Jahamaraj Jah swept in like a king.

I was curious to see how the Radisha handled the handicap of her s.e.x.

In a moment I was curious to see how Jah handled his handicap. He had made his entrance dramatically. He had looked us over. We hadn't responded to the gloriousness of his size, his wealthy apparel, the power he represented. Now he didn't know what to do next.

He was a fool. Croaker hadn't quite erred in ridding the Shadar of his predecessor. That man had been our enemy. But Jah wasn't much of an improvement. He was all appearance without substance.

He was impressive for a Taglian, six feet and two hundred pounds, half a foot taller than average and much more ma.s.sive. His skin was fairer than most- a desirable trait from the Taglian perspective. Wealthy women often spent their entire lives hiding from the sun. He was handsome even by northern standards. But his mouth was petulant and his eyes gave the impression he was a moment short of breaking into tears because he wasn't getting his own way.

The Radisha gave him ten seconds, snapped, "You have something to say?"

Indecision. He was surrounded by people who had no use for him. Several would have cut his throat happily. Even Smoke found the nerve to look at him like he was a slug.

I said, "Caught by a jury of your enemies. I'd thought you were better at the game."

"What game?" He wasn't good at concealing his feelings. What he thought of me came through.

"Intrigue. That was a poor move, running at Dejagore. Everybody will blame you."

"Hardly. The battle was lost. I made sure a force survived."

"You ran out before it was decided. Your own men say so," the Radisha snapped. "If you give us any grief we'll remind the families of those men who aren't coming home."

Pure hatred. Jah wasn't used to being thwarted. "I'm not accustomed to being threatened. I don't tolerate it from anyone."

I asked, "Do you recall how you came to power? People might be interested in the details."

Among them, everyone there. The others stared, wondering. "You'd be wise to go quietly, abandon the pursuit of arms and power, and content yourself with what you have." He glared daggers.

"You're vulnerable. You can't erase that. You've made too many poor choices. Keep it up and you'll destroy yourself."

He looked at us, found no sympathy anywhere. His only weapon was bl.u.s.ter. He knew what that was worth. "This round to you." He headed downstairs. Blade laughed.

He did it knowing Jah couldn't tolerate being mocked. Blade wanted trouble.

I sent him a warning look. He stared back impa.s.sively. He wasn't intimidated by anyone.

Jah was gone. I said, "I have work to do. We aren't accomplishing anything. We know where we stand. I expect to finish the Company's work. You intend to let that go only as far as it conveniences you, then you plan to backstab me. I don't plan to let you. Blade. You coming or staying?" "Coming. There's nothing here for me." Swan and Mather looked croggled, Smoke pained, and the Radisha exasperated.

As soon as we left the fortress, Blade said, "Jah could try something desperate now."

"I'll handle it. He'll vacillate till it's too late. Check on your battalion." Once he was out of hearing, I told Narayan, "He's right. Do we wait for Jah? Or do we move first?"

He didn't respond, just waited for me to answer myself.

"We'll do something when we know he's planning something himself."

I surveyed the camp. The outer enclosure was complete. It would do for the moment. I'd keep making improvements, mainly to keep the men occupied. A wall can never be too high or a ditch too deep.

"I want the Shadar to know I need cavalrymen. Their response will show us what support Jah has. Pa.s.s the word amongst all the fugitives that those who join voluntarily will get preferential treatment. We need volunteers from the provinces, too. We need to spread our story before these idiots unleash the hounds of factionalism."

"There are ways to get word out," Narayan admitted. "But we'll have to send some of my friends across the river."

"Do what you have to. Starting now. We don't mark time. We don't let them catch their balance. Go."

I climbed a platform that had been erected near what would become the camp's north gate, surveyed the countryside. My men were as busy as ants.

Their industry hadn't communicated itself to anyone else. Only the builders across the river, and the Gunni women, were doing much.

Smoke curled up from one of the ghats. When the flames were roaring a woman threw herself in. I had to believe it now.

I retired to the shelter Ram had built, settled to stretch the limits of my talent. I'd be needing it soon.

Chapter Eighteen.

The dreams worsened. They were dreams of death.

We all have nightmares but I'd never recalled so many so clearly after I wakened. Some force, some power, was summoning me. Was trying to enlist or subject me.

