'No, indeed,' said Joss hoarsely as his face went hot, 'and a fine thing that is, too. Why should we want to fight wars and live in tumult, when we might have peace?'
'You might have had peace once, but you don't have peace now. You see how vulnerable you have become. Do you suppose my cousins, knowing now that the Hundred exists beyond the Kandaran Pass and having their eyes drawn this way, might not covet your eagles? These guardian cloaks? Your rice fields? What other secrets hide in your forests and mountains and seas? Look at my map, see how much of it is blank. Who are these wildings and delvings and lendings and merlings? What are the firelings who embraced my son on the day of his birth? Do you even know
what a rich land this is? Do you think that if the Sirniakans desire it, they will not march with many more than fifteen cohorts to take it from you and make you their slaves?'
'Commander!'
Joss looked up, but the man was speaking to Anji, not to Joss. A Qin soldier walked into the spill of lamplight under the awning.
'Toughid!' Anji met him with a grin. Forearms smacked together so hard Joss winced.
Toughid immediately noted the jeweler's chest slung over Deze's back. 'Mai and the chief arrived safely in the valley. All is as you hoped. It's unlikely your mother can reach her there.'
'Your mother?' demanded Joss. Why in the hells had he heard no word of this?
'Did I not mention that my mother has arrived in the Hundred? She was expelled from the women's palace by the new emperor.'
'Your mother} She must be a formidable woman.'
Anji shifted a knife on the map, the meaningless gesture of a man who needs to take his mind off uncomfortable thoughts. 'Formidable, yes. And as difficult to please as I remember from my childhood.'
The odd way Toughid had spoken scratched at Joss's uneasiness. 'What has your mother to do with Mai's needing a safe place to shelter?'
For an instant, Anji looked as if he wanted to kill something. Joss reached for the hilt of his sword to fend off an attack. Guards stiffened; Toughid spoke a word in the Qin language.
Anji's expression eased into a bland smile. 'Enough. A boy reacts this way. A man does not. Mai is safe. We march at dawn.'
He sat, reaching for a square of rice paper and a writing brush. He poured a bit of water into the ink bowl to soften the ink, dipped the brush, and then paused with the brush poised above a untouched expanse of white.
'Hu! Joss, what other news have you?'
A bead of ink sank from the brush's tip, hanging — like unspoken words — from the delicate hairs. But it did not fall. After a moment, Joss wrenched his gaze away from the drop to find Anji watching him with the same patient, guarded gaze with which he treated everyone. That he might once have been a brash, impatient, emotional child seemed inconceivable.
'You've anticipated me,' said Joss more brusquely than he
intended. 'Clan Hall's scouts returned yesterday late in the afternoon with the news that Lord Radas's army has massed around Nessumara. But that would have been before Chief Sengel's attack and the subsequent night attack, so it seems you have more recent information than I do.'
Anji nodded. 'Anything else?'
Joss pulled a scroll from his pack. 'A formal accounting of Horn's provisioning preparations for the army.'
'That can go to Chief Deze,' said Anji. The bead dropped and splattered on the fresh paper. 'There's a spare bedroll if you need it, in my tent. Or sit here beside me, if you wish. I'll be awake a while longer and would welcome your company. Can you fly Toughid to Law Rock in the morning after you've delivered the orders to Horn Hall? Toughid will be in charge of the attack in Toskala, when it's time.'
Beyond the awning, the camp was quieting as men finished their chores and meals and settled down to sleep, to conserve their strength for the battle ahead. There was no singing, no carousing, no jokes, no drinking or gossip. Such discipline was impressive.
'Joss?'
'You're right, Anji. The Hundred never knew how to fight wars. My thanks for the offer of a bedroll. I have my own. Best I rest now. It will be a long day tomorrow.'
Anji returned his attention to the paper, his hand assured as graceful letters flowed from the brush. Chief Deze sat in the other stool, the chest dangling along his back. Joss walked into the dark camp and its scattering of campfires to find a patch of ground on which to unroll his blanket and cloak. When he lay down to stare up at brilliant stars not yet joined by the waning quarter moon, his thoughts kept him awake for a long time.
They had broken the boundaries.
Now they would be punished.
Keshad delivered the oil of naya to Argent Hall, as ordered. Because the ship was headed back for Astafero and there were no horses available and no reeves who had the leisure to haul a person as unimportant as he was, he headed for Olossi on foot. It was an easy path, a one-cart road raised on a berm over a flat plain, but a full day's walk.
He walked between dry fields awaiting the rains, the afternoon heat beating down over him, but he didn't mind it. He had a hat
with a brim to shade his face and neck; he stripped down to his kilt, knotting his jacket and trousers and stuffing them into his pack. The heaviest thing was that cursed sack of gold the Qin princess had gifted him. Overhead, eagles and their reeves departed Argent Hall in staggered flights, hauling sealed ceramic pots containing oil of naya. Kesh trudged.
At twilight, he spotted lamps to the east on a path running parallel to his own. He hurried across a dusty fallow field and caught up to a train of wagoners rigged out with lanterns, driving supplies through the night to Olossi. They were all female, and happy to have a young man with such fine eyes and such a pleasant expanse of bare torso to admire since the young men in their villages had joined up with the militia months ago.
'You're not in the militia?' they asked him as they took a break to water and rub down their dray beasts.
He lounged against the foremost wagon, sipping juice their leader had offered. 'I'm an agent for the command staff. I was on special assignment.'
'Then why are you walking to Olossi, eh?'
'The army has requisitioned all the horses.'
They knew it, for sure! And their dwindling rice stores were drawn down, too, with planting yet to come and it to be accomplished with a smaller workforce than normal due to so many lads and men gone with the army. But it was a small price to pay for not having to fear their villages would be burned like all those villages along West Track. They set off again, and their leader, a woman old enough to have girls of marriageable age, questioned Kesh closely about the Qin. Was it true they treated their wives and wives' clans well? Were there still soldiers looking to marry into local families?
'If you're truly interested, bring your offer to the captain's wife, to her compound in Olossi.'
'They say she's a sharp bargainer. Got the better of the old council of Olossi. I don't know if I'd have the courage to face a woman like that. Have you met her?'
Kesh laughed, hoping the night hid his flush. 'She'll treat you fairly. Or you can go to one of the training encampments where Qin soldiers are stationed.'