Spirit Gate

49

It was the second worst day of Joss's life. Worse than the day he'd learned his mother had died. Worse than the day his baby brother had succumbed to a fever. Or perhaps the emotion of those days, suffered as a child, had worn thin until he didn't truly remember the intensity of his tears.

Today he'd done what needed doing, as awful as it was. Reeves relied on authority and mobility, and on the intimidating presence of the huge eagles who could kill any human and were not themselves easily killed. Reeves did not train as soldiers. Their charter forbade their use as enforcers for any council or captain who might wish to hire their services.

Yet today's skirmish was done, and could not be undone. Clan Hall's flights pursued Argent Hall's fleeing eagles into the grasslands, at a distance, then circled back to set down in the grass for the night. As afternoon faded to dusk, Joss left Volias in command with strict orders to keep watch but not engage, and the Snake, troubled and pallid, accepted the order without even a sarcastic reply.

Kesta was grounded, her eagle badly hurt. The young reeve from Argent Hall, Pari, was dead together with his wonderful eagle. There were at least two more dead eagles as well as other wounded ones, and a pair of dead men from Argent Hall whom Joss could not name, sprawled on the ground while their eagles walked around them.

All this Joss surveyed as Scar ascended on the currents and they turned toward Olossi. The river's lazy curves were visible to the north. There lay the line that was the road. Far to the west gleamed the salt sea, while in the forested lands to the east the river plain rose slowly into the high country of Sohayil, a gradual change in elevation difficult to discern from the ground with the night coming on. They left the southern plateau behind and worked the currents over the escarpment, rising first, and then hitting a high glide perfectly judged by the exhausted Scar to bring them with minimal effort across the mey to Olossi.

The voice of a bass bell rolled out from the walls, crying its alarm across the shimmering waters and the darkening land. All day villagers within sound of the bell had streamed into the city with what belongings they could carry. Stragglers still struggled along the main road, converging on the gates in panicked crowds. Dust floated in clouds; this time of year, there was no moisture or vegetation to hold it down.

He flew low over the outer walls. From below rose the clamor of many folk talking all at once, a roaring similar to the battering of waves on a storm-swept beach. Folk swarmed the paths and streets and alleys like ants poked from their nest. Children cried. Women and men shouted demands and questions. A beggar's chime tinkled faintly, then was overwhelmed. At the gate between outer town and upper town, the throng slowed, crawled, stopped.

"Hurry! Hurry! Move on!" A man's voice spiked above the cacophony. "We must get inside!"

So many were desperate to push within the security of the inner walls that they had packed together in that open space before the gate until no one could move.

The inner city rose before him as he passed the walls. Children shrieked, pointing at the eagle flying so close overhead. In the courtyard of Assizes Tower, torches had been lit along every wall and even set at intervals to light his way to the perch. As planned, Anji and his troop had reached the city before him.

"Time for one last trick, my friend," he said, and despite the twilight, and the crowds seething along the avenues, and the tolling of that damned bell, Scar negotiated the approach with ease and pulled up neatly to land on the perch in the courtyard of Assizes Tower.

Here-thank Ilu!-the Qin company waited in tidy ranks while clots of Olossi guardsmen kept their distance. The Qin had their horses with them. It seemed they had just ridden in. The square was slightly sloped, and backed by steeper roads leading down to the gates, with the tower built to overlook that open space and beyond it over the walls to the roofs and fields of the lower city. It was not as good a vantage place as Fortune Square, from which you could see in all directions, but Assizes Tower faced the busy gates through which flowed and ebbed the lifeblood of the town. Although he could see little in this gloom, he felt the presence of many hundreds of people pressed into the streets and avenues branching off Assizes Square. They were crammed shoulder-to-shoulder, held out of the square by the presence of militia, yet all desperate for news.

Joss hooded Scar swiftly and sprang up the steps to the porch that wrapped Assizes Hall. Behind, the old stone tower blocked part of the night sky.

