Four waited in the pavilion, sipping wine. Zubaidit looked perfectly comfortable seated cross-legged on a pillow, ginnyless. Beside her, that cursed reeve flirted with a smile on his smugly handsome face as he made some quip meant for Zubaidit’s amusement. Captain Anji sat quietly. Bai marked Kesh’s arrival with a glance but did not acknowledge him. The reeve kept talking, attention fixed on Bai. The Qin captain noted Tohon, then Kesh, and gave each a crisp nod before turning back to the conversation.

The fourth person sketched a greeting. Master Calon was the head of a well-to-do merchant house whose faction had never before held power in the city, although today he wore the crossed sash of a seated council member with the red braid of power fixed to his right shoulder. In the aftermath of the battle, a huge change had swept the city and council of Olossi. The Greater Houses, who had held power for untold generations, had fallen to the machinations of the Lesser Houses and the guilds in alliance with Captain Anji and his troop.

A pair of elderly hierodules—by their age, lifelong slaves to the goddess—mounted the steps and with a tinkling of bells announced the arrival of the Hieros. All rose, Kesh last of all. How he hated this woman!

Her attendants helped her sit on a particularly fine pillow covered in a heavy damask of an intense jade green that set off the pale pipe-sprout of her rich silk taloos. For such a delicate, frail, elderly little woman, she had a stare that hammered you. And she was gloating. He could see it in her smirk as she addressed the gathered company.

“That man, the Qin sergeant. The stink of his clothing offends me. Have your people some objection to bathing, Captain? Yet by all report you are yourself perfectly happy to indulge in the baths in the city.”

“I see you have a network well placed to bring you all manner of reports, holy one,” said the captain with a faint smile.

“As you will yourself in time, I expect,” she retorted. “You haven’t answered my question.”

Captain Anji looked at Tohon, gave a nod.

Tohon’s expression remained calm, his voice untroubled. “I can answer for myself, holy one. As a man who has earned respect, I ask to be treated with respect.”

She looked him over. His gaze, on her, was not challenging but it was also not submissive. “I will listen to your words.”

He acknowledged her reply with a nod. “It is well known among my people that the water spirits hate human beings. They are kin to demons, and therefore there is a long war between us. We Qin know better than to trouble the spirits. Maybe you folk have a better understanding with them than we do. Anyway, my daughter drowned, and my wife died of grief from losing her to the water spirits.”

Kesh expected the Hieros to scoff at this ridiculous story. There weren’t any spirits in water except for strong currents and unexpected eddies. The merlings lived in the sea, but they were living, material creatures like humans and delvings and firelings, not spirits. Even demons were living creatures with powers beyond human understanding. The only spirits abroad in the world were ghosts. Everyone knew that.