Traitors Gate

Their own casualties were minimaclass="underline" five dead, ten with serious injuries, and about thirty with wounds that would need a couple of days rest as long as they did not get infected.

'What are your orders concerning the prisoners?' Giyara asked.

'Let me consider,' said Arras. 'What about supplies?'

'Plenty of tools and weapons,' said Subcaptain Orli, 'but their supplies of leather and harness are cursed thin.'

'What about food supplies?' Arras asked, for this was his major preoccupation these days. He could not feed additional slaves when it was difficult enough to feed his soldiers.

'We've done a sweep of the storehouses,' said Subcaptain Piri. 'Eight bags of rice and twelve of nai. Not enough to feed a hall with this many people for but another few days, eh?'

'Aui! The wine cellar's well stocked!' Subcaptain Eddon was the newest and youngest of the three subcaptains; he laughed recklessly now. 'That new sergeant, Zubaidit-' Then he flushed and broke off.

Orli and Piri eyed Arras, searching for a flinch of satisfaction or shame at the name, but he'd promoted her based on performance, not favoritism. It wasn't as if he'd gotten any cursed benefit out of the deal beyond a decent cadre sergeant for that group of floundering misfits salvaged from the ruin of First Cohort.

'-found a cellar, here in the garden, and cursed if there weren't twenty casks of wine and cordial.'

'Twenty casks!' Arras laughed. 'I guess wine and cordial will keep your stomach warm when it's empty. Sergeant.' He nodded at Giyara. 'You're in charge of those personally. Hold out five for the senior command staff, but the rest will be rationed to the soldiers as their victory badge.'

'Yes, Captain.' None of the subcaptains protested; they knew Giyara couldn't be bribed. 'What about the hall, Captain?'

'Burn it. As for the prisoners, those with a slave mark may be allowed to serve the cohort. As usual, watch for any who seem like potential recruits and for those who seem likely to cause mischief.'

'And the other prisoners?'

Footsteps pattered up the steps. Giyara slid the screen a hand's-breadth open, a smile touching her lips as she flicked a gaze toward Arras. She shoved the door open to reveal Zubaidit, kitted out like the rest of the soldiers and sporting a sergeant's badge. The subcaptains glanced at her and then at Arras. Why everyone thought he and the young woman were having sex he could not figure, since he had never touched her.

'Captain Arras?' she asked, cool as you please for all that she had intruded on his command council. 'A word with you?'

Eddon snorted.

Orli rolled his eyes and nudged Piri, who frowned. The other three subcaptains looked elsewhere.

Arras gestured for her to enter, and cursed if the others didn't simply take this as a dismissal.

Giyara, pausing on the threshold, spoke. 'Captain?'

Probably he was a little flushed. He sent her off with a lift of his chin. Zubaidit slid the door closed with a foot and leaned against one of the load-bearing wooden pillars. She had a way of lounging while standing up that made you think of what she would be like lying down.

He let irritation show, instead of desire. 'You've served ably enough to be promoted to sergeant very quickly given how few months ago you were a hostage. But you must know how it looks to the others, you walking in like this.'

She looked the hells more comfortable than he felt, because she had that quality that did get him bothered. 'Captain, what would you want in exchange for you doing something for me that would cause no harm to your soldiers or your command? A one-time thing.'

'I'm the captain of this cohort. Why should I want anything?'

She smiled.

He rubbed his jaw because he had to move something to scratch the restless itch crawling through his body. 'Without more information, it seems to me you're asking a cursed lot just on the belief that I'd like to devour you.'

'Wouldn't you?'

'It demeans me — and you — to have sex if it just becomes a matter of coin or barter. Where I grew up, we had a proper respect for the Merciless One.'

'Better to take coin, or barter, than be forced against your will, don't you think?'

'Forced? It's true some criminals and sick-minded folk might do such a thing, but that's what-' Then, sitting in the reeve hall which would soon be burned down, he heard his own words and stopped talking.

'That's what reeves and assizes are for?'

'Law courts will be set in place once the Hundred is under control.'

'Meanwhile, soldiers will do as they please.'

'What do you mean?'

'Surely you can't be so naive, Captain.'

'I have expressly forbidden-'

She shrugged, the gesture as good as a slap, cutting him off. 'Think so if you must. I had three men whipped until their backs bled because they forced themselves on village folk. I won't allow that under my command, and I made sure the rest knew what would happen to them if they tried it. Yet if soldiers can steal rice and nai and anything else they want from a cottage, why not sex as well? Who will stop them?'

'Those are First Cohort men, those in the cadre you were given to command!'

'I just thought you would want to know it's going on among your own troops.'

'You're putting me off my guard because there's something else you want. What is it?'

'I can't tell you without you giving me your word you'll let me do what needs doing.'

'I could give you my word and then change my mind.'

'Not you, Captain. You're an honorable man.'

He laughed, although the way she said the phrase stung him. 'I'd say you were flattering me, but I don't think you flatter.'

'A man who would do this favor for me would seemed cursed attractive in my eyes.'

'Neh, you're still bribing me. Let me ask you a question, then. You served your apprenticeship in the Merciless One's temple.'

'That's right.'

'If you were a hierodule and I was a man come to the temple to worship, would you devour me?'

Her amused smile was an honest answer, enough to make him feel like he wasn't begging.

'I was a hierodule once,' she added, 'so I honor the Merciless One. Within the temple, the hierodule and the kalos are the equals of those who come to worship. Not their hirelings. Not their servants. Not their slaves. Not their conquest.'

'Yet I've heard it said that of all those who serve the gods, those who serve the Merciless One are the most like slaves.'

'At the temple, the hierodules and kalos choose as they please, and refuse as they wish. I admit, sometimes an unscrupulous hieros will pressure her apprentices to do what they might otherwise feel reluctant to do. However, such a hieros will find it hard to keep apprentices.'

'What do you want?'

'I need to get something out of Copper Hall before you burn it. I'd like to get these items out untouched and unharmed.'

'Wine? Jewels? Silk? Gold cheyt? I wondered where the reeves were hiding their wealth.'

'Something a cursed lot more valuable to me.' Her expression darkened in a way that surprised him, and he sat up, taking her presence far more seriously. 'There's a chamber dug below this cote. I found about thirty youths, mostly debt slaves and hirelings. I hate to see children broken into slaves, Captain. And I truly despise seeing helpless young persons abused, as some will do, given the chance. I don't like to owe anything to anyone, but if you'll get them out no worse for what they've otherwise endured today, I'll be in your debt.'

'They might be better off serving as slaves to this cohort than sent to wander the roads with the risk of falling afoul of a less merciful cohort.'