. We can continue to delegate less experienced reeves to fly supply and take off the remaining refugees. As long as we are careful to ration the food strictly and control what numbers we allow to remain up here, we can hold the rock. The cisterns and the deep well will supply water indefinitely.'
