Traitors Gate

43

Couldn't a man get some sleep? Joss hadn't realized how exhausted he was until the first slug of cordial left him reeling. He might as well have downed ten cups as one, for the way his head spun. A kind soul found him a blanket, and he lay down in the midst of the camp, yet twice just as he'd dozed off some cursed reveler tripped over him, and then that flirting Naya Hall reeve had to drag a young Copper Hall reeve almost next to him and get noisy. Had these young people no respect for others? Couldn't they be bothered to seek out a little decent privacy?

Had he suddenly turned into an elder, rapping his cane on his porch and ranting at high-spirited children to get out of his orchard?

He hauled the blanket up to the berm and shook it out before lying down, on his back, to face the stars. There trundled the Carter and his Barking Dog, materializing to the southwest as the last glow faded. Low in the east, the Oxen trudged on their steady path, rising. There were always two, yoked together. How was it possible Mai was dead?

The Ox is always beautiful.

Peddonon sank down cross-legged beside him. 'Do I smell tears?'

'She was a lovely woman, but I think that her physical features weren't her true beauty. If she talked to you, she talked to you, as if you were all that mattered to her in the wide world. I don't know how confused or frightened she might have been, to walk into the Hundred as an outlander, but she never faltered. She's the one who overthrew the Greater Houses in Olossi. That settlement in the Barrens flourished because of her, didn't it?'

'I wouldn't know. I'm sorry anyone with a kind heart is dead. If you're going to sleep out here, mind if I share your blanket? Kesta stole mine to go sneak off with Nallo, and even as filthy and sweaty as I am, I just don't want to lie smash on the ground.'

Joss scooted over. 'There's your half.'

Instead of lying down, Peddonon stood. 'The hells,' he muttered, looking into the gloom. He snorted. Joss heard soft footfalls. 'Looks like I'm the only one who's not going to get devoured tonight.'

Joss sat up to see — the hells! — Zubaidit approaching along the berm with a blanket slung over one shoulder.

'There's a woman who plans ahead. I'll just take this.' Peddonon grabbed Joss's blanket and yanked hard, toppling Joss sideways. 'Greetings of the dusk, verea. I'm out of your way.'

'Greetings of the night to you, ver,' she shot back, as sweetly as the auntie to whom you've just brought a basket of fresh-picked duha berries. Peddonon laughed and walked off.

'Reminiscent of the first time we met,' said Joss from the ground, noting how her kilt was rucked up to expose a hells lot of long legs. 'Although certainly I'll be hoping for a different outcome.'

He didn't ask why she had come. He knew. She knew. Bodies knew. There were some things you just had to get out of your system.

He stood, and that fast she had an arm around him and her hips shoved against his groin, offering a kiss that lasted so long and got so intense he only broke it off because he belatedly heard cheering and hooting coming from the reeve encampment a stone's toss away. She didn't ease off on her grip.

She spoke in a lover's whisper as she nuzzled his ear. 'Captain Anji wants you dead.'

He broke away as their audience whooped and laughed. She hitched the blanket higher and walked away along the berm with a twitch of that shapely ass, the motion as much a natural phenomenon like wind or rain as a thing he could actually see in the growing darkness.

'The hells!' he called after her. She kept walking. He pulled a hand over his hair, which was spiky with grime from all that digging. Was it only this morning he had buried Lord Radas's corpse deep in the earth? It seemed like a lifetime ago, an act that had severed him from the life he'd lived before. Aui! She had him hooked now, didn't she?

With a laugh, he caught up as she slipped down the side of the berm to open ground. He got an arm around her and reeled her in, and the sheer excitement almost overcame him, but he kissed her hard to relieve some of the heat and then pressed his lips to her ear.

'That's got me going more than the knife did,' he murmured, his free hand sliding down to cup her buttocks. 'You can't possibly ask me to believe you hope to lure me out and murder me by telling me you're luring me out to murder me.'

'Obviously it's working.' Then, a little louder, 'Umm. Yes. Just like that.' Her voice dropped again. 'Can you swim?'

'Of course I can swim, I grew up on the ocean. What threat do I pose to Anji?'

