Traitors Gate

35

It was understood that Anji was being not brutal but pragmatic. A baker presented him with a tray of sweet rice cakes and bean curd pastries, and there were other delicacies as well: mutton steeped in spices, a savory fish soup, venison, pickled radish, and nai bread sweetened with juice to cover its bitter aftertaste.

No rice.

Rice was a problem, as the villagers explained. Because of the trouble early in the rainy season, fields had been planted late and not as extensively as usual. There hadn't been enough people to replant and weed and thin; losses had been higher and productivity lower than normal. There would be hunger later in the year; some households were already resorting to eating woodland roots and se leaves to fill their bellies. If the war did not end soon, the coming year's planting would be at risk also. If they lost two crops in a row, there would be famine.

Anji listened, and ate, and shared out the food to every person who had reason to come in under the awning. Eventually, as twilight fell, the villagers were herded out.

Anji rose and paced once around the awning's edge before returning to his seat. 'Joss. I Just joined the army today. I was flown up in two stages from Astafero, with a stop in Olossi. What news from Clan Hall? How are things going?'

'The stockpile of naya is safe. Copper Hall reeves are conveying vessels into Nessumara at Chief Sengel's order. As for the enemy's troop positions-'

A young reeve with a limp and a dusty face came in escorted by soldiers. Besides her reeve's baton, short sword, and quiver, she carried a very small jeweler's chest bound with chains and clipped to her harness.

'Captain Anji?' she asked. 'I'm Beiko, from Copper Hall. Chief Sengel sent me. He said to give this chest and this report into your keeping only.' She unhooked the chest and handed it to him together with a folded and sealed square of rice paper. He gave the chest to Chief Deze, who slung it over his shoulder, no great weight.

Joss's heart raced, and his fingers went cold. He could not keep his eyes from the tiny chest, no matter how innocuous it appeared to others. What in the hells had happened in Nessumara?

'Ah.' Anji rose, offered her his stool, and gestured for his soldiers to leave. Only Anji, Joss, and Chief Deze remained under the awning within earshot of the exhausted reeve. The reeve gulped

down two cups of kama juice as Anji cut the seal and scanned a scribble of looping marks Joss could not possibly decipher, nothing like the ancient runes or the Lantern's familiar syllabary.

The hells! Could Sengel write, too?

Anji said to Deze, 'Have Esigu tell the villagers that a cohort of five hundred Qin riders will be coming up after the infantry in a few days. I forgot to mention it before. I don't want them to be surprised.' He nodded at the reeve. 'My thanks, Reeve Beiko. You'll be shown to a pallet for the night. Take food and drink to refresh yourself. I'll have a message for you at daybreak.'

'Yes, Captain.' If she was curious about the contents of Sengel's message, she hid it well. A soldier led her off into the dusk.

Joss said, 'What's in that chest, Captain?'

Anji's smile was like a fine steel blade. 'To gain another cloak so soon is an unexpected advantage. They have no idea. Hu!' He handed the rice paper to Deze and pulled his whip from his belt, brandishing it with a flourish. 'Events are progressing more quickly than we had hoped. Lord Radas's army has massed at Saltow. Sengel sent a diversionary attack to trouble them, nothing big, but they shook it off and began advancing into the wetlands — dried up this time of year — last night. During the night a cloak rode into Nessumara's council square, where Sengel holds his headquarters. Sengel had already uncovered a plot to assassinate the council members and Marshal Masar, so I suppose the cloak came to oversee the night's work. And to discover our plans, figuring everyone would fear him too much to act. But Sengel knew what to do-' He broke off. 'Hu! No fears, Commander. Your face has gone gray! It was a man, wearing a cloak the color of spilt blood.'

The hells!

Joss sank down onto the stool and, without thinking, took Anji's unfinished cup of khaif and downed it.

'Would you like some cordial?' asked the captain. 'Rice wine?'

'No. Go on.' His hands were shaking.

'That's all. Lord Radas has no reeves so he won't know how quickly we're moving up. That being the case' — he indicated the map of the Hundred, using his riding whip to point first at Horn Hall and then at Toskala — 'I'll need you to deploy your Clan Hall reeves to lift a strike force to Toskala. Once the battle is joined in Nessumara, a signal will be given from Law Rock to attack the garrison in Toskala. Do you have any questions?'

