Shadow Gate

15

They reached Olossi at last, and in the temple dedicated to Ushara, the Merciless One, the All-Consuming Devourer, Keshad scratched along his jaw into the fresh growth of new beard, trying to get out the dust that chafed his skin. A dozen Qin soldiers sat on a bench in the courtyard while Bai scolded him in a low voice as Magic hissed.

'You have to wait here with them. Explain the way things go. Make sure they don't insult any of the hierodules or kalos.'

'Why not just let them wait outside the temple while you attend the council? Outlanders can never be properly respectful in the temple. You ought to know that.'

'If the Qin truly intend to settle here, they must learn our ways. Since they have to wait for me anyway, this is a perfect opportunity to begin. So, you're responsible for their behavior.'

'Me? They don't even like me!'

'Stop whining, Kesh.'

Mischief parted her mouth in a brief, mocking smile.

With the ginnies on her shoulders, Bai sauntered to the white gates that led into the garden of the Hieros, the innermost sanctum of the temple. The Qin soldiers watched her go, but Kesh couldn't tell if their interest was sexual or a more masculine form of comradely respect. Certainly during the long ride here she had joked and sparred with the soldiers in the most casual manner. She was not as physically strong, one to one, but she was quick, fearless, toughened

to pain, and well trained in every kind of dirty trick. The soldiers had liked that about her. Of course they had ignored Kesh.

The white gates opened a crack, and Bai slipped inside. A hush settled over the Heart Garden where Kesh and the Qin sat. Men shifted, toying with their hands or shuffling their feet. One rose, turning toward the entry gate, ready to leave.

'Shai, sit down,' said Tohon.

The young man sat.

The glorious blue and violet stardrops of Kesh's previous visit had been stripped bare by the rains, but the rest of the garden had bloomed, and the woozy scent of flowering musk vine overlaid everything. It made you open your eyes and look around, aware of the sharp, bright beauty of the world.

'Heya! Zubaidit's brother! Where are the whores?' asked Chaji, the soldier with pretty eyes and the features that most passed for good looks in the Hundred.

As if his words were a summons, the gates of gold opened without a sound. Four young women and one young man strolled out to look over the foreigners. The kalos was dressed in a kilt and vest, while the four hierodules wore taloos draped fetchingly around their figures.

One of the hierodules was a tall, lanky girl with a teasing grin. 'I'm Walla,' she said to Kesh. 'Do you remember me?'

He tried not to stare at the swell of her breasts under the tightly wrapped taloos. Every part of him remembered her, although he'd never touched her.

'You're Bai's brother. You thought you were so smart, but you two are in deep trouble now. Hah!'

Chaji stood and grabbed Walla by the forearm. 'I take this one.'

The look she turned on him should have killed him; he didn't even notice as he tightened his grip. The other holy ones became very quiet and very still. Even the breeze seemed to falter and catch its breath. Tohon rose. The younger soldiers watched with steady gazes.

'Eiya!' Kesh made a show of getting up with a hefty sigh. 'That's not how you do it! There are customs to be followed. If you offend the holy ones you'll never be allowed to pass the gate a second time.'

Chaji, despite his pretty eyes or perhaps because of them, had a

spoiled temperament. He stared blankly at Kesh and did not remove his hand from Walla's shapely arm.

Tohon said, 'This is a brothel. We choose one. Coin changes hand with the mistress of the place. We get our pleasure. She gets the coin. We leave. Neh?'

'There are times I wonder why the Merciless One opens her gates to all,' murmured the kalos to Walla as the other three rolled their eyes, looking disgusted. 'They're such savages. In their lands, those who should be allowed to offer pleasure freely are slaves forced to the work.'

'No,' said Kesh to him, 'those who might offer freely aren't allowed to. It's considered shameful. Those who are slaves are forced to the work whether they wish it or no.'

Now he had shocked them. Here in the southwest, where they entertained the most traffic from outlanders of any of the temples, the holy ones ought to have known better. By their horrified expressions, they did not.

'The customs of your country are not the customs here,' said Kesh to Tohon. When he looked at Walla he received for his pains another mocking smile that made him sweat. 'This is not a brothel. No coin changes hands. This is a holy temple. The holy ones give freely because they serve the goddess Ushara, the mistress of war, death, and desire.'

The Qin looked at him blankly, not understanding.

'Never mind,' said Kesh impatiently.

He closed a hand over Chaji's wrist and yanked to dislodge his grip. He barely shifted Chaji's arm, but the soldier sucked in breath with an audible hiss, then released Walla and slugged him.

The blow landed on his shoulder, and he staggered back with a yelp. The holy ones shouted for the warders, Chaji grabbed at Walla, and Tohon strode into the breach with angry words that sat Chaji down on the bench as though he'd been shoved. Everyone quieted. A pair of broad-shouldered warders, easily spotted in orange sashes, showed up from the outer court.

