Eliar whistled under his breath. "It's said they're poor as dirt in Ofria, all living in mud huts and eating snails."
"Little you would know! Snails are a delicacy! Here, now." Calon untied a purse from his belt and handed it to Anji, who weighed its heft with two hands. "We are serious folk, despite the manners of this cub, but he is a good lad and an honest broker, and I trust his people even if they don't care for my line of honest trade. I'll have you know his people have wagered the most on this gamble."
"We've the most to lose," said Eliar with a crooked smile. "But I'll not mind saying, anyway, that the Greater Houses are fools to avert their eyes at the dark tidings that stare them right in the face. My people can't afford to turn their backs. We did so once, in the old country, and suffered greatly."
Anji set the pouch at Mai's feet. It was too heavy for her to pick up, though she was not frail, so she opened it and picked out a pair of bars and a handful of coins, just the uppermost layer. A hoard rested beneath.
"These are cheyt," she said, "the full gold coins, not the quartered ones. There's no silver that I see. As for the bars…" She bit on the end ofone bar. She knew gold's texture. The eldest daughter bred out of a merchant's family had to expect to handle money when she was married into a worthy household. No one wanted a mere ornament as a wife, however much the poets sang of gorgeous flowers whose pleasing scent drew princes and captains.
"Please count it all," said Calon. "It matters to me that you see we are serious in every possible way."
"To overthrow the Greater Houses is a serious undertaking," said Anji. "And the expedition to Horn, after everything we have heard, more serious still."
"True enough. I believe there are deadlier forces at work than any who bide in the Greater Houses care to admit."
"Unless they are in league with them already," said Eliar. "For that's what I believe."
"In league with whom?" asked Anji.
"No one knows," said Eliar. "But the reeves of Argent Hall turn us away, and the Greater Houses ignore every warning sign. How can I not believe they are in league with the shadows? That they are not themselves conspirators? My friends and I-"
"A wild pack of cubs," interjected Calon softly, "including my once sweet and pliant nephew."
"My friends and I went on a scouting expedition two months back. We saw the reeves flying patrols up into the Barrens. They're looking for something, but we don't know what. Of their work-patrolling the roads, settlings disputes, standing in at the assizes, prosecuting criminals-the work that is their duty according to the law of the land, this work the reeves of Argent Hall have given up. They've forsworn their obligation to the people of Olossi and the territory they're meant to oversee."
"Nothing can be proven," said Calon. "What would the Greater Council serve to gain from such plans, in any case? They already hold power over the council."
"They want more, more even than they have now, more power over the rest of us, and more coin in their coffers. Sometimes greed is answer enough, Master Calon."
"It just doesn't make sense to me," the older man retorted.
Mai knelt on the ground beside the woven mat she usually sat on. On the mat's surface Shai tipped out the contents of the pouch. Their visitors fell into a respectful silence as she stacked and counted coins and bars. It was all gold, a prince's ransom.
"Four bars, whose weight and value must be considerable," she said at last. "And fifty cheyt." Fifty gold coins.
Shai hissed an exclamation under his breath. Chief Tuvi grunted, scratching an ear.
"A handsome offer," Anji said without emotion, "but a dead man has no use for coin. We are only two hundred men. You're asking too much."
Eliar gritted his teeth, gasping like a man in pain.
Master Calon raised a hand. "But-"
"No," said Anji in a tone that invited no response, a tone that meant he was not negotiating. "I will not send my men into a battle that cannot be won. No."
He was done. It was over.
In the silence that followed, Mai rose. "Wait."
Every person there was obviously surprised to hear her voice, even Anji. For courage, she touched her lips to her wolf ring, sigil of the proud Mei clan. Then she met Anji's gaze square on. "I have something to say, and I would prefer to say it between us alone."
Chief Tuvi raised an eyebrow. Master Calon put a hand to his mouth, clearing his throat as if uncomfortable. Eliar looked at his feet. Shai stood and, when Mai nodded at him, he gestured to Priya and walked away, into the shadows.
At last, with a slight gesture, Anji agreed. Chief Tuvi led the two merchants away, leaving Anji with Mai and, of course, one of his silent but ever-present guards.
He said nothing. He was angry.
She took in a deep breath and considered her words, considered her tone, considered her posture and her expression. All these made a difference in whether you made your sale. "I am not experienced in the arts of war, nor have I any training in battle. But I am a merchant's daughter, and I know how to listen and how to observe. Also, it is my right as the wife of a Qin man to speak my mind."
"It is."
This is what I have to say: Where will we go next? There may be a refuge for you with your cousin, in the south of the empire, but surely those cousins will also want to kill you, since you have a better claim to the imperial throne than they do. The lands that the Qin control are closed to us. So, to go south back over the pass leads us only to lands where our lives are already forfeit."
"There are other roads," he said curtly, as if he had already had this argument with himself and did not want to repeat it with her. "Northwest. North. East. We haven't seen everything that's out here. This is a fool's choice, Mai. No smart general commits his troops in a situation weighted so heavily against him. He moves elsewhere until circumstances fall to his advantage. The Qin have always fought in this manner."
"Maybe so, because the Qin do not live in houses, or in towns. The Qin do not till fields and plant vineyards and orchards, which they must then protect. But sometimes you have to fight where you stand." When he shook his head, she went on. "Anji, why did your mother send you back to the Qin, when you had as much right as any man to claim the imperial throne?"
"Because my half brother was named as heir. He and his mother meant to see me dead. I was a rival, brighter than him, I admit. Better suited. Better liked by our father. I was my father's favorite son."
"Yet he chose your brother over you."
"My brother's mother has powerful political connections, ones my father did not wish to anger. Although he was an excellent administrator, his position was not exactly strong."
"Even so, why didn't your mother go to the emperor? Ask for his protection for you? Surely he could have done that much for his favorite son."
"She had already fallen out of favor. He preferred a new wife."
"Did she not try at all?"
He hesitated. For the first time he looked away from her, toward the fire, whose flames consumed the wood with bright splendor. "It is not the Qin way to beg for favor."
"She took the Qin way, Anji. She moved you elsewhere, hoping that circumstances would change. But they did not. And why should we believe they will change now? We have been offered a chance to stand and fight for the thing we need most: a home. It's time to stop running."
"Death is also a home. One we will find ourselves fallen into very quickly, in this situation."
She smiled, covered her mouth with a hand to hide the smile, glanced down at the ground, then bent her gaze up to look at him past lowered lids. His eyes narrowed as his interest quickened. "Surely, Anji, you are capable of finding a way to win this fight."