makes me itch. I don't know what. Like that time keder oil spilled on Ti's hand and made it blister. There's something hidden, but I don't know what.'
A young man appeared by the fire, speaking to the girls, and he looked up as if he felt Mai's gaze. She had seen him before, among the merchants. He was young, with thick, curly black hair, and vivid with a kind of hunger of the spirit, a thing which gnaws at the underbelly and never lets up. He noted her, as men always did, but looked away quickly as if to say, 'You cannot feed me, so I have no interest in you!'
'Find out his name,' said Mai to Priya.
Priya brushed her fingers across Mai's knuckles. 'You shouldn't stare at young men. Best we go on. Your water is ready.'
She followed Sheyshi behind a canvas screen set up for privacy and, with the aid of her two slaves, stripped and had them pour the water over her just for the feel of it. It wasn't a true bath, with a scrub and afterward a hot soak, but she rubbed and soaped and afterward Sheyshi brought two more basins and rinsed her, and anyway it was better than the constant smear of dirt on her skin. She had dried and dressed and was sitting on a stool, sipping at this nasty drink called cordial while Priya combed out her hair, when Anji returned, accepted a cup from Sheyshi, and drained it without even a grimace at the sour taste.
'What was it?' she asked him.
'Just in the trees, a man found two skulls, bones scattered. Wild beasts got into them, but it isn't clear if the dead men were murdered or just died from some other cause-starvation, illness. Or where they came from or why, nothing but the bones, not even scraps of clothing, pieces of gear, nothing.'
'It doesn't seem likely that naked people would go wandering in the forest. Unless these Hundred folk have strange customs.'
He smiled, but sobered immediately. 'The reeve tells me they have no holy followers of the Merciful One at all.'
'No followers of the Merciful One? How can that be? We saw a shrine to the god, but it contained no statue, nothing but withered flowers.'
'He kept thinking I was saying the Merciless One. It took us a while to sort it out. He had never heard of the Merciful One.'
'You might as well say you have never heard of the color blue, or the sun and the moon!' she protested. 'Surely all creatures know the Merciful One.'
He smiled. 'Not in Sirniaka, where Beltak, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Shining One, rules alone.'
'Everyone knows that this Shining One is only one aspect of the Merciful One.'
'You would be burned alive for saying so.'
'Then I am glad we did not have to stay in Sirniaka!'
He touched her hand, and cradled it between his. 'Not even for another amaranth parasol?'
'I only needed one!' She laid her other hand atop his, thinking of the flash of jealousy he had displayed. Of course it was gratifying, but it scared her, too. 'I only need one,' she added, and his hand tightened on hers and he looked at her intently in a way that made her both bold and nervous, as though she stood in the court of judgment knowing she had done nothing to dishonor herself.
'Well,' he said, releasing her hand and rising, breaking the gaze. Her shoulders relaxed. 'They'll be given a proper funeral, however they do that kind of thing here. Still, it makes a man wonder.'
'How they came to die?'
'How much trouble the Hundred folk are having in their lands, to find border guards working in league with bandits and bones abandoned in the forest. Another thing I wonder at.' He paused, and she watched him as he regarded the starry heavens with a thoughtful gaze. His profile was a noble one, given a patina of unworldliness by night and stars and the fitful illumination of firelight. So might a man out of legend appear as he considers his destiny, because it is the duty of night to mask his thoughts and lend glamour to his fortitude.
She waited-she had always been good at waiting-and at length he continued.
'Their ghosts were still there. Where men die violently, there remains a whirlpool of rage and fear where the spirit was cut from the body. I had Shai come over. Do you know what he told me?'
'Poor Shai. He's so afraid of being burned for seeing ghosts.'
He frowned. 'It's true you Kartu folk have odd ideas, which we Qin often remarked on. Among the Qin, the few men and women who can see ghosts are honored. It's a rare gift. In the empire, a boy who sees ghosts is given to the priests and becomes a powerful man. It's also true, though, that a woman in the empire who saw ghosts would be executed. So, after all, on all counts, you're better off with me, Mai.'
'Did I ever suggest otherwise?'
'You did not. But, hear this and wonder, as I do. Those ghosts claim to have been reeves, so Shai tells me. They were murdered, although they cannot say who killed them. Yet where are the bones of their eagles? How comes it that our good ally Reeve Joss had no inkling of these deaths? Are these reeves not soldiers together in one unit? Does a crime that assaults one not lash the rest into action? Why is he here alone? Where are those who must stand at his shoulder?'
'What are you saying? That he is a rogue? Or a liar?'
'I think he is an honorable man. But what of other reeves? Are they as honorable as he is?'
'Did you ask him? Maybe he had heard of the deaths but not thought to tell you.'
'He said there is a fort-a hall, he called it-of reeves a few days' journey from here. He'll leave us tomorrow at a place he calls Old Fort, and fly to that place to meet with these other reeves, to see what they have heard of this situation. I am thinking he wonders why they have not acted, when all these crimes take place within the lands they are responsible to patrol.'
'He can ask them if they are missing two reeves.'
Anji shook his head. 'I did not tell him what the ghosts told us. I am mindful of the laws of Kartu. Before we let these Hundred folk know that both Shai and I have ghost-touched sight, best we know whether they'll wish to burn us alive.'
She put her hands to her cheeks, wishing that fear did not make her skin burn so.
'We must keep our eyes open,' he went on. 'Reeve Joss promises to meet us in Olossi, to help us in our request for settlement privileges. Mai, there is a part for you to play as well. You are my negotiator. When we reach this city, Olossi, you must speak innocently, and listen well.'
'You want me to be a spy.'
'A merchant, darling Mai. Merchants make the best scouts of all. Anyway, men speak freely with you in a way they will not with other men. Your beauty and clarity are like wine, loosening their tongues. We have ridden into a strange land. If we are to survive here, we must know what we are up against.'
30
From Old Fort, Joss and Scar flew east-northeast along the ridge that separated the narrow coastal fringe from the upland plateau. They glided from updraft to up-draft, making good time. The southern mountains were marked with icy tips. South lay the golden brown grasslands, blurring into the horizon. Just to the north, the Olo'o Sea was fringed with white frills where salt encrusted the shoreline. Seen from above, the sea had the silky luster of a rare gem, and the intense blue of its waters matched the color of the sky.
For two days they paused to feed and rest at one of the abandoned bastions that guarded West Spur, but although Scar could have used another day or two to really recover his full vigor, Joss pushed on. On the day that they passed the last of the bastions, a circular ruin of stone sitting on a bluff and overlooking road and sea, Joss turned Scar north over the sea itself, cutting across the estuarine bay which he had been told was known locally as Fisherman's Delight.
Below, a swirl of currents and contrasting colors marked the outflow from the River Olo, a cooler layer of water borne down from frigid springs and northern hills that had not yet mixed into the warmer sea. Joss no longer hoped that the hidden currents ripping through the reeve halls would be so easy to discern.
Late in the day he glimpsed an eagle off to the north, a speck seen flying above the dark border of the distant shore. Soon he could see the broad Olo Plain with its stripes and squares of fields measured by the straight lines of
