"This yours?"
The merchant came over fast.
"Where's Yi?"
The man did not want to answer that. Plainly.
"You'd better find him," Shoka said. "I don't care what he's told you. You'd better get him. Tell him his friend's here."
The man left in a hurry. Shoka browsed, picked up a trinket for Taizu. And walked back alongside the wagons, watching where the man went, up the steps into the centermost of that little cluster.
So he followed, up the steps, into the dim inside, where two frightened merchants stared at him,
"Hello," he said, folded his arms and leaned his shoulder against the wall.
"Get out of here!" master Yi said. Not to him. To his associate; and that man darted for the open door and outside.
Shoka walked over to the alcove at the front of the tiny wagon where Yi sat on his pillows, and carefully squatted down with elbows on knees—the sword at his back hindered further courtesies. So did the bruise on his backside.
"How are you doing this morning?"
Yi stared at him.
"I just thought I'd check," Shoka said. "Don't be anxious. I trust you got everything taken care of. How's your friend?"
"Scared!" master Yi said testily.
"Everything's fine, then," Shoka said, and picked a sweetmeat off the low table. "Mmmn. Don't worry. But the real reason I came: I'd advise you just have a bolthole in mind. Just rent a place somewhere in town, get some of the nicer pieces out of the wagons...."
Yi looked anxious. Abruptly he cleared his throat and rubbed his hands together. "Considerate, m'lord."
"I told you. I return favors." He picked another sweetmeat from the bowl. "Mmmn. So you knew me when we met on the road. I don't suppose the village talked about me."
"I knew when we'd gotten to Ygotai, when we talked about the bandits—all of them dead—"
"Quite a night, that was. So you spread rumors about us all the way."
"No, m'lord! We weren't the only caravan. Rumors were everywhere."
Pigeons, Shoka thought. And said: "Just call me captain. —What rumors?"
"That you'd come back, m'lord. I knew—then—who we'd met. But by then we'd gone too far, we couldn't come south again—we were afraid what we'd meet going back, so we kept going. We hoped Lungan was safe."
"Wrong about that. And I don't suppose they'll let you go down to Anogi."
Yi shook his head. "We're trapped here. Myself not the only one. They've confiscated our horses, they give me a paper they swear will make it good—but we can't move these wagons without our horses."
"Terrible mess."
"I want to see my wives, m'lord, all of them, that's all we think about now, just how we're going to get out of here and home again, damn this trip! I don't want to be involved any further! Don't ask me anything!"
"Captain."
"Captain, m'—" Yi choked it off. "Please don't ask me anything."
"Just pass the word among your men: tell them what I've told you. We're here in force. You can tell that to anyone else you think is reliable. The fighting's coming in the next few days. And you'd be wisest to get to the west end of the waterside and stay there when it starts. Don't worry about the outcome. We have help."
"Yes, m'—Captain."
"Word is back from the north," Shoka said lazily, taking another sweetmeat, "the army is coming home. On our side. You can pass that word too. It's just as well people know it. And just as well the mercenaries hear it the same as the people do. You understand." He picked out another couple of sweetmeats. "Have you a paper? My wife would love these. You don't mind, do you?"
"No. —No, of course not." Yi snatched up a cloth napkin and gave it to him, frowning. "Have all you like."
"She's delighted with such little things." Shoka dumped the bowl into the napkin, looked up into Yi's eyes and saw the cold fear. "Really. You'd think otherwise. I know I wasn't sure what—well, I wasn't sure I could keep her, you know, satisfied." He cleared his throat and wrapped up the candies, devoting his attention to that. "Came up to me at dusk, she did. Gods! Damn near killed me. Seems she'd been watching me, in the mountains. Seems she had this personal grudge with Gitu of Angen, and I was the way she picked to get here."
Master Yi's eyes were absolutely round, his under lip caught in his teeth.
"I wasn't sure," Shoka said, "I'd survive the honor. But she's a damn good wife in a lot of ways. Cheerful. Stubborn as hell, terrible temper—but damn good in bed. You could guess."
Master Yi plainly did.
"There's a certain—difference making love with her. Especially in thunderstorms." Shoka gave a twitch of his shoulders. "But she's a good ally in a thing like this. Damn good. And I wouldn't be in Gitu's place right now. Would you?"
"No," master Yi breathed.
"Limb from limb," Shoka said. "You don't cross her kind."
"What did he do to—?"
Shoka shrugged. "Had to do with some pigs."
"P—"
Shoka lifted a brow. "She's rural, you know. I've got a bargain with her. She helps out on this and she and I—you know. I think she's halfway in love with me. And I don't mind. She's damn good in bed and I've gotten used to her—little peculiarities."
Master Yi stared.
"Ah, well," Shoka said. "I explain that because you've met her, and you know—certain facts. I wouldn't be standing in her way—when things break loose. In case you should be in that position."
"No," master Yi said. "No, m'lord."
"You spread that word, master Yi. She's damn hard to control. Sometimes she doesn't understand where to stop. That's why only our enemies should be in the streets. They may see things—you understand."
"Yes, m'lord."
"Shutters barred. That's safest. Just stay inside and don't look outside." He tucked the napkin into his belts. "She will like this. I'll tell her who it's from."
"A walk around the block!" Taizu cried, with Chun and the others in the Felicity's upper hall. "My gods, where have you been?"
So much for Taizu's reserve in front of the men, who, with mutiny begun, gave him dour, worried looks.
"I told you not to worry." He dropped the napkin into Taizu's hand. "Have a sweet."
"You said—"
"Wife, —"
Taizu glared above the bandages, opened the napkin and popped a sweetmeat into her mouth, possibly to restrain herself, as Chun opened the door to the room the men shared.
"Settle," he said. "I'll tell you what I've learned."
The men and Taizu sat. The napkinful of sweetmeats went the round, man to man. And by afternoon, in the Felicity's commonroom, Jian, lounging there in ordinary clothes, had picked up a collection of rumors.
One, Ghita had been killed by, variously, shape-shifting demons who had slaughtered from ten to fifty of the Guard; or by twenty to thirty assassins led by or ordered by Saukendar; or by a conspiracy among the Imperial Guard officers, who were, variously, dead, in hiding, secretly in power, secretly negotiating with the rebel lords southward—who were, variously, ten to a hundred leagues south of the river, allied with, variously, one to fifty demons, the bandits of Hoisan, assorted mercenaries, and one to three dragons which were variously, the soul of the Old Emperor, the guardians of the Hoi and the Chaighin and the Hisei, or a mountain dragon which had been stirred up by the demons Saukendar had been consorting with for ten years.
Two, Ghita was alive and Saukendar had been killed in the attack, or had escaped, or was presently on his way to the capital, or had been captured and was presently held prisoner by the Regent, or was loose in the city with from twenty to two hundred rebels and a number of shapeshifting demons.