"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.