over massive hearths. There was plenty of rice and nai, but also special wheat cakes made in squares, sweetened curds, and a fermented milk so strong it made your eyes water. Mai and Anji sat on pillows on the porch of their house with the baby displayed in a cot between them, festively decked out in a gold cap and a red sash. First the senior Qin soldiers — and their wives, if they had them — and then the middle rank of Qin soldiers — with their wives, if they had them — and finally the lowest rank of Qin soldiers and the tailmen and the grooms — with their wives, if they had them — approached the porch and spoke rote greetings to the newborn and offered fealty to father and son and honored mother.
Afterward, the townsfolk brought the local customary gifts of nuts, fruits, and sweets.
'I feel a little uneasy,' Mai whispered as she leaned into Anji's shoulder, savoring the feel of the length of his arm along her own. 'I remember how our last festival turned out.'
'We slaughtered every one of the red hounds who attacked the settlement that day.' Anji shifted away from her, not liking to touch in public.
'Surely there are red hounds — spies — in hiding.' Mai scanned the crowd, seeing only faces smiling with approval and excitement.
'We scoured the settlement.' From the porch of the captain's house at the crest of the hill, you could see down over the settlement, past the half-built wall, and all the way over the parade ground to the fan of darker earth where an underground channel, still being constructed, would bring rainwater down from the mountains. He indicated an untidy sprawl of tents and shacks raised away from the settlement on dry ground; it had grown up in the twenty-five days she had been away. 'Now we admit through the gates only those who have a license for trade granted by the clerks of Sapasanu.'
'I'm not a coward, Anji. But you must admit it was frightening when the red hounds rode out of the wilderness like that. So many of them! I don't worry about myself so much. Well, maybe I do. It's natural to be scared after seeing such a thing. But-' She brushed a hand over the baby's cap. He had gone to sleep, his sweet face calm in repose. 'This little one, I worry for.'
His gaze followed the stroke of her hand. 'You can be sure I will not put my son at risk. Here is Mistress Behara.'
Behara's noodle business had flourished so greatly in the last
six months that she had brought in a number of clan members to increase production. She presented a tray containing balls of sweetened rice paste, admired the baby, and addressed Mai.
'Verea, I am sent as a representative for the merchants in the town. Most of the women who live here today came to this place at your behest, hopeful to make a decent marriage or because you offered seed money for them to engage in a business of their own. While you bided here with us, you were accustomed to listen to those disputes that arose between various of our number and offer a judgment.'
'Were you?' asked Anji.
'I did listen when folk had grievances,' said Mai. 'Usually, once folk talked things over, they sorted things out for themselves.'
The noodle maker sketched a gesture of respect toward Anji, prudent toward those carrying swords, but she turned back to Mai. 'It's said you are returning to Olossi. Would you preside over an assizes tomorrow? There are several cases that have arisen that would benefit from your clear head, and all have agreed to respect your judgment. In addition, there is talk that perhaps Astafero-'
'Astafero?'
'That is what folk are calling the settlement now.' Behara sketched a phrase with her hands.' ' The shore burned,' the night those red hounds attacked. What I mean to say, verea, is that because it was your coin and the captain's victory that established this settlement, some say we must ask your permission before voting in a council to oversee the administration of the settlement.'
Mai glanced at Anji, but he opened his hands to say: This is not my purview.
After all, how could it be? Beyond the Hundred, west of the border of the Sirniakan Empire in the Mariha princedoms and along the Golden Road, Qin armies under the var ruled as conquerors, but Anji had been forced to flee into exile with two hundred soldiers, his wife, and their grooms and slaves.
Mai turned back to Behara, who had, by the flickering of her gaze, noted this silent exchange. 'Every city and village in the Hundred has a council, does it not? Why should it be different here? An assizes tomorrow. We will convene at dawn.'
'The gods' blessings upon you and your child, verea. Captain.' Behara made her courtesies and retreated.
Behara, coming last, had brought the heaviest request. The celebration spilled down into town, where folk ate and drank and
sang, as folk would do, given the opportunity. Anji nursed a wheat cake, having nibbled half of it, and drank cups of the harsh milk as his men called out praise for the child's beauty, his strength, and his quiet uncomplaining nature, seen as a sign of excellent character among the Qin. Mai devoured three balls of sweetened rice and a pair of wheat cakes and an entire bowl of nai.
'I expected to see Avisha,' she said, when the edge of hunger was dulled.
'Who is Avisha?' Anji shaded his eyes to survey the Qin soldiers sitting close by with swords at the ready, drinking deeply and eating well, laughing and talking with such open smiles and with such a clamor that she might have mistaken them for other people entirely, not the stolid Qin soldiers to whom she had grown accustomed. Some of the men with local wives had already gone down to join the celebration below.
Mai looked at Tuvi. He had stiffened slightly, maybe even blushing a little, remembering his ignoble defeat.
Anji saw Tuvi's expression and sighed. 'Ah. The one who knew herbs and flowers.'
'She was not right for you, Chief Tuvi,' said Mai tartly. 'You did not truly love her. You were only taken in by her pretty face. Beauty flies quickly' She rapped his forearm with her closed fan. 'You would have gotten bored of her.'
The chief relaxed. 'I admit, I did not expect to be rebuked in such a manner. Refusing to eat my rice! But a man does get lonely. Perhaps you will choose for me, Mistress?'
Anji raised an eyebrow.
'I will keep my eyes open. For you, Tuvi-lo, someone special only.'
And it was true, she thought, as the chief chuckled with Anji, that Chief Tuvi had felt the rejection more than the loss. Tuvi had not loved or even particularly respected Avisha, who was a pleasant young woman Mai's own age and knowledgeable about plants, as Anji had naturally recalled because he always remembered any fact that might be of possible use to him, but she was not a deep spirit, not like Mai's dear Miravia, who was lost to her now, trapped in a cage of her clan's making.
'What did become of the lass?' asked Anji. 'I seem to recall… Jagi, wasn't it?'
Tuvi nodded, expression determinedly bland.
To have lost the girl to a mere tailman! How it must sting.
'Ah, yes, you recommended Jagi, Tuvi-lo, did you not?' Anji turned to Mai. 'We have set up training camps in different parts of Olo'osson. We've assigned Qin troopers to stand as sergeants over companies drawn from local men. They've got to train fast and hard, become cohesive units. We don't know how soon we'll have to fight.'
'Jagi is good with the locals.' Wth a wry smile, Tuvi gestured toward the square of benches seen belgw that marked the spot where marriages were finalized. 'He's patient with them. They like him. The troop of local lads he was training here consistently won in trials, so we sent him and his troop and his wife and the two children to Dast Welling. If all goes well, he'll be training an entire cohort.'
'That's a substantial responsibility,' said Mai. 'I'm pleased for Avisha's sake.'
'You were fond of her?' Anji asked. 'Women feel most comfortable with women around them. Maybe you are lonely for the company of other women?'
'I have Priya, of course.'
'Of course. She is an educated woman. A priestess of the Merciful One. You are fortunate to have such an exceptional woman in your household.'
'I am. She is the greatest comfort to me. But it is true-' Only Tuvi stood close enough to listen. Even Anji's two bodyguards, Sengel and Toughid, had relaxed enough to walk away out of earshot, although not eyeshot, to suck down ladles of fermented milk. 'I miss my dear friend Miravia. Do you suppose you could talk to her father and
