Shadow Gate

49

'Recite again the hundred and one altars.'

Marit laughed. 'My head hurts from everything you've taught me.'

Her companion, the nameless woman wearing the cloak of night, smiled. 'A rest then, before we walk. This is a particularly lovely view.'

They sat at their ease at the edge of a rock altar ringed by a thorny tangle of flowering purple and white heart's ease. The rocky ledge overlooked the vale of Iliyat, Lord Radas's ancestral home. Under clearing skies, neatly tended fields surrounded tidy villages, everything in order and no one moving on the roads.

'It's very quiet,' said Marit.

'No trouble disturbs those who labor and build. Isn't that as it should be?'

'Yes.'

'Why do you frown, Ramit?'

She could not speak her thoughts aloud: a pleasant woman with an agreeable philosophy and a concerned demeanor ought not to be marching with an army that burned villages and 'cleansed' folk by stringing them up from poles to strangle under the weight of sagging arms.

'It's hard to explain,' she said, testing a dozen phrases and discarding them all. 'I see that the vale of Iliyat lies at peace, which Haldia surely does not. Yet how do I know those who live below have peace in their hearts and justice in their villages? How do I know that the folk in High Haldia deserved to be overrun? How can an army bring justice? Isn't that the question the orphaned girl asks in the Tale of the Guardians? Didn't the gods agree with her?'

'So they did.' The woman nodded. Her hair was pulled back and braided without ornament, suggesting a woman of simple tastes but a complex mind. 'We must never forget that the gods came because of her cry for justice. But there are many forms of coercion. Brute force is only one of them. It's not always easy to know which form of coercion causes the deepest harm, today, or next year, or when a child who is a toddling child now is stooped with age. Is it better to live quietly in servitude or die seeking freedom?'

'Why should those be our only choices?'

She nodded. 'We ask questions because we want to understand. Yet knowledge can be painful. Still, despite pain, we desire knowledge because, like a sown seed, it will flourish and bear fruit if properly tended.'

It was hard to argue with such platitudes, so Marit said nothing. In truth, the woman had instructed with seemingly infinite patience and a soothing demeanor: how the horse must be groomed and the wing feathers properly cared for; that the altars were holy spaces where Guardians replenished their spirit. They could survive for long periods without entering an altar, but they would grow weak and even appear to age without water from the holy spring to strengthen them.

'Are you ready to try again?' her companion asked.

'Aui! Yes.'

They rose and set foot at the entrance to the labyrinth, Marit in front and her companion behind her with fingers brushing Marit's

left shoulder blade. Marit imagined a knife thrust up under her ribs, and shook the image away.

'What is it, Ramit?'

'Just shaking the cobwebs loose. I was never good at memorization. That's why the Lantern's hierophant wouldn't take me for my apprentice year!'

She laughed, the slight pressure of her hand shifting Marit forward. 'I, also. Impossible to line up one after the next. But here you need only look, and remember. Soon you will have visited all these places, and you will know them in your heart as well as with your eyes.'

Marit paced the labyrinth, speaking each turn out loud. 'Needle Spire. Everfall Beacon. Stone Tor. Salt Tower. Mount Aua.' The first were easy, but soon she faltered, recalling some from her own travels and others too unfamiliar to place.

Her companion reminded her in the voice of a patient teacher. 'Thunder Spire… Far Tumble…'

They twisted, now seeing onto an overcast ridge with a faint booming like an echo.

'Aui!' cried Marit, for a presence waited there, green and flowering, as ordinary as a burgeoning rice field and yet with a hidden layer of rot deep in its roots.

'Who are you?' Raising an arm, he swung like a man grabbing for and missing a thrown rope. 'Eihi! Mistress! I was hoping you would walk!'

'What is it, Bevard?' asked the woman. 'You are making progress gathering the troops?'

'Eiya! I got some, but now I'm pursued, my companies trampled and killed. We were ambushed at the river! They dropped fire out of the skies!'

'Come back,' she said. 'The army has reached Toskala. Negotiations should now be complete. You did as you were told.'

