Traitors' Gate (16 page)

“Does every local in this city know it?”

“We here in the reeve halls do, obviously. We try to keep quiet about it.” He winked past her, at Joss. “Some managed better than others.”

The reeves clambering up the ladder were laughing, bolder now inside, where there was no chance they'd be spotted by the enemy. “Trust Joss to know every adventuresome female . . .” one was saying as his voice broke into guffaws.

“Let's get on with this,” said Joss curtly. “Neffi, can you get her dry clothes?”

“I was joking about the clothes.” The jesting tease molted right out of her tone. Her brows drew down as Neffi, frowning in confusion, lowered the lamp. “Best I deliver my report right here and then you lot lower me back down to my contact so I can return to the city before daybreak.”

Peddonon called to the reeves. “Heya, boys. Go get Odash and the other seniors. Then get back here yourselves, or get fresh muscle. Move!”

“We can fly you back to Olossi,” said Joss.

She shook her head. “I haven't completed my mission.”

He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to look nonchalant. “Go on. What of the other scouts?”

“What other scouts?” Peddonon asked.

“Seven scouts walked out of Olo'osson. We were delayed by lendings for a few days and lost our horses to them, but carried on, on foot. One of your reeves spotted us outside Horn and
flew down to deliver a message to Shai. Now I don't know if it was him coming down with that cursed eagle, or if we had already been seen anyway, but a cadre of outlaws attacked our encampment on his heels. They killed Edard and captured Shai.”

“Edard was the censor.”

“That's right. One of Kotaru's Thunderers. Pretty cursed useless, if you ask me, but Tohon and I managed despite his clumsy attempts at leadership. Anyway, our lad Shai was captured and we had to follow that cadre lest they hand him over to one of those cloaks. As it turned out, we weren't the ones who rescued him. The outlander demon the reeve came to warn us about, an ugly pale girl with demon-blue eyes, she killed the whole cursed cadre with her magic and left us with Shai and the children the cadre had taken as slaves.”

Peddonon whistled, and the steward shook his head.

“Those children were badly misused.” Her expression darkened until she looked as if she'd have been happy to cut the throats of every one of those outlaws. Which, no doubt, she'd have done, given the opportunity. “I'll cut the rest of that tale short. Eridit, the two militiamen, and Tohon went south with the children to Nessumara, which we thought would be safe.”

“They were spotted, safe on the river.”

She smiled, then lifted her gaze as her smile faded. “As you know, I was given another mission.”

“A mission that will almost certainly lead to your death. Why go on?”

“Because I'll die anyway, whether today, or tomorrow, or when I've reached the venerable age of eighty-four, having seen seven rounds of the year cycle. It's necessary to take the risk to achieve the ends. Things are worse than you know. The news I bring from Toskala tonight is that the army is marching south on Nessumara.”

“The hells!” exclaimed Peddonon and Neffi in unison.

“They're driving out all the refugees from Toskala. They've ruthlessly cut loose all the camp followers who marched with them from Walshow and sent them away. They intend to take hostages from every clan and family and guild compound in
Toskala. Those hostages will serve the army on the march through Istria. The hostages also will stand as surety for the good behavior of the Toskalans. The army will leave a garrison behind, but the threat to the hostages will be what keeps the population in order. I hope to go with the army as a hostage. Once with the army, I'll keep my eyes open, and strike when opportunity arises.”

“A dangerous venture,” said Peddonon with an admiring whistle.

“What do you think, Marshal?” Her gaze challenged him.

He wasn't about to show how much it bothered him to think of her risking herself like that. “What about the seventh scout? What did you say his name is?”

“Shai?”

“Isn't he the uncle of the captain's wife? He's an outlander, but not Qin.”

Her lips quirked. “Those outlanders all look alike to me, Marshal.” But she didn't mean it; she was just goading him, because sometimes a person took you that way, that you had to constantly be poking at them to get a reaction. It was not quite, and not only, lust, and it wasn't truly love; sometimes two bodies just fell out that way, impossible to explain why.

