them, at the couch nearest the fire. Her hands were fists in her lap,
her spine straight and still as a tree. Her face was expressionless.
Sinja's gaze flickered toward her, and then came back to Otah. The
captain took a pose that apologized.
"I'm not trying to he light about this, Most I ligh," Sinja said. "But
it's truth. By the time I knew they weren't attacking the \Vestlands, I
could no more have excused myself and ridden on than flapped my arms and
flown. I did what I could to slow them, but yes, when they called on us,
we fought beside them. When they needed interpreters, we spoke for them.
I suppose we could have thrown ourselves on their spears and died nobly,
but then I wouldn't he here to warn you now."
"You betrayed the Khaiem," Otah said.
"And I'm betraying the Galts now," Sinja replied, his voice calm. "If
you can judge the balance on that, you're smarter than I am. I've done
what I've done, :Most Iligh. If I chose wrong, I'll apologize, except I
don't think I have."
"Let it go," Utah said. "W'e'll deal with it later."
"I'd rather do it now," Sinja said, shifting his weight. "If I'm going
to be drowned as a traitor, I'd like to know it."
Utah felt the rage rise up in his breast like a flame uncurling. IIe
heard it in his ears.
"You want pardon?"
"For the boys too," Sinja said. "I swear I'll do everything I can to
earn it."
You'll swear anything you like and break the oath when it suits you,
Otah thought. He bit his lip until he thought it might bleed, but he
didn't shout. He didn't call for the armsmen who waited outside the
great blue doors. It would have been simple to have the man killed. It
would have even felt like justice, he thought. I Its own man. His friend
and advisor. Walking beside the Galttc general. Giving him advice. But
the rage wasn't only rage. It was also fear. And despair. And so no
matter how right it felt, it couldn't be trusted.
"Don't ask me for anything again."
"I won't, Otah-cha." And then a moment later, "You're a harder man than
when I left."
"I've earned it."
"It suits von.
A rattle came from the door, and then a polite scratching, and Cehmai,
Nlaati, and Liat came in the room. "Their faces were flushed, and
Nlaati's breath was heavy as if he'd been running. Otah frowned. He
wouldn't have chosen to have Ifiat here, but she'd helped Kiyan with the
preparations of the city and the quartering of the refugees of Cetani,
so perhaps it was for the best after all. I Ic took a general pose of
greeting.
"What's ... happened," \Iaati wheezed.
"Wc have a problem," Otah said.
"The Galts?" Liat asked.
"'l'en thousand of them," Kiyan said, speaking for the first time since
Stnja had begun his report. I ler voice was solid as stone. "Foot
soldiers and archers and horsemen. They won't reach its today. But
tomorrow, perhaps. 'T'hree days at the most."
Nlaati's face went white and he sat down hard, like a puppet whose
strings had been cut. I,iat and Cchmai didn't move to help him. The room
was silent except for the murmur of the fire. Otah let the moment pass.
"There was nothing he could say just now that they wouldn't think for
themselves in the next few heartbeats. Cehmai recovered the fastest, his
brows rising, his mouth going tight and hard.
"What do we do?" the younger poet asked.
"We have some advantages," Otah said. "We outnumber them. We know the
city. We're in a position to defend, and holding a city's easier than
forcing your way in."
"On the other hand," Sinja said, "they're soldiers. You aren't. They
know that they need shelter from the cold and need it quickly. Taking
Machi's their only option. And they know a fair amount about the city as
well."
"You told them that too?" Otah asked.
""They've had their agents and traders in all the cities for
generations," Kiyan said softly. "They've put their hands in our
affairs. They've walked the streets and sat in the bathhouses. They have
trading houses that wintered here when your father was Khai."
"Not to mention the several hundred native guides working for them who
aren't me," Sinja said. "I was leading a militia, you'll recall. I've
left as many as I could behind, but they've had a season to get any
information they wanted."
Otah raised his hands in a pose that abandoned his point. He had the
feeling of trembling that he remembered from the aftermath of his
battles. From hearing Danat's struggles to breathe when his cough had
been at its worst. It wasn't time to feel; he couldn't afford to feel.
He tried to push the fear and despair away; he couldn't. It was in his
blood now.
"I can try," Nlaati said. "I'll have to try."
"You have a binding ready?" Sinja asked.
"Not ready," Cehmai said. "We have it in outline. It would need weeks to
refine it."
"I'll try," Maati said. His voice was stronger now. His lips were pulled
thin. "But I don't know that it will help if it comes to a battle. If it
works, I can see they never hear children, but that won't stop them in
the near term."
"You could make it hurt," Sinja suggested. "Men don't fight as well
newly gelded."
Nlaati frowned deeply, his fingers moving on their own, as if tracing
numbers in the air.
"Do what you can," Otah said. "If you think a change will make the
binding less likely to work, don't do it. We need an andat-any andat.
The details aren't important."
"Could we pretend?" Liat asked. "Dress someone as an andat, and send
them out with Maati. How would the Galts know it wasn't true?"
"The costume would have to involve not breathing," Cehmai said. Liat
looked crestfallen.
"Kiyan," Otah said. "Can we arm the people we have?"
"We can improvise something," his wife said. "If we put men in the
towers, we can rain stones and arrows on them. It would make it hard for
them to keep to the streets. And if we block the stairways and keep the
platforms locked at the top, it would be hard work to get them out."
"Until the cold kills them," Sinja said. ""There's not enough coal in
the ground to keep those towers warm enough to live in."
"They can survive a few days," Otah said. "We'll see to it."
"We can also block off the entrances to the tunnels," Liat said. "Hide
the ventilation shafts and fill as many of the minor ways down as we can
find with stones. It would be easier, wouldn't it, if there were only
one or two places that we needed to defend?"
"There's another option," Sinja said. "I don't like to mention it, but
... If you surrender, Balasar-cha will kill Otah and Eiah and Danat.