He caught in a sob like a child reassured. Marit sheared away from his presence, not knowing why he creeped her so; she hurried on, forgetting to name the angles. Finding the spring and the mares at the center, she knelt, trembling, and gulped down the cold liquid until her throat burned.

'Sheh!' Her companion arrived, filled her bowl, and drank with polite sips.

'I'm sorry. I was just startled by coming across him like that, so suddenly.'

'I didn't mean you. You'll learn in time to feel the presence of another before you meet. I meant rather his difficult circumstances. Bevard is not a true leader; he's working beyond his capabilities, not a problem you will have, I feel sure. Just be patient.'

just be patient, Marit thought. Be patient, and learn everything you can. She looked up, and the woman smiled so reassuringly that Marit opened her mouth to confess her real name. Warning stamped. Marit shut her mouth, leashing her bowl to her belt.

'What now?' she asked as she rose. /

'We must cut short our journey and return to Toskala. Or I must, to oversee our meeting with the Toskala council.'

'With Toskala's council? May I attend?'

'You are free to attend, if you wish.'

Was it a genuine offer, or a test? If ever there was a person Marit could not comprehend, this woman was that one, calm, thoughtful, and yet nameless. Only demons have no names.

'I'll come with you.'

She nodded, as if she had expected that answer all along.

But when they returned to the army's camp outside the walls of Toskala, Marit found herself observing a council of war. The flavor of the air and the tension in the stances of the soldiers assembled in the tent kept her alert.

Lord Radas paced beside a large table on which lay a map of the city and the surrounding environs. 'At the sixth bell, tonight, the gates of Toskala will be opened, and we will march in.'

The hells! She'd missed something major, for sure.

'At first, there will likely be resistance from certain elements of Toskala's militia. Afterward, due to confusion sown in their ranks by our allies, we will triumph. Let this command pass back through the ranks, cohort commanders to company captains, company captains to cadre sergeants, and sergeants to each member of their cadre. Kill those who fight. The others, do not touch. Each soldier among you will be judged, and those who have broken this command will meet justice, which is death.'

Marit twitched the hanging aside to look into the smaller interior

room behind, where Hari lay on a carpet. His cloak still smothered him, but his chest rose and fell. Otherwise he gave no sign of being alive. Kirit, sitting in silence beside Marit, looked in, too, and her grim little face creased in such a grim little frown that Marit wished heartily she could know what the outlander was thinking, or what the girl had seen or heard during the days Marit and the woman wearing the cloak of night had been away from camp.

'How much fighting can we expect, lord?' asked one of the commanders, addressing the map. 'Maybe some have allied themselves with us, but the rest of the defenders will fight fiercely since they are fresh, lacking neither food nor water and with their courage still high. Might we not sit out the siege a while longer to sap their strength?'

'Is your courage not equal to the task? The sooner we have taken over an intact Toskala, the less likely reeves will be willing to drop oil of naya lest they burn down the entire city even with us in it. Or do you question our plans?'

They all kept their heads down, like cringing dogs. Marit supposed a man could get used to having folk walk around him in that posture. He might come to like it, expect it, resent those who did not truckle.

She could no longer delay. She did not want to desert Hari. Curse him. Yet she must.

Tens of thousands of people lived in Toskala, and many thousands more had crowded into the city's five quarters in flight from the army. Someone had to warn the defenders of Toskala that traitors within the city meant to betray them – tonight.

Lord Radas went on. 'At dusk, assemble your companies and move in silence to the gates. Account for me the disposition of your cohorts.'

'What about you?' Marit asked Kirit in a low voice. 'Do you mean to attack the city with them?'

The girl turned that inscrutable blue gaze on Marit. 'I will ride with them. My mirror will show me what is truth, and what demons have corrupted with their shadow.'

As the commanders rattled off numbers and composition of various cadres, Marit eased behind the cloth wall separating her from Hari and crawled over the rug to kneel beside him. She dared not

touch the cloak lest she interrupt whatever sorcery healed him. Finally, she left the chamber through another entrance, ignoring a guard's surprised exclamation. He wasn't the one she need worry about.