She nuzzled his neck. 'He wants to kill all the cloaks, and he thinks you don't want to.'

'He agreed we need only kill those who were with the enemy-'

She tripped him, and down they went, the words knocked back into his throat by the impact. She was on top, sitting right across his hips, her hands splayed over his chest. She leaned closer and halted with her face a finger's breadth above his, their noses kissing, her warm breath tickling his lips. 'A man can say anything. He threatened me, Joss. He told me that if I didn't do something about you and your infatuation with a lilu appearing in the guise of your long-dead lover-'

'Mark!'

She insinuated a finger through the fastenings of his vest and stroked his bare skin. 'Is that her name?'

'Yes. Ah.'

'A little louder, please.' She ground her hips into his, her kilt wrinkling around her legs, and he really did groan aloud. How long had it been? Best not to consider that question. He had to listen hard to hear her whispering, as crazy as her words seemed here in the darkness out of sight of the other reeves. 'Maybe he envies you your unfortunate good looks, Or maybe he wants you out of the way because you're commander of the reeve halls.'

'Did he threaten to kill you if you didn't kill me?'

'No. He threatened to kill my brother. Let me tell you something.'

How could she talk this through so coolly while he ached everywhere? He crept a hand up her torso and traced the round curve of a breast beneath her tight vest. Her breath caught; her words faltered as she sucked in a sharp, delirious breath; he grinned.

But she mastered herself, bit his lower lip to break his hold on her, and went on in a murmur. 'I love my brother, but I serve the Merciless One. The gods built the land on law. Maybe folk think there are agents among the hierodules and kalos who engage in unlawful activities, assassinating people for coin, for instance. But in truth every case brought before us is carefully considered and only undertaken if three different hieros from different temples agree that a significant breach of justice has occurred and no recourse seems likely through the assizes.'

'That's still taking matters into your own hands, outside the assizes.'

'I am their weapon, not a judge.' She lay down flat atop him, and stretched out her legs. Her toes rubbed his boots. 'To ask me to kill outside the proper channels, and by using a threat as coin, violates the precepts by which every servant of the Merciless One lives. As well force a hierodule to bed a man she despises. It's like a form of rape.'

'What will happen to your brother if you don't kill me?'

Joss knew women's bodies pretty well; when he was with a woman, he was careful indeed to be with her only and entirely. So he felt her attention focus away from him, how the fire of her arousal banked, how her thoughts flew.

'I love Kesh, but I cannot betray the Merciless One to save him. Yet if the Hieros had personally commanded me to kill you

for the same reason, I'd have done it, Joss. Don't think otherwise. I wonder: what if Captain Anji is right? Maybe the Hundred needed the cloaks a long time ago. But I've felt their power, I've had my heart laid open, and I'll never trust them now, even if they claim to be holy Guardians.'

The stars bloomed like an echo of the campfires and lamps strewn around the encampment. The past was as unreachable as the stars, something we can gaze on but never touch.

'You're wrong about the Guardians,' he said. 'That some became corrupt doesn't mean all must. That some turned against justice doesn't mean all will. We're all susceptible in so many ways, but we don't all succumb. That Anji says so, doesn't make it true. Especially when it serves him to get rid of them.'

'I'm thinking about it,' she murmured. 'I haven't made up my mind. Meanwhile, I have a plan. A strong swimmer can make it across the river. It'll be a steep climb up the western bank, but at dawn you can call your eagle. Fly me to Olossi, so I can give my report to the Hieros and warn Kesh, get him away to where Anji and his soldiers can't ever reach him.'

'I thought you disliked her.'

'She is Hieros. She serves Ushara faithfully. Anyhow, I'm bound to report to her.'

'That current is cursed powerful. It would be crazy enough to try to swim across in daylight. At night, it's a death trap. Better you wait out the night with me here and I'll take you away in the morning on Scar. Anji can scarcely attack my reeves, can he? He's not fool enough to kill me in front of the entire army. I'll whistle Scar in at dawn, and we'll be out before he knows we're gone. Of course I'll fly you to Olossi. Why not? I've always wondered what two people could manage while harnessed up in the air. Wouldn't you like to try?'

She laughed. 'No one can see us here,' she whispered. 'Now.'

