Kate Elliott - Traitors Gate

'Do you, truly? I don't care enough about you to hate you. Mosquitoes gripe me more. Run after the one whose boots you lick, eh?'

'You'll regret speaking this way to me.'

Hari laughed.

Yordenas's hot presence stamped out of the tent, and then it was cool and quiet and Hari whispered, 'Don't move, don't speak. We can hear better than you know.'

He apparently went outside, because it was silent for some time. Shai thought maybe he was getting a rash on his forehead where the coarse fibers were pressed against the skin. An outlander captain veiled to the sight of the demons. A man who could, like Shai, see ghosts. Obviously, they meant Hari to hunt down and kill Captain Anji.

With a shove, Shai was tumbled around and over and rolled gasping out of the carpet. Hari tugged him up to his feet, and Shai turned away to sneeze, three times. He wiped streaming eyes with the back of a hand. He had been so close to Lord Radas, and he had not acted. Yet how had he intended to strike?

'When they find out you're veiled, they'll kill you.' Hari grasped Shai's arm and pulled him around to face him. Hari's gaze bored deep, but Shai matched him until Hari shook his head in frustration. 'We have to get you out of camp before they find you. And they will find you. Someone will betray you. I'll betray you. Hu! How did you even get to the Hundred?'

'Father Mei sent me to bring back your bones.'

'You can't have walked all this way yourself!' His bitter laugh cracked. 'Those Qin soldiers I saw on the road with you months ago. They pinned me with arrows. The bastards! Did the Qin make you a soldier and slave, as they did me?'

Thinking of Mai, Shai shook his head. 'I am not soldier or slave. How can I kill Lord Radas?'

Hari flung himself away, walking again to the entrance and peering out as if he was sure Shai's words had carried outside the tent wall. Then he strode back. 'You can't.'

'Lord Radas threatened to have you killed.'

'No, only punished. He has a soldier stab me until I'm dead, but since I can't die, I live through the agony of dying and then I heal through pain worse than that of dying. Don't you remember how your Qin soldiers shot me full of arrows? How do you think I survived that?'

'Yet here you stand. A ghost, who yet lives.' He touched Hari's arm, but his brother jerked away. 'Didn't you ask him to release you?'

'Only a cloak can destroy a cloak. Five Guardians can judge one. You who are not prisoners of the cloak cannot kill us.' Tears shone in his eyes. 'Do not pity me.'

'I don't pity you! You pity yourself!'

Hari raised a hand to strike, then flung himself away, pressing that hand to the clasp that hooked his cloak around his throat.

'You don't have to be their prisoner! Just take it off!' Shai dogged Hari's steps, reaching for the cloak's elaborate clasp, but Hari shoved him so hard he fell onto the plush upholstery of the couch.

'It will burn you, kill you, if you touch it. You think I haven't seen Yordenas torture people? He forces them to touch his clasp until their flesh burns away to the bone!'

'Then release yourself!'

Hari's smile lit him with a flash of his old charm, but the reckless glint was twisted and bitter. 'Once started down this path, no one is ever content, little brother. Do you know why I'm their prisoner? I hate what I am, and yet I embrace it, because I fear the shadows that lie beyond the gate. Now that I am dead, I fear death more than anything. Just as she does.'

'She?'

'The cloak of Night. The one who woke me and taught me to know what I am. She fears death, too. We all fear death, who have suffered it. That's why we are what we are and why we do what we do.'

This could not be Harishil, best of brothers. This was his shell, inhabited by a demon.

The cloak ran a hand over his head, face creased, eyes tight, other hand in a fist. 'You must have come to the Hundred with the Qin. What do you know about an outlander captain? One who might be veiled?'

Shai looked the demon in the eye. His heart sang with grief, even as his mouth opened and his voice emerged with

astonishing evenness, the lie as easy as breathing. 'Nothing. If you'll give me safe passage out of camp, I'll accept it with thanks.'

'Captain Arras.'

Lord Twilight stood with his back to the captain. A single lamp burned, the flame's wavering light rippling across the fabric of his cloak.

'What brings you to Toskala, Captain? I'll admit, I enjoyed our time together in High Haldia. I had been looking forward to a quiet retirement up there in the north with you as my congenial colleague.'

'My lord.' If it were possible to feel comfortable around a cloak, then Arras felt comfortable with this man, but he knew better than to believe they could ever be comrades. 'Two weeks ago I received orders that a new administrator would be taking over the occupation of High Haldia. I've been reassigned with my three companies to serve at the whim of the governor of Toskala.'

'Are you glad to come to Toskala?' The cloak kept his back to Arras.

'Presiding over an occupation does not suit my temperament. I'm trained to fight, not hang people up from poles just for the pleasure of watching them die.'

'Some in this army gain too much pleasure out of the suffering of the vanquished.'

'It's better to kill rebels, criminals, and traitors cleanly and at once, and move on with the real work.'

'What if I were to use my influence to make sure you got reassigned in support of the army marching south on Nessumara? Do you trust me, Captain?'

They were alone, no one in earshot as long as they spoke quietly. The tent's furnishings had been hauled away; all that was left were a pair of rolled-up rugs.

'Yes, my lord. I trust you.'

'As much as you trust any of us, eh?' said the cloak with a laugh that made Arras grin.

'I return what is given. You trust me enough not to demand my compliance through eating out my heart. It's a courtesy I appreciate.'

A smile creased the cloak's profile. 'Then we understand each other. I am required to depart immediately, leaving unfinished business here in camp.'

'The outlander?'

'You can see the problem this presents me. I'm asking you to disobey orders. You could betray me to Lord Radas and I wouldn't fault you for it. Or you can help me. If we both survive this war, I'll have reason to be grateful to you. Although I can't promise my gratitude is worth much.'

'Are you asking me to betray Lord Commander Radas, my lord?'

'No. I just need to get a single individual to safety in Nessumara without him getting caught and turned over to Night. Without anyone except you and me knowing or suspecting what's being done. A tactical challenge, if you will.' Still, the cloak did not turn to use his third eye and second heart to expose Arras's intentions. 'Will you help me, Captain?'

Trust can never be offered lightly, nor lightly refused. In the army, Arras was just one ambitious captain from the uplands of Teriayne, with no means for advancement except distinguishing himself and his companies in battle. He'd been left behind in High Haldia despite fighting well and taking the brunt of the initial attack, while better-connected men who'd done less had received promotions and moved on.

'Get me assigned to the attack against Nessumara, my lord. If you do, I can help you.'

Joss left Clan Hall at dawn, alone, guiding Scar downstream toward Nessumara. Eagles he had ordered out on patrol sweeps soared in the distance. It was easy from this height to perceive the land as if it were at peace, until you recognized how many villages bore the scars of battle: burned houses, freshly built scaffolding on which to lay the dead, empty paths and roads. A crude encampment lay hidden within woodland, but he dared not land to see who they were. It seemed almost cruel to grab bites of rice cake and swigs of cordial from the pouch of provisions lashed to his harness while wondering if those refugees were starving.