They'd had no chance to act.

Maybe they never would.

“It's gotten cursed hot in here,” muttered Peddonon.

Neffi said, without anger, “Oh, shut up, Peddo. This is cursed serious, you idiot.”

Joss pushed away from the wall as he heard voices. Odash, Kesta, a fawkner, and another senior reeve climbed down the ladder. A flurry of questions filled the dark chamber. Zubaidit restated her news about Toskala. He could not look away from her as she talked in that forceful, silky voice.

“What help do you want from us?” he asked when she was done.

“I was told the commander of Clan Hall is a woman. Where is she?”

Haltingly, Odash relayed the tale of Traitors' Night, and as he related the story of betrayal and the murder of Toskala's
council and all the senior reeves, her gaze flicked from Joss's face to each shadowed face of the others listening.

When Odash had finished, Zubaidit looked at Joss. “So. All the witnesses counted six cloaks departing from the rock after the murders. It seems the ghost girl has joined their ranks. Some call them Guardians, and they ride winged horses, as it says in the tale. But I also hear people call them demons. What are they?”

Witnesses had reported that one of the demons seen in Justice Square wore a cloak that gleamed in the night like polished bone; it could not have been Marit. She walked in his dreams, not on earth. Yet the strange words she spoke in his dreams haunted him:
I see with my third eye and I understand with my second heart that they are corrupted, so I dare not approach them. They will destroy me if they find me.

A person can be destroyed in many ways, not just through death.

His clenched jaw was going to bring on another gods-rotted headache. “How can any of us know what a Guardian is? Or what they want. A cloaked man called Lord Radas commands this army, that I am sure of.”

“Lord Radas is the one I mean to kill, but if Clan Hall's commander is dead, then who stands as commander over all the reeve halls now?”

All looked at Joss.

“You?” she demanded.

He sighed.

She made a noise rather like a chuckle and something like a cough of disdain. “Have you any plan other than holding out up here as kind of a stick poking them in the eye?”

“Heya!” objected Kesta furiously. “If we hold this rock, then we give hope to others.”

Zubaidit's grin caused Kesta to settle. “It's a brave choice, and the right one. But you'll need a plan.”

“What do you suggest?” drawled Joss, annoyed at her way of blowing in like a strong wind and expecting everything to bend before her. “Since you seem so cursed sure of yourself.”

Her grin sharpened as with anger before it curved into a
frown. “I don't know what's to be done in Toskala, with hostages being taken and none to stop it. If the city folk rebel, their relatives will be killed in retaliation. I don't know what you here on the rock plan to do, and I'll thank you not to tell me in case I'm caught out and forced to stand before one of the cloaks. For you know they can see into our hearts with their third eye.”

“That's what it says in the tales,” said Joss. “But what does it really mean?”

“It means what it says. They can see into our hearts. You can feel them walk into your mind.” She shuddered, the movement so subtle he stepped forward, thinking to reassure her with a touch, but he stopped himself and wiped his brow instead.

“Don't try to face them,” she added. “You've no shield. Not even the strongest of you.”

Yet Anji had faced one of the cloaked demons and not flinched. Anji's soldiers had suffered the same reaction described by Zubaidit, and Joss had taken the testimony of numerous other witnesses from the day the ghost girl had invaded the Qin compound in Olossi and killed two men there; her demon's gaze had brought even Chief Tuvi to his knees. Why was Anji not affected, if everyone else, even other outlanders, had no protection against the third eye and the second heart?

“Locate Tohon, and fly him back to Olossi,” she went on. “He has valuable information for Captain Anji. He's surveyed the land and the army. His report is crucial. Get Eridit, Ladon, Veras, and the young ones out if you can, too, lest they betray my purpose if they are captured when the army takes Nessumara.”

“You think the army will defeat Nessumara?” Joss asked.

“How can they not? We in the Hundred have no militia that can stand against such an organized force.”

“They're a formidable enemy, but surely they can be defeated, as their secondary army was at Olossi.”

