He'd set up for the night in the council square, a roof over a square of benches screened on three sides by lattices grown with vines. He was sitting on a camp stool with his boots and armor off, relaxed in bare feet and loose jacket and trousers. Over the council hearth he roasted strips of meat on a metal rod over the fire. He rose as Zubaidit led Shai in.
All he said, after looking Shai up and down in the firelight, was a breath of a word. 'Ah.'
He sat again and bent his attention to the sizzling meat. They waited while the meat roasted, and afterward he pulled the strips onto a wooden platter and offered some both to Zubaidit and to Shai, although he did not offer to let them sit. Shai was so cursed hungry he burned his mouth by gulping down the meat while it was still too hot to chew.
The captain ate with the infuriating deliberateness of a man who is thinking hard and trying not to outpace himself. Zubaidit licked her fingers after; the captain watched her, realized he was watching, and looked away, right at Shai.
'Where'd you find this outlander, Sergeant?'
'Out lurking in the brush. I guess he panicked and started running. My men caught him. Here he is. I've told them they'll share out the reward. There was a reward, wasn't there? My cadre will be cursed irritated if they discover there isn't.'
His lips thinned. Was he angry? 'There is a generous reward.' He rubbed a clean-shaven jaw. He reminded Shai of the Qin, a fit man who carried himself confidently. He looked again at Shai, and his frown deepened. 'What in the hells am I to do with you?'
Zubaidit's eyebrows twitched; something in her expression made Shai uneasy, but he could not identify what it was. Was she uneasy?
'I thought you'd be glad of an outlander, Captain. Something to boast about at the next army council at Saltow. Or do you fear Commander Hetti will say be captured him and take the reward for himself? Isn't that what he always does?'
He cut another haunch of meat into slices and skewered them on the rod. 'Why do you care, Sergeant?'
'I'm ambitious, Captain, just as you are. I'd rather be loyal to one who shows loyalty to those he commands than to one like Commander Hetti, who takes what others have done and uses it to raise himself up. I couldn't help but notice after the failed attack on Nessumara, that it was your proposals for prosecuting the war that Hetti adopted as if they were his own. The very things the army went out and did, which got you no credit. I don't mind saying I want the reward I've promised to my cadre, and I want a chance for a company command.'
A female sergeant came forward with a kettle for tea and set it on a wire trivet over a bed of glowing coals raked off to one side. The captain glanced at her, an intimate look that reminded Shai of Anji's interactions with his chiefs. Her shrug was unfathomable to Shai, but the captain nodded.
'There are ways around Commander Hetti,' he said. 'So the question you and I must face, Sergeant, is do we really want a cloak to walk into our camp to claim this outlander, and meanwhile cut into our hearts and thoughts, as they will do. Are you willing to have your heart laid bare? Are you sure you will survive their scrutiny?'
T have nothing to hide!'
'Maybe I do have something to hide,' said the captain, gaze sliding smoothly to Shai.
Merciful One! Shai recognized him: this was the captain who had waited in attendance on Hari outside Toskala. He'd arranged for Shai to get smuggled out of camp.
He knew Shai knew; Shai knew he knew. But if he wasn't going to say anything, then Shai sure as the hells could keep his mouth shut. He had a job to do, whatever it meant for him in the end. A good soldier rides into battle without flinching. His comrades depended on him, and beyond all things, he must never let them down. That was the Qin way, and whatever else the Qin were -
conquerors of the Golden Road and the Mariha princedoms — they had taken in and trained a hapless seventh son like Shai. He owed them something.
The captain shook his head with a sigh. 'Unfortunately we can't rid ourselves of the outlander now. Everyone has seen him.'
'Why would we want to rid ourselves of him when we have standing orders to bring in all outlanders and gods-touched-?'
'Never mind. We can send a message to Lord Commander Radas, sealed and for his clerk's eyes only. Be sure you have nothing to hide, Sergeant. For if you do, you'll be dead.'
'I'll be dead anyway,' she said with a Devouring smile that made the captain wince and then laugh ruefully. 'We'll all be dead someday, Captain. Won't we?'
'The cloaks say otherwise,' he said softly. 'Don't you believe them, Sergeant?'
Bai's smile, in response, frightened Shai, for there was something implacable in it. Even the captain flung up his chin, looking startled, but her' posture altered as she thrust out a hip in a provocative stance that reminded a man of how bodies might grapple. Shai broke out in a sweat, recalling his grappling with the actress Eridit in the rocks, months ago now, barely more than a dream. Yet what a dream!
'I serve where I am bidden,' Bai said, the words like a promise.
The other sergeant's gaze tightened, watching this display. She nudged the captain.
'Don't,' he said to Bai, 'for we agreed there'd be none of that. As for the other, you're right. I don't like to think of Commander Hetti gathering to himself the harvest of what my cohort has sown, as he'll do if I don't act.'
'I know what I want,' agreed Zubaidit. 'This outlander will help both of us get what we seek.'
The Qin troop arrived at the shore of the western Barrens after a two day journey over waters so smooth that even Anji had shown no sign of seasickness, although Mai had thrown up twice and given up on any food except nai porridge. A company of riders leading extra horses waited where the ships were dragged up onto the strand. Qin led the ranks and local men filled out the rest of the company, many of whom were growing out their hair to twist up in topknots.
This impressive cavalcade clad in black tabards provided their escort as they rode to the gates of Astafero. The dusty colors of the Barrens leached Mai's heart of courage, but she knew how to keep her expression placid and her hands from trembling. As long as Anji was beside her, she could face down anything.
Folk gathered at the gate; guards lined the wall walk, their spears adorned with rippling banners in the wind that blew down off the mountains. It was so hot that her mouth parched, making it difficult to swallow. Yet the bright colors worn by the local women pleased her eye, and the people who lined the main avenue leading up through town, waving banners and ribbons, sang a greeting. Their smiling faces and strong voices heartened her. Whatever Anji's mother might think of her, she had allies here.
At Anji's insistence, she rode beside him. He understood the protocols far better than she could; he had been raised in an imperial court until the age of twelve and afterward sent to his uncle's court as a prince, even if after all that he had ridden in the Qin army as a mere captain. And yet had he been a mere captain? Had she misunderstood his rank? Or had his uncle the var all along been suspicious of his nephew? Clearly, his uncle had been willing enough to rid himself of Anji, given the chance.
Had Commander Beje's only motivation been to repay the favor Anji had shown Beje's clan by not dragging the clan's dishonor — his first wife's abandonment of him — through the var's court? Or did Beje covet other allegiances? Mai remembered old Widow Lae who had been hanged in Kartu Town for her treachery against the Qin. Where had her grandson gone? To whom had he been conveying her message?