Walla examined Tohon and, then, Chaji with his petulant expression but obedient seat on the bench. She made a sign with her left hand, and the warders stepped back to lounge watchfully by the gate.

'Maybe we get tired of explaining ourselves to grasping, rude, horny outlanders,' she said to Kesh. Her stare made him self-conscious in a way both irritating and provocative.

'When you come to the temple, you are offering yourself at the altar of the goddess,' Kesh said to the Qin. 'The hierodules and kalos choose you if they are willing to, ah, worship with you.' He brushed a hand over his curly hair, aware that he was blushing. Not that any of it was at all shameful, only that Walla was bullying him. He wondered if she hated Bai, and if this was payback for an old rivalry.

'They choose us?' Tohon tugged at his ear, obviously wondering if he'd heard wrong. Of all the Qin soldiers, this middle-aged man was the only one Kesh respected. He ruled his cadre firmly but without cruelty; he conversed pleasantly with Zubaidit, treating her like a comrade. The worst Keshad could say of him was that he seemed genuinely to like that cursed reeve, Joss.

'The hierodule or kalos makes the offer. You can refuse it, if you wish, and hope to receive another offer. Which may come, or may not. Men walk through the gate of gold and women through the gate of silver, to the gardens, where the acolytes of the Merciless One wait. Then it's up to you to accept or refuse what is offered.'

'What of these four here?' asked Tohon, indicating the four hierodules and ignoring the young man.

'These five acolytes,' said Kesh, 'all reside beyond the gate of gold, which admits men to the inner precincts. They came here to the Heart Garden because you're outlanders, and they wanted to see if you could behave according to the temple rules. Not all outlanders can.'

'I can behave!' said one of the young soldiers, Jagi, with a grin, and Walla looked right at him, seeing something in his smile that interested her.

The one called Pil looked sidelong at the kalos, then away quickly before anyone could notice, but the kalos marked the look and yet hung back.

Tohon was still stroking the nub of his ear. 'Huh. What else are we to know?'

'You'll all need baths.' Walla bent her gaze on Jagi, whose grin

widened. 'But you won't mind that. Whew! You all do smell. How often do you wash those heavy garments?'

'Take a bath}' cried Chaji. 'In water}'

'Here, now,' said Tohon, beckoning to Kesh. 'Is that necessary?'

'I should think so.' Even the heady smell of blooming flowers could not cover the rancid odor of the men and, in particular, their clothing. 'Folk in the Hundred bathe every day if they can. Don't you have bathhouses in your country?'

This word brought blank looks.

'Water weakens a man,' said Chaji.

'It's not what we're accustomed to.' Tohon had given up on the ear and was now twisting the few whiskers that grew, like a wraith's beard, from his chin. 'There are evil spirits in water. Everyone knows that.'

The bold and brave Qin soldiers shuffled their feet and looked toward the gate to the outer court, as if seeking escape.

'The baths lie just beyond the gate,' said Walla, 'and you can advance no farther into the goddess's body without cleansing.' She beckoned to her companions. They sauntered back to the gate and went in, leaving the gates ajar.

'Baths aren't bad,' said Shai hesitantly, and the others looked at him, and away. 'They never killed anyone, eh?'

Released by the sun's heat, fragrance poured off the flowers until it seemed to drown them. Birds flitted within the lush arbors of musk vine with their bright red passion flowers.

Jagi jumped to his feet. 'I'll try it!'

That was enough for most of them. They trundled forward cautiously, leaving Kesh sitting on the bench beside Shai, Chaji, and Tohon. Tohon gestured to Shai, and the young man sighed but, obediently, stood and followed the others.

'It can't be right, this story about the whores picking and choosing and turning a man down if he wants them,' said Chaji after Shai was gone. 'They're just saying that to take advantage of us.'

'Best you go in after them,' said Tohon to Kesh. 'Make sure the lads do what is fitting. We have to learn to live in this land.'

He might as well have been in collusion with Bai! With a grimace, Kesh rose. 'You're not coming?'

Tohon slanted a gaze sidelong toward Chaji. 'Anyway,' he added,

'I have an old feud with the water spirits. I'm not sure about these "baths".'

'There are bathing pools, it's true,' said Kesh, 'but you can also just wash yourself out of a big basin. You just have to strip down and wash your whole body with a cloth and soap. You have to clean yourself before you can get in the pools anyway. And, honestly, you might want to – well – wash your clothes.'

Chaji rose, both hands in fists. 'What makes you think you can insult us? You're no better than a naked rat, a worthless-'

'Chaji-na,' said Tohon sharply. The young soldier sat down, shoulders heaving.

Kesh was shaking, but he kept his voice cool. 'I was born in the Year of the Goat, Gold Goat, as it happens, not that you would know what that signifies.'

'No need,' said Tohon mildly, 'to keep talking, lads. I'd recommend you both to shut your mouths. Keshad, go on, as I told you.'