The doors were already open, revealing the timber hall whose far end abutted the old tower. An argument raged in the crowd of council members, guild members, and other notables.

"You got us into this! What promises did you make them?"

"We did nothing except for the good of the city!"

"Liars! Fools!"

"You Lesser Houses stymied us at every turn! You forced us into a desperate bargain!"

"It was your greed that led you on! Now you would abandon the outer city! And I'm sure that is because your goods have all been moved into your compounds up here. What of those of us who have no place within the inner walls to save our goods and livestock?"

"Yes, what of us?"

"All must be saved! Everything!"

A long table stood to the right, under five arched windows. At one end of the table was placed a single chair on which sat the beautiful Ox girl, Mai. She had an almost heavenly shine, a "moonlit calm" that drew the gaze. Captain Anji was bent over, speaking softly in her ear; when he paused, she replied, lips barely moving.

Midway down the table sat the clerk Joss had flirted with mere days ago, although it seemed like years. Jonit. Chief Tuvi and the scout, Tohon, flanked her, and she marked with charcoal on rice paper according to their direction. A young Silver man with hair hidden beneath a fine silk turban and silver bracelets halfway up both forearms stood a few paces away, beneath the middle window. An older Silver man with a full set of bracelets glowered beside the younger, arms crossed as he studied by turns the yammering crowd and the bare-faced women.

Anji straightened, and stepped away from Mai. He held a quirt in his left hand. He marked Joss, nodded, then raised the quirt and brought it down on the table so hard that the slap of its impact made everyone jump. And stop speaking.

"Enough!" He fixed one last chatterer with a stare that shut the man up between one word and the next that never came. "Enough of this. What happened in the past, or even yesterday, does not matter today. How you sort out your grievances is your own business, to be argued over later. If you are alive to argue. I guarantee that if you continue to accuse each other now instead of making ready, then you will fall, and this city will fall, and your grievances will be dust and your children will be slaves."

Fear settled them. His voice held them.

"Against an army, we cannot protect the outer city. Once we defeat them, you can rebuild, but you cannot rebuild if you are dead. And lest you think that we are outnumbered, then wonder no longer. It is true. This reeve will tell you what he saw, as he told us earlier."

Joss nodded, but Anji did not wait for him to speak.

"Stout walls give us an advantage, if we can hold them. Captain Waras, what is your report? You already received tasks, which we discussed yesterday. Have they been carried out?"

Waras stepped forward, his color high and his face bruised as from a hard blow to the side of the head. His lower lip was split and still oozing blood. "I passed out the word that all able bodied folk were to be divided between those who will labor to strengthen the walls and those who can bear arms and fight. But then the council began squabbling this morning about what that meant, and which men would not sully their hands with digging and who did not want their sons risking their lives with swords and spears. That quarreling has gone on all day."

"If none risk their lives, then I guarantee all will be dead, and my men and I long gone, safely escaped."

None spoke to answer him. They were already cowed by their fear and their helplessness. So many faces stared at the captain, their expressions as stark as those of a dreamer woken from nightmare to discover it was not after all a dream.

"We haven't much time. Therefore, all who can labor must labor to strengthen the walls. Runners must race this night to the villages too far to hear the bell. The watch fire must be lit, if it has not been already. If you have a watch fire, as all wise folk should. Every person, male or female, who is able to bear arms will muster at dawn. Those who can reach the walls will shelter within, in every courtyard and house and alley. Those who cannot reach the walls must hide themselves as they are able in their own village and fields."

He paused to let these words sink in, but he did not cease thinking and communicating. He gave a signal to Chief Tuvi, who answered with a lift of a hand. He gestured to one of his guardsmen, who took a whispered message and strode out of the hall. He did not look at Mai.

"Master Feden. Master Calon. Mistress Ulara. See that competent people are assigned to oversee these tasks. Best you do so promptly. Get the work begun this night." As though stunned, they nodded. Anji beckoned to Joss. "What report do you bring us, Reeve Joss?"

