“I’m getting my slaves fattened up and healthy, although it’s costing me a cursed lot of vey. What do you think, sergeant? Think I should sell all of them outright? Or just the younger ones, and keep the older for a business? There’s plenty here who will pay coin for sex. I could set right up in camp, maybe even work out of a pair of wagons if the army keeps moving south to Nessumara. I’m new to merchanting, as you might have guessed, but you seem like an experienced man who’ll give me fair advice.”

He cleared his throat and handed her his cup. “That woman who watches your slaves, is she your lover?”

“Neh.” Bai sipped at the wine. “I’m not fashioned that way. We made a deal. She works for me while she’s looking for a protector.”

“Think she’d consider me?”

“Since I like you, I’ll be honest, my friend. I think she’s aiming for a captain, at the least. A commander, if she can reach so high. Where’s your company’s captain, anyway? I don’t see his fat ass around.”

“Eh, there’s a council going up at the big tent, neh? My captain’s all right, though. Some of the other sergeants, they have to put up with real turds, if I may say so.”

Bai laughed. “You won’t hear me arguing. Whew! What I had to put up with at the temple, I tell you! Heya! Look there. Is that your captain?”

The man was coming back at a trot, looking tense. He hailed his sergeants, and the man talking to Bai made his excuses and hurried over. Bai beckoned to Shai, and they moved off into camp.

“Something’s up,” she said in a low voice. “A council of war this late in the afternoon. The way he came running back to rope in his sergeants. He’s got orders.”

She led Shai back to the perimeter of camp where the camp followers and merchants had set up. When they arrived at the ragged tent she’d purchased for shelter, the children pressed forward to touch both her and Shai, as if making sure they were still alive and not ghosts.

“Where’s Ladon?” she asked Veras and Eridit.

“A fellow came by wearing a badge marked with silk slippers, Edard’s clan, the ones with river transport.”

“Why in the hells would river transporters badge their clan with silk slippers?” Shai asked.

Veras rolled his eyes. Bai smiled.

Eridit just shook her head. “You don’t know the tale, do you? Anyway, Ladon went off with him.”

Bai frowned. “Did he say where they were going?”

“In fact he did. The abandoned Green Suns tanning yard. Not far from here.”