Chaji lifted his gaze just enough to let Kesh know he was looking. Those pretty eyes didn't impress Kesh; glaring, he crossed his arms.

'Go on,' said Tohon, voice like the snap of a whip.

Kesh grabbed his small pack; everything else they'd left at a stable in the village of Dast Olo, by the pier where they'd taken boats to the temple island. Behind, he heard Chaji murmur, his words too faint to understand, and Tohon's curt rejoinder. He reached the gate, set a hand on the painted door, and paused before stepping into the garden of gold. From inside, he heard the spill of water into a basin; he heard laughter. A woman was singing a familiar song in time to the beat of a hand drum and the rhythm of shaken bells: I paused inside the gate and beheld the garden.

'Keshad!' A youth wearing the casual kilt of the off-duty acolyte stood over by the white gates, beckoning to him.

The hells! Kesh walked over to the youth, where Tohon met them.

'It seems you and I are called to the council,' said the soldier to Kesh. 'Chaji waits here. The rest – hu! – let's hope they behave.'

Back on the bench, half concealed at this angle by the arbors and flowering trees, Chaji sat in sullen silence, fists pressed in his lap.

'The Hieros wants you right now,' said the temple lad impatiently.

Kesh and Tohon followed him through the white gates into a courtyard filled with a tangle of vegetation. A narrow path littered with petals and old leaves cushioned their steps.

'Hu!' muttered Tohon. 'What a thick forest! I can see nothing.' His gaze darted this way and that, and once he stopped and abruptly brushed at his face. Then he stared into the shadowed branches. Draped on a limb, a ginny stared at the Qin with a look Kesh recognized as amusement.

'Huh!' grunted Tohon. 'That's the male Zubaidit keeps. She let him go.'

'They're the goddess's acolytes,' the lad called over his shoulder. 'They belong here, truly. Anyway, the Hieros doesn't like to be kept waiting. She's got many more things to accomplish today, and wants this business finished and closed.'

Kesh wiped his brow and scratched his chin. The shade gave relief against the sun, but the overwhelming scent of green growing things oppressed him. They strode out into the open space in the center where the fountain splashed, water tracing the strenuous curves of a man and woman intertwined in the act of devouring.

Tohon actually blushed, and looked away, gaze fixed on the back of the lad, who kept walking without a glance at the sculpture to another path on the far side of the clearing. This path wound through a jungle of spiky orange and yellow proudhorn and falls of purple muzz and white heaven-kiss, their scent almost too sweet. Tohon walked as if expecting an attack.

A steeply slanted tile roof rose from the greenery. They ascended a flight of stone steps, pressing through uncut shoots of musk vine that groped at Kesh's body. He staggered into a pavilion of surpassing beauty: the pillars painted in gold leaf designs; the benches upholstered with rich fabrics so expensive that immediately his mind toted up their worth in days of labor and the price of slaves; the floor inlaid with a complicated pattern of precious woods. The lad threw out an arm before Kesh or Tohon could actually step onto the floor, and indicated that they must remove their shoes and then sit to one side on a pair of plain silk pillows.

Four waited in the pavilion, sipping wine. Zubaidit looked perfectly comfortable seated cross-legged on a pillow, ginnyless. Beside

her, that cursed reeve flirted with a smile on his smugly handsome face as he made some quip meant for Zubaidit's amusement. Captain Anji sat quietly. Bai marked Kesh's arrival with a glance but did not acknowledge him. The reeve kept talking, attention fixed on Bai. The Qin captain noted Tohon, then Kesh, and gave each a crisp nod before turning back to the conversation.

The fourth person sketched a greeting. Master Calon was the head of a well-to-do merchant house whose faction had never before held power in the city, although today he wore the crossed sash of a seated council member with the red braid of power fixed to his right shoulder. In the aftermath of the battle, a huge change had swept the city and council of Olossi. The Greater Houses, who had held power for untold generations, had fallen to the machinations of the Lesser Houses and the guilds in alliance with Captain Anji and his troop.

A pair of elderly hierodules – by their age, lifelong slaves to the goddess – mounted the steps and with a tinkling of bells announced the arrival of the Hieros. All rose, Kesh last of all. How he hated this woman!

Her attendants helped her sit on a particularly fine pillow covered in a heavy damask of an intense jade green that set off the pale pipe-sprout of her rich silk taloos. For such a delicate, frail, elderly little woman, she had a stare that hammered you. And she was gloating. He could see it in her smirk as she addressed the gathered company.

'That man, the Qin sergeant. The stink of his clothing offends me. Have your people some objection to bathing, Captain? Yet by all report you are yourself perfectly happy to indulge in the baths in the city.'

'I see you have a network well placed to bring you all manner of reports, holy one,' said the captain with a faint smile.

'As you will yourself in time, I expect,' she retorted. 'You haven't answered my question.'

