A formation consisting only of Qin riders swept past. Jagi peeled off from his own group and raced with his comrades through an about-face back toward the starting line with a precision and speed that made her heart pound. No wonder they had defeated a much larger army!

“Vish!” Jerad trotted up, his face smeared and his clothes dirty. He wore a big grin of pure happiness as he watched the troop ride off. “Did you see that, eh? I’m going to be a soldier in the captain’s army. Jagi is teaching me to ride. I’m going to become a black wolf, just like them.”

42

“Why should you get to keep that girl for yourself, not sharing her?” The soldier confronting the sergeant squinted, holding an axe in one hand. “Who set you over us as if you was lord?”

Shai watched sidelong as he scoured out the pot that had been used to cook rice. The conflict had been taking shape over several days of marching, and now, having stopped for the night in yet another isolated, abandoned, burned village, the malcontents within the cadre of thirty-six had decided to confront their leader.

“I was named captain when the cloak left us,” snarled the sergeant. “You going to argue with the lord?”

The man with the axe sneered. “You think that pervert cares about us? You ever think maybe we were led into a trap? I’ve been thinking the lords sent us west to test Olossi’s strength, not caring what became of us. Like scarpers sent into a hole to see if an adder will bite. What do we owe them? Why go back at all, eh? Plenty of fields here. We’ve got slaves to do the work.”

Shai sat on a charred beam out in front of a shed where most of the younger children, chores complete, already rested on such pallets as they could scrape together from grass or straw. They were always scratching, bodies speckled with bites and discolored with sores and bruises and welts. His foot itched. He leaned down and felt along the arch until he identified the bump where he’d been bitten. Aiye! He hurt everywhere, but he must never let it show.

Twenty-six men had congregated around the sergeant, so there were nine men not present. He identified four in visible watch positions where two paths entered the wide clearing. Two more would be in the woods on a ranging watch. Where were the other three? Yet he could not possibly lead twenty-four frail children and adolescents into the woods; even with a head start, they would be caught.

“Farming is hard work,” said the sergeant as his allies muttered agreement. “I didn’t sign up to farm.”

“You say that because you get a good lie-down every night, when there aren’t enough to go around who are old enough, eh? Or are you like the cloak, eh? The younger, the better?”

“You gods-rotted, pus-filled shit!” The sergeant flicked up a hand, and Twist and another pair of soldiers threw the challenger to the ground. Their bodies blocked Shai’s view of the beating, but two girls who were carrying buckets on a pole down the lane faltered and dropped the pole, so frightened were they at the sight. Solid thumps changed tone to a meatier, more liquid sound; they were bashing in the man’s head.