"Argent Hall? What manner of place is this?"

"It's the reeve hall with the obligation to patrol and protect this part of the country."

"You hope they will help you in what manner?"

"Have you no reeves where you come from?" asked Eliar with astonishment.

"They have not," said Calon. "There are no reeves outside the boundaries of the Hundred. The Lady tamed the great eagles and gave them to the reeves, so we might protect ourselves, but beyond our lands they cannot stray, for that is the law of the gods."

"So your priests tell you," said Eliar stubbornly, "but how can you know it to be true?"

"I have never seen anything like the reeves and their eagles in the lands I've traveled, nor heard any tale of them until I came here," said Anji.

"Old Marshal Alyon sat in authority over Argent Hall until a few seasons ago," said Calon. "He sent a representative to every one of our council meetings, as has always been customary. Then no representative came for two passes of the moon. After that, we heard that a new marshal sat in authority over Argent Hall, but we have never learned his name. Worse, it's rare to see reeves patrolling around Olossi any longer, although they fly into the Barrens regularly. Now and again we see one pass overhead on an unknown errand. The villages and farms of western Olossi have no one to preside over their monthly assizes, so they come to us to ask for help. That's why we sent so many emissaries to Argent Hall. But we are given no answer at the gates, not even when we beg for aid to patrol the roads against ospreys such as the ones you killed in the pass. I fear the shadows have crept long, and that we here in Olossi are being covered by their stain without our knowing."

"That's a sobering tale. So tell me, Master Calon, what do you want from us?"

"We, the Lesser Houses and our allies, seek your aid."

"You want us to overturn the Greater Houses and set you in charge of the council."

Calon met his gaze squarely. "We do. Not to harm them, only to force them to share the power they have gathered to themselves. We must be allowed to take our place as our numbers and our judgment warrant. If there's a truly open vote, and all are allowed to vote on council matters who meet the requirement, we will be content. Then if the vote goes against our proposals, we'll accept it."

"You do not expect that outcome, however. That an open vote will go against you, or your proposals."

"I do not. But the agreement I offer you comes in two parts. That is the first. The second is this: That once the council is under our control, you accept a commission to ride to Horn, and back. We sent a small group north recently, and have heard no word of them. We fear they're lost. Dead. What we want is a report on the condition of the roads and way stations, on the market in Horn, and on the prospects for travel north into Istria and Haldia and Arro, and east into Mar."

"Mar, by all means!" said Eliar. "Our supplies of kursi grow ghastly low, and I fear I shall waste away rather than eat bland food."

"It's no joking matter, cub," said Calon. "I am afraid of what we cannot see, and so should you be."

"If the bid to overturn the Greater Houses fails, what then?" asked Anji.

"Oh, to us, any manner of thing," said Calon carelessly. "They will vote to strip the conspirators-for such they will call us-of our right to run a business and sell goods in the marketplaces of Olossi. They may execute the leaders. As for Eliar and his people, they might exile them."

"These are serious risks," said Anji.

"Mostly for young Eliar here, because his people are exiles twice over according to their lore and have nowhere else to go," said Calon. "If I escape execution, I can always uproot my house and begin again in Sund, or Ofria."

Eliar whistled under his breath. "It's said they're poor as dirt in Ofria, all living in mud huts and eating snails."

"Little you would know! Snails are a delicacy! Here, now." Calon untied a purse from his belt and handed it to Anji, who weighed its heft with two hands. "We are serious folk, despite the manners of this cub, but he is a good lad and an honest broker, and I trust his people even if they don't care for my line of honest trade. I'll have you know his people have wagered the most on this gamble."

"We've the most to lose," said Eliar with a crooked smile. "But I'll not mind saying, anyway, that the Greater Houses are fools to avert their eyes at the dark tidings that stare them right in the face. My people can't afford to turn their backs. We did so once, in the old country, and suffered greatly."

Anji set the pouch at Mai's feet. It was too heavy for her to pick up, though she was not frail, so she opened it and picked out a pair of bars and a handful of coins, just the uppermost layer. A hoard rested beneath.

"These are cheyt," she said, "the full gold coins, not the quartered ones. There's no silver that I see. As for the bars…" She bit on the end ofone bar. She knew gold's texture. The eldest daughter bred out of a merchant's family had to expect to handle money when she was married into a worthy household. No one wanted a mere ornament as a wife, however much the poets sang of gorgeous flowers whose pleasing scent drew princes and captains.

"Please count it all," said Calon. "It matters to me that you see we are serious in every possible way."

"To overthrow the Greater Houses is a serious undertaking," said Anji. "And the expedition to Horn, after everything we have heard, more serious still."

"True enough. I believe there are deadlier forces at work than any who bide in the Greater Houses care to admit."

"Unless they are in league with them already," said Eliar. "For that's what I believe."

"In league with whom?" asked Anji.

"No one knows," said Eliar. "But the reeves of Argent Hall turn us away, and the Greater Houses ignore every warning sign. How can I not believe they are in league with the shadows? That they are not themselves conspirators? My friends and I-"

"A wild pack of cubs," interjected Calon softly, "including my once sweet and pliant nephew."

"My friends and I went on a scouting expedition two months back. We saw the reeves flying patrols up into the Barrens. They're looking for something, but we don't know what. Of their work-patrolling the roads, settlings disputes, standing in at the assizes, prosecuting criminals-the work that is their duty according to the law of the land, this work the reeves of Argent Hall have given up. They've forsworn their obligation to the people of Olossi and the territory they're meant to oversee."

"Nothing can be proven," said Calon. "What would the Greater Council serve to gain from such plans, in any case? They already hold power over the council."

"They want more, more even than they have now, more power over the rest of us, and more coin in their coffers. Sometimes greed is answer enough, Master Calon."

"It just doesn't make sense to me," the older man retorted.

Mai knelt on the ground beside the woven mat she usually sat on. On the mat's surface Shai tipped out the contents of the pouch. Their visitors fell into a respectful silence as she stacked and counted coins and bars. It was all gold, a prince's ransom.

"Four bars, whose weight and value must be considerable," she said at last. "And fifty cheyt." Fifty gold coins.

Shai hissed an exclamation under his breath. Chief Tuvi grunted, scratching an ear.

"A handsome offer," Anji said without emotion, "but a dead man has no use for coin. We are only two hundred men. You're asking too much."

Eliar gritted his teeth, gasping like a man in pain.

Master Calon raised a hand. "But-"

"No," said Anji in a tone that invited no response, a tone that meant he was not negotiating. "I will not send my men into a battle that cannot be won. No."