Saddle and harness and saddle bags rested beside a rolled up mattress. She gathered her things and, choosing boldness over caution, walked to the corral. She hadn't finished saddling Warning when a procession with Lord Radas at the lead and Yordenas and Kirit trailing paraded to the corral. Kirit lugged her own gear, but soldiers carried the harness belonging to the two men.

'You are here before us,' said Lord Radas with a gloating smile that told her, if she had not already suspected, that he had never trusted her. Had Kirit betrayed her? Or was she just so cursed obvious that anyone could have guessed? 'We'll be ready shortly.'

'I was just going to water my mare at the nearest altar, the one upriver by Highwater.' She meant to play her game to the bitter end, anything to stall.

He laughed. 'You will be surprised to learn that the nearest altar lies in Toskala, long forgotten but very much still there. Below the council chambers on the promontory most call Justice Square. We're expected for a council meeting.'

The hells! She'd been outmaneuvered. Too late she realized that over the last eight days the others had been engaged in an elaborate form of misdirection, keeping her out of the way. Yet they had made no direct move against her. How could they? It wasn't as if they could kill her.

'I thought,' said Yordenas peevishly, 'you said Bevard was on his way back.' He fidgeted like a distempered lad too spoiled for his own good.

'Patience,' said Lord Radas. 'Shall we go? Ramit?'

She'd have slugged him for all the good it would do. She had to go to Toskala and the council meeting. She had to try.

With night they flew, Lord Radas taking the lead and Yordenas Hying in the rear, while in the camp below them the soldiers, like so many night-crawling serpents, began creeping into attack formation.

As Bai's chosen escort when she trolled the camp pretending to be a merchant, Shai had plenty of opportunity to observe because folk tended to ignore him, thinking he was an outlander slave. The army that had laid siege to Toskala had good discipline, a neat camp, and clear lines of authority. An off-duty sergeant could drink a bit, knowing others had his back. He could afford to-be expansive.

'You see, it's like this,' said the sergeant, leaning close to Bai in a confiding manner. 'There was a woman who wore the green cloak, but now the green cloak is a man. The woman displeased them, and Lord Radas raised someone else up to the honor, eh? So who's to say that some of us, the best and most obedient ones, might not have a chance at being raised to a cloak? Why not?'

'Do you think that's how it works?' Bai asked him. 'That Lord Radas chooses? I thought the cloaks – Guardians, that is – were made by the gods.'

'The cloaks rule all, even death. I think the Guardians that was, in the tales, that they're all gone. Dead, maybe. Maybe they never even existed. Our commanders, now, they're something else.'

'What do you think they are?'

His gaze flickered toward the high banner pole, deep within the camp, that marked the big tents where the cloaks sheltered. He had a broken nose, healed crookedly, and a scar under his left eye. His expression shifted uneasily, and Bai quickly changed the subject.

'I'm getting my slaves fattened up and healthy, although it's costing me a cursed lot of vey. What do you think, sergeant? Think I should sell all of them outright? Or just the younger ones, and keep the older for a business? There's plenty here who will pay coin for sex. I could set right up in camp, maybe even work out of a pair of wagons if the army keeps moving south to Nessumara. I'm new to merchanting, as you might have guessed, but you seem like an experienced man who'll give me fair advice.'

He cleared his throat and handed her his cup. 'That woman who watches your slaves, is she your lover?'

'Neh.' Bai sipped at the wine. 'I'm not fashioned that way. We made a deal. She works for me while she's looking for a protector.'

'Think she'd consider me?'

'Since I like you, I'll be honest, my friend. I think she's aiming for

a captain, at the least. A commander, if she can reach so high. Where's your company's captain, anyway? I don't see his fat ass around.'

'Eh, there's a council going up at the big tent, neh? My captain's all right, though. Some of the other sergeants, they have to put up with real turds, if I may say so.'

Bai laughed. 'You won't hear me arguing. Whew! What I had to put up with at the temple, I tell you! Heya! Lpok there. Is that your captain?'

The man was coming back at a trot, looking tense. He hailed his sergeants, and the man talking to Bai made his excuses and hurried over. Bai beckoned to Shai, and they moved off into camp.

'Something's up,' she said in a low voice. 'A council of war this late in the afternoon. The way he came running back to rope in his sergeants. He's got orders.'

