by Kate Elliott
“Argent Hall? What manner of place is this?”
“It’s the reeve hall with the obligation to patrol and protect this part of the country.”
“You hope they will help you in what manner?”
“Have you no reeves where you come from?” asked Eliar with astonishment.
“They have not,” said Calon. “There are no reeves outside the boundaries of the Hundred. The Lady tamed the great eagles and gave them to the reeves, so we might protect ourselves, but beyond our lands they cannot stray, for that is the law of the gods.”
“So your priests tell you,” said Eliar stubbornly, “but how can you know it to be true?”
“I have never seen anything like the reeves and their eagles in the lands I’ve traveled, nor heard any tale of them until I came here,” said Anji.
“Old Marshal Alyon sat in authority over Argent Hall until a few seasons ago,” said Calon. “He sent a representative to every one of our council meetings, as has always been customary. Then no representative came for two passes of the moon. After that, we heard that a new marshal sat in authority over Argent Hall, but we have never learned his name. Worse, it’s rare to see reeves patrolling around Olossi any longer, although they fly into the Barrens regularly. Now and again we see one pass overhead on an unknown errand. The villages and farms of western Olossi have no one to preside over their monthly assizes, so they come to us to ask for help. That’s why we sent so many emissaries to Argent Hall. But we are given no answer at the gates, not even when we beg for aid to patrol the roads against ospreys such as the ones you killed in the pass. I fear the shadows have crept long, and that we here in Olossi are being covered by their stain without our knowing.”
“That’s a sobering tale. So tell me, Master Calon, what do you want from us?”
“We, the Lesser Houses and our allies, seek your aid.”
“You want us to overturn the Greater Houses and set you in charge of the council.”
Calon met his gaze squarely. “We do. Not to harm them, only to force them to share the power they have gathered to themselves. We must be allowed to take our place as our numbers and our judgment warrant. If there’s a truly open vote, and all are allowed to vote on council matters who meet the requirement, we will be content. Then if the vote goes against our proposals, we’ll accept it.”
“You do not expect that outcome, however. That an open vote will go against you, or your proposals.”
“I do not. But the agreement I offer you comes in two parts. That is the first. The second is this: That once the council is under our control, you accept a commission to ride to Horn, and back. We sent a small group north recently, and have heard no word of them. We fear they’re lost. Dead. What we want is a report on the condition of the roads and way stations, on the market in Horn, and on the prospects for travel north into Istria and Haldia and Arro, and east into Mar.”
“Mar, by all means!” said Eliar. “Our supplies of kursi grow ghastly low, and I fear I shall waste away rather than eat bland food.”
“It’s no joking matter, cub,” said Calon. “I am afraid of what we cannot see, and so should you be.”
“If the bid to overturn the Greater Houses fails, what then?” asked Anji.
“Oh, to us, any manner of thing,” said Calon carelessly. “They will vote to strip the conspirators—for such they will call us—of our right to run a business and sell goods in the marketplaces of Olossi. They may execute the leaders. As for Eliar and his people, they might exile them.”
“These are serious risks,” said Anji.
“Mostly for young Eliar here, because his people are exiles twice over according to their lore and have nowhere else to go,” said Calon. “If I escape execution, I can always uproot my house and begin again in Sund, or Ofria.”
Eliar whistled under his breath. “It’s said they’re poor as dirt in Ofria, all living in mud huts and eating snails.”
“Little you would know! Snails are a delicacy! Here, now.” Calon untied a purse from his belt and handed it to Anji, who weighed its heft with two hands. “We are serious folk, despite the manners of this cub, but he is a good lad and an honest broker, and I trust his people even if they don’t care for my line of honest trade. I’ll have you know his people have wagered the most on this gamble.”
“We’ve the most to lose,” said Eliar with a crooked smile. “But I’ll not mind saying, anyway, that the Greater Houses are fools to avert their eyes at the dark tidings that stare them right in the face. My people can’t afford to turn their backs. We did so once, in the old country, and suffered greatly.”