Joss bent close, lowering his voice. 'I don't know who this cloak of Earth is. But if Blood is gone, then according to what Marit said, Lord Radas and Night no longer have the five they need to control the Guardians' council. It's enough, Anji. Let the Guardians sort out their own struggle, as the gods meant them to do. To go on with this is wrong. We've broken the boundaries.'

'If we have, then so have the Guardians,' said Anji, tapping the whip on the square that marked Nessumara and the tangle of lines that suggested the delta's web of water and land. 'In truth, we're fortunate.'

Joss sat back. 'How can you say so?'

'They are poor leaders, these Guardians.'

'They're not meant to be leaders! They're meant to be judges, to stand outside daily life, not to rule or command.'

'How does that statement negate my point? This one called Night, eldest and most frightening, seems to have an ability to build armies but no interest in using them. Lord Radas seems interested in ruling but has relied on fear and intimidation and on the complete disorganization and lack of preparedness of the local militias. The enemy army sent against Olossi lost to our much smaller force because they expected to meet no resistance at all. From what accounts I have heard of the earlier assault on Nessumara, the enemy pulled back at the first sign of resistance. Yet you and I were told that Nessumara's militia was stretched to its limits and ready to collapse.' He swept the whip to encompass the land, from north to south, east to west. 'If Lord Radas's troops had pushed on into the delta five months ago, they would have conquered Nessumara. Obviously, the Hundred does not know how to fight wars.'

'No, indeed,' said Joss hoarsely as his face went hot, 'and a fine thing that is, too. Why should we want to fight wars and live in tumult, when we might have peace?'

'You might have had peace once, but you don't have peace now. You see how vulnerable you have become. Do you suppose my cousins, knowing now that the Hundred exists beyond the Kandaran Pass and having their eyes drawn this way, might not covet your eagles? These guardian cloaks? Your rice fields? What other secrets hide in your forests and mountains and seas? Look at my map, see how much of it is blank. Who are these wildings and delvings and lendings and merlings? What are the firelings who embraced my son on the day of his birth? Do you even know

what a rich land this is? Do you think that if the Sirniakans desire it, they will not march with many more than fifteen cohorts to take it from you and make you their slaves?'

'Commander!'

Joss looked up, but the man was speaking to Anji, not to Joss. A Qin soldier walked into the spill of lamplight under the awning.

'Toughid!' Anji met him with a grin. Forearms smacked together so hard Joss winced.

Toughid immediately noted the jeweler's chest slung over Deze's back. 'Mai and the chief arrived safely in the valley. All is as you hoped. It's unlikely your mother can reach her there.'

'Your mother?' demanded Joss. Why in the hells had he heard no word of this?

'Did I not mention that my mother has arrived in the Hundred? She was expelled from the women's palace by the new emperor.'

'Your mother} She must be a formidable woman.'

Anji shifted a knife on the map, the meaningless gesture of a man who needs to take his mind off uncomfortable thoughts. 'Formidable, yes. And as difficult to please as I remember from my childhood.'

The odd way Toughid had spoken scratched at Joss's uneasiness. 'What has your mother to do with Mai's needing a safe place to shelter?'

For an instant, Anji looked as if he wanted to kill something. Joss reached for the hilt of his sword to fend off an attack. Guards stiffened; Toughid spoke a word in the Qin language.

Anji's expression eased into a bland smile. 'Enough. A boy reacts this way. A man does not. Mai is safe. We march at dawn.'

He sat, reaching for a square of rice paper and a writing brush. He poured a bit of water into the ink bowl to soften the ink, dipped the brush, and then paused with the brush poised above a untouched expanse of white.

'Hu! Joss, what other news have you?'

A bead of ink sank from the brush's tip, hanging — like unspoken words — from the delicate hairs. But it did not fall. After a moment, Joss wrenched his gaze away from the drop to find Anji watching him with the same patient, guarded gaze with which he treated everyone. That he might once have been a brash, impatient, emotional child seemed inconceivable.

'You've anticipated me,' said Joss more brusquely than he

intended. 'Clan Hall's scouts returned yesterday late in the afternoon with the news that Lord Radas's army has massed around Nessumara. But that would have been before Chief Sengel's attack and the subsequent night attack, so it seems you have more recent information than I do.'

Anji nodded. 'Anything else?'

Joss pulled a scroll from his pack. 'A formal accounting of Horn's provisioning preparations for the army.'

