They listened as she spoke, at length, describing what might be done: her speech contrived between her and Anji and Commander Joss spun a thread meant to convince without betraying too much of their purpose, in case traitors walked within Horn's council.
Afterward they questioned her at length, some hot, some cool, most doubtful, others with the troubled look of people who nourish hope but fear they are naive for doing so. Calon and Jodoni gave answers when needed; they too had rehearsed their arguments and together agreed on a plan of attack.
'Why does Olossi only approach us now?' Seyon asked. 'When we have all lost so much already? Why not before?'
'I myself and a consortium of merchants from Olossi attempted to send a party to Horn last year,' said Calon, 'but the roads weren't safe, as you must yourselves recall. The party was killed by bandits.'
'Why now?' Mai continued. 'Because now Olossi has acted to safeguard Olo'osson. But Olo'osson cannot stand alone. Only now are we strong enough to reach out for allies. It cannot have escaped any of you, sitting here on this hill with Aua Gap spread before you, that Horn provides an obvious assembly point for forces seeking to attack our enemy.'
'Difficult to know if we can trust an outlander,' said the eye-rolling old woman. 'Yet it says in the tale that "an outlander will save them."'
The wind had picked up, a stiff blow rumbling over the high ridge and streaming across this height like a reminder of life's ceaseless disturbances.
'None of us can know what the future holds,' said Mai. 'All we can do is decide what actions we will take. Will we do nothing as the Star of Life attacks Nessumara and spreads yet farther, stage by stage? Or will we do something?' She bent her head in a gesture meant to fall halfway between respect and dismissal. 'We'll leave you to discuss it among yourselves. Is there a place we might rest while you confer?'
That startled them!
'Of course! But if we have other questions-'
'If you have other questions,' she said in her kindest voice, 'I think you might consider running up the message banner. Then you can question those who would actually prosecute the war: the reeve commander and Olo'osson's captain.'
They responded by coming to their feet in surprise and confusion. But Seyon called a hireling to escort her and her companions to a garden attached to the assizes hall built up against Assizes Tower. On the stony ground no vegetation grew except that planted in pots and troughs: miniature fruit trees barren at this season; a hedge of thorny heal-all dusted with purple blooms; ranks of bushy green growth waiting for the rains to flower again. Mai sank down on a stone bench, wiping her forehead as Calon sat beside her.
'Are you well, verea? You're pale and shaking.'
Jodoni was speaking with the hireling, then walked over. 'I've asked them to bring kama juice, verea.'
She smiled weakly, feeling her energy ebb as if it had all been sucked out in a swollen rush. Her breasts felt heavy and were beginning to ache. It was well past time to feed Atani, and meanwhile the baby was safely ensconced with his aunt Miyara and Priya as nursemaid atop Horn Hall.
'Was it wise for you to dismiss them quite so abruptly?' Jodoni added.
'It makes them anxious, Holy One. Then they feel there is a sudden need to make a decision.'
'Eiya! We'll discover soon enough.'
Two women tattooed with debt marks carried in trays with a jar of kama juice, bitter this late in the season, and a platter of rice cakes and flat bread, nothing fancy but filling to one who was
hungry. Mai was always hungry, although she carefully did not eat more than her fair share.
Master Calon wanted to rehash the meeting, going over every least question and gesture to squeeze from these hints any sense of the council's inclinations, but Mai pleaded weariness. Sipping the last juice from her cup, she wandered the angles of the garden's paths, her sandals crunching on stony earth, and found a secluded haven. The hedge screened off a smaller garden rimmed by a low rock wall that overlooked a ravine with scrub brush. Falls of rock made the steep slopes impassable. A trickle of water, not even enough to make spray, spilled from the height down into the cut. The sparse growth reminded her of Dezara Mountain behind Kartu Town, washing her with nostalgia not for home precisely but for the landscape that once was the only one she knew.
She knelt before the wide stone wall and loosened her taloos enough to ease the pressure in her breasts by milking a bit into the cup. She straightened her clothing with a quick look around. Raptors still spiraled far overhead. From this vantage, she could see only a sliver of the city, roofs and alleys pairing light and dark. She set the full cup on the flat stone and settled back onto her heels, pressing her hands to her chest as she prayed.
T offer this nourishment at the feet of the Merciful One. Through the merit of offering may I walk the path of awakening. The body withers and disintegrates; what power we have now may be shorn from us tomorrow. Receive this offering with compassion. May the world prosper, and justice be served. Peace.'
A whisper teased like wind through the tightly knit leaves of the hedge. Startled, she turned, hands touching her taloos, but it was safely pulled tight. Several women dressed humbly — hirelings and debt slaves — had gathered at the gap in the hedge. How long they had been watching Mai could not guess, but she composed her expression carefully as she rose.
'Forgive me if I was not meant to wander into this place, but it felt so peaceful.'
There were at least eight women, ranging from a pair of girls younger than she was to an old woman supporting herself with a cane.
The old woman came forward. 'Were you praying, verea?'
'I was.'
'We never heard such prayers before, but we could understand most of them. Was that the Merciless One you were praying to? Were you a hierodule?'
She flushed. 'I'm not that, nor was I praying to the Merciless One. I pray to the Merciful One, who gives us sanctuary.'
'Is that an outlander god?' asked one of the girls.
'The Merciful One rests in all places. Anywhere folk suffer trouble or despair, or wish to celebrate joy and prosperity, they can seek refuge and peace with the Merciful One.'
'They're saying you people come from Olo'osson to offer aid and protection.'
'That's right.' This was easier territory to negotiate. She smiled, and several smiled back at her. The younger girl skipped forward to touch her taloos, fingering the silk until the old woman rapped the girl's forearm with the tip of her cane.
'Don't be rude!'
'No matter,' said Mai. 'No harm in her being curious.'
'It's very fine silk, verea,' said the girl, who had a fresh tattoo at her left eye and an ugly rash like an infection spreading down from the mark, inflaming her face. She was newly sold into debt slavery, no doubt, but she had also the pinched cheeks and fragile wrists of a child who has never had enough to eat.
'So it is. It comes from the Sirniakan Empire.'
'All the best silk comes from there,' agreed her interlocutors. 'But we've seen none here for years. The roads haven't been safe. Trade has died. Folk are hungry.'
'If the Hundred joins in an alliance against this cruel army out of the north, then we can open the roads. Trade will flow. Merchants will haggle, and markets will spill over with wares from every town in the Hundred and even farther away, from the lands beyond. Folk won't have to sell themselves or their children into debt slavery-'
She stopped before she began prating on about there being food for everyone. Weren't there always children who were starving and folk passed for sale from one hand to the next?
The younger girl crept forward again, not without a furtive look toward the older woman and her cane. She extended a hand — clean enough — then withdrew, and Mai laughed and beckoned her closer to let her touch the best-quality cornflower-blue silk with its cunning embroideries worked in the same color thread into the fabric.