“The soldiers sent to Olossi were the dregs. These are real soldiers. Not so easy to defeat. You've seen how many there are.”

“Is there anything else we need to know? Or that you need from us?” Joss asked her.

She shut her eyes, thinking it through. “The demons are looking for outlanders and the gods-touched in particular, taking them into custody. The army shows little respect for the gods, and there's a cursed lot of talk among the soldiers about how the cloaks have defeated death. The soldiers fear the cloaks, but they also want what they believe the cloaks can give them: wealth, life, land, power. Sex.” When she opened her eyes, her hot gaze seemed to burn him to ash.

Peddonon said, “Heya, Kesta, get this lot out to ready the basket, will you? Odash, we'll need to assign someone to go after these scouts that went to Nessumara. Warn the other halls about this business with the gods-touched and outlanders. And the Green Sun clan, the traitors.” He grabbed the lamp out of the steward's hand. “You go, too, Neffi. You're getting cursed old. You need your sleep, neh? I'll keep the light until she's down safely.”

“Eh, yes, Peddo. Right away.”

They went, Kesta down the corridor with the other four reeves while Odash and Neffi climbed the ladder.

“I've got to take a piss,” added Peddonon, setting the lamp on the floor. “Be right back.” He scrambled up the ladder.

Joss hadn't known that stone breathed, but he swore he could hear its exhalations in the silence that followed, or maybe it was his own breathing gotten cursed irregular as he became exceedingly aware of how very alone they were, caught within the glow of light and with folk busying themselves nearby but out of sight.

“Are these soldiers really our enemy, or only the worst reflection of our own selves?” she asked in a low voice. “We made them. We have to unmake them, not just defeat or kill them.”

“What do you mean?”

She shrugged, looking angry. “It seems to me that when an army can recruit so many discontented men and convince so many of them to act in ways they would once have considered
criminal, then it is only building with bricks already formed and baked by others. Why do so many men march with the army? Spit on the gods? Steal what they could earn by their own labor? Rape when they can walk into Ushara's temples and worship? Why didn't they just stay home in their villages and towns, marry, tithe, and sire children? The Hundred has let itself rot from within. Now the contagion of discontent and anger is spread by those greedy enough to encourage the worst in those too weak to resist.”

“Harsh words,” he said.

“True words. We must all take responsibility for the troubles that engulf us.”

He did not know what to say because every word seemed meaningless compared with her presence as she stood there with wet cloth stuck to her skin and her body balanced with deadly grace. Her glare forced him a step back, and he bumped against unyielding stone. He was trembling with the effort of staying where he was, as his pulse throbbed and his breath caught in his throat.

She shook her head, no smile, no frown. “A woman can look a long time before she finds a man who can really take his time.”

“A woman can look a long time if she never pauses long enough to try this man.”

She laughed.

“Aui!” He pushed away from the wall.

She met him, and for a glorious moment he held her as they kissed, and kissed.

And kissed.

Just when he thought they might have to do something very reckless despite knowing how close all those other reeves were in the covering darkness, a discreet cough interrupted them.

She broke away. Riven of contact, he swayed, and as Peddonon caught his arm to steady him, she vanished down the corridor toward the ledge.

“You've got it bad, my friend,” murmured Peddonon.

Joss brought a palm to his face. “Am I crazy?”

Peddonon snorted.

“She's leaving!” He pulled out of Peddonon's grasp and stumbled after her.

“Don't go over the edge, Joss.”

Too late. She was sworn to the goddess, a trained assassin, fixed on her mission. She'd already been lowered over the cliff, the reeves letting out the rope hand over hand. He stayed out there in the night and the wind until they received the three tugs that indicated she'd gotten down safely. Until they hauled up the empty basket and stowed it under the overhang where it couldn't be spotted in daylight by an enemy patrolling the far shore. Until they'd all gone away, leaving Peddonon and Kesta waiting for him in a patient silence that hurt more than the hollow feeling in his gut.

The cooling breeze off the water reminded him that the dry season lay ahead. He rubbed his arms, but the ache did not go away.