Feden had long since ceased struggling against the bonds. He sagged, and his chin drooped, and trembled. "Betrayed," he said in a strangled voice.
"I must return to Clan Hall with these tidings," said Joss.
Zubaidit turned back to survey the chamber and the stricken men: merchant, captain, guards, and fallen boy. "No matter what you choose to do, you can be sure that the reeves of Argent Hall will see everything."
"What will we do? What will we do?" Feden broke down and wept.
She spun the knife through her fingers, an entertainer's trick that was not at all charming in her hands. When she smiled, Captain Waras took a step away from her.
"I have an idea," she said, "but you won't like it."
41
Shai envied Mai her ability to sleep when his every nerve jangled. She sat back-to-back with Priya near the fire, her head drooping gracefully and her fingers tucked under her belt. Shai had already bundled up his sack of carpentry tools and his meager possessions, leaving them with the neat pile of goods that would go with his niece at dawn, when the man with pulled eyes and turbaned head came to take her away.
Honestly, he was shocked that Captain Anji had let her go so easily. It was all very well for a man to claim that his people and his god abjured slavery. You could say anything, but that didn't make it true.
One of the soldiers appeared out of the night and placed driftwood on the fire, then faded back into the dark. In his wake, Anji came back from the main campsite and beckoned to Shai.
"Come. You'll attend me."
Together with Sengel and Toughid, Shai walked with Anji to the ford, and there the captain called across the channel to the men on guard.
"I have a request. Is there anyone I can speak with?"
There was a big bonfire illuminating the bank and much of the length of the channel, to make sure no one snuck across. By its light, a man walked through the multitude of sentries and halted at the edge of the water, not so far away, really. His feet were hidden in reeds. The creak of bowstrings sounded faintly from farther back, at the edge of the fire's light, covering him.
"I'm sergeant in command of this cadre. What do you want?"
"You know our situation," said Anji. "Since we have to return to the south, we'll have to hire ourselves out as guards again, if we're allowed. Do you think I can go over in the morning and arrange for a hire?"
"Not my decision," said the sergeant. "I was told you're to ride straight out."
"There'd be something in it for you if you could see to it that one or a pair of your men might run into town on my behalf. I saw the makings of another caravan-"
A fellow came up beside the sergeant and spoke to him, too low for Shai to hear.
The sergeant nodded and raised his voice to call to Anji. "That group rode out two days ago. There's no hire waiting for you. You'll just have to go."
"In that case, I've need of coin. Are there any merchants in town willing to buy flesh?"
"Buy flesh?"
"Yes. Much as it grieves me, I'll have to sell my concubine."
It seemed every guardsman on the far bank heard him, for there was a rush of sound that briefly drowned out the bass cry of the river. Their voices rose, and jokes came, laughter in plenty although the words themselves were washed together.
"You can imagine," said Anji into this so sternly that those men quieted and there was only one last laugh, choked off, "that I'm unwilling to part with such a valuable flower for anything less than top price. As I said, if you've a man willing to run into town, perhaps a few of your merchants might be willing to come out here at dawn to bargain with me."
The sergeant whistled. "You're a cool one. I thought you told the council she was your wife."
"Slaves can be wives. She lent respectability to my offer, but it wasn't enough. I can purchase ten more just like her in any market in the south. She's too much trouble to me at the moment. She takes two slaves to keep her, and they slow me down."
"Thought you didn't want to ride back south," said the sergeant. "Are you changing your story, eh?"
"It doesn't seem to me I have a choice. Now, are you willing, Sergeant? There'd be something in it for you, as well."
"How much could I get my hands on?" asked the sergeant with a coarse laugh.
"A bit of coin for your trouble. Anything else you'll have to arrange with the merchant who buys her."
"Whew! I doubt I can afford it. She'll go to the houses up on the hill, for certain. Well, I'll send a runner in to Flesh Alley, but I can't promise you any of them will be willing to creep out of their comfortable beds before the dawn bell. Best you and your company be ready to leave as soon as the sun is up."
"We'll do what we're told," said Anji, "having no choice in the matter."
As they walked back to their own campfire, Anji said to Shai, "Do you think that went too easily?"
"Do you think he was suspicious?" Shai asked.
"I don't know. In the Qin territories, no one would have believed that sorry tale. Not after I'd publicly proclaimed her as my wife. Concubines and slaves may be shed and taken at will, but not wives. Still, in the empire, unless she had powerful relatives I did not dare to offend, no one would remark on it."
"There was a man in Kartu Town who bought a slave. A year later he took her to the priests to have a scroll written to free her of all claim and to make a marriage contract, since he wished to marry her. And he did, and held a marriage feast, too. Three months later she stole his strongbox and fled from town with a passing caravan."
"The authorities did not catch her?"
"No. It was during the rule of the Mariha princes. The captain of the guard wanted a bribe to go after her, and the poor man had no coin. He tried to sell his land and his business to raise money to go after her, but my father talked all the merchants in town out of taking advantage of his weakness. It was obvious to everyone he had been possessed by a demon. Later, he recovered, and after that he came to our house and thanked my brother, for by then my father had died and my brother become Father Mei in his place. That was the difference between my father and my brother. My brother would have bought land and business at the bargain price, and been happy to do so."
Anji shook his head. "The Qin would have brought her back and executed her as a thief. A crime of that sort weakens all of society. It's no wonder the Mariha princes fell so swiftly. They were already like a wood post that is rotten and soft all the way through. Easy to topple."
"Do you trust this man? Master Calon? If his Lesser Houses have so many people who support them, then why haven't they already overturned the council?"
"They are frightened. They are shackled by habit. Or they are just now testing their strength, which they have only newly discovered. It may be these problems with the roads have only recently made them desperate enough to act. I can't tell."
At last, swallowing, Shai asked the question he dreaded asking but must ask. "Will Mai be safe with these 'Hidden Ones'?"
They had come to the fire, where Mai dozed, Sheyshi snored, and Priya watched. Father Mei would have yelled at Shai and struck him for his impertinence in asking such a question, since a younger brother must not question an elder, but Anji rubbed a midge out of his eye instead. His was a thoughtful expression.