She led Shai back to the perimeter of camp where the camp followers and merchants had set up. When they arrived at the ragged tent she'd purchased for shelter, the children pressed forward to touch both her and Shai, as if making sure they were still alive and not ghosts.

'Where's Ladon?' she asked Veras and Eridit.

'A fellow came by wearing a badge marked with silk slippers, Edard's clan, the ones with river transport.'

'Why in the hells would river transporters badge their clan with silk slippers?' Shai asked.

Veras rolled his eyes. Bai smiled.

Eridit just shook her head. 'You don't know the tale, do you? Anyway, Ladon went off with him.'

Bai frowned. 'Did he say where they were going?'

'In fact he did. The abandoned Green Suns tanning yard. Not far from here.'

Bai nodded. 'I know where it is. That's where I meet Tohon to exchange news. The hells! I'm going after him, make sure it's not a trap.'

'Heya,' said Shai, 'I forgot. Edard told me that the password is "splendid silk slippers".'

'Edard told you?' Bai looked at him with a narrowed gaze, then shrugged. 'It's worth trying. Veras, you'll come with me. You two

stay here with the children. Be alert. Keep them ready to move at short notice.'

Eridit's eyes widened, and her look of alarm was real, not feigned. 'What is it, Bai?'

'May be nothing. A feeling that's prickling my skin.' She grabbed a pair of slender assassin's knives, concealed them under her kilt, and strode off with Veras hurrying after.

'Now what?' Eridit asked.

Shai stuck his head into the tent, where the children sat and lay crammed together, watchful as they stared at him. 'Form into banners. Pack up everything.'

'What's happening, Shai?' Yudit asked.

'Maybe nothing. Stay quiet, but be ready to move if I give you the signal. And for that matter, eat up now. Finish off the rice and nai. We can buy more tomorrow.'

The children began gathering up scraps of clothing, eating utensils, leather bottles, and sacks of rice. He came outside and sat on the bench he'd built from scraps of lumber. Eridit twitched her ass down beside him and leaned flirtatiously against his shoulder.

'I like it when you talk with so much confidence,' she purred.

'Stop it!' He moved away. After weeks marching with the prisoners, he could not bear to even think about sex. 'Or are you truly as cursed stupid as Tohon must think you are?'

'That was a mean thing to say.'

'Just because Tohon didn't do the thing with you?'

'You jealous? Of his self-control, I mean.'

'You're being an ass.'

'A horse's ass, you mean, Shai. It's from the tale of the Swift Horse. It's a bedtime story. You know, before you get into… bed?'

'Leave me alone.'

'Great Lady,' said Yudit from within the tent. 'Are you two arguing again?'

A soldier stumbled up toward the tent, obviously drunk. 'Heya! You there! Outlander! I hear there's lasses and lads for sale, eh? Nice and young and tasty. Celebrated their Youth's Crowns and ready for a treat! Heh!'

Eridit ducked inside as Shai blocked the entrance. He wasn't as

tall as the soldier, but he knew how to brace as he shouldered the man back. 'Mistress hasn't opened yet for business, ver.'

'Sheh! You lot have sat here a week, eh? You've not fattened up that veal yet? I'll bring a tey of rice every evening, you just let me in.' He pushed.,

Shai sank to get his weight lower, and shoved hard back. The man staggered, unable to keep steady.

'Outlander bastard!' He turned around and shouted. 'Divass! Avard! Get over here. About time we took a taste of what these cursed shut-holes are withholding from us, eh?'

A pair looked up from haggling with a man seated on a blanket who was selling white plums and heaps of cawl petals.

Nudged from behind, Shai glanced over his shoulder. Eridit thrust the hilt of a short sword into his back. 'Here.'

'That won't help me,' he muttered as the drunken man stumbled back to his friends and began gesticulating his complaints in a thready whine. Yah yah yah. Merciful God! How much longer Bai expected them to keep up this cursed pretense, Shai could not imagine. Men were coming around every cursed evening after drill, and so far Bai had managed to put them off with various plausible excuses delivered in her drawling, contemptuous style. 'Hu! Take the children out the back if you have to. Here they come.'

