strutted until they marked her bone-white cloak; then they cowered with heads bowed. When she drew her sword, the assembly trembled like leaves battered in a storm.
'Look at me,' she said, indicating each member of the council.
Amazingly, they first glanced toward the tallest man among them, who was also the most sleek, well-cared- for, and puffed up.
'Look at me, or be known as criminals because you fear my gaze.'
She might have enjoyed the thrill of anger assuaged by their cringing fear and abject obedience now that they faced her sword, whose blade could cut death out of life, but she did not want to think she had anything in common with people such as this.
'First you, Master Forren.'
'I am entitled-!'
Such a rush of self-important impatience frothed in his mind: He had done nothing wrong! The girl had encouraged him with her simpering glances and coy refusals..She was a cheap piece of rubbish, cadging drinks off visiting merchants and begging for a rich man to toss her a few vey. Was it wrong of him to demand something in return? As for the man who had murdered his nephew! He had claimed mineral rights that properly belonged to Forren; the town was given to him in its entirety to oversee in the name of the holy one's arkhons out of Wedrewe. How could Forren be blamed for exercising the rights given to him?
Who was this cloak to say nay to him? She might be unclean herself!
It is not easy to shame those who are sure of their own shame-lessness.
He spoke the truth, but so twisted in his own mind it was no longer a meaningful truth; he could not see the difference.
Marit had never been as stunned in her life, not even at the moment of her death, when the dagger plunged up under her ribs. All that she, as a reeve, had flown for, had worked for, had believed in: justice, the assizes court, the temples and their offerings, truth. In this man's mind, hers was the dream and the lie, and his was the reality: The land was peaceful under the supervision of the holy ones and their arkhons at Wedrewe. His prosperity was all that mattered.
'You are not entitled by the law as written on Law Rock,' she answered him.
'The old ways brought disruption and crime! We are better served by our new statutes.'
'Some are better served, while many are served ill. Enough!' He shut up, as she meant him to do. Yet she had no power where folk did not recognize her authority. Fortunately, ironically, she could still lie. T will return here in a month's time to stand again over your assizes. Act justly, and you will have no reason to fear me.'
She sheathed her sword and urged Warning up. Wings spread, the mare jolted into a trot, found the paths of air, and galloped
into the sky as the crowd ducked. Anger and despair smothered her, and then she clawed free. She could not overturn all that had gone wrong. She had to do one thing at a time, within the tiny sphere she could control. As she flew past the inner palisade she began to look for the lad named Peri.
She spotted him on the road running northeast. At each town where an inn boasted stables, he displayed a token that bought him a meal, a rest, and a horse; it was an efficient system, and he always got good mounts. He rode on oblivious of her presence. Folk on the ground might feel the tremor of her passage much as they felt the bluster and pressure of wind, but as long as she remained in the air their eye was not drawn to her; the movement of Warning's wings did not alert them.
She followed him north, over the Liya Pass, into Herelia.
'Do you like flying?' The reeve, Miyara, shouted to be heard above the bluster of the wind.
Mai laughed; nervously, it was true, but also because the journey was so astounding. The sea lay behind them. The sun rode aloft. The land looked so different a place from up here. The steep ravines and ridges had a beauty that a person struggling to cross on foot could never see. The mountains spread in majesty into the southwest, and from the height, Mai saw how many more peaks marched away into an unknown distance. Clouds made turbulent pools of gray in the blue sky where they had caught on summits. A strange pattern glimmered on a saddle-backed ridge, but it was only a trick of the light on bare rock.
Mai recognized the steep-sided valley carved into high slopes and the stark cliff where the land plunged away into a mighty ravine. Water spilled down the cliff face, the air broken by rainbows, and mist teased Mai's feet as they battled against a current of air and banked in over thick forest to land in the clearing.
The glade was empty but for the two platforms, canvas walls tied down tight now that no one lived here. Miyara helped Mai unhook herself and the big wicker chest she'd brought. As soon as Anji and the baby were free of the young reeve, Siras, the two reeves signaled and left, the eagles' huge wings casting shadows over the downy grass. Mai lugged the wicker chest over to the smaller platform.
'You're sure the reeves have no idea Hari might be hiding here?' Mai asked as Anji strolled up, his hand on Atani's black hair. The baby was awake, watchful, content.
'Only Miyara, because she led him here.' Anji scanned the clearing for signs of movement. 'I've asked the reeves to stay out of the valley for the time being. I told them we must make privately all the necessary holy offerings in„.thanks for the boy's safe delivery to ensure he is not contaminated by demons.'
'That's not how the Merciful One is worshiped, in private, shutting out others.'
'They don't know that. Mai, it's necessary to keep your uncle a secret, isn't it? Besides Miyara, only Tuvi, Sengel, Toughid, and Priya know.'
'Sheyshi was asleep. I didn't even tell Miravia.'
'No one must know, not if we are to keep him safe. You understand the cloaks'can see into our thoughts-'
'Into mine, and theirs. Not into yours.'
'You make my argument for me.' He untied the web of straps and cloth that had bound Atani against his chest and handed the baby to her. 'We'll come up every month on Wakened Ox, that being the day of his birth according to the calendar kept by the clerks of Sapanasu, a reasonable time to make a thanksgiving offering.'
'Three months today,' said Mai with a satisfied sigh as she bound sling and plump baby against her hip.
'Although in truth just over four passages of the moon have gone by. The calendar here makes little sense to me. Why shouldn't each new moon begin a new month, as it does among the Qin? That's the simplest-'
'Anji.' She touched his arm. 'What if he's not here?'
Anji shrugged. 'We'll perform the offering we told the reeves we came to perform. If he chooses to reveal himself, we'll know he has listened to your wise advice. If not, it is out of our hands.'
He hoisted the wicker chest to one shoulder and began walking. His sword swayed at his hip; he had a knife tucked into each boot. She had her own pair of knives, bound at her back where they would not get in her way. She wrapped a shawl tightly around her shoulders as they passed from sunny glade onto shadowed path. The season of flowers and fruit had faded, but a few
flowers lingered. She paused along the half-overgrown trail to cut stems and blooms and sprays until she had a respectable offering bouquet. Atani reached with his free hand for the bright colors. Anji paused, listening, but only birds sang, insects whirred, foliage rustled beneath unseen scrabbling claws.
They reached the waterfall and pool, the ruins at peace in the cold air. A tremulous wind spun leaves over the rippling water. The flow of water did not pound so hard; the rim of the water's edge was low, exposing a rocky shelf. Anji deposited the wicker chest on a remnant wall as she walked along the ledge into the womb of the cave behind. The curtain of falling wall had thinned enough that she needed no light to see the altar and a recent offering of flowers, petals scattered by animals and wind. Someone had been here, not long ago.
Yet the living guardians of the cave, whose shimmering blue threads had graced Atani's birth, were nowhere in evidence. Had they died?
She shuddered, stroking Atani's soft hair. As frightened as she had been at first, she had come to feel their presence in this holy place was linked to his well-being. In the songs she had grown up singing, such a child would be blessed by hidden spirits and gifted a spectacular destiny, or a brave death, depending on the story's end. Now, she felt unprotected as she knelt before the altar stone and its humble carven image of the Merciful One, as she laid her offering of flowers and chanted the prayers for thanksgiving. Anji came up behind her as she finished. But for the falling water, silence surrounded them. Sunlight winked on the dark mirror of the pool. A twig floated like a boat on the waters of eternity.
'Mai?'