'That can go to Chief Deze,' said Anji. The bead dropped and splattered on the fresh paper. 'There's a spare bedroll if you need it, in my tent. Or sit here beside me, if you wish. I'll be awake a while longer and would welcome your company. Can you fly Toughid to Law Rock in the morning after you've delivered the orders to Horn Hall? Toughid will be in charge of the attack in Toskala, when it's time.'

Beyond the awning, the camp was quieting as men finished their chores and meals and settled down to sleep, to conserve their strength for the battle ahead. There was no singing, no carousing, no jokes, no drinking or gossip. Such discipline was impressive.

'Joss?'

'You're right, Anji. The Hundred never knew how to fight wars. My thanks for the offer of a bedroll. I have my own. Best I rest now. It will be a long day tomorrow.'

Anji returned his attention to the paper, his hand assured as graceful letters flowed from the brush. Chief Deze sat in the other stool, the chest dangling along his back. Joss walked into the dark camp and its scattering of campfires to find a patch of ground on which to unroll his blanket and cloak. When he lay down to stare up at brilliant stars not yet joined by the waning quarter moon, his thoughts kept him awake for a long time.

They had broken the boundaries.

Now they would be punished.

Keshad delivered the oil of naya to Argent Hall, as ordered. Because the ship was headed back for Astafero and there were no horses available and no reeves who had the leisure to haul a person as unimportant as he was, he headed for Olossi on foot. It was an easy path, a one-cart road raised on a berm over a flat plain, but a full day's walk.

He walked between dry fields awaiting the rains, the afternoon heat beating down over him, but he didn't mind it. He had a hat

with a brim to shade his face and neck; he stripped down to his kilt, knotting his jacket and trousers and stuffing them into his pack. The heaviest thing was that cursed sack of gold the Qin princess had gifted him. Overhead, eagles and their reeves departed Argent Hall in staggered flights, hauling sealed ceramic pots containing oil of naya. Kesh trudged.

At twilight, he spotted lamps to the east on a path running parallel to his own. He hurried across a dusty fallow field and caught up to a train of wagoners rigged out with lanterns, driving supplies through the night to Olossi. They were all female, and happy to have a young man with such fine eyes and such a pleasant expanse of bare torso to admire since the young men in their villages had joined up with the militia months ago.

'You're not in the militia?' they asked him as they took a break to water and rub down their dray beasts.

He lounged against the foremost wagon, sipping juice their leader had offered. 'I'm an agent for the command staff. I was on special assignment.'

'Then why are you walking to Olossi, eh?'

'The army has requisitioned all the horses.'

They knew it, for sure! And their dwindling rice stores were drawn down, too, with planting yet to come and it to be accomplished with a smaller workforce than normal due to so many lads and men gone with the army. But it was a small price to pay for not having to fear their villages would be burned like all those villages along West Track. They set off again, and their leader, a woman old enough to have girls of marriageable age, questioned Kesh closely about the Qin. Was it true they treated their wives and wives' clans well? Were there still soldiers looking to marry into local families?

'If you're truly interested, bring your offer to the captain's wife, to her compound in Olossi.'

'They say she's a sharp bargainer. Got the better of the old council of Olossi. I don't know if I'd have the courage to face a woman like that. Have you met her?'

Kesh laughed, hoping the night hid his flush. 'She'll treat you fairly. Or you can go to one of the training encampments where Qin soldiers are stationed.'

'There's a camp near us with a few Qin in residence, training the others. They took their pick of well connected girls. Not that they were rude about it, mind you. They took what seemed best

to them. Anyway, all that militia have marched. While here we sit, waiting.'

'You're not waiting, verea. You're working.'

She shifted the reins to move the dray beasts across a transition where the one-cart road merged onto a wider two-cart path on a massive berm that speared straight south over the plain. The waning quarter moon was rising in the east. In the wagon behind, young women were giggling as they talked.

'Work's a thing I'm accustomed to.,-.yillages burned, refugees starving in the fields, roads unsafe — that's nothing I ever want to get accustomed to. I make my offerings to the gods and pray that our army defeats the enemy and brings peace. That would be worth plenty, neh?'

O'eki had returned to Olossi with the ships transporting the new Qin cohort and their horses. At the Qin compound in Olossi the big man welcomed Keshad with such a genuine smile that Kesh was taken aback. The chamber, large enough to house ten clerks, was silent, with only a single guard, a local man, standing at attention at the open door into the warehouse.