The three swaggered with outraged privilege as they approached. Merciful One, act now!

A sergeant jogged through the ragged market street, pausing to grab men by the shoulders. 'Heya! Heya! Three Circles cadre, report at once.'

A second sergeant followed, calling another group. Men turned from browsing the wares on offer: fried vegetables, hot noodles, goat's milk, carved bowls and spoons, an old man repairing knife hilts, women skinny from the abuse they took to fetch a few vey.

'Avard! Divass! Kili! Get your cursed horses' asses over here.'

'Assembly?' muttered the big one. 'At dusk? After we've already been released from drill? The hells!' But he lumbered away.

Shai sagged, all his readiness blown.

'Did that man go away?' asked Vali, venturing up behind Eridit. 'He was following me before. He tried to touch me.'

'Sheh!' said Eridit in disgust. 'You're not even of an age, Vali. But

I'm not surprised by any crude thing I hear or see in this place.' She loosed an accusatory glance at Shai, pushed past him, and crossed over the open space to the man selling white plums and cawl petals. There she smiled prettily, and she and the man entered into a protracted haggle, which she no doubt drew out to annoy the poor merchant.

'Why do you argue with her all the time?' asked Vali.

'Shai's a prude,' said Yudit, laying her head against Shai's shoulder.

'Neh, he isn't,' said Eska. Dena and others in the interior echoed her, defending him.

'Oh, shut it, little plum,' said Yudit affectionately. 'I'm not ragging him. I'm just saying so, because it's true. Nothing wrong with it.' She shuddered, and he put an arm around her. Vali leaned against him on the other side, and they watched as the market street cleared of soldiers and the merchants packed away their wares for safekeeping.

He felt a prickling on his skin, maybe the same one Bai had spoken of, like the way air changed before a storm.

Eridit returned triumphant, her long jacket cradling cawl petals weighted down with white plums. 'Look at all this, and for only two vey!' She pushed rudely past Shai. 'Here, Eska. Let's put this in the pot. Then we can make soup later.'

'I'm scared, too,' said Yudit softly. 'But that's no cause for you two to keep fighting. It worries the younger ones.'

'I don't fight with her because I'm scared!'

She smiled, a rare gift, and shame shut him up. Maybe she was even right. He missed Tohon bitterly, but the Qin scout had been left in the woodland to scout the environs, meeting with Bai long past midnight on specified nights.

'Whsst!' Bai came striding out of the gloom, waving at them to fall back. 'Here, now, Shai,' she said, catching him by the arm. 'The password worked. Although why Edard told you instead of anyone else I can't figure.'

They retreated into the interior, stuffy with so many bodies crammed inside. After so long without a bath, they all stank. Eridit lit a lamp and hung it from a pole.

Bai surveyed her troops. 'You're leaving tonight. You'll travel to the ford where we crossed ten days ago. You'll meet Ladon and

Veras there, with a wagonload of supplies. You'll cross to the far shore and travel about a mey downstream. There, you'll meet Tohon on the road, and he'll lead you to a hidden dock where you'll rendezvous with a barge owned by our dead comrade Edard's kin. They're going to take you to Nessumara, to his clan's compound. Do you understand?'

They nodded.

'I want you to know something,' she went on. 'Lone wolves are rightly viewed with suspicion and treated as spies. I'd do the same, in their place. But having you here has given me entrance to every cursed company in this camp, talking up my wares, how juicy they'll be as soon as I get a bit more fat on them, all untouched, never bitten. Folk who want something from you are a cursed reach stupider than those who want nothing.' She sketched a gesture in the air, and the children smiled in response. 'By having the courage to walk in here and just wait, not knowing what might happen and if you'd get abused again, you've done more service to Olossi than the entire cursed Olossi militia.'

'Should we stay, holy one?' asked Yudit in a low voice.

'No. Edard's kinfolk were tipped off by some woman who married into the clan from the Green Sun clan. They're getting out, and they're willing to take you lot downriver with them. Eridit, there's a passing phrase you must speak to get across the river at the ferry. "Flying fours lost", the sentry will tell you, and you reply, "Five cloaks won".'