Those dreams were the creations of a sick mind. If they were supposed to appeal to me, that power didn't know me.

Landscapes of despair and death under skies of lead, fields where bodies rotted and stunted vegetation melted down like slow, soft candlewax. Slime covered everything, hung in strands like the architecture of drunken spiders.

Mad. Mad. Mad. And not a touch of color anywhere.

Mad. And yet with its taint of perverse appeal. For amongst the dead I'd see faces I wished amongst the dead. I strode that land unharmed, vitally alive, its ruler. The ghouls that ran with me were extensions of my will.

It was a dream straight out of the fantasies of my dead husband. It was a world he could have made home.

Always, in the late hours, there'd be a dawn in that land of nightmare, a splash of color on a poorly defined horizon. Always in front of me, it seemed the dawn of hope.

Simple and direct, the architect of my dreams.

There was one dream, less common, that did without the death and corruption, yet was as chilling in its way. Black and white too, it placed me upon a plain of stone where deadly shadows lurked behind countless obelisks. I didn't understand it at all but it frightened me.

I couldn't control the dreams. But I refused to let them influence my waking hours, refused to let them wear me down.

"I've sent word out, Mistress," Narayan said, responding to my question about recruits. We fenced whenever the subject of his brotherhood arose. He wasn't yet ready to talk.

Blade suggested, "Someone ought to be watching things at Dejagore." I understood, though sometimes his brevity caused problems.

Narayan said, "Ghopal and Hakim can take a party down. Twenty men should have no trouble. It'll be quiet now."

I said, "You had them spying on our neighbors."

"They're done. They've made their contacts. Sindhu can take over. He has a higher reputation."

Another of those little oddities about Narayan and his cronies. They had their own hidden caste system. Based on what, I couldn't tell. Narayan was the man of most respect here. Broad, stolid Sindhu ran a close second.

"Send them. If we have spies everywhere why haven't I gotten any information?"

"There's nothing to report that isn't common knowledge. Except that there's a lot of disaffection among Jah's men. A third might defect if you offered to enlist them. Jah's been doing some talking about you ignoring your duties as a wife because you won't commit suttee or go into isolation, as befits a Shadar woman. He's working on a dozen schemes but none of our friends are in his closest councils."

"Kill him," Blade said. And Sindhu nodded.

"Why?" A political victory would be better, long range.

"You don't let the serpent strike if you know where he lies in wait. You destroy him."

A simplistic solution with a certain appeal. It could have a big impact if we took him out where he seemed least vulnerable. And at the moment I didn't feel patient enough to spin out a long game. "Agreed. But with finesse. Do we have good enough friends over there to let us sneak into camp?"

"Close enough," Narayan admitted. "There'd be a question of timing. So the friends would be on duty."

"Set it up. What about other enemies? Jah is just the most obvious because he's right here. There'll be more in the north."

"It'll be handled," Narayan promised. "When there are men and time. We have too much work and too few hands."

Right. But I felt good about my prospects. No one else was doing as much or pushing as hard. I asked, "Can we get any closer to the Radisha and her pet wizard? Smoke? Are Swan and Mather devoted allies of the Radisha's?"

"Devoted?" Blade said. "No. But they've given their word, more or less. They won't turn unless the Woman turns on them first."

Something to consider. Maybe they could be misdirected, though that would work against me if they found me out.

Offered places in my camp and safety from reprisals, two hundred of Jahamaraj Jah's men defected. Another fifty just deserted and disappeared. Several hundred of the other fugitives enlisted the same day the Shadar came over. I got the impression the Radisha wasn't pleased.

Nearly a hundred Gunni women walked into fire the same day. I heard my name cursed from that side of the river.

I went over and spoke to a few women. We had no basis for communication.

Smoke was at the fortress gate when I recrossed the ford. He smirked as I pa.s.sed. I wondered how much the Radisha would miss him.

There are times when you wonder about the self hidden from yourself. I certainly did as Narayan, Sindhu, and I stole toward the Shadar cavalry camp.

I was excited. I was eager. I was drawn as a moth to flame. I told myself I was doing this because I had to, not because I wanted it. It wasn't a pleasure. Jah's malice had called this down upon him.