'Where are the other clerks?' Kesh asked after he'd covered his discomfort by washing his feet, hands, and face.

'Hu! I let them go because they weren't experienced enough. I keep the compound books myself. I hired the Haf Gi Ri house to keep track of the army's expenses and revenues.'

'The Haf Gi Ri house? The Ri Amarah women?'

O'eki was cleaning his brushes and closing down his accounts for the day. Both doors were open in the accounts office, but no breeze blew through to cool them.

'In exchange for the contract, the Haf Gi Ri have undertaken to make no sales to anyone supplying the army. That way they can't enrich themselves on the side by cheating the books.'

From the warehouse rose a genial exchange of greetings between locals. Indeed, there was not a single Qin soldier to be seen except for crippled Seren, who had command of the compound guard. A familiar figure clomped into the chamber from the warehouse, still laughing at a joke he'd left behind. Seeing Kesh, he coughed to silence. His silver bracelets, running three-quarters of the way up his arms, jangled as he stopped short. He had every bit of skin covered except hands and face, just like in Sirniaka.

'Eliar.' Kesh rose.

'You're here!' said Eliar, with a flash of surprise before he looked away. He placed a bundle of accounts books on O'eki's writing desk. 'I've brought today's accounting early. We've a festival tonight, and the women closed up the books early.'

'Why are you surprised to see me?' asked Kesh. 'I'm a hostage, you must have known I'd be dragged back here in time. In a way, I'm like your sister-'

Eliar turned his back on Kesh. 'My sister is dead.'

'Of course she's not dead-!'

'I'll thank you not to speak of her.'

'You're the one who loses in that bargain. I see you have more bracelets, eh? Were you rewarded for your part in our southern expedition?'

Eliar tensed as he clenched a fist. 'I'm getting married. The engagement's been sealed. My bride arrives any day now.'

'How can she do that?'

'A female reeve will bring her. It's all been arranged.'

'Just as your sister would have been hauled off to Nessumara- Wait! Which bride? The one they arranged for before? The one from Nessumara? The one they meant to trade Miravia for?'

Eliar lunged, fist cocked, but O'eki interposed his bulk between them. 'I'll thank both of you pups not to bark. My thanks, Eliar. As always. Here's our book. I'll see you tomorrow.'

There he stood with the immensity of a mountain, implacable and immovable, as Eliar grabbed the accounts book and left.

'So,' muttered Kesh, 'the Ri Amarah settle their problems by pretending they don't exist.'

'I still hear barking,' said O'eki. 'I'm no longer a slave, Master Keshad. I'm factor here, with certain privileges. One of them is that I want you to shut up about this. It's a waste of my time, and I value the Ri Amarah, even if you do not.'

Kesh bit back a retort.

O'eki smiled. 'That's better.'

'You're a cursed sight cleverer than anyone has ever thought you were, aren't you?' said Kesh.

'I'm a patient man. Now that I'm here, Master Keshad, I don't intend to lose what I've so unexpectedly gained, nor do I intend to suffer through two young men wrangling out of hurt pride and unmet lust. Do you understand me?'

But Kesh smiled. Lust was nothing. Lust passed. What he felt was not lust.

'I realize I am a hostage in this household,' he said, 'but with your permission I'd like the evening free to run a few errands.'

'You're free to go. I'll be sending you back to Astafero in the morning by reeve to arrange for another consignment of oil of naya.'

'Won't that clean out their stores?'

'The naya seeps will keep producing, won't they?'

'So they will. Why don't they lift it all out by eagle?'

'The eagles can only take two vessels at a time. There's still stock in Argent Hall to move, so why waste the reeves' time by making them lose two days flying to Astafero and back when we can ship in new supplies for them to carry once they've lifted the old?'

'You'd think the enemy might remember what was done to them at Olossi. Not that I was there, but I've heard the story a hundred times.'

'Even if they know, what can they do?'

'I don't know. That's why I'm not a military man. I'll be ready to go at dawn.'

In the hirelings' courtyard he washed, and dressed in a rumpled jacket and trousers. He didn't need to impress with his clothing and his looks. He wasn't a rich merchant. The gold from Anji's mother was like poison that he had to shed from his system.

He set out in the heat haze, keeping to the shady side of the streets. He stopped first at one of the Lantern's temples, and afterward made his way to Mistress Bettia's compound. The elderly doorman, a slave bought out of the south years ago, recognized Keshad and admitted him to the reception hall, a cozy chamber fitted with pillows, a decorative screen depicting famous actors from recent festivals, and doors slid open to display an inner courtyard ornamented with a fishpond and flower-pots.

