He laughed. “You will be surprised to learn that the nearest altar lies in Toskala, long forgotten but very much still there. Below the council chambers on the promontory most call Justice Square. We’re expected for a council meeting.”

The hells! She’d been outmaneuvered. Too late she realized that over the last eight days the others had been engaged in an elaborate form of misdirection, keeping her out of the way. Yet they had made no direct move against her. How could they? It wasn’t as if they could kill her.

“I thought,” said Yordenas peevishly, “you said Bevard was on his way back.” He fidgeted like a distempered lad too spoiled for his own good.

“Patience,” said Lord Radas. “Shall we go? Ramit?”

She’d have slugged him for all the good it would do. She had to go to Toskala and the council meeting. She had to try.

With night they flew, Lord Radas taking the lead and Yordenas flying in the rear, while in the camp below them the soldiers, like so many night-crawling serpents, began creeping into attack formation.

AS BAI’S CHOSEN escort when she trolled the camp pretending to be a merchant, Shai had plenty of opportunity to observe because folk tended to ignore him, thinking he was an outlander slave. The army that had laid siege to Toskala had good discipline, a neat camp, and clear lines of authority. An off-duty sergeant could drink a bit, knowing others had his back. He could afford to be expansive.

“You see, it’s like this,” said the sergeant, leaning close to Bai in a confiding manner. “There was a woman who wore the green cloak, but now the green cloak is a man. The woman displeased them, and Lord Radas raised someone else up to the honor, eh? So who’s to say that some of us, the best and most obedient ones, might not have a chance at being raised to a cloak? Why not?”

“Do you think that’s how it works?” Bai asked him. “That Lord Radas chooses? I thought the cloaks—Guardians, that is—were made by the gods.”

“The cloaks rule all, even death. I think the Guardians that was, in the tales, that they’re all gone. Dead, maybe. Maybe they never even existed. Our commanders, now, they’re something else.”

“What do you think they are?”

His gaze flickered toward the high banner pole, deep within the camp, that marked the big tents where the cloaks sheltered. He had a broken nose, healed crookedly, and a scar under his left eye. His expression shifted uneasily, and Bai quickly changed the subject.