Joss and Peddonon paced along a stone-walled corridor, the echo of the river's voice murmuring around them. They emerged cautiously onto a ledge with the wind tearing along the cliff face to their left, upriver. Downstream and curving away to the right, the prow rose to its peak. A pair of burning lamps marked the humble shelter protecting the stele for which the promontory was named. Four reeves lowered a big basket over the edge and eased out the ropes.
The ledge was a sheer drop to the water many hundred baton-lengths below, where a sliver of rocky shoreline was hidden behind broken boulders. The shoreline was pretty much impossible to reach, since you either had to battle the nasty shoreline current in a boat and cut a treacherous angle in among the rocks, or climb out along the lower face of the cliff.
Of course there were folk so reckless and stupid as to enjoy the challenge; he'd been one back when he was young. One time he'd dared a particularly fabulously defiant lass, a banner clan girl, to meet him there at sunset. That had truly been a memorable night.
'Thinking of that banner clan girl?' Peddonon whispered.
'Aui! How'd you know about that?'
'Everyone knows all about your adventures. They're famous in Clan Hall. They'll make a cycle of stories from them someday, the tale of the Handsome Reeve.'
'A comic tale, no doubt.'
Peddonon snickered.
The reeves handling the rope tensed. 'Got it. Hauling up.'
Peddonon grabbed the safety rope and braced himself against a pair of stakes hammered diagonally into the rock face. Joss stayed out of the way, rubbing his chin, enjoying the feel of the bristles. He needed a shave. How in the hells could he sort out the complications that dogged him?
Last year, a huge army had swept down out of the northern wilderness under the command of Lord Radas. The army had overwhelmed cities and villages across Haldia and now Istria, throwing the land into chaos; they'd even sent a second army south to attack the city of Olossi. In the south, Captain Anji's out-lander Qin soldiers had, with the aid of the reeves of Argent Hall, defeated that second army. At the behest of Olossi's new council, the captain was training an expanded militia to protect the entire
region of Olo'osson. Meanwhile his soldiers were beginning to marry local women under the supervision of his beautiful and extremely clever wife, Mai. Who had ten days ago given birth to a boy child over whom Joss now stood as uncle.
Aui!
The reeves and eagles of Horn Hall had vanished. Folk claimed to see Guardians walking abroad, while others called them demons or cloaks and identified them with the leaders of the marauding army. His own work as marshal at Argent Hall had become complicated by the arrival of numerous unjessed eagles seeking new reeves, so many that they'd had to establish a secondary training hall. Naya Hall had been raised on the western shore of the Olo'o Sea near the settlement founded by Captain Anji on land deeded to him and his wife as part of their payment for aiding Olossi. Elsewhere in the Hundred, folk burned out of their villages wandered the roads. Children went hungry. Half the people Joss met while on patrol no longer trusted reeves. And now the desperate reeves of Clan Hall, blindsided by the murder of their most experienced reeves, wanted him to sit as commander over all the reeve halls. Yet the other reeve halls were beleaguered and uncooperative. Why should they agree to a new commander, much less Joss? He rubbed his head, wondering if he was going to get a headache.
It was difficult to imagine how his life could become more tangled.
'Here we are,' muttered a male voice.
They heaved the basket up over the edge and dragged it back from the brink. A single person sat inside.
'Eh, that was a ride, I'll tell you,' she said as she clambered out. 'I thought I was going to pitch right over and fall to my death. And I'll tell you — that path out along the rock isn't a path at all! It's not even a goat track. I slipped into the river twice. I'm soaking wet.'
Joss sagged against the rock as his pulse hammered in his ears.
'Best we know who you are first.' Peddonon stepped out from the wall.
She chuckled, as Joss knew she would. 'I'm called Zubaidit. I convinced some brave clan folk within Toskala to get me up here. I've a message from them. But truly, I come from the south, from Olo'osson, at the behest of the Olossi council and their allies. I have news to pass back to Olossi, if you reeves will carry it.'
'Do you know about this, Joss?' Peddonon asked.
'Surely not Marshal Joss of Argent Hall?'
'The same,' Joss said, surprised at how smoothly his voice came out, not much of a croak at all. 'Well met, Zubaidit. What of the other scouts?'
'I'd be happy to give my report. But must I stand here in these wet clothes, with the wind chilling me?' she asked, the curl of her voice such a blatant tease that his ears burned. 'Or is there somewhere I can take them off?'
Cursed if every gods-rotted reeve standing there didn't start snickering, trying to hide the sound beneath hands clapped over mouths.
Smothering his own laughter, Peddonon said, 'It seems you two know each other. But if you don't mind, can we get off this cursed ledge before one of us falls to his death? I mean, the one who hasn't already taken the plunge.'
Snorting and chortling, the other reeves hurried away through the arch and down the corridor, leaving Joss to follow Peddonon and Zubaidit. The glow of the steward's lamp illuminated the assassin as she looked over her shoulder at him.
It wasn't that he'd seen her so cursed many times in his life, since that first day less than a year ago when she had flirted with him and afterward tried to kill him. It was just that he remembered so well every curve, the way her hips tilted as she walked, the lift of her chin. The way you knew she knew how to use her body, trained in Ushara's temple as the most deadly of assassins. Her vest and kilt were soaked, the cloth clinging to her like a second skin. Whew!
She grinned.
He was like a man staggering after a blow to the head.
'You're the messenger?' asked the steward, drawing her attention.
'I am.'
'You fell in the river?' Neffi asked with an appreciative grin. 'I did that once, climbing the same route.'
'Does every local in this city know it?'
'We here in the reeve halls do, obviously. We try to keep quiet about it.' He winked past her, at Joss. 'Some managed better than others.'
The reeves clambering up the ladder were laughing, bolder now inside, where there was no chance they'd be spotted by the
enemy. 'Trust Joss to know every adventuresome female…' one was saying as his voice broke into guffaws.
'Let's get on with this,' said Joss curtly. 'Neffi, can you get her dry clothes?'
'I was joking about the clothes.' The jesting tease molted right out of her tone. Her brows drew down as Neffi, frowning in confusion, lowered the lamp. 'Best I deliver my report right here and then you lot lower me back down to my contact so I can return to the city before daybreak.'.
Peddonon called to the reeves. 'Heya, boys. Go get Odash and the other seniors. Then get back here yourselves, or get fresh muscle. Move!'
'We can fly you back to Olossi,' said Joss.
She shook her head. 'I haven't completed my mission.'
He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to look nonchalant. 'Go on. What of the other scouts?'
'What other scouts?' Peddonon asked.
'Seven scouts walked out of Olo'osson. We were delayed by lendings for a few days and lost our horses to them, but carried on, on foot. One of your reeves spotted us outside Horn and flew down to deliver a message to Shai. Now I don't know if it was him coming down with that cursed eagle, or if we had already been seen anyway, but a cadre of outlaws attacked our encampment on his heels. They killed Edard and captured Shai.'