Jonit looked up, hearing his name, and down again so swiftly that Joss winced. She was sorry to see him, with an expression on her sweet face that suggested there'd be no satisfaction to be found in that quarter. Aui! That was certainly a trivial matter best let fly to the winds!

He addressed the crowd. "A brief report. Reeve fought reeve this afternoon, a terrible thing brought about by the corruption that has eaten away at our land. Of that, I'll say no more except to tell you that it is one of the three pillars of the eagle halls that 'A reeve always comes to the aid of another reeve. To do otherwise is to cut away the heart of the halls.' If a reeve cannot trust another reeve, then how can any of us be trusted? So be it. The shadows have been creeping over the Hundred for a long time, and now it seems they mean to overwhelm us."

"And the battle?" asked Anji mildly.

The pain was of the kind that may bring a twisted smile to the lips. "Reeves do not train as soldiers. We were clumsy enough that we did ourselves little physical damage, thank the gods. But we did enough." He shook his head, shook it off. There wasn't time for this. As Marit had once told him: You think too much.

"Three flights out of Argent Hall rest in the Lending this night. Two flights out of Clan Hall remain near the Argent Hall flights, to watch them. Our intention is to stay away from the Argent Hall reeves at dawn, not to engage unless we have no choice. As for the next step, that is up to you."

Anji bit his lower lip, looking thoughtful.

Folk murmured, but no one spoke up. All deferred to the Qin commander.

"How many left, do you think, at Argent Hall?" he asked Joss.

"How many reeves and eagles?" Joss considered poor, dead Pari's report. He considered what he had himself observed. "Each hall is meant to house six hundred reeves. But there are never six hundred on any given night, or in any given month. Some are assigned to Clan Hall. Some range on sweep patrols. Some eagles have left for their nesting season. A few will have lost their reeves and gone to the mountains for whatever it is they do there to comfort themselves. Some reeves may be on leave to visit their families. Others will be in training. I happen to know that at least fifty reeves abandoned Argent Hall when the new marshal took over the cote. I happen to know that no reeveless eagle has chosen a new rider in many seasons. Some have transferred out to new halls. Three flights sit in the Lending, trapped by darkness."

"Why trapped?" Anji asked.

Joss shrugged, gesturing toward the lamps that lit the hall. "Eagles are blind at night. They are essentially helpless. They cannot fly, and it is impossible for them to strike what they cannot see. Their hearing is good, but they live by their eyes."

Anji nodded. "They cannot fly. But I can. How many blind eagles remain trapped by darkness at Argent Hall tonight?"

"No more than a hundred. Probably less."

"What will those three flights out of Argent Hall, the ones out on the Lending, do tomorrow?"

"Most likely a few will fly to the army, while the rest will return to their hall." Anji nodded. "Let none reach the army."

"To do that, I would have to kill those who try."

"They will kill you. Best you strike first."

"If there is war between the reeves, then justice may never again be served in this land. Even if Argent Hall is corrupt, and I believe it must be, we may do worse mischief in trying to cut out this corruption."

"No choice is not a choice," said Anji.

Joss saw that the decision was already made. To the Qin captain, the ancient traditions of the Hundred were merely words, no more meaningful than the babble of the arguing council. But then, after all, the man surprised him.

"I do not go against the customs of your land lightly, Joss. Do not think I demean them or think little of them. But if I were you, I would rather choose to live. It's time to attack Argent Hall."

Joss sighed. Among that crowd, many sighed, hearing that a decision had been made. It was easier that someone else had the courage, the boldness, to set foot on the path all others would avoid, fearing the consequences.

Yet one person was reckless enough to raise her voice, to speak against the captain.

