“Marshal! Did you hear the news? There’s a party of about two hundred men spotted two mey south on the track.”

“Saw it myself. Miyara, you’ll be transporting Priya to Olossi. Hitch her in now, but make a detour to the camp and give Arda these directions.”

Pain gripped her midsection so tightly that she did not hear as Joss continued.

Then it faded.

“—just make sure she coordinates the hall’s actions with Captain Anji. Are you well, verea?” He took Mai’s arm.

“Yes,” she said, shaking him off. She had lost all that hard-won equilibrium, her market face burning away in the face of trouble.

Sheyshi trailed behind, irritating everyone with her wails. “Mistress, let me help you.”

“No! I’m fine.”

They reached the market square. Mai panted and puffed as the marshal hooked into his harness. To walk under the shadow of the huge eagle took courage, but Anji had done it, so she could, too. Then the harness had to be adjusted to fit over her distended belly, but at least the sling under her hips supported her weight comfortably. Priya was being hooked in by the female reeve. Sheyshi slunk away, still bawling, a Qin soldier in awkward pursuit.

“Are you ready?” asked Joss.

“Yes.”

He blew a tone on his whistle: Up!

Mai laughed first as fear squeezed her heart, and then she laughed because, as the ground dropped away and they picked up and up, the entire settlement fell into her view in the most astonishing manner. She could see everything! The mountains striped with late afternoon shadows. Sheep pouring over a slope as they moved to pasture. The skin of water gleaming in the irrigation ponds and the net of canals moving water into greening fields. The racks of drying fish. The sky, so blue above, and the mirror of the sea so wide below, fading in the east to dusk.

No wonder reeves left their families behind and never looked back.

She spotted the procession returning from the Ladytree, everyone chanting and dancing, but as she watched, twisting because the view was falling away behind them, a pair of figures reached the crowd and a trickle of tiny figures spun out of the celebratory mass as oil separates from water. Anji was already spreading the word, putting his plan in motion.

Then they were over the water, and she lost sight of the settlement. Why did Anji not trust her? Or was it those around her he did not trust? Agents of the Red Hounds might infiltrate in many guises. As for the Hieros, that knife could cut both ways: Her agents could spy on foreign agents, but they could also spy on him.

With mighty wings outstretched, the eagle glided. The land receded behind them. She had never ever imagined anyone could travel so fast. The wind rumbled in her ears, and carved scallops in the glittering surface of the water far below.

On and on they flew. The sea darkened in the east, promising night. Joss had his arms around her shoulders in a discreet lover’s embrace and, abruptly, he relaxed his grip and withdrew his hands.