Captain Anji looked at Tohon, gave a nod.

Tohon's expression remained calm, his voice untroubled. 'I can answer for myself, holy one. As a man who has earned respect, I ask to be treated with respect.'

She looked him over. His gaze, on her, was not challenging but it was also not submissive. 'I will listen to your words.'

He acknowledged her reply with a nod. 'It is well known among my people that the water spirits hate human beings. They are kin to demons, and therefore there is a long war between us. We Qin know better than to trouble the spirits. Maybe you folk have a better understanding with them than we do. Anyway, my daughter drowned, and my wife died of grief from losing her to the water spirits.'

Kesh expected the Hieros to scoff at this ridiculous story. There weren't any spirits in water except for strong currents and unexpected eddies. The merlings lived in the sea, but they were living, material creatures like humans and delvings and firelings, not spirits. Even demons were living creatures with powers beyond human understanding. The only spirits abroad in the world were ghosts. Everyone knew that.

The Hieros touched fingers to her right ear and then her forehead, the gesture of hearing and understanding. 'Very well. If you wish to walk in the temple, then come to me personally. Like all hierodules, I am trained in the act of cleansing a body in preparation for the act of worship. I am powerful enough to protect you against anything, within these walls, that might wish to harm you.'

The temple lad whistled under his breath, Bai looked baffled and Joss and Master Calon amazed, but the elderly hierodules made no comment at this remarkable offer. It was impossible to know what Captain Anji was thinking.

Tohon tugged on his left ear, blinked, and then met the Hieros's steady gaze. 'My thanks to you, holy one.'

Kesh hadn't known the old bitch could smile in a friendly way, but she did so now, like a flirting girl all lit up when a boy agrees to meet her family. 'That's settled, then. Now to our other business.' The smile vanished. She turned a cold shoulder to Kesh quite deliberately, drawing attention to his disgrace. 'Marshal Joss, you've fulfilled your duty and brought me these criminals. Zubaidit I absolve from fault, although naturally she will have to return her accounts bundle and resume her service with the temple. She can't have known that her brother would use a stolen object to purchase her freedom. He, on the other hand, must pay full forfeit and be prosecuted for his crime of buying out the contract of a temple slave under false pretenses. He tried to cheat us. The temples cannot allow such behavior to go unpunished.'

'The girl came into my possession by finder's right, which none of you can dispute,' objected Kesh. 'How can I have known some envoy of Ilu would come along to make a claim on her? How do I even know you're telling the truth? You could be trying to cheat me, to get Bai back into your claws.'

She continued as if he hadn't spoken. 'How the assizes choose to deal with any complaint in the matter brought by his former master, matters not to me. Master Feden is dead and his house disgraced-'

'I bought out my own contract with trade goods! Nothing illegal about that!'

'-so it may be that the heirs of the House of Quartered Flowers will bring no claim against him. But the temple certainly means to take back what is rightfully ours-'

'Only because you'd been cheating her all along, you old bitch-'

'Keshad!' snapped the reeve. 'Be quiet!'

'I won't be quiet! I've been found at fault without being allowed to speak in my own defense, or have any kind of representation at the assizes. She means to tilt the judgment against me before I ever stand up at the rail. What kind of justice is that? Or do the reeves simply stamp as justice what's the wish of those in power?'

Ha! That stung!

The reeve examined Kesh with a look that hadn't the hammer of the old bitch's look but which was just as annoying, like someone poking into you to see what would make you squeak. Kesh shifted on his pillow and rubbed his throat. Tohon coughed into a hand. Bai watched the Hieros much as the ginnies had watched her.

The captain broke in. 'If you will. It appears the dispute rests on whether this man, Keshad, brother to Zubaidit, had a legal claim on the individual whose body he used as payment for his sister's freedom. He exchanged a girl he found in the south for the outstanding balance on his sister's accounts book, the unpaid balance of which kept her as a debt slave to the temple. Am I correct?'

'You are,' said the reeve.

'I accepted the female as payment because of her obvious value,' said the Hieros. 'I would have been a fool to let such a treasure pass out of the temple's hands. However, it appears she belonged to someone else.'

'This is the part I do not understand,' said the captain. 'A man

came to the temple, at night, and claimed the female. Did he have a contract? Proof of ownership? He might himself have been a thief, a clever con man, who cheated you and left the blame to fall on Keshad.'

There is a silence that soothes, and a silence that frightens. Silence can conceal, or reveal. It can make you stop and think, or it can be a warning. The garden lay quiet behind them, smothered in green growing things. Clouds scudded overhead, piling up over the Olo'o Sea. Kesh smelled rain coming, but it hadn't reached them yet.

'He was a Guardian,' said the Hieros, 'and so was the girl.'

Nine simple words, coolly spoken. A cold thrill woke in Kesh. Guardians walking the land again! He could not imagine what it might mean for the Hundred. Or for him.