Anji set the pouch at Mai’s feet. It was too heavy for her to pick up, though she was not frail, so she opened it and picked out a pair of bars and a handful of coins, just the uppermost layer. A hoard rested beneath.
“These are cheyt,” she said, “the full gold coins, not the quartered ones. There’s no silver that I see. As for the bars . . .” She bit on the end of one bar. She knew gold’s texture. The eldest daughter bred out of a merchant’s family had to expect to handle money when she was married into a worthy household. No one wanted a mere ornament as a wife, however much the poets sang of gorgeous flowers whose pleasing scent drew princes and captains.
“Please count it all,” said Calon. “It matters to me that you see we are serious in every possible way.”
“To overthrow the Greater Houses is a serious undertaking,” said Anji. “And the expedition to Horn, after everything we have heard, more serious still.”
“True enough. I believe there are deadlier forces at work than any who bide in the Greater Houses care to admit.”
“Unless they are in league with them already,” said Eliar. “For that’s what I believe.”
“In league with whom?” asked Anji.
“No one knows,” said Eliar. “But the reeves of Argent Hall turn us away, and the Greater Houses ignore every warning sign. How can I not believe they are in league with the shadows? That they are not themselves conspirators? My friends and I—”
“A wild pack of cubs,” interjected Calon softly, “including my once sweet and pliant nephew.”
“My friends and I went on a scouting expedition two months back. We saw the reeves flying patrols up into the Barrens. They’re looking for something, but we don’t know what. Of their work—patrolling the roads, settlings disputes, standing in at the assizes, prosecuting criminals—the work that is their duty according to the law of the land, this work the reeves of Argent Hall have given up. They’ve forsworn their obligation to the people of Olossi and the territory they’re meant to oversee.”
“Nothing can be proven,” said Calon. “What would the Greater Council serve to gain from such plans, in any case? They already hold power over the council.”
“They want more, more even than they have now, more power over the rest of us, and more coin in their coffers. Sometimes greed is answer enough, Master Calon.”
“It just doesn’t make sense to me,” the older man retorted.
Mai knelt on the ground beside the woven mat she usually sat on. On the mat’s surface Shai tipped out the contents of the pouch. Their visitors fell into a respectful silence as she stacked and counted coins and bars. It was all gold, a prince’s ransom.
“Four bars, whose weight and value must be considerable,” she said at last. “And fifty cheyt.” Fifty gold coins.
Shai hissed an exclamation under his breath. Chief Tuvi grunted, scratching an ear.
“A handsome offer,” Anji said without emotion, “but a dead man has no use for coin. We are only two hundred men. You’re asking too much.”
Eliar gritted his teeth, gasping like a man in pain.
Master Calon raised a hand. “But—”
“No,” said Anji in a tone that invited no response, a tone that meant he was not negotiating. “I will not send my men into a battle that cannot be won. No.”
He was done. It was over.
In the silence that foll
owed, Mai rose. “Wait.”
Every person there was obviously surprised to hear her voice, even Anji. For courage, she touched her lips to her wolf ring, sigil of the proud Mei clan. Then she met Anji’s gaze square on. “I have something to say, and I would prefer to say it between us alone.”
Chief Tuvi raised an eyebrow. Master Calon put a hand to his mouth, clearing his throat as if uncomfortable. Eliar looked at his feet. Shai stood and, when Mai nodded at him, he gestured to Priya and walked away, into the shadows.
At last, with a slight gesture, Anji agreed. Chief Tuvi led the two merchants away, leaving Anji with Mai and, of course, one of his silent but ever-present guards.
He said nothing. He was angry.
She took in a deep breath and considered her words, considered her tone, considered her posture and her expression. All these made a difference in whether you made your sale. “I am not experienced in the arts of war, nor have I any training in battle. But I am a merchant’s daughter, and I know how to listen and how to observe. Also, it is my right as the wife of a Qin man to speak my mind.”