She flung wide the blanket and they rolled onto it, kissing and caressing as she worked him out of his leathers and he unfastened her thin vest, untied her kilt, and loosed her hair so it tumbled over her shoulders. Skin to skin, he thought he was likely to be obliterated out of sheer pleasure, the earth their bed, the river their song, the wind and stars their coverlet, desire blazing.

And they'd barely gotten started. He knew how to take his time. She knew how to make things last.

But there is an end. Afterward the cooling ardor had its own

glories: the simple animal sense of satisfaction, a tincture of smugness as she nestles against you well pleased, the easing of your heartbeat as you're overtaken by smiling lassitude.

He sighed contentedly as he grinned. 'If my murderer intends to take me off my guard, now would be the time.'

She sat up and tied back her hair. 'Best we go,' she said in a brisk voice that might not have been moaning moments before in that terribly arousing and aroused way. 'We shouldn't have, but — Aui! — I've been waiting to do that for a cursed long time.' Yet she briskly untangled her clothes from his and shoved his leathers onto his chest, then dressed so quickly it was obvious she'd trained to have facility at these tasks in the dark. 'We must go. He'll strike when you least expect it. Joss-'

'It's beyond reckless to try crossing that river at night.' He sought and found a hip, his hand urging her closer. 'We'll go back to camp, wait it out among the reeves. And then tomorrow

— or again tonight, if you insist-'

She twisted out of his grasp and rose. 'I'm going now. Come with me.'

'You'll get to Olossi faster if you go with me at dawn. I admit, I have doubts about Anji, about the way he's taken control of so many aspects of this campaign. But we must take this discussion in front of the councils. Indeed, I have to. For if I seem to have run, bolted under cover of night, I'll lose what little authority I've worked to build. They'll call me a coward. I can't — I won't

— do that to the reeve halls.'

'You're a gods-rotted fool, Joss. Come with me now.'

'Not until morning-'

She loped into the night so abruptly he didn't fancy leaping up and chasing stark naked after her. The hells! Yet she was a hierodule. An assassin. She wouldn't have warned him unless there was smoke signifying fire. Not unless there was a deeper plot afoot by the Hieros to set Joss against Anji for the temple's gain. What did Ushara's temple gain out of an alliance with Anji? The same things Anji gained: order, and control.

The hells. Joss wrestled with his thoughts as he fumbled with his leathers. His hands were clumsy, as if that bout of devouring had eaten his coordination. He shook out the blanket and stumbled back to the reeve camp, where Peddonon, asleep on the blanket he'd stolen from Joss, cracked an eye for long enough to squint at him in the light of the single sentry lantern, and mum-

ble, 'So does that bewildered expression mean you've just had the best sex of your life, or the worst?'

'My head hurts,' said Joss, and Peddonon laughed, and they settled companionably down side by side. Joss fell so hard into the pit of sleep that he was startled when the sun's light flashed him to wakefulness. He was lying on his side, facing east, the sun a glare on his eyelids.

He sat up, rubbing his mess of hair. Most of the reeves were awake. The camp was moving, shrugging the sleep off its shoulders. He got up and dusted grass off his leathers, spotted Peddonon off in the distance laughing with some soldiers, found a place to take a piss. Shook out and rolled up her blanket. Aui! That had been something. Just to think of it — never mind. He fought down the intense physical memory that washed him, and gave serious consideration to running over to the river and plunging into the shallows just to cool down.

Had she really attempted a night crossing? Could she possibly have survived?

No use walking down trails that led nowhere. The army was getting ready to move out. It was time to act like the commander of the reeve halls. He set his bone whistle to his lips, blew Scar's signal, then waved to Peddonon and set off for the awning that sheltered the command unit. The guards let him through. Anji was awake, of course, hair in its neat topknot, tabard brushed clean, and holding his sleepy son as he conferred with his chiefs and captains.

He looked around, noting Joss's approach; there wasn't a cursed hint of surprise or consternation, nothing but a pleasant smile.

