'You are still worried about the red hounds?'
'Chief Tuvi will want a few days to establish a watch, assign guardsmen, send your escorts into the market to look it over before you go down. Then they'll know if there are any unexpected changes precipitated by your arrival.'
'You've thought this through!'
T have consulted with the chief and O'eki, it is true.' Priya's gaze was always full with the affection woven between them, but she was also clear-sighted and willing to speak her mind. 'Don't push too fast now you have been allowed to return, Mistress. It cannot have been easy for the captain to place you at risk, knowing he can protect you better — or so a soldier might think — by confining you in a cage as the Sirniakans do to their women. Let those who seek to protect you and the baby feel they have some control.'
'But the red hounds could strike again.'
'Perhaps they will. Do you wish to return to Merciful Valley? There, at least, only those ferried in by reeves can enter.'
'No. I don't want to live there. I would rather take the risk. Anji will do everything he can, and I am sure that the Hieros has her own agents seeking word of spies from the empire. I'll send someone from the kitchen staff to the markets, and bide here patiently. For now.'
Priya kissed her on the cheek. 'You are naturally a little tired as well. Also, it may be you will wish to feel refreshed when the captain returns.'
Mai flushed, thinking of those few private moments she and Anji had stolen behind the curtains in the militia camp. Anji had been seasick crossing the Olo'o Sea; water did not agree with him. They had not yet celebrated their reunion as she yearned to do. 'I'll bathe.'
Priya smiled and let her go. Mai spoke to the kitchen women
while Priya arranged for a tub to be filled in the small courtyard at the heart of the compound, off the private rooms. Mai, after checking on Atani, who was still asleep, joined her. Hot water steamed out of the tub, set on flagstones beneath the roof of a little pavilion. The splintered doors had been repaired; there was no sign any demon attack had occurred.
'I sat with Miravia just there,' Mai said. 'I wonder if I'll ever be allowed to see her again. Her family is so very angry. We insulted their honor.'
'It wasn't your fault, Mistress. No one could have known the demon would attack and kill those soldiers on any day, much less the day when Miravia visited you.'
'No one could have known,' Mai repeated, as if saying the words again would make the memories of that day less painful. But they did not. She might well lose the dear friend she had made, a young woman of the same age and with the special connection that sometimes sparks between two people, as if they had known and touched each before birth in the mists beyond the Spirit Gate where souls reside. 'She lives in a cage.'
'The Ri Amarah have been good friends to us, Mistress.'
'I know they have. It just seems-' It was better simply to strip off her taloos and sit in the warm water and scrub, and let Priya wash her hair. Later, she would take a cadre of women and go to the real baths. Ah!
Then the baby had to be nursed, and afterward she busied herself in the kitchens with the other women. But at dusk came a message that Anji would not be coming home. He had gone away with Tohon on urgent business to do with horses. He might be gone several days; hard to say. Reeve Joss was gone with him, having sent his regrets at not being able to attend the feast. No guests after all.
She wept, and it seemed she was more tired than she had realized, because when she lay down to nurse the baby, she fell into a heavy sleep and remembered no dreams.
About midday, Captain Arras and his three companies, mockingly referred to as Half-the-Asses-They- Should-Have Cohort by the rest of the army, marched past the dismantled remains of a fourth barrier. They followed First Cohort's six companies, who had been given pride of place in the van of the approach over the eastern causeway. Because the eastern causeway was the shorter
passage into the city, First Cohort would be first to enter Nessumara's famed Council Square and therefore get to fly their banner from the Assizes Tower.
Four cohorts — First, Seventh, Eighth, and Arras's remnant Sixth — had set out in staggered ranks just after dawn. They had made excellent time because the causeway was an excellent piece of construction: raised out of the wetlands like a dike, it was wide enough that two wagons might pass. Not that there was any traffic today. Beside the army tromping briskly into the delta and birds fluttering among reeds and shallows, the world seemed utterly empty. The mire glistened to either side. A boat skulked in the reeds; was that a fishing line stretched taut from the prow? The cursed eagles floated overhead, eyes on everything.
A runner loped along the causeway from the front, a youth with hair tied back and a quilted jacket wrapped around his torso. He sighted for the company banners and, reaching them, marked the horsetail epaulets that identified his quarry.
'Captain Arras? Message from Captain Dessheyi.'
'Go on.'
The lad pulled up beside him and began to talk. 'First Cohort has crossed the first bridge, Captain. It's a plank bridge. Single wide, one wagon at a time, easy for counting toll and controlling traffic. Looked to me like you could remove the middle planks and block it. The front ranks are crossing the island beyond it now, toward a second bridge.'
'What is the island like?'
'Storehouses, courtyards, a threshing ground, gardens and orchards. It's deserted.'
'Interesting. What are my orders?'
'Cross the first bridge. First Cohort will move forward over the second bridge, while Sixth holds position on the island until the cohort behind yours reaches the first bridge. Then you'll cross the second bridge in support of First Cohort.'
'Each cleared space taken possession of immediately. I see. Anything else?'
'I'm to continue on to give my message to Seventh Cohort, commanded by Captain Daron.'
'Very well. Follow me.'
He signaled Sergeant Giyara to maintain control of his personal staff and, with the runner in tow, dropped back from the front of his unit. He passed the first-strike infantrymen, his
heaviest shields. Behind them marched a cadre of guards walling in the hostages, followed by five cadres of proven infantry with new soldiers mixed in among the veterans. Next in line came the wagoners with their six wagons rumbling along without incident, archers pacing them with bows ready. He reached the rearguard, where his toughest men were wiping their brows and eyeing the distance opening between them and Seventh Cohort, its vanguard barely in sight behind them. The youth took a swig from his flask, then sprinted off as Arras followed his swift progress with an approving gaze.
'Anything?' he asked Subcaptain Orli after he had relayed First Cohort's orders.
'No, Captain. Seventh Cohort is maintaining distance, according to plan. As for the mire, cursed if I know. I saw a boat.'
'So did I. Stay alert. Betrayal seems cursed simple, but something could easily go wrong.'
The runner reached the vanguard of Seventh Cohort. Arras worked his way' back up through the unit to the wedge that surrounded their twenty-eight hostages, all of whom looked frightened and weary.
All but one.
The other hostages watched what she did, listened for what she said, adjusted their stride to match her pace. They were cowed hostages who knew they were alive only on the sufferance of their captors. She was not cowed. Interesting.
She offered him something that wasn't a smile as much as a challenge. 'Captain Arras. How nice of you to come explain yourself.'
'Explain myself? I'm still trying to figure what you did with those chickens.' He clasped his hands behind his back as he fell into step beside her.
'We didn't do anything with the chickens. We had to put the cage back. You saw the whole thing.'
'The other chickens. The ones you successfully stole via misdirection.'
'I did nothing but what you saw me do, Captain. I'm sorry you believe otherwise.'
It was a discussion they'd had four times in the last four days; he was no nearer to figuring if the hostages