He got up clumsily and glared all around. 'Maybe it's true, maybe it isn't. But how would she ever have gotten to the Hundred, eh? Many months' journey! She could never have made it alone, a naked girl, with nothing and no one, starving, mute, lost. I brought her here.'

'You have no idea what Guardians are capable of, or why she might have been walking in the south,' began the Hieros in a cruel voice. 'You are the worst kind, making excuses for your crime, refusing to accept responsibility for the acts you have committed. Don't think I don't have reports of what you did as Master Feden's factor, how you treated those in his employ, how you treated your fellow debt slaves, how you used them and discarded them-'

The captain broke in, politely. 'I beg your pardon, holy one. It seems to me that, while you are perfectly reasonable in your assessment of the young man's faults, they are not among the concerns that trouble us most in these days.'

'That he cheated the temple is of no concern to you?'

Captain Anji had a pleasant smile that deflected anger. 'It is of greatest concern to me, although naturally you understand that as a newcomer to the Hundred, I do not worship at the altar of your gods for I do not know them. But I am aware that every land is tightly woven with its gods. This dispute is a matter to be judged carefully, and thoroughly. My concern is that you may have no chance to do so if other events overtake us in the meantime.'

The old bitch counted her temple and her authority higher than

any cursed thing in the Hundred, that was obvious. But when she looked at the captain, she raised a hand, wristlet bells tinkling like whispers, and touched ear and forehead to show respect.

'Captain Anji, your actions in recent days saved Olossi, and this temple. You've earned the right to speak. Kass, pour wine around.'

The lad poured gracefully from a silver pitcher into goblets adorned with intricate silver patterns and tiny pearls: the Hieros first, of course, then the reeve who as marshal of Argent Hall deserved special respect, then Master Calon, then the captain followed by Tohon. Zubaidit and the two attendants were served last, and the lad took the pitcher away without offering Kesh anything.

They drank. Tohon nudged Kesh. The pressure jarred his aching shoulder. He hissed pain through his teeth. Tohon tapped the cup, still half full of wine, against Kesh's arm. Gratefully, Kesh took the cup and drank.

Anji set down his own cup on the floor beside his right knee. 'I'll make short work of my accounting of events. Our company rode into the Hundred as guards for a caravan, but we were also looking for a place to settle and begin a new life.'

'Because there is a succession dispute in the Sirniakan Empire,' said the Hieros. 'The current emperor, Farazadihosh, considers you a rival because you are his half brother, sons of the same father, Emperor Farutanihosh, now deceased. Meanwhile, his cousins – who are also your cousins, the sons of your father's younger brother – dispute Farazadihosh's right to the imperial throne and title.'

'You have good sources of information, holy one.'

'I do. It may be that your relation to the imperial court will cause trouble for us later, but for now I am content with matters as they stand because I do not see we have any choice. Go on.'

'The Hundred is no longer a peaceful land, that we can all agree on. There is trouble in the north. A city called High Haldia has fallen to an army commanded possibly by a man known as Lord Radas. Toskala and the lands of lower Haldia lie under immediate threat. The commander of all the reeve halls sits in authority in Toskala, and there also many of your ancient traditions have their heart, although I understand that the largest city in the Hundred is called Nessumara and lies farther south, on the delta of the River lstri.'

'You've grasped a great deal of the Hundred in your short time among us, Captain.'

'I have good sources of information,' he said with a smile. Was he sparring with the Hieros, or dancing to her chant? It was hard to tell. 'A second army marched south and west on West Track to attack Olossi. Too late the people of Olossi discovered that some among the Greater Houses had made a pact with this army, to consolidate their hold on the Olossi council. Too late, these same members of the Greater Houses discovered that the leaders of this army had no intention of honoring that pact but meant to burn and pillage Olossi as they did the villages lying along West Track. Together with Marshal Joss and the reeves of Clan Hall and the support of Olossi's new ruling council and their militia, my troop managed to rout the besiegers. We then pursued those who fled, and have killed as many we can. However, many have escaped back into the north and east whence they came. It is obvious to me, and I hope to everyone, that if they could attempt this attack once, they can regroup and try again. They have numbers, coin, wagons, weapons, and horses in plenty. And it seems to me that they have something more difficult to defend against, some manner of sorcery.'

He picked up his cup and drained it, set it down with a thap that made Kesh start. 'I have come to the Hundred to make a home for myself in a place where I may know peace, and to raise children with my wife. That is all I hope for.'

'Where is your wife?' asked the Hieros. 'I have heard many speak of her, but she has not come to the temple.'

'Nor will she.'

'Ooosh!' murmured Kesh.

The reeve coughed, while Master Calon gasped at the implied insult.

The Hieros pounced. 'Why is that? Here today you are come to the temple.'

Captain Anji opened his mouth to speak, and then he closed it and said nothing.

Marshal Joss said, 'Surely an outlander who worships another god is not expected to visit the temples of the Hundred.'