'Joss. Greetings of the dawn to you. We're just discussing the day's march. We've had a day to rest and resupply. Now we've got to begin a pursuit and patrol of the countryside and road between here arid Toskala. I'll need the reeves to-'

'Commander Anji. I know you need the reeves. But as commander of the reeve halls, I need to be called in at the start of any council that concerns my reeves. Especially in the current situation, when so many reeves are dealing with eagles who have been pushed to their limit. Naturally, we've got to work together in order to deal with the remaining cohorts, but my reeves and eagles are stretched thin and now is not the time to break them.'

Anji's gesture turned into a wave toward aides waiting to one side. 'Bring cordial. Or juice if you'd prefer.'

'Either is fine. My thanks.'

'I wasn't aware,' Anji continued reasonably, 'that Copper Hall or Gold Hall had recognized you as commander of the reeve halls, even in a ceremonial position. I've received Copper Hall's sanction to deploy them as I see fit. But no matter. You're right to feel concern on behalf of the eagles. They're more valuable than men, are they not? Isn't it true that if a reeve dies, his eagle will simply choose a new reeve, but if an eagle dies, his reeve dies with him? Ah, here's the cordial. Will you be needing nai porridge? Rice? We've already eaten.'

Joss was aware how he must look, having slept on the ground and done much else besides although surely none of these men could suspect. Captain Arras, looking Joss over, had a frown on his face that caused Joss to brush his stubbled jaw to make sure some telltale mark hadn't been left, but there was only a stray wisp of grass. '

With his free hand, Anji poured from a ceramic pot into cups, took one for himself, and let the rest be passed around. Joss drank with the others. The baby dozed, his head on his father's shoulder. Anji wasn't wearing the Qin armor today but only a thick quilted coat under his tabard. Dark circles beneath his eyes made him look drained of life and spirit, but how could he not be? Just last night he'd heard that his beloved wife had been murdered.

Aui! Could it be the news had driven him insane enough to threaten Zubaidit? Was it likely a man in the first shock of grief could even conceive of such a convoluted plan? Had Zubaidit misunderstood Anji? Could she have made it up? But that made no sense either.

Anji was dangerous. Like fire, he had to be contained. But at the same time, he'd done more to save the Hundred than any other person except perhaps Mai. Wasn't she the person who had persuaded him to fight in the first place?

'We're weary, and snappish,' said Joss. 'As we get when we're exhausted. But Anji, someone who knows eagles and who does not fear to disagree with you to your face must always be on hand when it comes time to determine how the reeves will be deployed. Otherwise, more harm than good will come of it in the long run. Men can be pushed harder than eagles. And even men will break if pushed too hard.'

'So they will,' said Anji. 'Perhaps you'd like to make an accounting of the reeves here as their eagles come in, and let me know what their status is so I know how many and at what distance I can deploy them.'

His quick capitulation surprised Joss, but he knew better than to linger over such a trifling victory. He downed a second cup of cordial and took his leave to return to his reeves. Eagles were circling overhead, waiting to be flagged down. He jogged over to the encampment, reeves tidying up, rolling up blankets, tugging on harness. The young woman from Naya Hall whistled as Joss strode in. Many laughed, while others smirked. Jests were tossed; he let them fall untouched.

'Heya! You lot. I want to talk to each one of you and see how long you've been flying since you had a decent rest, since your eagle had a real hunt. Come on. One at a time.'

When you used a decisive tone of voice, folk did tend to obey. Peddonon and Nallo he sent immediately back to Law Rock, for an easy day patrolling northward as long as it ended at Clan Hall and rest thereafter. Kesta and her flight he grounded for another entire day. The Copper Hall reeves were testier, their eagles already down and waiting to leave.

'But we want to patrol. We've gotten cursed good at raiding. We can kill off a couple of fleeing cadres. Commander Anji would-'

'I'm commander until a full council is called. You two go back to Copper Hall and let your fawkners make the judgment. She's got a croak coming on, can't you hear it? And he's been plucking his feathers. They need care, not more work. Also, you need to feed them up. Or do you want to kill them?'

They were young and feckless and eager, but that was the one threat that always worked. They slouched away to their eagles.

Peddonon gave Joss a swift hug, then slapped his ass. 'Now they're marching. See you in Toskala, Joss?'

'Tonight or tomorrow, most likely. Get out of here.'

