chest. Long before they could see it, the horses smelled it and pulled eagerly, anxious to move faster. The people inhaled its promise through nostrils and parched mouths.
Water.
Discipline held. They marched in good order into an isolated oasis guarded by a surly group of twenty Qin tailmen.
'How long will you stay here?' the chief of the garrison asked them as they filed in.
'Two days,' said Anji. 'We all need a rest and the horses must be well watered. There are a couple too weak to go on so we'll slaughter them and feast tonight. If you send a few men back on our trail, you'll find two dead horses, not too far, to add to the feast.' He walked away to where Mai was seated, washing her hands and face in water Priya had brought from the pond.
'At least we don't have to feed your men, just the horses,' grumbled the garrison chief. 'You don't know how hard it is keeping supplies out here!'
'The worst assignment,' laughed Tuvi, slapping the man on the shoulder. 'When I was a young lad just come to the army, I had a posting like this.'
'Did you?' replied the chief, whose frown curved upward at this companionable talk. 'We've enough to eat and drink. I think it's the boredom that kills you. All this rock and sand! No women and no pasture to admire!'
'Let me tell you about a posting that near did me in!'
The two men walked away, taking turns sucking at a pouch of an alcoholic brew, to make a circuit of the low fortifications that surrounded the well, the pool, and the scattering of vividly green trees and vegetation.
Shai waited his turn to drink with the rest of the men. The horses went first and so sullied the pool that what he drank tasted more like mud than water, but like the rest he made no complaint. Water was life. Life was better than death. He lay down in the shade of a frond tree and fell asleep at once.
' Shai. Shai.' Would Hari's ghost never leave him alone? It had been weeks since the day Anji had given Hari's wolf's-head ring to Father Mei, since Shai had touched that ring and sensed Hari's fate. Now it seemed that Hari, like Girish, meant to plague the only person who could still hear him.
'Shai. Wake up.'
The hand pressing against his chest had weight. It was insistent, plucking at his clothing.
'Eh. What? Mai!'
'Hush. Shh.' She displayed a yellow globe of fruit, twisted it so it split open, and showed him how to scoop out the seeds so he could eat the succulent flesh. As he ate, the juices dripping down his chin, she whispered, 'I'm still very angry about Cornflower. You treated her badly. But Shai, you're my uncle. We're kin. We can't fight like this. We have to hold together, don't you think?'
Hu! Who could resist Mai when she was in this mood? He could!
'I'm riding with the tailmen. Cornflower was my slave. You had no right to interfere.'
'Don't be so stubborn!'
'You don't want me anyway. Look at you, flying that Qin banner now. Don't think the others don't talk around me just because I'm not Qin. I know what it means.'
The blush on her cheeks brightened her. Even worn and exhausted, she had a shine that made the world a more pleasing place. No one could stay mad at her.
'Are you happy?' he muttered.
'Oh. Shai.'
She was happy.
He sighed. He grasped her hand with one of his own, now sticky with juice. 'We won't fight.'
'Good.' The plum-blossom softness vanished, and she bent close, fixing him with a gaze as sharp as that of any merchant bargaining hard in the marketplace. 'Listen, Shai. I may only have this one chance to tell you this. Do not breathe a word. Now that-well-now that-well-' She flushed. She hid a smile behind a hand. She giggled, shut her eyes, sighed heavily, smiled again, and finally sucked in a deep breath and fixed him with a remarkable glare. 'I asked. And he told me.'
'What?'
'What! Where we're going! It's because we're past the desert now. We can't possibly go back, or tell anyone.'
Or he offered knowledge as payment, thought Shai, but he said nothing.
'Anji is to be a general. He's been promoted. We're riding all the way to Tars Fort, on the eastern border between Mariha and the Sirniakan Empire. Anji will command the fort and an entire border garrison, an army, much larger than this small company. What do you think?'
The muddy water and sweet fruit churned uneasily in his stomach. He felt a little sick. 'Isn't the border a dangerous place to be? Now that the Qin have conquered the Mariha princedoms, that border lies right up against the most powerful and largest empire known. What if there's a war?'
'Why would there be a war?'
'Mai! Don't be stupid. Why do the Qin need an army and garrisons along the border if they don't think there'll be a fight? I would bet that the Mariha princes didn't think there was going to be a war twenty years ago, when the first Qin rode out of the west. The Mariha princes are all dead now.'
'The Qin can defeat the empire if they want to. Don't you think?'
'Now you are being stupid.'
Defending her husband, she looked positively fierce. 'It's no more than Anji deserves!'
'No. No. Of course not.' Indeed, Tuvi had told him as much, in almost the same words, although he thought it better not to mention this to Mai. 'He must be an important man, to be promoted to such an important position.'
Her anger faded, and she looked thoughtful instead. 'Yes. I suppose he must. I wonder who his kinfolk are. He's never told me.'
Shai squeezed her hand in warning. 'Be cautious of asking. Don't ask too much, too quickly.'
In that moment, as their gazes met, understanding flashed. She smiled, and a knot that had been tangling in his heart, eased.
'I'm not stupid, Shai.'
That connection still flowed between them. He glimpsed, then, how much it bothered her to be thought of that way. 'No, of course not. Of course not, Mai.' He saw, then, that he and the rest of the family might never have understood her at all, that he didn't know her, not really. She was a mystery. She had hidden herself well.
A shout interrupted them. 'Hai! Hai! Rider sighted!'
'I'd better go.' Mai let go of his hand and walked swiftly away.
Shai got up. A soldier waved his banner at the top of the watchtower. The tower was set about one hundred strides out from the old stone-built livestock wall that surrounded the oasis and its stone-built houses. The villagers had long since fled or been driven out, and now the tiny Qin garrison used the houses to store grain for scouts and long-distance travelers. A dusty rider trotted in toward the oasis from the east. Shai wasn't sure how long he had slept. Checking the angle of the sun, he noted that the sun's position hadn't changed appreciably; it still rode high overhead. Over with the other slaves, Mountain raised his big shoulders up and looked toward the gate. Priya lay beside her husband, head pillowed on arms, sleeping.
He looked around. Mai had joined Captain Anji and walked with him to the wall. Anji had a hand cupped under her elbow. Best not to disturb that pair. Instead, he trotted over to Chief Tuvi, who was reeling from the strong drink he'd shared with the other chief.
'Hu! Is that two men or one riding in?'
'Just one, Chief. Do you need an arm to lean on?'
'Pah! You can't keep up with me!'
Shai hurried after him. They got to the gate at the same moment the rider did. The man swung down before the captain, shedding dust as his feet hit the ground. He was a typical Qin, stocky, mustache but no beard, with a handsome grin and a cheerful laugh.
'Hu! Glad to see this place. It's dry as bleached bone out that way.' He gestured toward the east, red dry flat desert country all the way to the horizon. 'I'm called Tohon.'
'I'm Captain Anji. Are you a message rider? How can I help you?'
'Anything good to drink?'
