Free Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier Page B

weren’t for you and Isidro, Markhan would have been killed months earlier. I know how sick Isidro is — we’dhave to turn it into coin sooner or later and where better to spend it than on the man who avenged my husband? I’ll come with you and sell it myself, for Isidro’s sake.’
    Cam bowed his head. ‘Thank you, Lakua.’
    â€˜Then I’m coming too,’ Brekan said. ‘All the villages around here are crawling with Mesentreians. I’m not going to let my wife walk among them unprotected.’
    â€˜That’d probably be for the best,’ Garzen said. ‘I’m likely to stand out if I show my face and as far as I know the Mesentreians still want to hang me.’
    â€˜Well,’ Eloba said, straightening. ‘The three of you should take our tent. I’ll move my gear in here for a few days.’
    Cam nodded. ‘We’ll ride out today, camp near a village tonight and do our trading first thing in the morning. That will give us time enough to confuse our trail on the way back, so if anyone does follow us, we won’t lead them here. And maybe once we get back, Isidro will be strong enough for us to break camp and head east. Is there anything else to be settled?’
    No one spoke: there was silence in the tent apart from the scraping of spoons on the breakfast bowls. Lakua swallowed her last mouthful and got to her feet. ‘I’ll start taking down the tent.’
    Eloba rose as well. ‘I’ll give you a hand.’
    â€˜I’ll get the horses ready,’ Garzen said.
    â€˜Where is the wax tablet?’ Rhia asked. ‘Cam, I will make you list of medicines Isidro needs.’ Eloba handed her the tablet and stylus as she left.
    As Rhia turned away to assemble her list of supplies, Cam turned his attention to the newcomer, raising her fingertips to her blindfold again.
    â€˜Kasimi,’ he said; she startled at the sound, turning her blind face towards him. ‘How long ago did you leave the army? Do you have any news of what’s going on out there?’
    She grew suddenly tense, her lips pressed together and her hand still raised to her face, but after a moment she settled them in her lap, as though trying not to show her unease. ‘The Akharians have taken the Bear lands. Some folk managed to flee ahead of the invasion, but not many. Not many at all.’
    â€˜Are they moving quickly?’
    She shook her head. ‘Not now. They’re taking their time. Some folk said it’s to accustom themselves to the northern winter before they met the king’s men. They’re digging in, too, building ditches and ramparts and making sure they have good fortifications at their backs —’
    â€˜Digging? In winter?’
    â€˜They have mages,’ she said. ‘Cutting through frozen earth is simple enough for them.’ Her tone was flat, as though mages were utterly commonplace, not creatures of legend or demons walking the earth. Before the Lord Magister had come to Ricalan, no mage had been seen in the north for nearly a century. Just how much exposure to Lord Kell had she had, to speak of them so routinely?
    â€˜Do you know how far away they are?’
    She drew a shaking breath. ‘They’re close. Very close. I only know what I overheard, but I think they’re expecting to meet them soon — in days, maybe.’
    Cam drew a sharp breath. ‘They’re as close as that?’
    Kasimi nodded. ‘The captured scouts were given to the Lord Magister for interrogation and I heard they said one of the legions is preparing to march east.’
    â€˜East?’ Cam frowned. ‘That can’t be right. They wouldn’t dare strike past Severian’s main force like that  — his men would cut off their retreat, and they’d be trapped in hostile territory with no supply line and no reinforcements.’
    â€˜The commanders said so, too, but there’s