He worked down through the other reeves from Horn Hall and Copper Hall plus the flight that had ferried oil of naya up from Olossi and afterward remained with the army.

'Your flight looks all right,' he said to the leader of the Naya Hall contingent. 'But I want you to check in with the fawkners at Horn Hall before you go the rest of the way. I recommend you send a messenger to Argent Hall asking for three seven-

reeve flights to be released up here and replaced each week in staggered order.'

'That's more or less Marshal Verena's orders, Commander,' said the saucy young reeve. 'Our other flight is already out, meant to sit out the night — if not so appealingly as you or I did, I suppose — at Law Rock. They'll be coming downriver to meet up with the army. We expect two flights tomorrow or the next day, and then we've standing orders to return to Argent Hall.'

'I knew Verena would make a cursed good marshal. All right, then. Go on.'

Peddonon and Nallo had left. Spotting Scar, Joss flagged down the bird.

Kesta also slapped his ass. 'Where are you going? Commander.'

'Can you two not leave your cursed hands off me?' he said, laughing as he shoved her.

'From what I heard — just secondhand, mind you — that's not what you were saying last night. She finally devoured you, eh? That hierodule we met at Law Rock?'

'You should talk.'

She laughed. 'No one talks about me. That's the difference between us, eh?'

'Sheh. First I'm going to follow those two hotheaded Copper Hall reeves, make sure they go back to the hall. You know what gods-rotted idiots young men can be.'

'Just young men?'

Scar thumped down, talons extended, wings high, in a whuf-fle of dust. The raptor had set down in an open space well away from the companies packing up and moving out in ranks. A company of mounted archers wearing the beards and colors of Olo'osson men led their horses past, heading for the bridge. Scar's presence always made horses restive.

Joss jogged forward with his gear, his baton out in case Scar found the movement of the army, however well controlled, too distracting. Fortunately there was a lot of space.

He gestured with the baton as he came in, paced slowly as Scar dipped his big head to greet him. There was a smear of blood on the eagle's beak, so he'd fed, and he had a bit of weight to his lumber. Copper Hall was far enough to go today. The old bird was getting tired.

Joss checked Scar's harness and then dragged his own from its bundle and found it all tangled. He was as cursed tired as the raptor, not thinking straight. He shook it out as Scar scraped restlessly at the dirt.

'Joss! Give me a lift to Copper Hall?'

He turned. The rising sun behind him, Anji approached Joss across the dusty field from the direction of the reeve encampment. He had the clipped, brisk stride of a man who knew where he was going. Two Qin guardsmen flanked him. Joss squinted, stepping to one side, shading his eyes. Qin riders, a hundred or more horsemen, clattered up in his wake, veering off to the left to avoid the Olo'osson company getting its horses calmed down. Which they would have a cursed easier time doing if they would just move off away from Scar.

'Heya! Anji!' At least he wasn't carrying the baby. 'Slow down, stand back, and wait until I flag you in so Scar knows-'

Anji was coming in fast, too fast, hand on the hilt of his sword in the way the Qin often had, a posture of readiness but that looked a hells much too aggressive from the perspective of a weary old raptor. Scar opened his wings, tail fanning. As big as he was, when he flared he looked twice the size. And yet Anji picked up his pace. With the sun behind him, he was more undefined sharp movement than an actual familiar person who'd flown before with Scar.

'Stand back!' shouted Joss, fumbling with his harness.

Maybe it was the way Anji turned his body, the angle of his torso, the gesture visible like the taunting display of a competing eagle as he slipped his sword half out of its scabbard.

Scar struck toward the captain, accidentally knocking Joss over as he lunged talons forward. But the sun was in Scar's eyes, and the eagle was tired. Anji dove and rolled and by the time he was back up on his feet it was too late.

Men's shouts rolled like thunder, and the hissing rains fell. Only it wasn't rain. It was arrows. A hundred — or a thousand, for they fell so hard and so fast — flying in defense of the man who commanded them. Scar was on the ground defending his reeve. He didn't have a chance.

Therefore, neither did Joss.

The sun splintered into shards that pierced his eyes and his flesh. The world turned to gold. The sun rose as darkness devoured him.