Narayan's friends had confirmed that Jah planned to grab the Radisha and me and make it look like I'd carried her off. How he figured he could get to me I don't know. I guessed his plan included me murdering the Radisha-thus eliminating her brother's spine-then being a good girl who committed suttee. With a.s.sistance.

So I was moving first, earlier than I'd wanted.

Narayan exchanged whispered pa.s.swords with a friendly sentry who turned blind as we stole past. The camp beyond was a pesthole. Ordinarily Shadar set great store by cleanliness. Morale was abysmal.

We stole like shadows. I was proud of myself. I moved as silently as those two. They were surprised a woman could do it. We approached Jah's own tent.

It was oversized and guarded well. The man knew he wasn't popular. A fire burned on each of the tent's four sides. A guard stood near each fire.

Narayan cursed, said something in cant. Sindhu grunted. Narayan whispered, "No way to get any closer. Those guards will be men he trusts. And they'll know who we are."

I nodded, pulled them back, said, "Let me think."

They whispered while I thought. They didn't expect anything from me.

There was a small spell which could be used to blind the unaware briefly. Perfect, if I could manage it. I recalled it all right. One of those children's things that used to be as easy as blinking. I hadn't tried it in ages. There'd be no way to tell if it was working, unless I messed it up so badly the sentry sensed me and gave the alarm.

Nothing to lose but my life.

I went into that spellcasting as though it was the most dangerous demon-summoning I'd ever done. I did it three times to make sure it had a chance to take, but when I finished I didn't know if I'd succeeded or failed. The guard didn't look changed.

Sindhu and Narayan still had their heads together. I said, "Come on," and returned to the edge of the light. No one was in sight but that guard.

Time to test it or chicken.

I walked straight toward the sentry.

Narayan and Sindhu both cursed and tried to call me back. I summoned them with a gesture. The guard couldn't see me.

He didn't see me!

My heart leaped as it had when I'd summoned the horses. I beckoned Narayan and Sindhu, indicating they should stay out of the guard's direct line of vision. He might remember someone he saw head on. And he would be questioned later.

They slunk past like dogs, unable to believe he couldn't see them. They desperately wanted to know what I'd done, how I'd done it, if they could learn to do it, too, but they dared not say a word.

I parted the tent flap an inch, saw no one on the other side. The interior was compartmented by hangings. I slipped into what must have been the audience area. It const.i.tuted the majority of the interior. It was well appointed, further evidence that Jah had put his own comfort before the welfare of his men and the safety of his homeland.

I had learned better as a child. You win more loyalty and respect if you share the hardships.

Eyes still big, Narayan gestured, reminding me of the layout as he had it from his spies. I nodded. This late Jah should be asleep. We moved toward his sleeping area. I moved the hanging with a dagger. Narayan and Sindhu got their rumels out.

I know I made no noise. I'm sure they didn't. But as we went in Jah boiled up off his cushions, flung himself between Narayan and Sindhu, bowling them aside. He charged me. There was a lamp burning. He saw us well enough to recognize us.

Ever a fool, Jahamaraj Jah. He never yelled. He just tried to get away.

My hand dipped to the triangle of saffron at my waist, yanked, flipped. My rumel moved as if alive, snaked around his throat. I seized the flying end, yanked the loop tight, rolled my wrists and held on.

Luck, fate, or unconscious skill, none of that would have mattered had I been alone. Jah was a powerful man. He could have carried me outside. He could have shaken me off.

But Narayan and Sindhu grabbed his arms and held them extended, twisted them, forced him down. Sindhu's bull strength counted most. Narayan concentrated on keeping Jah's arms extended.

I got my knees into Jah's back and concentrated on keeping him from breathing.

It takes a while for a man to strangle. The skilled strangler is supposed to move so quickly and decisively that the victim's neck breaks and death comes instantly. I did not yet have the wrist roll perfected. So I had to hang on while Jah went the hard way. My arms and shoulders ached before he shuddered his last.

Narayan lifted me away. I was shaking with the intensity of it, the almost o.r.g.a.s.mic elation that coursed through me. I'd never done anything like that, with my own two hands, without steel or sorcery. He grinned. He knew what I was feeling. He and Sindhu seemed unnaturally calm. Sindhu was listening, trying to judge if we'd made too much noise. It had seemed a ferocious uproar to me, there in the middle of it, but evidently we'd made less racket than I'd thought. n.o.body came. n.o.body asked questions.