“That’s not why.”

In the Mei household, she had learned when a man’s expression told you he had nothing more to say on a subject. So she smiled with her blandest face, and nodded politely at the waiting reeve to show he could leave.

He blinked, as though the sun had gotten in his eyes. “Listen, verea. I have got news for you, now that I think of it.”

“From the captain?” The eagerness broke in her voice. She coughed to control it, smoothed a hand over her belly. In answer, the baby moved rather like a fish might slip around within grasping hands.

“Neh, I never saw the captain. These days I mostly fly messages between Clan Hall, Nessumara, and Argent Hall. Joss some weeks past told me to keep an eye open for a scouting party sent out by the temples and council. Naturally they’ve been keeping under cover, so I didn’t expect—”

“Did you see Shai?”

The reeve’s frown made her heart go chill.

“It happened that I spotted the scouts outside Horn, combing through the remains from a battle fought a few years back. It was a stupid thing to do, coming to earth. A band of men attacked them. I had to fly out immediately. I don’t know what happened. Likely they hid. There was plenty of cover.”

The chief caught Mai under the elbow. He whistled sharply, and said to a guard, “Priya’s in the market. Also, a drink.”

The reeve’s words kept stinging. “Maybe I alerted the bandits, or maybe they were already stalking them. I’m sorry if my flying in to warn them brought about the attack.”

“Best you find a place to sit down, Mistress,” said Tuvi in a firm voice.

“I warned him about the demon, though,” finished the reeve.

As the sun rises, shade retreats. Light lanced her eyes, and one moment she was standing, and the next seated awkwardly on the ground with Chief Tuvi kneeling beside her.

“There, now, Mistress. We’ll get you a cup of rice wine. Then we’ll take you back to the house.”

Down here she had settled back into shadow, but her head still hurt as though she had been standing in the sun all day. “What did I do?” she whispered.

“You wisely sent warning,” said the chief sternly, “given the serious nature of the demon’s threat. As for the rest, the scouts knew the risks. Those you are not responsible for.”

But his words, like the shade, offered no comfort.

40

A whimper woke Shai just before dawn. It took him a moment to remember where he was: starving, thirsty, and a prisoner of a remnant of the army that had been defeated at Olossi and now fled north toward their allies. He was curled around Eska, the youngest and weakest of the girls. She still slept, her thin face looking gray and unhealthy in the twilight. He uncurled to a crouch, surveying the captives. He’d quickly learnt that the children who were not yet fourteen—the ones who hadn’t celebrated a ceremony called their Youth’s Crown—were not abused even by these crude soldiers except of course that they were daily hit, whipped, and at risk of being killed. The older ones—the eldest besides him was sixteen—were not so fortunate.