Eridit mouthed the words twice, then nodded. 'Got it.'

'Shai, you can see them to the ford, make sure they get across safely. Then you have to come back to me.'

The children groaned, and murmured rebelliously.

'What's happening?' asked Eridit, all saucy anger fled.

'Ford Radas's army is attacking Toskala tonight. I don't know the details, but I'm cursed sure there's treachery on the wind.'

'Why does Shai have to stay behind?' Yudit and Vali asked at the same moment.

'He's the only one of us who is protected against the demons. Veiled to their sight. That's what both cloaks said.'

'And what in the hells do you mean to do?' asked Eridit. 'The two of you can't fight the entire cursed army'

Bai grinned, and everyone paused to admire her because she made them all want to be able to grin like that. 'The Merciless One will guide me.' She rocked back, listening to the murmur of a camp rising instead of settling. 'Now get out of here.'

They walked in a tight line, four abreast with the younger ones in the center rows, Eridit and Wori in the lead and Shai and Yudit as tailmen, the ones likeliest to get attacked from behind. If you acted like you were about your business, then folk did not question.

The vendors following the army had set up farthest away from the siege line, and the usual busy twilight market had gone to ground, blankets rolled up, folk hiding inside their tents or huddled in whatever scrap of protection they could find in ragged hedgerows or the remains of a lot of firewood commandeered by the army. It felt like it was about to rain, but the skies remained dry. They descended through a series of orchards, and held their noses as they skirted the edge of tanning yards before coming to the main crossing of the Lesser Istri, two sets of paired cables strung across the wide river.

The guards had lamps out at the barricade, and they considered Eridit with suspicion as she sauntered forward, playing too much, Shai thought, to their lust.

'Here, now,' said the first. 'Shouldn't you be at home with your husband, eh, verea?'

'I don't see your red bracelet, sweetheart,' said the second. 'But I'll give you a taste of married life.'

The third man shushed them. 'Flying fours lost,' he said.

'Five cloaks won,' she answered, and her posture shifted so swiftly that Shai blinked. She was another person now, someone rigid and irritated. 'Didn't think I'd have trouble here. You lot need to attend to your duty.'

The two who had been rude grumbled.

The third man shook his head. 'Where are you going with all these children?'

'We were ordered to get them out of the area.'

'Who ordered you?' demanded the first man, anxious to show he could be a hard-ass.

'Shut up,' said the third man to his comrade. 'I remember you lot. You in particular.' I le looked Eridit up and down, and Shai found

that he'd closed a hand into a fist. Yudit patted him on the elbow, like calming a tense dog. 'You lot crossed eight or ten days ago, neh?'

'Can't get buyers for what we're trying to sell, can we?' she said with a smirk.

The first two men looked at each other, frowning as they considered the insinuation in her words, while the third man grimaced. 'Sheh! Are you saying-? Most of those kids aren't old enough- Eiya! People like you ought to be hanged up on a post, eh? I've got little sisters and brothers, eh? Haven't you any shame?'

'Those with plenty of coin don't need to bow before shame, eh? And we've got coin for the fare, don't we? Now just shut up and let us cross.'

'What if I won't let you pass, you cursed foul degenerate-'

Down at the platform, the winch-turners had stirred from their cots, rising to get a look at the commotion. Wagon wheels ground on paved stones, and a wagon appeared out of the gloom lit by a lamp swaying on a pole. Ladon and Veras had arrived just in time.

Curiously, a slender man of mature years, not yet elderly, strode alongside the wagon, chattering in the most inanely cheerful manner. He wore a long cloak against the expected rains, and the garb Shai had come to recognize as typical of the priests known as envoys of the god Ilu.

'-then I said to him, "Ver, death's wolves aren't greedy. They only eat when they're hungry, not like the wolves among men." I was speaking, of course, of the Sirniakan toll collectors, who I will tell you charged me double and triple only because I was a foreigner in their lands! Outrageous!' As the wagon rattled to a halt, the envoy smiled at the guardsmen. 'Greetings of the dusk, my friends. What's this? A full raft for the twilight pull, eh? Good fortune for those who collect the toll.'

