"Request to pass through with horses to sell," the larger one said. He was a Bogu, you could see it in the hair. He spoke Kitan like the barbarian he was. The smaller one was hooded. Sometimes they did that, out of fear in the presence of Kitan soldiers.

Well, fear was proper proper, wasn't it.

This was a father and son, Tazek decided, stealing together. But it was a surprise to find Bogu this far east, especially just a pair of them. Not his problem. His problems were different.

"What have you seen to the north, thieving Bogu?" he demanded.

"What do you mean?" No reaction to the insult, Tazek noted.

"The garrison!"

"Fortress empty," agreed the big man. He was bare-chested, kept his eyes cast down. This, too, was normal-and appropriate. These were barbarians talking to an officer in the Sixth Army of Kitai.

The man said, "Tracks of horses and men go this way. They not come here?"

That was none of his business, was it?

"What about the other fort?"

"Not go so far. But many soldiers go this way. More than one fort. Two days, maybe?"

He didn't look up, but he had it right. The nomads knew how to read their grass.

"Anything happen up there?"

"Happen?"

"You see any Shuoki?"

"No," said the big one.

"I need a better answer!" snarled Tazek.

"No, honourable sir," the man said, which would have been funny, some other time.

"Any of those shit-eaters coming this way? You see them?"

"No Shuoki. There are Bogu behind us."

"Why?"

"We are ... we are exiled from tribe, honourable sir."

And that that put an answer in place as to why these two were so far east. Interesting that they were being pursued, but not interesting enough. The tribes had their laws. If they stayed north of the Wall and didn't bother the garrisons, it had nothing to do with Kitai. Or with Tazek Karad of the Sixth. put an answer in place as to why these two were so far east. Interesting that they were being pursued, but not interesting enough. The tribes had their laws. If they stayed north of the Wall and didn't bother the garrisons, it had nothing to do with Kitai. Or with Tazek Karad of the Sixth.

It could, however, get complicated if the Bogu showed up, and he was seen seen letting these two through. There were horses. Horses mattered. Tazek looked north. Emptiness. letting these two through. There were horses. Horses mattered. Tazek looked north. Emptiness.

He nodded to the man beside him. "Open them up."

He looked down at the two riders. "Where you taking these?"

"These horses requested by Kanlins," the bigger man said.

A surprise. "You aim to go all the way to Stone Drum Mountain with these?"

"Requested by them. Three smaller horses. Some Kanlin are women."

Well, the gods send a sandstorm to blind fools! As if Tazek didn't know know some of the black-robed ones were women? And that the women could kill you as easily as the men? some of the black-robed ones were women? And that the women could kill you as easily as the men?

"In that case, we have a problem, my shirtless friend. Stone Drum is what, six days? I am not letting Bogu horse-thieves ride alone that far through Kitai."

"It is only four days, dui dui officer. You are properly cautious, but it is all right, we are here to escort them." officer. You are properly cautious, but it is all right, we are here to escort them."

The voice was behind him. Speaking impeccable Kitan.

Tazek turned quickly-and saw three Kanlin Warriors, astride their horses, just inside his gates.

It had happened to him before: they could be right up on you, in among you, before you were aware they'd even been approaching. Two men, one woman, he saw. They had hoods down in the evening light, carried swords across their backs, bows in saddles.

Tazek stared down. If he'd been unhappy before it was as nothing now.

"How did you know they were coming?" he demanded.

The first Kanlin smiled. He seemed amused. "It had been arranged," he said. "It is not hard to watch for riders from places along the Wall."

Well, fuck your by-the-hour mother, Tazek wanted to say. "You learn anything about the garrison soldiers? The ones who came through?" Tazek wanted to say. "You learn anything about the garrison soldiers? The ones who came through?"

"Seventh and Eighth Armies," the Kanlin said, promptly. "They are all moving south. Do you have enough people to deal with this stretch of the Wall?"

"Course I do!" snapped Tazek. As if he was going to admit anything to a black-robe.

"Good," the man said equably. "Be generous enough to let our horses through? And please accept, for you and your soldiers, some rice wine we have brought as a humble offering to those who defend us here. It might be better than what you have."

Might be better? It couldn't help help but be better, because the accursed soldiers of the Seventh, the ones posted here before, the ones who'd gone away south, had taken all the wine and most of the food stores with them. but be better, because the accursed soldiers of the Seventh, the ones posted here before, the ones who'd gone away south, had taken all the wine and most of the food stores with them.

He had sent word about the stores as soon as they'd arrived. He was expecting provisions from the west, as soon as tomorrow, with luck. On the other hand, the sun was going down and a dry night stretched ahead.

He nodded to the three in the black robes, and then to the soldier beside him. The man barked the orders.

The gate bars were pulled back. The heavy gates swung inward, slowly. The Bogu father and son waited, then rode through with their horses. Three of the horses were, Tazek saw, smaller ones.

He still didn't know how the Kanlin had gotten a message, a request for horses, through the Wall to Bogu exiles. That part didn't make sense. He was trying to decide if it mattered.

He decided it didn't. Not his problem.

He looked down and saw that the three Kanlins had dismounted and were shifting flasks from their pack horse into the extremely eager hands of his own soldiers.

"Hold off opening those till I get down!" he shouted.

He'd need to count and estimate, figure out how to do this. But rice wine meant that at least one good thing had happened today. Pretty much the only good thing.

