'With you sitting over us all as commander, no doubt,' accused one of the Copper Hall reeves, a curly-haired youth with a scar on his chin and, evidently, a chip on his shoulder. 'I've heard stories of you and the trouble you got into back when you were my age.'
Joss grinned. 'You haven't heard half of it, then!' The lad ventured an answering grin, piqued by curiosity. But Joss sobered. 'Listen, I don't care about being commander of the reeve halls. The reeve halls must call a council no matter what. They must debate what changes to institute, how to reconstitute the assizes here in the north, how to rebuild the halls and train the many new reeves. How to repair the damage left by the slaughter of Horn Hall's reeves.' They were absolutely silent, every one of them, intent on his words. 'Every hall must send representatives to meet. It's this council that will elect a new commander. Of course we must be vigilant. We must be vigilant on behalf of the law, for we must never allow the law to be corrupted by those who might claim to-'
He broke off, sensing movement to his left.
Anji stood on the berm, flanked by Sengel and Deze. How long had he been listening?
Seeing Joss had noticed him, Anji walked in among the reeves with the confidence of a man who knows his place.
They rose to greet him, and he moved through the group speaking to each individual, maybe asking to see a baton or spinning an arrow through his fingers as he listened to an impassioned tale whose sketched gestures told of a skirmish. He gathered smiles and nods and flushed, excited expressions in return for his attention.
Joss settled beside Peddonon. 'Where's Pil?'
Dear Peddonon. He blushed a lover's blush, and it made him look fresh and sweet. 'I left all my flights resting at Law Rock according to your orders, including Pil. But I wanted Nallo to give a personal report to Commander Anji, which she did. She was there when Chief Toughid was killed by the demon. I came with her to make my own assessment of the situation. To ask after you. Things are quiet in Toskala. Ostiary Nekkar has the council well in hand.'
Joss sheared off in search of Nallo. She stood to one side, watching the sun set. 'Heya, Nallo.'
'An impressive speech, Commander, even if you didn't get to finish it,' she said tartly. She glanced at the Qin soldiers still chatting with reeves. She had fire enough to burn; she just hadn't learned how to use it, as blatksmiths did, to forge something more powerful out of the raw and malleable earth. 'I listened to every word. I'm thinking about it.'
'Joss!' Anji strolled over, marked Nallo, and nodded gravely. 'Reeve Nallo. We spoke earlier. Is there anything else you need?'
'I've done my duty, Commander. I'll keep doing it.'
He raised an eyebrow, hearing an edge in her words that might imply the woman disliked him. But it was difficult to tell with Nallo, because she always sounded like that. Then Anji turned to Joss. T thought you'd want to hear Tohon's report on Wedrewe. Shai is sleeping, and Tohon sees no need to wake him. Will you accompany me? We can talk on the way.'
His smile was a beacon. Aui! Joss liked this man; he liked him very well. But he no longer trusted him.
'Of course I want to hear Tohon's report. I've never met a more skilled scout.'
'He was a rare gift from Commander Beje,' agreed Anji.
'Who is Commander Beje?'
'A Qin officer of princely birth, a good man. I was married to his daughter.'
'Had you a first wife?' said Joss, startled by this confidence. T
didn't know.' And had his first wife abandoned him in favor of a handsome outlander? Better not to ask.
Anji squinted into the sun drenched west toward eagles, although the light made it hard to tell if they were approaching or flying parallel to the river on patrol. 'The past is dead to me.'
The men scrambled up a berm and walked, using the height to survey the encampment as the light turned the amber that presaged dusk. Most men were already sleeping, exhausted from the days of forced march and the battle. Those who were still awake were scraping the last bits of rice or nai from big bowls. A pair of enterprising young women — where in the hells had they come from? — had set up a slip-fry stand, but it seemed they had sold all their food and were now just chatting merrily with a crowd of admirers.
A crew from Nessumara was still pitching corpses into the river, but the men from Anji's army who had been killed were being hauled aside and piled on wagons and carts so they could be conveyed to a Sorrowing Tower and given a proper ceremony. There weren't as many as Joss had expected; Radas's army had taken the brunt of the casualties.
'What do you Qin do with your dead, Anji?'
'If we're at war, we leave them. Once the spirit is fled, the body is only a husk. If in camp, the women have their own rites.'
'And in the empire?'
'In the empire, the Beltak priests control all passages, birth, death, marriage, fealty between master and servant. They take a tithe at the market, and collect tolls on the roads and at every gate.'
'A fence against every manner of temptation,' said Joss more sharply than he intended.
'A knife,' said Anji, 'with which to protect themselves.'
'A knife is a useful tool, but in the hands of a drunk man or one who minds only his own greed, it is a dangerous weapon.'
'Therefore we keep knives out of the hands of those we cannot trust to wield them wisely.'
'Six cloaks you said, Anji. But I count only five.'
'Did I forget to mention? The cloak of Twilight is the sixth. Here we are.'
The council of captains had been dismissed, and in its place Joss found himself alone among Qin officers, a single Olossi militia captain, and the hierophant Joss had seen before. The
Lantern priest was holding a charcoal stick and tracing lines according to Tohon's directions: Here. No, to the right. Erase that bit. Yes, down that way.
Anji, Sengel, and Deze strolled up to the table as the guardsmen who had followed him around camp fell back to join the ring of guards. A soldier stood beside each stout pole that held up the awning, and two men guarded the curtained entrance off under the right-hand wing of the awning.
The men pressed up to the table, all but Sengel settling into stools as Tohon drank cordial.
Two reeves hurried up, escorted by guards. 'Our apologies for keeping you waiting, Commander,' said the curly-headed youth with a scar on his chin.
'If you three will report on your observations, we'll listen and ask questions.' Anji offered the reeves stools and gave Tohon his whip to point with.
The reeves deferred to Tohon, offering asides only when he could not explain or had missed some typical local object or tree or landmark. They had flown above the Istri Walk to Toskala and thence along the Ili Cutoff and across the vale of Iliyat to the Liya Pass.
'That's Candle Rock,' Joss said when they described a high sanctuary where they'd camped for the night. 'You can see Ammadit's Tit from the rock. It's a Guardian's altar. And that abandoned compound you saw, on the way up? That was once a temple to Ushara, although it was popularly supposed that they trained assassins there. There was a woodsmen's encampment near there, although it's likely long since grown over. That's where Reeve Marit and her eagle Flirt were killed. Theirs are the first known deaths definitely linked to Lord Radas. I think it might have been the first cadre of his army.'
The curtained entrance off to one side swayed, and a woman ducked out. Tohon smiled, making room for her, but she snagged a stool, walked around the table as if to peruse the map from all angles before she fetched up, quite as if by accident, next to Joss. She set down the stool and herself in it. Her hip pressed against his. She leaned over the low table, one of her breasts brushing his arm as she used the hilt of a knife to tap the spot on the map he'd just been discussing.