“Hu!” He laughed. “Don’t mind if I do. Captain?”

The captain nodded. As Tohon followed the Hieros into the garden, Anji caught Kesh’s attention with his gaze. “You’ll come with me,” he said, no argument about it.

Kesh looked helplessly at Bai, but she shrugged. The hells! She was already thinking about walking into the shadows. Walking into death, it might as well be. He’d bought her freedom with tainted goods, and now they’d been thrown back into slavery, as if the simple act of daring to grab for freedom had cursed them to worse than what had come before.

She’d be dead and he . . . It hit him as in the gut, a blow that made him double over with fear and grief. He’d be alone, without purpose, for that was all that had sustained him during the twelve years he’d labored as Feden’s debt slave: the hope of freeing his beloved younger sister.

“Kesh?” Leaping up, she crossed to kneel beside him. “Is it something you ate? The old bitch didn’t even offer you wine, just for the spite of it!” Her hand warmed Kesh’s shoulder.

“I’m all right.” He forced his fear under control like a hand pressing billowing cloth back into an open chest in a high wind. “Do you have to go?”

“Of course I have to go.”

“You’re just going to abandon me? And the ginnies, too?”

“They can’t come on such a mission. They’ll be well taken care of.” She turned to confront the captain. “He’ll be well taken care of, Captain. That’s what I expect.” She swiveled her head to glare at the reeve. “All the charges dropped, just as I said, Marshal. Is it agreed?”

She was a wolf, ready to lunge for the kill, but they were predators, too. Joss was a proud, handsome eagle. Folk had started calling the Qin soldiers “the black wolves” for their manner of dress, and even though Captain Anji had not been born in the Year of the Wolf as Bai had, he might easily be mistaken for that beast.

Anji’s smile showed teeth, a threat. “Are you questioning my honesty, or my honor?”

She grinned the reckless grin Kesh had come to distrust. “You’re still an outlander, Captain Anji. So we’ll see.”

Anger burned in his expression, a tightening of the eyes.

“I expect to be judged in the same manner,” she added. “Yet you’ve held a hostage for my honor.”

His shoulders relaxed. “True enough. I’ll treat him as my own cousin.” His wolf’s grin flashed. “By Qin laws of hospitality, I assure you, for in the imperial palace of Sirniaka, any male cousin or half brother of mine is dead by now.”

“I’ll see Keshad is well treated,” said Master Calon. “I know his worth.”

Kesh offered him a grateful nod.

Bai embraced him. “Courage, Kesh. Keep your eyes open and your heart bold.”

She released him. Let him go.

“I never had anything to do with the charges brought against your brother,” said the reeve to her, “and I’ll thank you not to imply I had.”