“They’re back.”
Penrys twitched awake at Zandaril’s nudge. She could smell dawn in the air and the birds had started their aubade, but there was still very little light. She rolled out from under her one blanket and her cloak and pulled on her boots.
Wan Nozu and Tak Tuzap crept out of the woods and joined them, under the shelter of the rock ledge. They were tired, but she could see from their grins that they’d been successful.
“We did it!” Tak’s boast was whispered but intent, and Wan Nozu looked down upon him indulgently. Penrys could feel just as much excitement from the young man as the boy, and she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling at them and offending their pride.
Zandaril pulled cold meat and bread from his pack, courtesy of their hosts in Lupmikya, and thrust it at them, patting the ground in an invitation to sit. “Eat. Talk. Take turns.”
Tak deferred to his elder and cut bread and meat for them both, while Wan Nozu began his report.
“It was really late, but the taverns were still open,” he said. “Not like the last time I was there—this time most of the houses were dark and quiet. No music… I remember there was music all the time, whenever I came. Not like home.”
He yawned and shook his head. “Sorry. Anyway, I went and listened to the talk in three different places, and Tak Tuzap went looking for his uncle’s friends. I’ll let him tell that part.
“They’ve got their army camped right on Harlin, where the river overflows in the spring. Except it’s not really a proper army, any more. They say that lots of the fighters stayed in Song Em, with their tribes, and only the real core came up through Wechinnat.”
Penrys said, “Which is maybe why there aren’t very many on the ground in the small villages like Lupmikya.”
Wan Nozu nodded. “The top man, the Commander, is a fellow called Tlobsung. He’s out there with the army. They’ve got the Gates blocked, like Tak said.”
“So who are all the Rasesni in town, then?” Zandaril said.
“All sorts of folk. They’ve taken over the temple buildings, even the old ones, and changed the names back to the Rasesni names. They’re full of priests, everyone says. Not sure what’s happened to the priests that used to be there.”
He looked uncertainly at Tak. “Probably nothing good. They control the warehouses and run supplies out to Harlin. Many of the big samke have people quartered on them—officers mostly. Even the smaller compounds have someone.”
Tak swallowed another mouthful, and burst in. “They brought craftsmen and all kinds of people. Families, too. It’s like a whole ’nother town.”
“That’s right,” Wan Nozu said. “It’s real crowded, even counting the locals who got away. And they left the old people in charge in the zopgep, the town council, only they report to Tlobsung, now.”
“They’re acting more like armed refugees than an invading army,” Penrys commented to Zandaril.
“What’s the mood of the townsfolk like?” she asked Wan Nozu.
“There’ve been killings, uncontrolled ones like Tak Tuzap’s uncle, and some ugly stuff, but the people are saying it’s not so bad, not what they expected, not like last time, maybe there’s a way to keep doing business if they keep their heads down.”
“Hmm.” Penrys waved a hand at them to tell them to focus on their breakfast for a minute while she thought about it.
“D’ya think something’s driving them, pushing them out?” she asked Zandaril.
“They don’t have much farming land. Mratsanag, it’s very large, but you can’t grow a lot of people on mountains. They’ve got flat coast land further west, on either side of the mountains, but they’ve got neighbors there, too. I wonder if something’s happened.”
He turned to Wan Nozu. “Are these hill people, or just the folk from Nagthari?”
Wan Nozu swallowed his bite. “Mostly hill people, the old tribes, down in the Song Em. The ones in town are more… civilized. At least, the tavern folk said they were like the ones they drove back to Nagthari, before.”
Tak Tuzap piped up. “We know what they want. I found the kitchen folk awake at Kor Pochang’s place. He used to trade with Uncle Tak and he’s on the zopgep, the council. I scratched at the door and they let me in. He’s got an officer there, but they got him a message without the officer seeing, and we had a long talk in the scullery, with the cook standing guard at the door.
“He said what the zopgep hears is that they’ve come to stay, that they had to come. That’s why they brought families and hill-tribes. They mean to live here, and keep peace with us, if they can, or fight if they must. The council’s afraid of being caught between the full might of Kigali and whatever’s behind the Rasesni—they’re fortifying the Gates as best they can, and there’re supposed to be patrols running all over the Craggies in the north.”
“Why only the north?” Penrys asked Zandaril.
“You can’t get an army over the Red Wall, and below Song Em is more mountains and the empty sarq-Zannib, but the Craggies aren’t very high or rugged. North of there is still Kigali, for a while, but the disputed Lomat is just beyond, and the west end of the Craggies joins Garshnag at the Horn.”
At Penrys’s puzzled look, he elaborated. “Mratsanag, the Ram’s Horn—the mountain spine west of here—ends in a pincer of mountains. The south range is Damsnag, the Right Horn, and Garshnag, the Left, is to the north. Between them, they shelter Nagthari, “Between the Horns.” The last eastern peak in Garshnag is called Nakshadzam, the Horn’s Tip—you can see it from a long distance. That’s where Linit Kungzet is, under the Horn, where the upper Seguchi crosses into Nagthari.”
“So, what are you thinking? Some threat coming over the northern part of the mountains and spilling into the Craggies?”
“Maybe. Something like that.” Zandaril said. “Must be big and scary if the hill-tribes have been displaced. Raiders out of Nagthari are one thing. Outsiders haven’t seen the hill-tribes for generations.
“Or it could just be the Kigali army they’re afraid of. If they can hold them at the Gates, what’s to stop them coming in behind them, from the north?”
He paused for a moment.
“If they’re really smart, maybe they want to sit tight in Neshilik and have whatever’s behind them meet the Kigali army, north of the Craggies. That would be very, very clever of this Tlobsung, to bait a trap for his enemy and then duck out of the way of the big fight.”
