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.

She gasped, gripping the harness because she felt suddenly how fragile were the straps holding her in.

“How are you doing?” He was very close, accustomed to embracing women, no doubt, while she had never been this intimately close to any man except Anji.

“Hu! I have to pee, but I should have known that would happen! No, don’t worry.” She giggled, so giddy she thought her spirit must be flying even higher than her body. “I’m joking.”

Her abdomen clenched so hard her next words were choked off, a fist clenched to squeeze her breath right out of her lungs. Warm liquid gushed down her thighs.

“The hells!” cried Joss. “I thought you said you were joking.”

Eldest daughter, she had attended at every birth in the Mei clan since she was old enough to run errands in and out of the birthing room. “That was my water breaking. I’m going to give birth.”

“Now? Right now? The hells you are!”

A spark of panic surged to a flame. She shut her eyes and let it run, as a pure, wild fire might rage along her skin. Let it fall away, like clothes shed from the body. Her fear died. She would live, or she would die. She must accept what was, in order to think and to act.

He was still babbling. “How could it—? Aren’t you—? What do you mean, that was your water?”

Liquid ran down her leg; there was plenty of it, since the womb is a vessel of water and blood in which the growing seed is nurtured. In the desert, as the saying goes, without water there is no life, without blood you have no kin.