Kate Elliott - Shadow Gate

'Think she'd consider me?'

'Since I like you, I'll be honest, my friend. I think she's aiming for

a captain, at the least. A commander, if she can reach so high. Where's your company's captain, anyway? I don't see his fat ass around.'

'Eh, there's a council going up at the big tent, neh? My captain's all right, though. Some of the other sergeants, they have to put up with real turds, if I may say so.'

Bai laughed. 'You won't hear me arguing. Whew! What I had to put up with at the temple, I tell you! Heya! Lpok there. Is that your captain?'

The man was coming back at a trot, looking tense. He hailed his sergeants, and the man talking to Bai made his excuses and hurried over. Bai beckoned to Shai, and they moved off into camp.

'Something's up,' she said in a low voice. 'A council of war this late in the afternoon. The way he came running back to rope in his sergeants. He's got orders.'

She led Shai back to the perimeter of camp where the camp followers and merchants had set up. When they arrived at the ragged tent she'd purchased for shelter, the children pressed forward to touch both her and Shai, as if making sure they were still alive and not ghosts.

'Where's Ladon?' she asked Veras and Eridit.

'A fellow came by wearing a badge marked with silk slippers, Edard's clan, the ones with river transport.'

'Why in the hells would river transporters badge their clan with silk slippers?' Shai asked.

Veras rolled his eyes. Bai smiled.

Eridit just shook her head. 'You don't know the tale, do you? Anyway, Ladon went off with him.'

Bai frowned. 'Did he say where they were going?'

'In fact he did. The abandoned Green Suns tanning yard. Not far from here.'

Bai nodded. 'I know where it is. That's where I meet Tohon to exchange news. The hells! I'm going after him, make sure it's not a trap.'

'Heya,' said Shai, 'I forgot. Edard told me that the password is "splendid silk slippers".'

'Edard told you?' Bai looked at him with a narrowed gaze, then shrugged. 'It's worth trying. Veras, you'll come with me. You two

stay here with the children. Be alert. Keep them ready to move at short notice.'

Eridit's eyes widened, and her look of alarm was real, not feigned. 'What is it, Bai?'

'May be nothing. A feeling that's prickling my skin.' She grabbed a pair of slender assassin's knives, concealed them under her kilt, and strode off with Veras hurrying after.

'Now what?' Eridit asked.

Shai stuck his head into the tent, where the children sat and lay crammed together, watchful as they stared at him. 'Form into banners. Pack up everything.'

'What's happening, Shai?' Yudit asked.

'Maybe nothing. Stay quiet, but be ready to move if I give you the signal. And for that matter, eat up now. Finish off the rice and nai. We can buy more tomorrow.'

The children began gathering up scraps of clothing, eating utensils, leather bottles, and sacks of rice. He came outside and sat on the bench he'd built from scraps of lumber. Eridit twitched her ass down beside him and leaned flirtatiously against his shoulder.

'I like it when you talk with so much confidence,' she purred.

'Stop it!' He moved away. After weeks marching with the prisoners, he could not bear to even think about sex. 'Or are you truly as cursed stupid as Tohon must think you are?'

'That was a mean thing to say.'

'Just because Tohon didn't do the thing with you?'

'You jealous? Of his self-control, I mean.'

'You're being an ass.'

'A horse's ass, you mean, Shai. It's from the tale of the Swift Horse. It's a bedtime story. You know, before you get into… bed?'

'Leave me alone.'

'Great Lady,' said Yudit from within the tent. 'Are you two arguing again?'

A soldier stumbled up toward the tent, obviously drunk. 'Heya! You there! Outlander! I hear there's lasses and lads for sale, eh? Nice and young and tasty. Celebrated their Youth's Crowns and ready for a treat! Heh!'

Eridit ducked inside as Shai blocked the entrance. He wasn't as

tall as the soldier, but he knew how to brace as he shouldered the man back. 'Mistress hasn't opened yet for business, ver.'

'Sheh! You lot have sat here a week, eh? You've not fattened up that veal yet? I'll bring a tey of rice every evening, you just let me in.' He pushed.,

Shai sank to get his weight lower, and shoved hard back. The man staggered, unable to keep steady.

'Outlander bastard!' He turned around and shouted. 'Divass! Avard! Get over here. About time we took a taste of what these cursed shut-holes are withholding from us, eh?'

A pair looked up from haggling with a man seated on a blanket who was selling white plums and heaps of cawl petals.

Nudged from behind, Shai glanced over his shoulder. Eridit thrust the hilt of a short sword into his back. 'Here.'

'That won't help me,' he muttered as the drunken man stumbled back to his friends and began gesticulating his complaints in a thready whine. Yah yah yah. Merciful God! How much longer Bai expected them to keep up this cursed pretense, Shai could not imagine. Men were coming around every cursed evening after drill, and so far Bai had managed to put them off with various plausible excuses delivered in her drawling, contemptuous style. 'Hu! Take the children out the back if you have to. Here they come.'

The three swaggered with outraged privilege as they approached. Merciful One, act now!

A sergeant jogged through the ragged market street, pausing to grab men by the shoulders. 'Heya! Heya! Three Circles cadre, report at once.'

A second sergeant followed, calling another group. Men turned from browsing the wares on offer: fried vegetables, hot noodles, goat's milk, carved bowls and spoons, an old man repairing knife hilts, women skinny from the abuse they took to fetch a few vey.

'Avard! Divass! Kili! Get your cursed horses' asses over here.'

'Assembly?' muttered the big one. 'At dusk? After we've already been released from drill? The hells!' But he lumbered away.

Shai sagged, all his readiness blown.

'Did that man go away?' asked Vali, venturing up behind Eridit. 'He was following me before. He tried to touch me.'

'Sheh!' said Eridit in disgust. 'You're not even of an age, Vali. But

I'm not surprised by any crude thing I hear or see in this place.' She loosed an accusatory glance at Shai, pushed past him, and crossed over the open space to the man selling white plums and cawl petals. There she smiled prettily, and she and the man entered into a protracted haggle, which she no doubt drew out to annoy the poor merchant.

'Why do you argue with her all the time?' asked Vali.

'Shai's a prude,' said Yudit, laying her head against Shai's shoulder.

'Neh, he isn't,' said Eska. Dena and others in the interior echoed her, defending him.

'Oh, shut it, little plum,' said Yudit affectionately. 'I'm not ragging him. I'm just saying so, because it's true. Nothing wrong with it.' She shuddered, and he put an arm around her. Vali leaned against him on the other side, and they watched as the market street cleared of soldiers and the merchants packed away their wares for safekeeping.

He felt a prickling on his skin, maybe the same one Bai had spoken of, like the way air changed before a storm.

Eridit returned triumphant, her long jacket cradling cawl petals weighted down with white plums. 'Look at all this, and for only two vey!' She pushed rudely past Shai. 'Here, Eska. Let's put this in the pot. Then we can make soup later.'

'I'm scared, too,' said Yudit softly. 'But that's no cause for you two to keep fighting. It worries the younger ones.'

'I don't fight with her because I'm scared!'

She smiled, a rare gift, and shame shut him up. Maybe she was even right. He missed Tohon bitterly, but the Qin scout had been left in the woodland to scout the environs, meeting with Bai long past midnight on specified nights.