“It is.”
This is what I have to say: Where will we go next? There may be a refuge for you with your cousin, in the south of the empire, but surely those cousins will also want to kill you, since you have a better claim to the imperial throne than they do. The lands that the Qin control are closed to us. So, to go south back over the pass leads us only to lands where our lives are already forfeit.”
“There are other roads,” he said curtly, as if he had already had this argument with himself and did not want to repeat it with her. “Northwest. North. East. We haven’t seen everything that’s out here. This is a fool’s choice, Mai. No smart general commits his troops in a situation weighted so heavily against him. He moves elsewhere until circumstances fall to his advantage. The Qin have always fought in this manner.”
“Maybe so, because the Qin do not live in houses, or in towns. The Qin do not till fields and plant vineyards and orchards, which they must then protect. But sometimes you have to fight where you stand.” When he shook his head, she went on. “Anji, why did your mother send you back to the Qin, when you had as much right as any man to claim the imperial throne?”
“Because my half brother was named as heir. He and his mother meant to see me dead. I was a rival, brighter than him, I admit. Better suited. Better liked by our father. I was my father’s favorite son.”
“Yet he chose your brother over you.”
“My brother’s mother has powerful political connections, ones my father did not wish to anger. Although he was an excellent administrator, his position was not exactly strong.”
“Even so, why didn’t your mother go to the emperor? Ask for his protection for you? Surely he could have done that much for his favorite son.”
“She had already fallen out of favor. He preferred a new wife.”
“Did she not try at all?”
He hesitated. For the first time he looked away from her, toward the fire, whose flames consumed the wood with bright splendor. “It is not the Qin way to beg for favor.”
“She took the Qin way, Anji. She moved you elsewhere, hoping that circumstances would change. But they did not. And why should we believe they will change now? We have been offered a chance to stand and fight for the thing we need most: a home. It’s time to stop running.”
“Death is also a home. One we will find ourselves fallen into very quickly, in this situation.”
She smiled, covered her mouth with a hand to hide the smile, glanced down at the ground, then bent her gaze up to look at him past lowered lids. His eyes narrowed as his interest quickened. “Surely, Anji, you are capable of finding a way to win this fight.”
He laughed. “An appeal to my vanity. Mai, you have cut me. But nevertheless, no.”
“What if there is no safer haven? In the south our lives are forfeit. In the west lie barren lands. North there is constant trouble, some kind of war. East lies the ocean. Yet we have to go somewhere. Any place we ride now will be a place we’ve never been before, so we will be placing ourselves in danger nevertheless. We might as well get paid to do it. We may never get another offer, and why should we? Who will welcome a troop of two hundred experienced soldiers? A ruler who wishes to use them to fight, and die. Ordinary folk will fear us, and rightly so. Anyway, we cannot continue journeying endlessly, in the hope that something more to our liking will appear, a peaceful haven, a secret valley where the flowers are always in bloom and all the ewes give birth to twin lambs. You have said I am foolish to listen to the tales, to believe in them, but isn’t this just another tale you are telling yourself, that there is a place waiting for us somewhere, in the distance, just beyond where we are now? What if there isn’t?”
Flushed and out of breath, surprised at her own vehemence, she broke off.
Frowning, studying the fire, he scratched under his right ear with his left hand. The fire popped, and sparks sprayed and fell. At length, he looked at her. “That day in the market, in Kartu Town, every other merchant offered me their wares for free. They feared me, as they feared all the Qin and especially the officers. I suppose they thought by giving me for nothing what they normally sold for a price, they would gain my favor, or I would not hurt them. But you charged me double the going price.”
“And you paid it!”
“Because it amused me to do so. Because you surprised me. Because you held your duty, to sell your clan’s produce, higher than your fear of the Qin.”
“ ‘If you are afraid, don’t do it. But if you do it, don’t be afraid.’ Do you remember saying that?”
He shook his head, shrugging. “It’s a common saying among the Qin.”