“And if Kigali wins, and they haven’t been too bloody here, maybe they can work something out,” Penrys said. “But it’s not to their benefit to tell the Kigaliwen what’s coming, is it, or they might not be willing to do the work for them.
“Of course, this is all guesswork. Still, they’ve done what they could to reduce Kigali’s response. At least, to delay it. They tried to stop Chang’s advance, but it didn’t work. That’s maybe as far east as they could send someone in the time they had. How did they know what to try and how Kigali would first react?”
She glanced over at Wan Nozu, and he stopped himself from his next bite.
“Which leads me to my next question, what about wizards?”
Wan Nozu looked uneasy. “You have to know, minochi, the townsfolk, none of us—we’ve never seen a wizard before. Don’t know what they can do. Don’t even know what one would look like. I mean, you two look like foreigners, sure, but not like wizards, if you understand.” He eyed her nervously.
“It’s all right, we won’t be offended,” Penrys told him.
He looked doubtful, but continued. “Well, there was a lot of talk about them. Very quiet talk, looking around the room, as though their neighbors might have turned into wizards overnight. It was unsettling, that.”
Zandaril said, “More likely they wondered about their neighbors informing on them.”
“I suppose. Still, they acted like there were wizards all over, that any one of the Rasesni in town could be one. There was talk that they’d taken back the old temple school in Kunchik, north, over the bridge, and filled it with sinister folk.”
“I’ve got a name,” Tak said. “Kor said that the council had met someone Tlobsung valued. Some thought he was a political adviser, but there were others who whispered ‘wizard.’ Zongchas, they said.”
Penrys looked at Zandaril with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s a good Rasesni name,” he said. At her level look, he spread his hands and added, “Yes, I know I said there were no Rasesni wizards. I must be wrong, I admit it.”
“Looks to me like they’re getting their wizards organized, just the way you admire,” she said, deadpan, and he glared at her.
“Did you two hear about any other foreigners?” Zandaril asked.
Wan Nozu and Tak Tuzap exchanged looks, and Wan Nozu shook his head. “Just Rasesni, and they don’t look much different from us, especially here in Neshilik.”
“Except they don’t wear braids,” Tak said. He laughed. “They all look like soldiers that way.”
“Did they describe what it was the wizards did?” Penrys asked Wan Nozu.
“No. I thought that was funny. I expected to hear about things. It’s like you two, I haven’t seen you do anything, um, wizardly.”
Tak stared at him as if amazed at his daring, and Penrys chuckled.
“It’s not all that impressive, most of the time. Why, would you like to see something?”
Zandaril gave her a hard look and she shrugged.
Wan Nozu faltered. “If you’d like, minochi. It’d be something to tell my children about, after.”
“I’ll see what I can arrange,” she said, dryly.
“You know what we need to do?” Penrys asked Zandaril. She spoke softly, to keep from waking Wan Nozu and Tak Tuzap who were catching up on their lost sleep in the middle of the day.
“What?” Zandaril said.
“Well, we can’t sneak into Tlobsung’s tent and read his orders, especially if he’s the man on top. Right?”
Zandaril nodded.
She waved her hands as she spoke. “Chang’s other scouts will have a lot more to tell him about military preparedness than we can. No, what we can do that they can’t is look for whatever might be driving the Rasesni to invade, find out if that’s what’s happening and what it’s like. That’s the part he really needs to know.”
“What, go west?” he said, “Up into the hills?”
“We can dodge their scouts easily enough.” She tapped her forehead meaningfully. “And we should be able to detect whatever it is from a distance. Then, if we go north, through the Craggies, we’ll come back out to the land between the rivers again, right?”
“And get back to Chang that way,” Zandaril confirmed. “It would take weeks, maybe, living rough.”
“Depends how close the pursuit is. If we go straight north, the shortest way, then we only have to go west far enough to confirm it. Then we get out as fast as we can.”
She watched his face, unwilling to invade his privacy further to touch his mind and see what he really felt about the proposal.
He cocked his head at their sleeping companions and rumbled, “Can’t take them with us.”
“And that’s a good thing. They won’t like it, though.”
“Wan Nozu will understand, I think,” Zandaril said.
Penrys broke the news in the afternoon, when they sat and ate a late lunch together.
“It’s the right thing for us to do,” she told Tak Tuzap, firmly. “And you can be of no help to us while we do it. Better you go back to Lupmikya with Wan Nozu.”
The boy looked away from her. She could read the resentment and rejection in the set of his shoulders, but he surprised her—he didn’t protest.
“I’ll go back to Kor Pochang’s house,” he said, squaring his back. “I can be more useful there. Maybe he can help me with my uncle’s property.”
Wan Nozu looked over at him in admiration. “Won’t that be dangerous?”
“No more than waiting in Lupmikya to be a hostage.”
Zandaril made a seated bow to both of them. “We are greatly in your debt for the risks you’ve taken and the help you’ve given us.”
Penrys rose and brushed off the crumbs from her breeches. She’d already confirmed that no one else was close enough to hear them.
“I owe you something ’fore you go,” she said.
She surreptitiously fingered the power-stones she’d slipped into her pocket, and whisked the leather cap off of Wan Nozu’s head, spinning it up and out of his reach.
“So you wanted to see some magic, did you?”
She kept it dancing between Wan Nozu and Tak Tuzap for several minutes, smiling at the boyish shouts of laughter, then dropped it to hover before Zandaril’s face, evading his efforts to grab it, before finally settling it delicately back onto Wan Nozu’s head, letting it flutter one last time as it landed.
“There. That’s something a wizard can do.”