He sat cross-legged on a pillow, watching the courtyard shadows consume the handsome pond and plants as the sun set. The inner door slapped open, and a slave entered, a young attractive woman carrying a tray with a pot and two tiny ceramic cups. A debt mark branded her face by her left eye; she was wearing a taloos so thinly woven that her body was half visible beneath, the kind of thing unpleasant masters made their massage girls wear when helping bored customers. She did not look at him, her face flushed with shame.

Mistress Bettia knew he and Nasia had been slaves together in

Master Feden's household and it was almost certain she knew they had once been lovers. It was possible Nasia had even confessed to her mistress, or to one of the other household slaves, that she had cherished the hope that Keshad meant to buy her free, but of course he had ruthlessly abandoned her when he had a chance to free his sister from Ushara's temple.

Mistress Bettia entered the room, called for tea to be poured, and dimissed the slave.

'Whew! Such heat!' she said by way of opening the conversation, fanning her sweaty face. 'You were gone a long time, Master Keshad. People thought you were dead.'

Tm not dead. I see you still have the slave you received from Master Feden.'

'Nasia?' Her smile oozed a false surprise. 'Not much use to me, I tell you. The Sirniakan couch I traded for her was of more use to me.'

'How much?' he asked.

'How much?' Her trembling hand, lifting the cup, betrayed her greed. She licked her lips before she sipped. 'Ten cheyt.'

'That's the price for a good riding horse.'

She laughed unkindly, setting down the cup. 'You've not been in Olossi for some months, have you? A good riding horse costs five times that now that the army has requisitioned so many. I daresay you cannot purchase a riding horse in this city for any price.'

Abruptly he was bored with haggling. 'Ten cheyt it is. Sapanasu's clerks inform me that the going rate for Sirniakan dinns is four per cheyt. Here's your price.'

He counted out forty gold dinns onto the tray and rose. 'I'll wait outside. Send her and the bill of sale to me.'

He walked out before she could find her voice. Out on the street, the doorman examined him with an odd expression, more frown than smile. Folk passed, making haste to get home as the light dwindled. Spiced meat was being roasted, and he licked his lips rather as Bettia had done, thinking she had caught the flavor of his weakness.

It was full dark before Nasia cautiously stepped onto the street. She handed him a hastily written bill of sale and moved out of the aura of the lamplight, hiding herself.

'I'm sorry about the pregnancy you carried and lost,' he said in a low voice. He handed her ten dinns.

'I don't want your coin!'

'Shut up and just take it! This is your seed coin. You can start your own business, make a new life.'

He could not see her expression in the darkness, but her voice was bitter. T don't know how. I've been a slave since I was eight.'

'Get yourself a Qin husband, then. After riding and training all day, they'd probably like a good strong pair of hands to massage their sore buttocks.'

'An outlander?'

'They're all right. They're decent, honest men.'

'That's more than I can say for you!'

'Say what you want about me, Nasia. I can't make amends for what can't be changed. Come at dawn to the Qin compound and you'll get your manumission, sealed and clear. You're free. What you make of it is up to you.'

He tucked the bill of sale into his sleeve and walked off, not looking back. He walked to the night market and ate at a slip-fry stand, savoring the familiar spices and the inconsequential chatter. Then he made his way to Master Calon's compound, a new place rather higher on the hill in deference to Calon's newly elevated status in the city.

Master Calon received him not in his reception hall but in his private audience chamber, floridly decorated with layers of screens and paintings as if he felt obliged to display every ornament he owned. The effect made Kesh blink, even as lamplight softened the mismatched colors. Two expensive Sirniakan couches graced the chamber. Kesh sat on a pillow as Calon chuckled.

'Had enough of the empire, have you?'

'I have. Did you ever get a full accounting of my travels?'

'I wouldn't know. Together with Olossi's council and the Hieros, I met with Captain Anji before he left. I hear a rumor that a woman of exalted status resides in Astafero now, presumed to be his mother.'

'It's true. A Qin princess, and formerly wife to the Sirniakan emperor, now deceased, the one who fathered Captain Anji.'

