“Anything broken?” Joss asked. “That looked hard.”

“I’ve taken worse. I must have been at the limit of the mare’s range. Bad enough, as you can see.” He looked up as Scar swooped low and came to rest by the river’s shore. “Do you mean to fly?”

“Neh. I’ll see this through.”

Anji nodded. “Good. They’ll try to cross at night. Here’s my plan.”

THE SUN YIELDED tonight. Campfires sprang up on the far shore as the enemy reached the limit of the road. In teams of three, villagers and militiamen dispersed along the bank. Every flopping fish earned a start. If a branch floated past, a village man threw a stone. Across the river, axes chopped and falling trees splintered.

But night passed, and no one attacked.

In the morning, the remaining eagles and reeves took flight, all but Scar and Joss. Staying above arrow range, they scouted up and downstream while meanwhile a reeve flew south along the road to seek out the strike force.

The chopping continued. A reeve landed to report that the enemy was constructing a dozen rafts, logs lashed together with rope. The building site lay upstream.

“What do you think?” the villagers asked Anji.

“They’ll come at night.”

“We’ll be overwhelmed!” cried Menard.

The sergeant in command of the twenty Olossi militia men who had been dropped in by the eagles stepped forward. “Can’t we delay them, Captain? Destroy their rafts? Hold the shore?”

“What good will that do?” demanded Menard. “They’ll just float downstream and put to shore elsewhere.”

“Patience,” said Anji with an unexpected smile. After a night off his feet, he was still stiff, but his gait was steady. He surveyed his troops: the Olossi militiamen, four Qin guardsmen, and forty or so locals. “We have to keep them pinned on the other bank. How deep is the river?”

“Shallow to the height of a man for more than a stone’s throw from shore on this side. The current cuts closer to the far shore, and has for years. That’s why the ferry leads on this side. You can see there’s a ramp of paving stones somewhat eroded on the other side. It gets steep fast.”

“The current will pull them downstream.”

“Downstream the bank on our side gets steep, as the current shifts. If I were them, I’d put the rafts into the water upstream and aim for the shoals here.”

Anji stared across the water. A great deal of movement was going on, upstream. “They seem to have the same idea. Yet I wonder. I read a tale once in the archives of the palace library . . . a hidden barricade under water that slowed the advance of a fleet.”

“May the Great Lady come to our aid, Captain. If you have any ideas at all, let us know them.”

Eyes still narrowed, Anji glanced at Joss. “Marshal?”

“We’ve some oil of naya, but with forest cover, wet ground, and mobile troops, it’s unlikely to meet with the same success as at Olossi.”