"This will not do," said Mai, rising from her seat. "What use to me a husband who is dead? For what will you risk yourself? Why risk yourself and your men at all, when the Greater Houses brought this trouble on themselves? When they thought there was no risk for them, they imprisoned Reeve Joss and lied to all of us about his whereabouts. When they thought they had an alliance with these others, this army and its leaders, they refused our entreaty to grant us nothing more than a place to settle, somewhere out of the way. They exiled us! They only called us back when they were desperate, when they saw they had been betrayed! They did not themselves even release the reeve. A hierodule acting on behalf of the temple freed him, although then the council pretended they had done so to curry favor with us, as a sign of good faith. I don't consider lies to be a sign of good faith! You have done enough, Anji. You have purchased a day for them to prepare themselves. If they have not made use of that day, it is not your fault! I say we ride out with the coin we received from the Greater Houses for last night's commission."

Master Feden pushed forward. How different he seemed now, to Joss's eye! The big, bossy, imperious man might cow the council, but Joss could only see him as a ridiculous blusterer bound by rope to a chair with his mouth popping like that of a stranded fish. Gods, what he would not do for a glimpse of Zubaidit! But she was gone, utterly gone, and never coming back.

"You can't leave now!" Feden cried. "You made a bargain with us!"

"We agreed through Master Iad to fight one action only," said Mai. "The attack on the strike force, to buy the city time to gather its population inside the gates. That action was completed. Successfully, as we all know."

Folk murmured, shuffled feet. "Do something, Feden. Do something!"

"You got us into this!"

One merchant commanded a sizable contingent at his back, and a grim smile on his lips. He wore the badge on his silk jacket marking him as a merchant who trafficked in flesh. Feden, glancing that way, saw that smile and those supporters. He might have been a trapped rat, staring at the dog ready to chomp its neck.

He looked back at Mai. "But you must help us!"

"I see no reason to bargain with the Greater Houses at this juncture," Mai said, "considering all that has gone before. If we deal, we deal with the whole of Olossi's council, an open vote of all members with a right to sit in on council meetings."

Joss judged Feden's degree of shock by the heaving way the man panted, as if taking in her words as breath but finding that breath choked him. "That goes against all our traditions. That way, with so many voting, lies madness. Only the Greater Houses have the wisdom, the stake in security and peace, the many generations building Olossi's fortunes, to make proper decisions!"

The young Silver cried out. "Let's have a vote, now. A vote to elect our council master. Take the roll!"

Feden could not protest, even though a Haf Gi Ri had raised the issue, even though the Haf Gi Ri could not vote. He and his allies had already lost, and he knew it. Quickly, the roll was read, and votes tallied around the hall from every one of the Greater Houses, the Lesser Houses, and the guilds. Sixteen votes for Feden. All the rest, to Joss's surprise, were for the same man, a merchant named Master Calon.

Yet why should he be surprised? Mai and Anji were not surprised. Nor was Master Calon. Like the ambush last night, this had obviously been carefully planned.

Beads of sweat left runnels through the powder that gave a smooth color to Master Feden's aging skin. His fingers twitched in spastic patterns. "This can't be. This is out of order. I won't allow it. You have no right."

Master Calon stepped smoothly into the open ground, from which he surveyed the assembly with a look of satisfaction. He nodded at Anji, and Feden saw that nod.

"We've been betrayed!" Feden cried. "Can't you see it? We've been betrayed by these two wolves, acting in concert."

"Yes, we have," said Master Calon. "We've been betrayed by you, Feden. By you, and the Greater Houses, making deals with an enemy out of the north. Wolves, all of you, eating our young. Let this be the end of it." He acknowledged Mai. "Verea, our business with you remains unfinished."

"But-! But-!" All ignored Feden, even his old allies.

Mai's expression was so bland that, as his aunties might say, one would not know she had already licked the cream.

"Olossi's council seeks our aid to defeat the army that will soon lay in a siege outside your walls. Very well. I'll state our price." She paused.

Abruptly, Master Calon's smug expression wavered. He blinked. He looked worried.