“When we were in the desert, and running out of water. After the sandstorm, when you and Chief Tuvi had to decide whether to ride at night through those ravines. A dangerous, difficult passage. You said it then, to him. I took those words into my heart. I tried to live by them. I always thought that I was being strong, in the Mei clan, by bending before the wind, by going along with everything my family wanted, by never disputing with them or raising my voice or causing trouble. Now I see that I was afraid. But there will always be another storm, Anji. There will always be something. If we don’t stop now, then it will be because we’re still afraid. That’s the thing we can’t escape by moving elsewhere. It’s still traveling with us. We have to do it, and not be afraid.”
He was silent. The night wind murmured in the brush; beneath it, she heard the whispers of men, waiting on this decision.
He stepped up to her, took her hand, laid it on his palm. Without speaking, he twisted the wolf-sigil ring off her hand and slid it onto his little finger.
“There,” he said. “To remind me. But if we fail, and if we die, you must not reproach me.”
All at once, her words vanished. He was so handsome, a prince in truth, an exile, as she was now. She could never reproach him, not for anything. But she could not speak to tell him so; she was too full, choked with the tales she had grown up on, had loved and recited, had sung and played. Had used as an argument against him. She knew herself to be young and naive, stupid, really: she always had believed those tales, even in the ones where everyone ended up dead. She had always wanted to believe them, because they had seemed so much brighter than her own life within the Mei clan’s walls. But they had only been a way of hiding from the truth.
“No,” he added softly, so sweetly. “I suppose you won’t.”
He released her hand and stepped back, then whistled sharply. Chief Tuvi returned with the two merchants, and Shai and Priya walked back into view.
“Master Calon,” said Anji without preamble. “I am skeptical that you can accomplish your goals in the face of such difficulties. I doubt you can. And I doubt I am willing to risk my men, who rely on me to command them wisely and prudently. But perhaps you can give me a little more information.”
“Go on,” said Calon, with a glance at Mai that revealed no
thing except, perhaps, a shiver of curiosity, of hope.
Eliar turned the silver bracelets that ringed his forearms, restless as he shifted from one foot to the other and back again. He seemed like a child who wants to speak but is trying to hold its tongue.
“Three things. First, what manner and number of soldiers serve the council of Olossi? What resistance will we face in helping you overturn the Greater Houses? Second, if we ride north, and return with the information you ask for, where do you advise us to go afterward? Gold is not enough. We wish to settle in a safe region nearby where my men might also find wives and sufficient pastureland to support herds.”
Eliar coughed, bracelets jangling as he shook his arms impatiently.
Calon nodded with a grim smile. “We are both desperate men, and dangerous for being desperate. Olossi has lived in peace for a long time and we have gone fat and lazy. Kotaru’s ordinands do most of our border guarding these days. You saw what came of that! By custom, any adult in Olossi is expected to lift a spear in defense of the city, but in truth we can call on no more than five hundred militiamen should it come to that. More could be called out of the countryside—many more . . .” He paused. All looked inland, as he did. That torch still stuck its stubborn path along the road, heading for the city. “. . . but most of them untrained and inexperienced. We are sheep, ripe for the slaughter. We can’t protect ourselves against a real attack, in force, in numbers. And that’s what I fear.” His voice fell to a whisper, and darkened. “That’s what I truly fear. As for the other, were you and your company to ride into the Barrens, and break up into smaller groups, you could find villages that would welcome more hands. It’s sparsely settled, especially along the west shore of the Olo’o Sea, in the valley of the River Ireni, and in the West Olo uplands against the mountains of Heaven’s Ridge. There’s decent pasturing—it’s not good for much else—and plenty of land unspoken for in the high reaches. Your men might even find wives there, for I’ve heard rumors in recent months that young men all around are leaving for the north country to find work and promises of gold, and never come home again. I can’t guarantee you’ll be welcomed there, but I can guarantee that if you form this alliance with us, the council will give you a legal right to settle in this region. What was the third thing?”