'What gods does your wife worship, Captain? Surely not the god

of the empire, for that god does not look kindly upon women. Or so my sources tell me.'

His mouth twisted in annoyance. He picked up the cup, noted it was empty, and set it down again, but now his expression was neutral and his voice smooth. 'The Lord of Lords and King of Kings rules each person as befits his nature, men according to what is proper to men and women according to what is proper to women. But you are right. My wife is not of the empire. She prays to the Merciful One, whose mercy is known all along the Golden Road and past the southern desert even into the lands beyond the Sky Pass and the towering heights of the Heavenly Mountains.'

'Ah,' said the Hieros. 'The orange priests. There's an old hut far up on the Kandaran Pass where an orange priest once lived with his begging bowl. It's said he would give aid to travelers without regard to their station or their gods. Then he died. Gone altogether beyond, as they say in their prayers. Such a strange phrase, "gone altogether beyond". What does it even mean?' She was still holding her cup. She handed it to an attendant, her wristlet bells chiming softly with the movement. 'So, Captain, it is true that a shadow has grown in the north, a shadow we cannot name. By your efforts and those of the reeves of Clan Hall, many of us were saved. Yet this war is not over.'

'It is assuredly not over.'

He had a whip, which he'd been allowed to keep on the temple grounds. He played with it now, pulling its length through a hand as he considered what he meant to say. At length, he turned an inquiring gaze on Master Calon.

Briskly, Calon said, 'I am here as representative of Olossi's ruling council. This man has accepted as a temporary measure the responsibility to oversee the defense of the city and the surrounding region of Olo'osson. We ask for your cooperation and the cooperation of all the local temples in our efforts to live in peace in our own homes.'

Now Kesh understood. In the region of Olo'osson, long overseen by the town of Olossi, the Greater Houses had ruled until the battle two weeks ago, when a cabal of Olossi merchants and guildsman, a troop of outlander mercenaries, and that cursed reeve from the north had defeated the invading army and overthrown the Greater

Houses. The Hieros was the most powerful temple official of any of the temples in Olo'osson. Joss represented the reeves, Anji the militia, and Master Calon the Olossi council. The four of them met now to decide what action they would take next.

So much for the vaunted council of Olossi, with its warring factions and voting members and raucous assemblies! So much for village elders and local authorities and temple priests. Here Kesh sat, witnessing the only council that mattered. He was here by accident, because he was a bit of flotsam that the Hieros wanted to sweep up, being the kind of person who didn't forgive anyone who defeated her in even the smallest way. Yet as long as they didn't kill him, he could find a way to exchange knowledge for coin or something even better: freedom and the right to be let go without interference. They hadn't beaten him yet.

'When I make a plan,' Anji said, 'I prefer to know as much about my enemy as possible. I have heard the Tale of the Guardians, but surely there is more you can tell me about the Guardians.'

'The gods formed the Guardians out of the land to serve justice. The gods sustained them as they went about this duty. Yet they vanished from the Hundred when my grandmother was a girl, so we had come to believe they were gone forever.'

'Anyone may claim to be a Guardian,' said Joss suddenly, 'and maybe they are, and maybe they aren't.'

The Hieros turned her proud gaze on the reeve, making him glance away before he had the courage to meet that stare. ' "You will know the Guardians when you meet them,'" she quoted. 'Can you doubt it, Marshal Joss? Do you doubt it?'

He said nothing.

She said, 'I do not doubt, nor should you. I have seen the truth with my own eyes. I have touched the truth in my heart. The envoy told me that there is war among the Guardians. Fear this, for even as he spoke the words, I knew them to be true in my heart and in my spirit. Where the Guardians war, the Hundred falls into darkness and chaos. The tide of that war has swept over us once. If we do not resist it, protect ourselves, and push back, we will drown.'

'What you're saying, holy one,' said the captain, 'is that in truth you know very little about the enemy we face.'

'Captain,' murmured the reeve warningly.

Master Calon fluttered a nervous gesture with a hand.

The Hieros smiled coldly. 'That is indeed what I am saying. The Guardians withdrew from the affairs of ordinary men many rounds of years ago. We who are mortal were never privy to Guardian councils in any case. Now their wars have spilled over the land, but we are as ignorant of their plans and feuds and their network of influence – always hidden from us! – as are newly born infants just waking to the riot of life.'

'Ignorance will kill us,' said the captain.

'Yes.'

He nodded. 'This is my proposal. We send scouts into the north.'

'To what end? The reeves already spy out the northern army, scout troop movements, mark which villages and towns are under threat, and report back.'

'They do their work well,' he agreed, nodding at Joss, 'but they and their eagles are targets when on the ground. They cannot walk into the heart of the enemy and hope to learn their plans.'

'Any such venture is likely to end in death,' she said.

