“He’s gone to the south side of the column,” he said to Hati. “He’ll likely cross it again when he reaches some village band, and cross it several times after to confuse the track. He’ll hang off our flank and wait his chance at me, at Patya, at the Ila. I should have dealt with him before we set out.”

“What are you going to do?” Hati asked.

“Find him. And kill him.”

“No,” Norit said sharply, and not Norit, but Luz. “No! You have a responsibility.”

“The hell with my responsibility!” He strode out the door, with Hati hurrying after him, and Patya seizing his arm. He shook them both off, and rounded on Norit, who had followed as far as the doorway of the tent. “The hell with my responsibility to the whole damned world! This is mine. This is my responsibility! You can do what I do. You hear Luz. She talks to you nowadays. So do it! And, Hati, don’t you follow me! Don’t do that to me. I know his tricks. He’ll be after me, and you, and the Ila, next. I count on you to take precautions, and keep this camp safe!” It was on Hati he relied most, Hati’s interference he most had to stop cold, Hati’s life that mattered most to him, even above Patya’s. “Guard my sister. Hear me? Don’t make me lose her, too! Patya, behave yourself. I’ll be back.”

“Don’t go out there alone!” Hati said to him. “Get Memnanan.”

“I know what my father will do, and the Ila’s men don’t. I know he’s not alone. And I don’t want Memnanan’s men out there: it stirs up the old abjori, and that gives my father what he wants.” He reached Osan among the beshti and got him up. The saddle was near. He flung it on, adjusted its padding. “He’ll go to supporters in other villages. He’ll persuade some here and there along the line to come out beside the column.” He tightened the girth. “He’ll take tents, and gear, and beshti, and he’ll create his army to harass the line. This is war he’s declared. And the Ila’s soldiers aren’t well loved in the villages he’d try to convert, but I have friends there. Trust me that I know.” He made Osan put a leg out, and seized the mounting loop and swung up. He saw Memnanan coming through the dust, with Tofi, in haste. “You explain it to him,” he said to Hati. “You’re in charge.”

“Marak, be careful!” Patya cried. “Don’t die out there! Please don’t die.”

“Do everything Hati tells you. Stay with her and don’t be stupid.”

He took up the quirt and gave Osan a hard hit, leaving before he had to explain anything. The Ila might not forgive him. Memnanan might not.