"There's one other thing," added Volias. "This Argent Hall marshal who calls himself Yordenas? The Commander had us hunt in the records. There was mention of a reeve called Yordenas. He was a young man newly come to Iron Hall. He was killed about ten years ago, while trying to stop a skulk of bandits as they were beating and raping and robbing in an isolated village up in the high valleys. The reeve's eagle was mutilated and left for dead, and the man's clothes were found, soaked in blood. But they never found his body."
"So we don't know he was killed."
"In the testimony of the villagers, those who survived, they stated quite clearly that he was killed. That he died in the arms of a woman who'd given her apprenticeship to the Lady. She'd seen death before. The reeve who took her testimony felt she knew what she was talking about."
"What happened to the body, then?"
"That's the mystery. It vanished soon after. No one could say how."
THE FLIGHTS FLEW wide of the road, so as not to be spotted, but Joss sent Volias and Kesta to shadow West Track. He'd taken his chances yesterday flying over to observe the army. He didn't want to be spotted, knowing it necessary that Argent Hall and their allies believe, for the time being, that he was dead. But yesterday he had needed to see, and today so did these two, so they could understand as well as he did what they were up against.
He had never in his life seen quite so many people on the move all at the same time. They marched in orderly groups, ranked by cohorts. Their weapons gleamed; blacksmiths had been working for years to produce that supply of swords, spears, halberds, axes, and arrows. Their wagons trundled along, pulled by draft animals. Behind them, villages lay emptied. The road stretched, deserted, before and behind the army's killing path. He had glimpsed a handful of people in the woodland cover, scrambling to hide when they saw the eagle's shadow: these might be outriders and foragers, or they might be innocent villagers trying to hide from the wolves. He had seen fresh mounds of dirt heaped over corpses, an act meant to demoralize and terrify the country folk, since it was truly an abomination to bury what should be left to the Lady's acolytes to purify and the Four Mothers to gather into their wombs.
Worse even than all this was the knowledge that the horror was just beginning, if they could find no way to stop it. No adult in living memory had seen an army gathered, although armies were spoken of in the old tales of the civil wars that had almost torn apart the Hundred. To think there were two such armies made him want to scream.
Midday came a signal flashed through the flights by flags. Joss had told Volias what to look for, and they had found it. He shifted the flights northward to move out over the road and the river plain, while he flew in over West Track. There, on the road below, marched a band of some two hundred mounted soldiers, all in black.
The Qin soldiers moved at a speed Joss could hardly credit, but they switched off between horses, and all of them-men and horses alike-had a stubborn toughness that was impressive and even disturbing. Joss took Volias and Kesta down with him and left the rest aloft, as it took less energy for the eagles to circle high overhead, rising on drafts and gliding back down to repeat the cycle, than for all to land and take off again. Anyway, they were safer in the air. The army was at least a day's march behind them by now, but there would still be scouts and outriders ranging along the land and sneaking through the woods.
They landed a short ways out ahead of the Qin. Joss left Scar off the road and clambered up onto its surface. Where the Qin scouts hid he could not tell, but they got their message back to the company somehow, because a short while later Anji came galloping up in front of his troop with six companions, including Chief Tuvi and his usual dour guardsmen, Sengel and Toughid.
The captain dismounted and strode to Joss, then grasped his arm, hand to elbow, and grinned with genuine pleasure. "Well met. What news do you bring me?"
"These are Volias and Kesta, reeves out of Clan Hall. They've brought two flights, sixty in all. You can see some of them."
Anji shaded his eyes with a hand and surveyed the sky.
Joss said, "The rest are spread out to oversee the land. What of your task?"
The captain dropped his hand. Dried blood spattered the back of his fingers. "The ambush succeeded. They were lax, and lazy, accustomed to easy pickings. I myself would always put my best soldiers in my strike force, and if that is so, then this army is strong only in numbers. However, I can't be sure their generals act as I would."
"So the strike force is wiped out."
"Some escaped. That was to be expected. But as a unified force, they are broken. How far behind is the army? How large is it?"
"A day's march behind. The Devouring woman had it right. About three thousand fighting men, formed into cohorts."
Anji nodded at Volias and Kesta, to invite their attention and input. "So, it is as we discussed when the council got the news and came to us begging for our aid. We've accomplished the one commission, the one we agreed with the Greater Houses through Master Iad."
"What of the greater battle?" Joss asked.
"There are far too many of them for us to hope for a victory in the open field. With the strike force destroyed, we have three choices. We can retreat to Olossi, where the council should already be calling in the townsfolk and preparing for a siege. We can run entirely, and abandon both city and land to the invaders. We can stay outside the walls and harass the army when it invests Olossi with a siege, as we must expect it will do. If the latter course, then we would hope eventually to wear them down, starve them, deny them battle, and make it dangerous for them to move about the land to forage and raid in small bands. To carry out this plan, we must ourselves disperse into bands so we can supply ourselves and appear to be everywhere at once. They must never be able to find and pin us down. But for this choice to work, we must have the advantage of speed and sight. We must be able to cut off all messages running between the army and Argent Hall, and between the army and whatever allies they hold in the north. Otherwise, we have nothing they do not already possess, and, as well, the reeves who cooperate with them can seek out and discover us as we move across the land."
Kesta was devouring the captain with her gaze, listening as if each utterance was a jewel that must be caught. She seemed smitten.
Joss said, "I've seen no reeves besides our own today. How did the other part of the plan go? What happened to the reeve from Argent Hall?"
His words cut like an axe. There was a pause, as though he had said something shocking. A horse snorted. A hawk skimmed overhead and shied off, spotting the eagles.
Then all seven of the Qin-stolid, serious men-laughed until they wept.
When he was done, Anji wiped tears from his face. "Aui! That woman is dangerous. She knows more than one way to kill a man."
"She murdered the reeve?"
"No. But he got all tied up in his honor."
Chief Tuvi snorted, and they all chortled again.
Anji finally found his voice. "He wasn't able to alert Argent Hall. But my own tailmen ran into a man who rode a horse that had wings, and could fly. This man they shot with many arrows, and a javelin, yet he did not fall. My tailmen do not exaggerate. What do you make of it?"
"There are no winged horses," said Kesta. "It's a tale for children."
"What tale?" asked Anji. "For I can tell you, my men were shocked at the sight of a winged horse. Of a man who would not fall no matter how many arrows he had in him."
Kesta said, "The tale is a simple one. The gods brought forth the Guardians to bring justice to the land. They gave them seven gifts, and departed. After that, the Guardians acted as judges at the assizes. But it's only a story. There are no Guardians."