Galon nodded thoughtfully. His grandfather had left the Sirniakan Empire as a young man and settled in Olossi, marrying into a local clan, but Calon's ancestry was still apparent in his prominent nose and the texture of his hair. He had the handsome coloring of the Hundred folk but his features weren't truly local. You could never look at him and not know he had ancestors who came from somewhere else.

'I'll make you a trade,' said Kesh. 'Sell back to me those two sisters I sold you, and I'll give you the same report I gave to Captain Anji, not a word left out. Name a fair price. I won't bargain.'

'You're already bargaining,' said Calon. 'And it's a cursed hard bargain you're driving, too. I'd give a lot to have that information. But I sold away the younger sister to pay for the elder's training.'

'Who bought her?'

Calon rang his bell, and a factor hurried in, a hireling by the look of him, eager to show he was doing a good job. 'Bring my red book.'

The book was brought. As he scanned the accounts, he spoke. 'The older sister was coming along very well, with a pretty voice and a quick tongue. But her manner isn't fetching. She frowns and cries-'

'Did it ever occur to you she might miss her sister?'

Calon glanced up at him, mouth twisting as if he did not know whether to laugh or scold, then touched a line on the ledger. 'Mountain Azalea clan. They run a lumber business.'

Kesh rose. 'I know where they are. Wait up for me, if you will, Master Calon. I'll return.'

It was more difficult t,o get into Mountain Azalea's clan compound after dark, but in the end he shamelessly traded on Mai's name and wedged a foot between doors. An irritated older woman was sent out to interview him in the entrance courtyard, although he could see onto the porch of the reception hall that a lamp burned within, behind rice-paper screens.

'What do you want? Master Keshad, is it?'

'Yes. I'm recently returned from a trading expedition to the south, where I discovered some unexpected- Aui! Never mind that. I've just been to see Master Calon about the slave girls I sold him last year, and I understand he sold you the younger sister. How is the girl working out?'

She watched him as if he were a snake about to strike. 'Why do you want to know?'

'It's nothing, I am sure. The trouble in Mariha… for sure it's most likely because of the tremendous heat down in those lands. That the problem happened with her sister doesn't mean it will be a problem for you.'

Her eyes widened. 'What problem?'

'Neh, nothing to concern yourself with. I was just asking if there had been any incidents, but if there haven't been-'

'What cursed manner of incidents?' she demanded, with a glance toward the shuttered reception hall.

'If there have been none, I see no reason to alarm you.'

'We just bought her because she's young and likely to grow into something useful later. Right now she's mostly just an extra mouth to feed.'

'I'm relieved to hear nothing is amiss and that none of the rest of you have suffered. I'll be going now. My pardon for disturbing you so late-'

'Neh, come inside, Master Keshad. Perhaps you'll take khaif and cakes and we can discuss the girl further. Really, these out-landers are a lot of trouble, aren't they?'

By one means and another he left the house with the girl, whose wan face turned several unpleasant shades as she recognized him, the man who had hauled her and her sister far from their distant homes and into the household of a master who had callously separated them. As he had once been separated from Zubaidit.

The hells.

But she went obediently enough. Young slaves learned to be obedient if they learned nothing else. She trotted beside him, for he practically ran all the way back to Master Calon's compound, impatient to be finished with the cursed business and hating her lifeless expression.

Calon had waited up, expectantly, with a tray of food and drink to greet their return. He chuckled as they entered.

'What demon has gotten into you, Keshad?' he asked.

The girl's color brightened; she looked around the room, straining as at an invisible leash. Calon rang the bell, and the door opened, and there stood her sister. The two girls wept and embraced until Calon told the factor to take them out and let them weep elsewhere, out of earshot.

'What do you want?' Calon said, when tranquillity had been restored and all they could hear was the clip-clap of a dray beast being led down the street just beyond the wall.

Kesh cleared the dishes off the tray and dumped the rest of the dinns on the lacquered surface. He hadn't counted them; he didn't want to know. Calon grunted, then put a hand to his chest as though he'd been struck.

'You always dealt fairly with me, Calon, so I'll trust you now. Here is the coin for their upkeep, and a stake for the elder sister toward her manumission. The rest she will have to earn herself. Here's the bill of sale for the younger. It will need to be sealed and signed off.'

'Why are you doing this? You're the one who brought them over the mountains and sold them to me in the first place.'

'I've had a change of heart.' As he felt his burden lightened of all the tarnished gold gifted him by the Qin princess, of the females left behind in slavery so Bai could walk free, he knew it was true.