The guards took a step back, and the children shrank against each other. Eridit expelled a hot gasp, as though she'd just been insulted, and Ladon and Veras – the idiots – sat like nimwits on the box of the wagon, struck to silence. The big raft bumped gently at the dock. From the shelter of the platform, the winch-turners stared. No one moved.

Shai trotted forward, pushing right up to the guards. 'We're in a

hurry, ver. And I'd sooner piss on you than listen to you tell me what you think of our business. You want to fight? Call out your fellows, and let's fight, eh?'

'Neh, neh, you go on. Vermin.'

Shai shouldered past them, and the children hurried after with the wagon rumbling in their wake. The winch-turners peered out as Shai strode out onto the landing stage and pulled open the railings to allow the wagon to maneuver onto the raft. He stepped back as the children flooded on afterward.

That cursed envoy was nattering to Eridit. '… Water-born Goats like you do have an unfortunate tendency to be self-centered, wanting the attention of others always fixed on them. They might not mean to be petty and selfish, but too often they don't notice if they've violated the honor of other people, which is why it can be hard to trust them-'

'Who asked you?' she demanded furiously, half crying as she stormed past Shai and hopped over the widening gap onto the raft. She grabbed a rope and yanked the raft's railings shut, latched them, and shouted to the laborers. 'We're ready!'

Gears ratcheted. Rope trembled.

Shai gripped the outer railing. 'Behave!' he called to the children. 'Don't be stupid.'

'You're not going with them,' said the envoy.

'Neither are you!'

The envoy met his gaze for a long careful while and then, abruptly, smiled with great sweetness. 'I remember you.'

'Eh?'

'You see ghosts.'

The winch clanked, and footsteps trod the boards on the platform behind.

'Shai! Shai!' cried the children as the raft lurched a hand's span out from the landing stage. The rope tautened.

'Aui!' continued the envoy. 'So you are Shai, the one I've been searching for, eh? There's a young woman looking for you. I fear she means to do you ill.'

'How do you know me?'

'You were with the Qin soldiers riding out of the empire. I saw your eyes follow the Beltak priest. A terrible thing to imprison their

spirits in the bowl, isn't it? You're rare, you folk who see ghosts. You're veiled to our sight. I don't know why.'

Words croaked up, made hoarse by everything happening at once. 'Who are you?'

'Beware,' said the envoy. 'But be honest. Honesty might save you.'

'Shai!' As the raft slid away from the river, rocking in the current, Yudit pressed to the railing, the others crowding behind, their faces fading into the night. Then he heard their voices as they began to chant.

I sing to the mountain,

Mount Aua, who is sentinel

who guards the traveler

who watches over us.

He carries us on his shoulders

because he is strong, kissed by the heavens.

We survive in his shelter.

The river's voice drowned theirs. His face was wet with river mist and tears.

He ran to the winch and found a place to slide in with the other laborers, pushing pushing pushing until his shoulders ached and his legs strained, until the mechanism caught and the rope, sighing, slackened. They were safely across. The men grunted and, straightening, rubbed their lower backs.

'Thanks for that,' they said. 'Eihi! You've got good shoulders on you. Want our job?'

'Good fortune to you,' he said, and stepped out from under the platform, remembering suddenly the envoy of Ilu who had known he could see ghosts. He scanned the docks, the road, but all he saw were the slouching guards and, strangely, a pair of lights weaving up and down in the heavens like candles carried aloft by drunken soldiers.

The envoy was gone.

Far away, horns blatted, and drums beat an angry rhythm. He stared toward the far bank, but of course he could not see it, nor bear the creak of wheels and the patter of feet as they headed

downriver along the road. Not out of danger, never that, but away from the worst if their gods chose to be merciful.

The envoy had told him, You're veiled to our sight.

You're the only one protected against the demons, Bai had said.

Veiled against demons, Shai thought. They can't eat out my heart the way they eat out the hearts of others. He brought the wolf ring to his lips as he thought of his clan, of Mai, of Tohon, of the children. Even of Eridit. He thought of Hari, whose spirit was still not at rest.

Even at a distance of several mey, he heard a steady rumbling rising from the city: treachery on the wind.

I can fight them.

He headed back toward the city.