'Perhaps. But without good intelligence, and careful observation of the lay of the land and the discipline and organization of the army, we can't hope to confront, much less defeat, a force so much larger than our own. Tohon is a scout of unsurpassed excellence, whose observations I would trust with my life. He can bring one of his own men to carry a message back to us, if necessary. If I had my way, your servant Zubaidit would go as well. We must seek every opportunity that offers itself. If anyone can assassinate the army's commander, she can.'

Kesh gasped aloud. He hadn't finished the wine; it spilled now, the dregs staining his tunic. Tohon grasped his wrist and tightened his grip until Kesh sank back passively. But he'd already lost the battle. A grin tugged at Bai's lips. Her shoulders straightened, and her chin rose.

'Eiya!' said the old bitch. 'You're quick to throw my best weapon into the worst battle.'

'The battle will be upon us whether we wish it or not, holy one. The only question is, on our terms or theirs? You know she is the best choice.'

She knew it, so she refused to acknowledge him.

Bai said, 'I'll go, but on condition that Keshad is cleared of all charges against him.'

'Yes, indeed,' said the Hieros scathingly, 'cleared of charges, let to go free, and you'll hare off and join him once you've walked out of Olo'osson, no doubt.'

'He can remain under house arrest under my guard until Zubaidit returns, or her death is confirmed,' said the captain.

'Do you think you're bargaining over a loaf of bread or a bolt of silk?' demanded Kesh. 'I refuse-'

'Enough!' said Marshal Joss. 'Shut your mouth, you self-regarding idiot! You've got no rights in this negotiation. If you're fortunate, you may benefit from it, so just be quiet.'

'You've got no call to talk my brother that way!' cried Bai.

'You've come to me to set the seal on your plan?' asked the Hieros of the captain.

'You stand highest among those who sit in authority over the temples of Olo'osson,' said the captain. 'You know it must be done this way.'

"A sharp blade can cut both ways," she said.

'I beg your pardon?' demanded Joss. 'What has the Tale of Change to do with the matter at hand?'

'Do our weapons serve us well, or ill?' Raising both hands, she traced phrases from the tale with graceful gestures accompanied by the tinkling of her wristlets. She need not sing the chant, for all they knew the words by heart. In he rode, the one meant to save them, the handsome one, with his sash and his kilt, his sash and his kilt and his garland of sunbright. But the gods embrace silence. The gods turn away, they avert their eyes.

'This is not a language I understand,' said the captain.

'No,' agreed the Hieros. 'You are an outlander. It is the language of our heart, we who live in the Hundred. Very well. It is true that if we cut off the head of the snake, the body might die. The price Zubaidit names for her cooperation is not too high. I will consult with the other temples and we will choose a second candidate as well, someone suitable for spying. What about the council, Master Calon?'

'I think it's a fool's errand,' said Master Calon with a heavy sigh, 'tried once before and ending in utter failure. But my voice was

overruled. The council wishes to make contact with clan members in the north, restore alliances, and so on. Three have been chosen to go, well-connected sons and nephews, alas. That cub Eliar pushed and pushed.'

'The Ri Amarah wish to send one of their young men as part of the scouting group?' asked the Hieros. 'To see what profits can be reaped?'

Kesh snorted. 'In what way are they different than the rest of the merchants, then?'

The captain said, quietly, 'The lives of the Ri Amarah are at risk, just as ours are.'

'The presence of a Ri Amarah man would give away the scouts immediately,' said Joss.

Calon raised his hands to signal a stop. 'The cub's father forbade it before I was forced to point out that a Silver would be spotted a mey away. The three men we're sending are at least good fighters. However, anyone seeing the Qin soldiers will know them at once for outlanders.'

'They'll pose as runaway slaves,' said the captain.

Kesh touched the raggedly healed scar beside his left eye.

The marshal said, 'Will you tattoo them? That's how debt slaves are marked here. The enemy will have heard tales about the outlanders who aided Olossi. They'll be suspicious.'

'I'll take Shai,' said Tohon, 'for he looks nothing like the Qin. No one need know we are any relation. Anyway, Shai has family business up by this town called Horn. Captain?'

At first, the captain looked ready to refuse, but then his expression changed as he thought of something he did not share with the others. 'Yes,' he said with narrowed eyes. 'Shai might prove very valuable. But let me tell my wife that he's to go.'

'We are agreed, then.' The Hieros clapped her hands. Her attendants helped her stand, although Kesh doubted she needed the aid. For such an old woman she was limber and vital, perfectly at ease. Before she stepped off the pavilion, she turned back. 'So, Captain, what does your wife do now, while you sit in the councils of power?'

'She is not absent from the councils of power. Her skills are of a different constitution than mine. I would suppose that right now she is settling matters of land, title, and business.'

'Ah.' She acknowledged Master Calon and Marshal Joss with a nod and Bai with a critical stare that, strangely, softened her eyes. Kesh might as well not have existed, but at length she smiled at Tohon.

