Dawn was coming—a gray definition of trees and rocks, a seam of red along the east that was not burning Ygotai.
Taizu moved, and looked around her. "How long?" she asked. "How long?"
"It's all right. We're still ahead."
He said.
But when he checked Jiro's girth and climbed into the saddle:
"Oh, damn."
"What?" Taizu asked.
"Riders," he said. There were, three of them visible on the crest of the hill ahead. Taizu climbed hastily up to the mare's back and had a look for herself.
"What do we do?"
He was not himself sure. He looked at the land ahead, the rough land to either side. He started Jiro moving, in that strange nowhere calm of hours like this before hostilities, two forces camped close to each other.
He wished Taizu were not with him. He wished—
He was not sure.
More of them came over the rise.
Twenty, thirty now.
"Gods," Taizu breathed. But he kept riding and she did, calmly, slowly.
The road out of Keido, he thought. Lord Reidi's home. A Hoishi town burned at the hands of mercenaries and an army came down the road from Keido. Perfectly reasonable: the lord wanted to know the reason. But not reasonable that the town burned at all. It was a good part of lord Reidi's income.
"I don't know what we're into," he said. In the dim gray light he could see banners. The white showed most. If it were indeed lord Reidi's men, it would be a black lily on a white banner; and there was white enough.
"Taizu."
"I'm not going anywhere you don't!"
"Easy. Easy. Whose are the mercenaries back there? Who do you think?"
A pause. "I don't know." There was an edge of panic in Taizu's voice. "They could be from Keido. I don't know whose they are."
"Taiyi?"
"I don't know."
"The peasants are going toward Keido."
Taizu was silent a moment. "Likely they're going everywhere. But where they thought it was safe...."
"I want you to do something for me. Just stop on the road. Let's give them a parley signal—"
"No."
"Shut up and do what I tell you. One of us. One of them. If they do something else, I'll be coming back in a hurry. Just stop in the middle of the road and wait. Hear me?"
"I don't like this. Let's get off the road. Gods, there's more of them. ..."
There were ranks behind the ones in the lead. It was a cavalry on the move.
"Stay here," he said, "Do it, girl. You might string your bow—in case. But don't be obvious."
She reined back. He tapped Jiro with his heel and Jiro took a breath and collected himself. He held that in, took his sword and laid it crosswise of the saddle.
Slow advance then. He reached a point outside bowcast from both sides and stopped, and waited.
Chapter Fifteen
"Lord Saukendar," Reidi said, his wrinkled face—not so much changed, after all these years—showing the worry natural to a man at such a meeting. But the old lord came forward in person, once his retainer had told him who it was—came forward himself with no guard, elderly as he was, while his retainers drew his troops up at rest on the hill.
"Lord Reidi," Shoka said, and bowed in the saddle. "I appreciate your courtesy."
"You're after more than courtesies, m'lord."
"A free road. Your leave to pass. Perhaps your advice."
"What advice is that?"
"What's happening in Hoishi?" Shoka nodded his head back toward Ygotai. "What kind of craziness is loose in Chiyaden these days?"
Reidi stared at him as if he had lost his wits.
"So I see I've asked a foolish question," Shoka said. "Am I at fault?"
"I had a report from Mon. Another from a judge—regarding a horse. Unfortunately—I'm not the only one who'll have heard. The word's out. It's going north of here. The Regent's men have been scouring all along your track. And evidently they've attacked me as your ally."
Shoka let go his breath. "You've been a good neighbor, m'lord. I'd never wanted to cause you grief. Now it seems I've caused more than my company may be worth to you. What about the other lords? What about Hainan and Taiyi?"
"What about my town, m'lord? What happened at Ygotai?"
"Someone set fires. Someone killed a great number of people. The ones who escaped have taken to the roads. I don't know who fired the town. I rode through when I saw the fires—my wife and I—"
"Wife!" Lord Reidi looked past his shoulder, his jaw clamped like an old turtle, his eyes glittering sharply. "What are you doing to us?"
"My wife has a grievance with lord Gitu. From Hua. Relatives. I thought to have a quieter ride than this, by night, by the back roads—take care of the matter and out again, with no grief to Hoishi. It seems I'm sadly mistaken. So I ask you for your advice now—and I offer you my help—if there were anything I can do to make amends."
"You don't know," Reidi said with a shake of his head.
"My lord, no, I don't." Softly, quietly. Reasonably, while his heart was hammering away and he was poised to move. "Would you explain?"
Reidi leaned his hands on the saddle and heaved a sigh. "The Emperor, lord Saukendar. The Emperor—and the Regent. Does it seem reasonable to you that a Regency continues—into an Emperor's thirtieth year?"
"No, m'lord."
"Not to us, either. Not to many of us. We were ready to make that objection—when lord Gitu overran Yijang and Hua. Both likely to support us. Your—wife—has told you nothing about that matter."
"Tell me."
Lord Reidi's brow arched, rearrangement of a myriad wrinkles. "I ask your honesty, m'lord,"
"You have it, my lord. I believe I have yours."
There was long silence. Reidi's horse shifted under him. That was all.
Then Reidi said: "Gitu has hired thousands of mercenaries in the last two years—with the imperial treasury. Fittha and Oghin, while we fight their like on the border. While they take our young men to fight in the Imperial army. And there is no Emperor to rally to. Ghita's sapped the wit he did have. Ghita's assassins have taken Meigin...."
"Damn."
Reidi gave him that one-sided stare again. "Why did you come back?"
"A man can be a fool at any age."
"In what respect, m'lord Saukendar?"
"Perhaps—to hope there was something changed here."
"There is no Emperor."
"Dead?"
"Effectively. There was a chance. There were those of us who would have brought him to the throne—His thirtieth birthday seemed the propitious day—"
"Hua. Two years ago."
"Hua and Yijang. Which fell to Gitu's mercenaries in the same month. Assassinations, elsewhere. Hired killers. Bands of mercenaries traveling under imperial orders. The Emperor's seal, and the Regent's orders. How do we stop such a thing? How do we prevent it—when every lord able to lead is apprehended, assassinated, when they strip us of men, even boys out of the fields—go to Saukendar, some said. Go to Saukendar. They urged me to send to you. This time he has to listen, they said. But if I had sent—and Ghita had known—you understand—" Reidi gave an uncomfortable twitch of the shoulders. His horse shifted again. "I had no true hope that you'd come. You'd indicated to the villagers—that you had no wish to hear from anyone. That you would refuse any such petitions—"
"You were watching me."
"It's my village, m'lord—as the Regent pointed out to me again and again, and threatened my life should you leave that mountain. Of course the word came to me. I tried to get a messenger down the road to you when I knew you'd left Mon. I take it that no one reached you."