She went on. "It is the custom of the Qin to control the taxes and tolls of any territory which lies under their governance. Therefore, we will require a specified grant of land, a designated territory, over which the captain and his family hold the right to exact taxes and tolls as long as heirs of his body unto all generations are alive. This grant of land will contain pasturage sufficient to maintain two hundred households as well as farmlands tenanted by local families. These fields will be taxed at the rate of one part in nine, to be farmed in common. That portion goes to the governor, that is, the captain and his family. According to the custom of the Qin, pasturage sufficient for a household can be measured by the amount of land one man can ride around in one day. Wives will be found for all of the men who desire to settle down in a household and with pasturage of their own. In addition, a single payment will be made in this manner: From each of the houses that make up the Greater Houses, fifty cheyt, for a total of seven hundred and fifty cheyt. From the Lesser Houses and guilds, in common, two hundred and fifty cheyt."

In the quiet, Joss heard distinctly the intake of breath from those gathered, even Master Calon. Especially Master Calon. Joss was himself dizzied by the amounts so casually falling from her pretty tongue.

Captain Anji had his head tipped slightly and appeared to be looking not at Mai but at Toughid's boots. His mouth was pulled so tight that at first Joss thought he was angry, and then he realized the captain was trying not to smile. The two Silvers, younger and older, were smiling, as at an apt pupil or a masterful parry.

She raised both hands, palms up, to signify that no coin had yet changed hands. "According to the law of the Hundred, each of the members party to the agreement will swear to abide by the agreement as long as the captain or any of his heirs, or the heirs of any of his soldiers, still live in this country. No deliberate harm will be inflicted on any of the parties by any of the others, nor will any of the parties renege on the agreement once the danger is past. For our part, we will abide by the agreement, aid Olossi, and settle peaceably afterward in lands set aside under Qin control. Is the council agreed, Master Calon?"

Master Calon shut his eyes as if gathering strength to reply.

"I don't agree!" sputtered Feden. "It's too much! You all know it's too much. Land! Coin! Gods and hells! How are you standing for this? A payment, a single payment, a simple bargain of labor in exchange for work done should be-"

Mai cut him off. "Agree to our terms, or find someone else to help you."

The bell boomed to life, and tolled once, twice, three times. The sound washed like a wave over them and kept moving. At length, its voice died away.

Master Calon opened his eyes. He stepped in front of Feden and put a hand on the other man's chest. "You and your allies brought this down on us all," he said coldly. "You and the other Greater Houses betrayed this town, for what you thought would be your own benefit. Did you not?"

Feden trembled. He looked at the floor. He did not answer. In the crowd, folk shifted away from certain people, isolating them.

Calon swept his gaze over the assembly. Indeed, he seemed overcome by emotion, ready to break down and weep. "What choice have we? What choice?" He turned back to Mai, held out his hands, palms up, signifying that no coin had yet changed hands. "Let Sapanasu give Her blessing to those who fulfill the bargains they make, and Her curse to any who turn their backs on what they have sworn in Her name. Let it be marked and sealed."

"Let it be marked and sealed." She might have just sold a cupful of almonds in exchange for two vey.

Anji raised his quirt. Many held their breath. A few stepped back, as if to get out of range.

"Let all the people of Olossi do their part," he said curtly. "Let the council act wisely. And swiftly." He took a step back to survey the map being drawn by Jonit under the light of a pair of oil lamps. "As for myself, I had thought to stay here and order the city's defense, but that task will have to fall to Captain Waras, Master Calon, and the council. It's a shame," he added, with a frown, "that the priestess, Zubaidit, has departed, for I am supposing she would accomplish what I am not entirely sure this council can. Well." With a cutting motion, he sliced that notion away. "No use trying to eat food that doesn't exist. I have a different plan now, a better one. Eagles are blind at night, but we are not. I'll need a hundred competent guardsmen who can be ready to ride immediately with my troop."

The captain looked at the two Silvers, as if to mark a promise they had made to him, then at his wife. She had the most astonishing face, open and fathomless, so lovely to look upon yet hiding her true feelings. He offered to her no fulsome farewells, no touching good-byes, as in the old tales. He had no time for such sentiments. After a moment, she looked down at her hands.

"We ride." With a gesture, Anji called his men, and the Qin soldiers left the hall. Joss followed them.