Abda, get that carrion loaded. I walked to the coach, climbed up beside my driver, looked around, spotted Tal. He and two other priests in red were standing streetside eighty feet away, bug-eyed. I saluted them.

Loaded, Mistress, Abda called up.

I got some amusement from him and Ram. They did not want me up there, exposed, but did not want me inside with the dead and captive, either. Shall I run along behind like a good Taglian woman. Ram?

Embarrassed, he shook his head.

Climb aboard.

We rolled right past Tal and his cronies. I called down, Get what pleasure you can from the hours you have left.

Tal blanched. The other two were made of sterner or stupider stuff.

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-One

It was a gorgeous day. A few clouds above to break up the sky, a gentle breeze, the air unseasonably cool. If you stayed in the shade you could remain sweat-free. It was midafternoon. Work on the camp had begun at dawn. Four thousand men made progress obvious.

First we would provide shelter, mess halls, stables, storage. I had planned ambitiously, for a garrison of ten thousand. Even Narayan was worried that I wanted to grab too much too soon.

I had spent the morning administering oaths to the soldiers in small groups, by cult, having them pledge everything in the sacred defense of Taglios. Wormed into the oath was a line about unquestioning obedience to commanders.

Narayans cleverer cronies weeded out the priests and religious fanatics beforehand. The dross we isolated in what was supposed to be a special unit. There were about three hundred such men. They were on the field below the hill, being given accelerated training. As soon as I found a good one I would send them off on a bold and dramatic mission somewhere far away. I sat in the shade of an old tree observing and directing. Ram hovered.

I spied Narayan approaching. I had left him in the city. I rose, asked, Well?

Its done. The last one was found an hour before I left.

Good. Tal had been easy but his companions had been hard to trace. Narayans friends had disposed of them. Thats good. Has it caused excitement?

Hard to tell yet, though a Gunni emissary did show up just before I left.

Oh?

He wanted to arrange the release of the men from the grove.

And?

I told him theyd been released. Hell figure it out.

Excellent. Any word on the Shadowmasters spies?

No. But people have seen the wrinkled little brown men you mentioned. So they must be here.

Theyre here. Id give a couple of teeth to know what theyre up to. Anything else?