through the outer gate into a small, confined area, where you waited for the inner gate to be opened to admit you to the town. The watchtower spanned the outer gate, and his view of it was in any case half blocked by the lush crown of the Ladytree.
A scuffling sound caught his ear. He banked from drowsy to woken without moving. He watched as a figure sneaked out of a dark street and up to the palisade, right at the edge of the open ground. The figure leaned against the palisade, as though listening, then turned around to scan the entire open area fronting the inner gate. It did not discern Joss in the shadows of the porch. A moment later, a second figure appeared at the top of the wall, heaved itself over, and dropped, landing with a soft thump. A third and fourth followed.
Joss carefully pulled on the leather thong at his neck and got his fingers on the bone whistle. He set it to his lips as a fifth and sixth topped the wall, lowered until they hung by their fingers, then let go.
The bone whistle had three notes: one that hurt human ears, one that the eagles responded to, and one other, that on occasion served reeves well without drawing attention to them. Tapping that highest range, he blew. No human could hear that sound. But, by the gods, the dogs in town surely could. They erupted in a frenzy of barking and howling, coming from all quarters.
The figures at the palisade froze. Although it was too dark to see them as more than shadows against darkness, he saw by their movements that they were drawing weapons. He did not move except to blow a second time on the whistle, to keep those dogs howling. He had not even brought his knife. Shouts rose in reply. Lights flared on porches.
Unexpectedly, the sally door set into the inner gate scraped open, and five of the figures raced out through it. The sixth faded back into the shadows of the nearby buildings just as the sally door was dragged shut, and the first townsmen appeared on the streets, sleepy, annoyed, and carrying lamps and spears and stout staffs. One man brandished a shovel. The innkeeper stumbled out onto the porch. His comic gasp, when the nimbus of light from the lantern he carried caught Joss's still figure, was enough to make Joss chuckle, and then regret it.
'What's this? What's this?'
'I couldn't sleep,' said Joss, rising. 'I saw five figures come over the wall, and a sixth meet them.'
The town arkhon strode up. She was a woman of middle years, with an expression on her face that would turn wine to vinegar in one breath. 'So you say! Where'd they go then? We can't have missed them, coming so quickly as we did. We knew somewhat was up with the dogs howling.'
The dogs were still clamoring, but the noise had begun to die down.
He walked them over to the spot. 'See. Here it's scuffed.'
'Anyone could have done that,' said the arkhon with disgust. 'You could have done it. Where'd they go, then?'
'The gate was opened, and they ran out.'
Folk muttered and cast him ugly looks.
'Then why didn't they just come in by the gate, if they could open it?' she demanded. 'Here, Ahion, go take a look.'
Everyone followed the innkeeper as he shuffled over, still half asleep and grumbling as well, like a man talking through his dreams. 'Can't trust damn reeves. Make such a fuss. Cursed troublemakers.'
He held his lamp at the gate and studied the clasp with eyes half shut. At that moment the iron handle lifted, and the sally door was opened. A young man with tousled hair looked through. When he spoke, his words were slurred, and he seemed woozy.
'Why are you all out here? What's that clamor?'
'Gods, Teki! Aren't you on guard? Were you asleep again?'
The youth lifted a chin, attempting defiance. Then his lips thinned, seeing those cold and angry faces. He hunched his shoulders defensively. Abruptly, he yelped as if he'd been kicked. A young woman pushed past him, her expression as stormy as the season of Flood Rains. She wore only a robe, loosely belted and ready to slip and reveal all. It already revealed plenty, and she knew it, and expected every man there to stare at her.
'You promised me a quiet night!' She slapped the lad, turned-flashing a ripely rounded breast before she yanked tight the gaping robe-and strode off through the crowd, swearing at anyone who got in her way.
'Sheh! For shame!' exclaimed Ahion. 'That's the last time that'll happen, my lad.'
'I know. I know. I promise. I won't do it again.'
'No,' said the arkhon. 'That's the last time it'll happen, because you're stripped of guard duty. For shame!'
In a town like River's Bend, everyone knew everyone, and all business was the town's business. The folk gathered began to scold and berate the lad, for drinking, for being distracted, for being a cursed fool led by his cock and not what little straw he might have between his ears.
Joss stepped in. 'I beg pardon, but what of the men I saw come over the palisade?'
The young man gaped at him, blinking fast. 'What men? I saw nothing. I was awatch since sunset.'
'You were atilt, more like,' said Ahion with a snort.
'You were asleep, I'd wager,' said Joss.
The boy's breath stank of soured cordial, and in the lamplight, his eyes didn't track properly. Joss pushed past the boy into the small enclosed court, but naturally no one was hiding there and the outer gate was locked tight with a chain drawn through its rings and bolt. Ahion accompanied him to the gatehouse atop the outer gate, but the narrow room was empty except for a lamp, an unrolled mat, and a spilled flask of cordial. Most of the folk hurried back to their beds, but the arkhon and the innkeeper followed him in, pushing the hapless guard before them.
'Where's your night raiders?' the arkhon demanded. 'What in the hells did you think you were seeing, reeve? You rousted us for nothing.'
'What do you think the dogs were barking at?' Joss peered out through the slatted window but naturally he saw no one on the road. 'Folk came over the wall. I saw them!'
'You drank heavy this night,' remarked the innkeeper. 'Not unlike the lad, here. It wouldn't be the first time that a man thought he saw shadows that were only the drink leading him places that don't exist.'
'I'll stand gate watch the rest of the night,' said the arkhon, giving the lad a look that made him flinch and begin to blubber. 'Oh, shut your mouth, you useless clod! Just go home. I can't sleep anyway, now.' She turned a harsh look on Joss, shaking her head. 'To think reeves have come to this!'
Ahion grunted and, taking the light, forced Joss to follow after him to get down the stairs.
'You'll be leaving at dawn, then,' said the innkeeper as they closed the inner sally door and paused on the porch to catch their breath.
'With the company.'
The merchants and a few of the other guests had come out on the porch to inquire over the rumpus. Udit did not look at him. Her upper lip was swollen. As Ahion told the tale, Joss came over looking like a drunken troublemaker. Grumbling, the guests returned to their beds, all but the eldest of the merchants, the one called Kasti. He was a man with scars on his neck and a broken nose long since healed crooked; he'd seen brawls in his younger days. He lingered on the porch, with a lit taper in his hand.
'Do you still claim you saw those figures? And the gate opened, by someone who gained access from the gatehouse, or outside?'
'I do. Here.' Joss led him down the steps and over to the spot along the palisade where the figures had dropped to the ground. Kasti bent, grunting a little-he was also a portly man, well fed-and traced the ground with the light of the candle. The pressure of bare feet on dusty ground was plain, but it was perfectly true that in these last days of Furnace Sky, waiting for the rains, earth might get scuffed up and no wind or rain come for days to erase those traces.
'Look, there,' said Joss quietly. A piece of flotsam had fetched up against the palisade, partly caught where dirt was tamped in between the curve of two logs. He got his fingers round a leather thong and tugged free a flimsy medallion of hammered tin, meant to resemble an oversized coin with the usual square hole through the middle but with an unusual eight-tanged starburst symbol crudely stamped onto the metal.
Kasti whistled under his breath.
'You recognize this?' asked Joss, handing it over.
Kasti examined both sides. 'I've seen this mark before. Just the one time. My house deals in skins and furs. I do a fair bit of traveling up-country, to the Cliffs, to trade with the folk living there. Good hunting in the wild lands, you know. There was a little hamlet, called Clear-river, where lived a family that was well skilled at getting the