He was turning to go down the steps when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a grey shape streak through the gate.

"The fuck was that?" he roared.

"A wolf, I think," the Kanlin leader said, looking up.

"It just went through my Wall!" Tazek shouted.

The Kanlin shrugged. "They do go back and forth. We'll shoot it for you if we see it. Is there a bounty this spring?"

There sometimes was, it depended how many there were. Tazek had just arrived here. He was short of men, of food, of water and wine, and he had no idea what had happened with the Seventh and Eighth.

"No," he said sourly. There might well have been a bounty for all he knew, but he felt like saying no to someone. "Shoot it anyhow."

The Kanlin nodded, and turned. The five of them rode off, the extra horses trailing after the big, bare-chested Bogu.

Tazek watched them for a while, discontented. Something was still bothering him, a thought teasing at the edge of his mind. Then he remembered the wine and went quickly down the stairs. He never did chase down that stray thought.

When a party of Bogu riders appeared the next morning he ordered his men to begin shooting as soon as the riders were in arrow range. He was undermanned; he did not not want the nomads to get close enough to realize it. want the nomads to get close enough to realize it.

They were chasing the horse-thieves, obviously. Well, he'd made his decision to let those two pass through. An officer in the Kitan army didn't show uncertainty or doubt to barbarians, or his men. You didn't get promoted that way, and your soldiers would lose faith in you. They were allowed to hate you, they just couldn't worry about your competence.

He watched the Bogu withdraw out of range and linger there, arguing amongst each other. They had wolfhounds with them, he saw. He had no idea what the quarrel was about. He didn't care. He watched-with the quiet satisfaction of a man who had done his assigned task well-until they turned and rode off.

Two swans appeared, flying towards the Wall. Tazek let his men amuse themselves shooting at them. They brought one down.

The other wheeled away, higher, and went back towards the steppes.

She is in Kitai again. The Kanlins, silent, courteous, bring them to an inn as darkness falls. Li-Mei sees torchlight and lanterns, hears music. She is shown by bowing servants to a room with walls and a bed, and she bathes in a brazier-heated bath chamber, with hot water, and servants to attend her, and she weeps as they wash her hair.

Her hands are shaking. The girls make pitying sounds when they see her nails and fingers, and one of them spends a long time with brush and file, doing the best she can with them. Li-Mei weeps through this, as well.

They tease her gently, trying to make her smile. They tell her they cannot paint her eyebrows or cheeks if she will insist on crying. She shakes her head, and they leave her face unpainted for this first night. She hears the wind outside, and the knowledge that it will be be outside tonight, that she will sleep sheltered, sinks into her like a promise, like warm wine. outside tonight, that she will sleep sheltered, sinks into her like a promise, like warm wine.

She goes downstairs, unadorned, but in clean robes and sandals, and sits with the Kanlin Warriors in the dining pavilion. They speak politely and gracefully. One addresses her by name.

They know who she is.

Fear, for a swift, shattering moment, until she understands that if they were going to expose her, reveal her identity, they'd have done so at the Wall.

"You are taking me to Stone Drum Mountain?" she asks.

The leader, an older man, nods his head. "Both of you," he says. "My lady."

"How do you know who I am?"

The briefest hesitation. "We were told," he says.

"Do you know who is with me? Who he is?"

A nod. "They wish to see him at Stone Drum, as well."

Li-Mei realizes that there is wine in front of her. She sips, carefully. It has been a long time since she drank rice wine.

"Why?" she asks.

The Kanlins exchange glances. The woman is very pretty, Li-Mei thinks. She has silver hairpins, for the evening.

The older man says, "You will be told when you are there. Questions will be answered. But you do know your brother was among us, once."

So it is Tai, she thinks. It is Tai again, even so far away. One brother had exiled her, another is drawing her home.

"He told us that when he left Stone Drum, some of you ... some were not ..."

"Some were not happy, no," the Kanlin leader says. He smiles.

"Not everyone who comes to the Mountain becomes a Warrior," the woman says. She sips her wine. Fills three cups. She gestures with the flask to Li-Mei, who shakes her head.

"Where is Meshag?" she asks.

He's outside, of course. Wooden walls, a wooden roof, a room full of people, Kitan people. He'll be out in the night he knows, although the land is no longer known. A thought occurs to her.

"You mustn't kill the wolf," she says.

"We know that," says the Kanlin leader. "The wolves are why they want to speak with him at the Mountain."

She looks at him, a thought forms. "It was a wolf that brought you word of our coming, wasn't it? You weren't looking out from the Wall for us."

It sounds impossible, even as she says it. But he nods his head. "You are very like your brother," he says.

She begins to cry again. "You knew him?"

"I taught Shen Tai for a time. I sorrowed when he left us. I asked to be one of those sent to bring his sister."

She is not not a woman who cries. They wait, patient, even amused. She wipes her eyes with her sleeve. a woman who cries. They wait, patient, even amused. She wipes her eyes with her sleeve.

She says, looking at the leader, "What has happened? The armies have all left the garrisons, the Wall. Why?"

Again they look at each other. The older one says, "I think it is better if you are told this at the Mountain."

"There is something to tell?"

He nods his head.

She asks no more questions. She eats with them, and there is a singer (not very skilled, but they are in a remote place), and then Li-Mei goes to her chamber and sleeps in a bed and dreams of wolves.