“Whew! It’s a cursed shame, us encouraging good Hundred girls to marry outlanders. You can’t trust foreigners. Everyone knows that. Maybe they don’t even have eggs. Maybe their members have thorns on them, like it’s said in the tale about the wildings. Best if our lasses stick to their own kind.”

Joss wanted to slug him, but refrained. “We have over two hundred unmarried men who have weapons, who know how to use them better than our militia do, and who might expect a little gratitude after saving Olossi and Argent Hall. I’d rather these outlanders marry good Hundred girls and have a reason to settle down and ally with us than go riding after someone who’ll make use of them. Like the Northerners.”

“I don’t like their slanty eyes. They look at us like they think we’re so much smaller than they are. They remind me of you in some ways.” The sneer was back.

Joss pushed away from the stone. “Is there anything else? I’d like to eat and drink before I sit down at the assizes for the evening.”

“Are you going to allow this order that came from the Olossi temple conclave? To bury the corpses of the dead soldiers?”

“I am.”

“The hells! You can’t mean it. It’s going against the laws of the gods.”

“You saw what those criminals did in the villages. We must bury such spirits.”

“And become as impious as they were.”

“Maybe so. But young men—and debt-bound slaves—will think twice about running away to the north to make their fortune robbing and raping and murdering, won’t they? Anyway, it’s the punishment spoken of in the Tale of Fortune, isn’t it? That must be where the temple ruling comes from. That’s all I have to say. Make sure Nallo—that’s the new reeve’s name—gets to Argent Hall. If she won’t leave the children, then make sure some provision is made for them, else she won’t cooperate. Otherwise, you’re in charge here at this haven until everyone has dispersed. Then you can return to Clan Hall.”

Volias was still stewing. Joss took his silence for assent and went to find something to eat. A scrap of bread, sour wine, and the leavings of watery soup were all that was available, and even that must be eaten with folk rudely trying to get his attention while a trio of young militiamen out of Olossi did their best to hold back the crowd. He set up afterward at the makeshift assizes court, and the petitioners kept coming to him and Volias for hours. A woman needed a healer for a broken hand. Every small child in one corner of the sprawling encampment had diarrhea. A dispute had broken out between two families over the contents of a wagon full of goods salvaged from their burned village. A lad and a lass wished to sit on the marriage bench, but both their clan heads forbade it, while the hopeful couple claimed that they had already received permission from clan elders who had, alas, been killed in the recent trouble.