Kate Elliott - Shadow Gate

'Whsst!' Bai came striding out of the gloom, waving at them to fall back. 'Here, now, Shai,' she said, catching him by the arm. 'The password worked. Although why Edard told you instead of anyone else I can't figure.'

They retreated into the interior, stuffy with so many bodies crammed inside. After so long without a bath, they all stank. Eridit lit a lamp and hung it from a pole.

Bai surveyed her troops. 'You're leaving tonight. You'll travel to the ford where we crossed ten days ago. You'll meet Ladon and

Veras there, with a wagonload of supplies. You'll cross to the far shore and travel about a mey downstream. There, you'll meet Tohon on the road, and he'll lead you to a hidden dock where you'll rendezvous with a barge owned by our dead comrade Edard's kin. They're going to take you to Nessumara, to his clan's compound. Do you understand?'

They nodded.

'I want you to know something,' she went on. 'Lone wolves are rightly viewed with suspicion and treated as spies. I'd do the same, in their place. But having you here has given me entrance to every cursed company in this camp, talking up my wares, how juicy they'll be as soon as I get a bit more fat on them, all untouched, never bitten. Folk who want something from you are a cursed reach stupider than those who want nothing.' She sketched a gesture in the air, and the children smiled in response. 'By having the courage to walk in here and just wait, not knowing what might happen and if you'd get abused again, you've done more service to Olossi than the entire cursed Olossi militia.'

'Should we stay, holy one?' asked Yudit in a low voice.

'No. Edard's kinfolk were tipped off by some woman who married into the clan from the Green Sun clan. They're getting out, and they're willing to take you lot downriver with them. Eridit, there's a passing phrase you must speak to get across the river at the ferry. "Flying fours lost", the sentry will tell you, and you reply, "Five cloaks won".'

Eridit mouthed the words twice, then nodded. 'Got it.'

'Shai, you can see them to the ford, make sure they get across safely. Then you have to come back to me.'

The children groaned, and murmured rebelliously.

'What's happening?' asked Eridit, all saucy anger fled.

'Ford Radas's army is attacking Toskala tonight. I don't know the details, but I'm cursed sure there's treachery on the wind.'

'Why does Shai have to stay behind?' Yudit and Vali asked at the same moment.

'He's the only one of us who is protected against the demons. Veiled to their sight. That's what both cloaks said.'

'And what in the hells do you mean to do?' asked Eridit. 'The two of you can't fight the entire cursed army'

Bai grinned, and everyone paused to admire her because she made them all want to be able to grin like that. 'The Merciless One will guide me.' She rocked back, listening to the murmur of a camp rising instead of settling. 'Now get out of here.'

They walked in a tight line, four abreast with the younger ones in the center rows, Eridit and Wori in the lead and Shai and Yudit as tailmen, the ones likeliest to get attacked from behind. If you acted like you were about your business, then folk did not question.

The vendors following the army had set up farthest away from the siege line, and the usual busy twilight market had gone to ground, blankets rolled up, folk hiding inside their tents or huddled in whatever scrap of protection they could find in ragged hedgerows or the remains of a lot of firewood commandeered by the army. It felt like it was about to rain, but the skies remained dry. They descended through a series of orchards, and held their noses as they skirted the edge of tanning yards before coming to the main crossing of the Lesser Istri, two sets of paired cables strung across the wide river.

The guards had lamps out at the barricade, and they considered Eridit with suspicion as she sauntered forward, playing too much, Shai thought, to their lust.

'Here, now,' said the first. 'Shouldn't you be at home with your husband, eh, verea?'

'I don't see your red bracelet, sweetheart,' said the second. 'But I'll give you a taste of married life.'

The third man shushed them. 'Flying fours lost,' he said.

'Five cloaks won,' she answered, and her posture shifted so swiftly that Shai blinked. She was another person now, someone rigid and irritated. 'Didn't think I'd have trouble here. You lot need to attend to your duty.'

The two who had been rude grumbled.

The third man shook his head. 'Where are you going with all these children?'

'We were ordered to get them out of the area.'

'Who ordered you?' demanded the first man, anxious to show he could be a hard-ass.

'Shut up,' said the third man to his comrade. 'I remember you lot. You in particular.' I le looked Eridit up and down, and Shai found

that he'd closed a hand into a fist. Yudit patted him on the elbow, like calming a tense dog. 'You lot crossed eight or ten days ago, neh?'

'Can't get buyers for what we're trying to sell, can we?' she said with a smirk.

The first two men looked at each other, frowning as they considered the insinuation in her words, while the third man grimaced. 'Sheh! Are you saying-? Most of those kids aren't old enough- Eiya! People like you ought to be hanged up on a post, eh? I've got little sisters and brothers, eh? Haven't you any shame?'

'Those with plenty of coin don't need to bow before shame, eh? And we've got coin for the fare, don't we? Now just shut up and let us cross.'

'What if I won't let you pass, you cursed foul degenerate-'

Down at the platform, the winch-turners had stirred from their cots, rising to get a look at the commotion. Wagon wheels ground on paved stones, and a wagon appeared out of the gloom lit by a lamp swaying on a pole. Ladon and Veras had arrived just in time.

Curiously, a slender man of mature years, not yet elderly, strode alongside the wagon, chattering in the most inanely cheerful manner. He wore a long cloak against the expected rains, and the garb Shai had come to recognize as typical of the priests known as envoys of the god Ilu.

'-then I said to him, "Ver, death's wolves aren't greedy. They only eat when they're hungry, not like the wolves among men." I was speaking, of course, of the Sirniakan toll collectors, who I will tell you charged me double and triple only because I was a foreigner in their lands! Outrageous!' As the wagon rattled to a halt, the envoy smiled at the guardsmen. 'Greetings of the dusk, my friends. What's this? A full raft for the twilight pull, eh? Good fortune for those who collect the toll.'

The guards took a step back, and the children shrank against each other. Eridit expelled a hot gasp, as though she'd just been insulted, and Ladon and Veras — the idiots — sat like nimwits on the box of the wagon, struck to silence. The big raft bumped gently at the dock. From the shelter of the platform, the winch-turners stared. No one moved.

Shai trotted forward, pushing right up to the guards. 'We're in a

hurry, ver. And I'd sooner piss on you than listen to you tell me what you think of our business. You want to fight? Call out your fellows, and let's fight, eh?'

'Neh, neh, you go on. Vermin.'

Shai shouldered past them, and the children hurried after with the wagon rumbling in their wake. The winch-turners peered out as Shai strode out onto the landing stage and pulled open the railings to allow the wagon to maneuver onto the raft. He stepped back as the children flooded on afterward.

That cursed envoy was nattering to Eridit. '… Water-born Goats like you do have an unfortunate tendency to be self-centered, wanting the attention of others always fixed on them. They might not mean to be petty and selfish, but too often they don't notice if they've violated the honor of other people, which is why it can be hard to trust them-'