Shai sagged, all his readiness blown.

“Did that man go away?” asked Vali, venturing up behind Eridit. “He was following me before. He tried to touch me.”

“Sheh!” said Eridit in disgust. “You’re not even of an age, Vali. But I’m not surprised by any crude thing I hear or see in this place.” She loosed an accusatory glance at Shai, pushed past him, and crossed over the open space to the man selling white plums and cawl petals. There she smiled prettily, and she and the man entered into a protracted haggle, which she no doubt drew out to annoy the poor merchant.

“Why do you argue with her all the time?” asked Vali.

“Shai’s a prude,” said Yudit, laying her head against Shai’s shoulder.

“Neh, he isn’t,” said Eska. Dena and others in the interior echoed her, defending him.

“Oh, shut it, little plum,” said Yudit affectionately. “I’m not ragging him. I’m just saying so, because it’s true. Nothing wrong with it.” She shuddered, and he put an arm around her. Vali leaned against him on the other side, and they watched as the market street cleared of soldiers and the merchants packed away their wares for safekeeping.

He felt a prickling on his skin, maybe the same one Bai had spoken of, like the way air changed before a storm.

Eridit returned triumphant, her long jacket cradling cawl petals weighted down with white plums. “Look at all this, and for only two vey!” She pushed rudely past Shai. “Here, Eska. Let’s put this in the pot. Then we can make soup later.”

“I’m scared, too,” said Yudit softly. “But that’s no cause for you two to keep fighting. It worries the younger ones.”

“I don’t fight with her because I’m scared!”

She smiled, a rare gift, and shame shut him up. Maybe she was even right. He missed Tohon bitterly, but the Qin scout had been left in the woodland to scout the environs, meeting with Bai long past midnight on specified nights.

“Whsst!” Bai came striding out of the gloom, waving at them to fall back. “Here, now, Shai,” she said, catching him by the arm. “The password worked. Although why Edard told you instead of anyone else I can’t figure.”

They retreated into the interior, stuffy with so many bodies crammed inside. After so long without a bath, they all stank. Eridit lit a lamp and hung it from a pole.

Bai surveyed her troops. “You’re leaving tonight. You’ll travel to the ford where we crossed ten days ago. You’ll meet Ladon and Veras there, with a wagonload of supplies. You’ll cross to the far shore and travel about a mey downstream. There, you’ll meet Tohon on the road, and he’ll lead you to a hidden dock where you’ll rendezvous with a barge owned by our dead comrade Edard’s kin. They’re going to take you to Nessumara, to his clan’s compound. Do you understand?”

They nodded.

“I want you to know something,” she went on. “Lone wolves are rightly viewed with suspicion and treated as spies. I’d do the same, in their place. But having you here has given me entrance to every cursed company in this camp, talking up my wares, how juicy they’ll be as soon as I get a bit more fat on them, all untouched, never bitten. Folk who want something from you are a cursed reach stupider than those who want nothing.” She sketched a gesture in the air, and the children smiled in response. “By having the courage to walk in here and just wait, not knowing what might happen and if you’d get abused again, you’ve done more service to Olossi than the entire cursed Olossi militia.”