Kanil clawed weakly at Lujan’s wrist. ‘I don’t know how they found me out. They called for me and then took me to this room.’ He swallowed hard. ‘They tortured me . . . I lost consciousness and when I awoke I was alone. The door was unguarded. I don’t know why. Perhaps they thought I was dead. Many Minwanabi soldiers were rushing to board boats and cross the lake. I crept out of the room in which I was a prisoner and stowed away on a supply boat. I passed out, and when I was again conscious, the flotilla was docked at Sulan-Qu. There were only two guards at the far end of the docks, so I slipped off into the city.’
‘Strike Leader Lujan,’ the healer interjected, ‘if you question this man too long, his survival may be threatened.’
At the mention of Lujan’s name, Kanil stirred in sudden and shattering agitation. ‘Oh, gods!’ he whispered hoarsely. ‘This is the false caravan.’
Lujan’s only betrayal of shock was a tightening of his hand on his sword hilt. Taut, dangerous, and wary, he ignored the healer’s plea and leaned close to the man. Too softly he said, ‘For what reason would the Spy Master inform you of this deception?’
The man lay uncaring of his peril. Whispering, he said, ‘Arakasi didn’t. The Minwanabi know! They laughed and boasted of what they knew of Lady Mara’s plan while they tortured me.’
Chilled by this answer, Lujan pressed, ‘Do they know about the real silk shipment?’
Kanil returned a painful nod. ‘They do. They sent three hundred men to plunder it.’
Lujan stood. Curbing an impulse to fling his plumed helm to the ground, he cried, ‘Damn the fickleness of the gods!’
Then, aware of curious eyes that turned in his direction, he waved healer and soldiers away, leaving him alone with the tortured man. Night wind stirred the fire. Kneeling, Lujan seized Kanil by the back of the neck and hauled his battered face near to his own so they might speak without being overheard. ‘Upon your soul and life, do you know where?’
Tremors coursed through Kanil’s body. But his eyes were steady as he said, ‘The attack will happen on the road through the Kyamaka Mountains, beyond the Tuscalora border, in a place where wagons must climb up out of a depression toward a western ridge. That is all I know.’
Lujan stared unseeing into features ravaged by enemies. He thought with a clarity that came on him in moments of crisis, and reviewed every dell and hideout and cranny he remembered in the mountains where he had once led his band of grey warriors. There were many an army might use for an ambush. Yet only one place that was suitable for concealment of three full companies matched the description. As if dreaming, Lujan said, ‘How long ago did the Minwanabi dogs pass Sulan-Qu?’
Kanil’s head sagged sideways. ‘A day, perhaps two. I cannot say. I fainted in a hovel in the city, and the gods only know how long I lay unconscious — an hour or perhaps a full day.’ He closed his eyes, too spent to add more; and the strength of purpose that had sustained him drained away with the deliverance of his message. Lujan lowered his hands and settled the limp head on blood-marked blankets. He made no protest as the healer hurried forward and began to tend the man.
Lujan completed his inner calculations. Knotted inside with concealed rage, he shouted loudly enough to wake the most sluggish of the sleeping servants. ‘Break camp!’
To the worried presence of his subcommander he added, ‘Assign a patrol and wagon to take this man to Lady Mara in the morning, and then detail half a company to see the rest of the wagons safely to our warehouses in Sulan-Qu at dawn.’
The officer saluted. ‘Yes, Strike Leader.’
‘The rest of us march now,’ Lujan finished. He wasted no breath with elaboration; every second counted. For if the Minwanabi attacked Keyoke in the pass, there was only one place to make a stand. The bandits’ canyon would be known to the scouts; but in the heat of ambush and battle, had any of them found the chance to mention its presence? Curse of Turakamu, Lujan thought. The silk could be lost already, and Keyoke might at this moment be a corpse staring sightless at stars. Only a fool would hold to hope, and only an even greater fool would risk another two companies . . . yet Lujan could not conceive of any alternative but action.
For Lujan loved Mara with a devotion deeper than life: she had returned him to honour from the meaningless existence of a grey warrior. And the Force Commander Lujan had come to admire with the affection a son reserves for a father had become ensnared in a Minwanabi trap. Keyoke had embraced the tattered soldiers from Lujan’s band as if they had been born to Acoma green, and he had supported Lujan’s promotion to First Strike Leader with a fair judgment few men maintained in old age. Keyoke was more than a commanding officer; he was a teacher with a rare talent for sharing, and for listening.
Looking southward with eyes flat as pebbles, Lujan raised his voice to his company. ‘We march! And if we must steal every boat and barge in Sulan-Qu to make passage southward, we shall! By dawn I want to be on the river, and before another day passes, I want to be hunting dogs in the foothills of the Kyamakas!’