'Hu!' He laughed. 'Don't mind if I do. Captain?'

The captain nodded. As Tohon followed the Hieros into the garden, Anji caught Kesh's attention with his gaze. 'You'll come with me,' he said, no argument about it.

Kesh looked helplessly at Bai, but she shrugged. The hells! She was already thinking about walking into the shadows. Walking into death, it might as well be. He'd bought her freedom with tainted goods, and now they'd been thrown back into slavery, as if the simple act of daring to grab for freedom had cursed them to worse than what had come before.

She'd be dead and he… It hit him as in the gut, a blow that made him double over with fear and grief. He'd be alone, without purpose, for that was all that had sustained him during the twelve years he'd labored as Feden's debt slave: the hope of freeing his beloved younger sister.

'Kesh?' Leaping up, she crossed to kneel beside him. 'Is it something you ate? The old bitch didn't even offer you wine, just for the spite of it!' Her hand warmed Kesh's shoulder.

'I'm all right.' He forced his fear under control like a hand pressing billowing cloth back into an open chest in a high wind. 'Do you have to go?'

'Of course I have to go.'

'You're just going to abandon me? And the ginnies, too?'

'They can't come on such a mission. They'll be well taken care of.' She turned to confront the captain. 'He'll be well taken care of, Captain. That's what I expect.' She swiveled her head to glare at the reeve. 'All the charges dropped, just as I said, Marshal. Is it agreed?'

She was a wolf, ready to lunge for the kill, but they were predators, too. Joss was a proud, handsome eagle. Folk had started calling the Qin soldiers 'the black wolves' for their manner of dress, and even though Captain Anji had not been born in the Year of the Wolf as Bai had, he might easily be mistaken for that beast.

Anji's smile showed teeth, a threat. 'Are you questioning my honesty, or my honor?'

She grinned the reckless grin Kesh had come to distrust. 'You're still an outlander, Captain Anji. So we'll see.'

Anger burned in his expression, a tightening of the eyes.

'I expect to be judged in the same manner,' she added. 'Yet you've held a hostage for my honor.'

His shoulders relaxed. 'True enough. I'll treat him as my own cousin.' His wolf's grin flashed. 'By Qin laws of hospitality, I assure you, for in the imperial palace of Sirniaka, any male cousin or half brother of mine is dead by now.'

'I'll see Keshad is well treated,' said Master Calon. 'I know his worth.'

Kesh offered him a grateful nod.

Bai embraced him. 'Courage, Kesh. Keep your eyes open and your heart bold.'

She released him. Let him go.

'I never had anything to do with the charges brought against your brother,' said the reeve to her, 'and I'll thank you not to imply I had.'

Kesh put on his shoes and, with the captain and Calon, descended by the stairs behind Kass. Bai remained in the pavilion, and it appeared she had fallen into a roaring argument with that cursed reeve.

'Whew!' said Kass with an appreciative look toward the pavilion and the pair under its roof. 'She really fancies him, doesn't she? She'll chew him right up, and I bet me he'll love every minute of it. I never saw her go after a man like that before.'

'She's a respectable woman,' said Anji repressively. 'It's ill-mannered to speak of women in such a way.'

Kass laughed merrily. 'You outlanders!' He looked around for someone to agree with him, but Kesh couldn't be bothered and Calon was lost to sight down the path. Kass glanced back a final time. 'Heya! She's slapped him! I knew she had a temper, but-'

A thick curtain of patience cut off their view.

'Slapped him!' yelped Kesh, shifting to go back, but Captain Anji caught his wrist.

'If she didn't fancy him, she'd have slugged him and been done with it,' said Kass. 'That's foreplay for certain folk.'

'I've heard enough,' said the captain.

Branches rattled. Bai appeared on the path, flushed and breathing hard.

'He wouldn't lie down quickly enough, eh?' said Kass.

Her hand darted out.

'Ow! That hurt!' A mark reddened on the lad's forearm.

'You pinched him!' said Kesh.

'Nothing the little pest hasn't earned twelve times over!'

Grinning, the lad rubbed his arm.

Her glare did not cause the flowers to erupt into flames, but it was a close thing. Kesh remembered the woman who killed so skillfully that she couldn't possibly be his timid little sister. He remembered the way the reeve had stared at her after the ambush. Troubled, Kesh had to admit, rather like Kesh was troubled. He wanted to hate that cursed arrogant reeve, but at the moment he wondered if they shared something in common, wondering what kind of person Bai had become, an assassin sent into the north to kill.

'There comes a time when change overtakes the traveler.' Bai pushed past Kass and Kesh, and skirted the captain more politely. 'If you don't mind, I'll walk a little way with you. Where do you go now, Captain?'

He was an odd man, seeming such an outlander one instant and then, with an unexpectedly charming smile, such a familiar one. 'Where do I always go, to find my heart's ease? To my wife, of course.'