'What do you think is our biggest problem?' Peddonon's earnest expression reflected all their worries.
'The top leadership and all their years of experience were wiped out ten days ago. Not to mention Volias dying like that. He may have been a prick, but he knew what he was doing.' He downed the rice wine in one gulp, feeling the burn, then wiped his mouth. 'That's one thing. The other is that the army took Toskala through treachery. We don't know who we can trust. Finally, setting aside the matter of what the enemy intends to do next, these demons who call themselves Guardians can fly onto this rock and kill any of us.'
'Do you think they're demons?' Odash asked.
'Captain Anji does. He's the outlander captain who saved Olossi. But I'm not sure he means the same thing by the word as we do. For myself, I don't know what to think.'
'It was swords killed all the men and women in the council hall on Traitors' Night,' said Odash.
'You're sure? In the tales it's said Guardians can kill with a word and a look alone.'
'The only survivor of the massacre was one of the traitors. She said the cloaks promised order and wealth to anyone who aided them. Afterward, the cloaks turned on the traitors who had done the dirty work of actually murdering the council, and killed them — with a look and a word, like in the tales.'
'Used and discarded! So the question is, why didn't the cloaks kill the council themselves? Can I interview this survivor?'
As Odash hesitated, all the others drained their cups. 'She threw herself off the promontory.'
'Eihi! Just like in the tale. What did she tell you?'
'Nothing but how if she'd known otherwise she wouldn't have done it, useless apologies, if you take my meaning. All I know is that she's from the Green Sun clan, and they all cleared out before the attack. If we can get more information from the city about what other clans cleared out, we might know who betrayed us.'
'We'll send that message as a warning to Nessumara,' said Joss as folk nodded.
'Why, just so!' cried Odash as the others looked at Joss and then at their empty cups. 'That's why we need a new commander.'
'Commander of Clan Hall? Over all the reeve halls? Are you asking me?'
Odash bent a baleful glare on Peddonon. 'Surely Peddo mentioned-'
'I thought he was joking!'
'We didn't kriow who else to turn to,' added Odash.
'I'm the only one who answered the call?' He rested his forehead on fists, his head so heavy he thought he might never again raise it. 'Let me sleep on it. I'm cursed tired from the journey and everything we've had to deal with down south.'
'Allies from Toskala are sending up a messenger tonight.'
'All the more reason to sleep now.'
Peddonon hung back after the others had gone. 'I wasn't joking. We need you, Joss.'
'Let me sleep first!'
Peddonon grinned. 'Can't keep your looks without enough rest, my friend. Wise of you.'
'I wouldn't want to end up looking like you, true enough. Say, how are the two recruits doing? The young Qin reeve gave an excellent account of the encounter on the river.'
Yet he wondered: had Zubaidit been on that barge Pil had seen on the river? Was she still alive?
'He's exceptional, it's true.' Peddonon scratched his chin. 'What's his story? Can we trust him?'
'Eh?' Joss slapped a hand down on the table so hard Peddonon startled. 'Has he caused trouble?'
'Not at all!'
'Neh, I meant nothing bad by it. I just wondered because Captain Anji specifically asked me to move him north to get him
away from the other Qin soldiers. I'm not sure if it's considered ill luck that he was chosen by an eagle… or a disgrace… or if Anji means him to serve as a spy in our midst-'
'Think you so?'
'Does he behave suspiciously?'
Peddonon grinned in the way Joss had come to associate with his admiration of certain firefighters. 'No. He's cursed good with his weapons and his eagle, and he's very shy. That Nallo is like his older sister, always ready to tear your head off if you even look sidewise in the wrong way at him.'
'Is that how it is? What way have you been looking at him?'
Peddonon sat down again. 'He's fashioned like me, not like you, I'm sure of it.'
'You're usually right.' -
'In this matter, I'm always right. But-'
T knew there was a but.' Joss stifled a yawn. 'No luck there, I take it.'
'Maybe I'm feeling cheated out of a bit of flirting, but I think it's more than that. A young person is shy about these things. That's to be expected. That's what Ushara's temples are for. But he's of age, plenty old enough.'
'The Qin aren't like us, that's true. Captain Anji has forbidden any Devouring temple to be built out at his settlement in the Barrens west of the Olo'o Sea. Maybe it's just inexperience, as you say.'
'Sheh! Maybe. Yet I wonder if there's more to it. It's almost as if he's ashamed of looking at a man, and he sure as the hells never looks at women in that way.'
This time when the yawn rose, Joss could not hold it in. He raised both hands in apology. T don't know. Keep an eye on him. Report anything suspicious. Otherwise, we have to assume he's just what he is, a young outlander suddenly harnessed to an eagle and torn from the company of his familiar comrades. Fortunate for him he has Nallo, eh?'
Peddonon laughed. 'She scares me!'
'That Tumna chose true, neh? Listen, post a steward to wake me when we get the signal.'
Peddonon slid the door closed behind him. With some trepidation, Joss ventured into the sleeping chamber behind a screen of doors. He'd known the commander of Clan Hall for many years; they'd been lovers for a short time, not that she'd gone any easier
on him for it afterward. Exploring the sparsely furnished room now, he wasn't sure if Odash and the hall steward had already cleaned out her belongings or if she simply had never accumulated anything. The pallet was rolled up along one wall. The shelf held two neatly folded jackets of the kind that could be wrapped around any size body and a pair of loose trousers. An alcove in which an ornament appropriate to the season might be displayed sat empty. A pitcher had been recently filled with water and placed beside a bronze basin. He poured water, then washed his face and hands. Afterward, he unrolled the pallet and lay down on top of the coverlet in his clothes.
Yet he could not relax. Zubaidit's scorching gaze and shapely form kept intruding. Pil had seen Tohon. Tohon had ridden out with Zubaidit. The last time he'd seen her, she had slapped him. Aui! Why should that memory arouse him so?
He fell from uneasy waking into unsteady sleep, sinking into an old dream whose contours had become an achingly familiar landscape: a woman wearing a bone-white cloak walks away into a veil of mist, and he cannot help but run after her although he knows he will never catch her.
Twenty years Marit had been dead, and yet she still walked and spoke in his dreams. She called herself a Guardian now, although he could not understand why his dreaming mind, or the gods, made her do so. Yet strangely, her warnings to him in dreamtime always bore fruit.
'Marit!' he called after her fading form. 'What should I do?'
'Joss.'
He startled awake to find Peddonon jostling his shoulder, a lamp shining behind his broad body. 'Heya, Joss. You're mumbling in your sleep. Signal's come.'
Reeves learned the knack of waking to alertness. Joss rolled up to his feet as Peddonon stepped back, and they hurried outside, slipped on sandals, and followed the steward and his lamp through the darkness. Clan Hall had been built along pretty much the entire northern rim of the rock, with various launching points over the drop from bare scaffoldings that also served as secondary watchtowers. Where clouds parted, a half-moon appeared low in the west. They hurried along the wall walk. Fires glimmered where the enemy had set up guard stations along the Istri Walk. They descended a ladder into a pit hewn out of the rock, musty with damp and mold. A gate was set ajar.
The steward halted. T can't go out on the ledge with the lamp. Be careful.'
