Lujan's eyebrows jerked up and froze. 'Three companies^
would be too many,' he said, and his hand tapped furiously on his sword hilt. 'We're going to have to buy favours of the cho-ja.' His gaze shifted significantly to Kevin. 'And you're right, damn your barbarian ideas. Keyoke cannot be granted the luxury of dying, else the estate will be left stripped of its last experienced officer.'
'That's surely what Desio intends. We must balk him.
Mara turned her head. Her eyes were black sparks, and her cheeks were flushed in shock as she voiced her orders.
'Lujan, you are now promoted to the post of Force Commander. Take Kevin and go to Keyoke. Tell him I wish to appoint him as First Adviser for War, but will do so only with his permission.' Her voice went distant with memory or maybe tears as she added, 'He will think other warriors will ridicule him for carrying a crutch, but I will see his name is honoured. Remind him that Pape once found pride in wearing the black rag of the condemned.,
Lujan bowed, a suggestion of sorrow in his own stance. 'I doubt Keyoke would leave us in such perilous straits, my Lady. But the gods might overrule his will. The wound in his abdomen is not the sort that a man is likely to recover from.'
Mara bit her lip. As if the words pained her, she said,
'Then, with his permission, I will send runner slaves and messengers throughout the Empire, to seek a healing priest of Hantukama.'
'The offering such a priest will demand for healing will be great,' Nacoya pointed out. 'You may have to build a large shrine.'
Mara came close to losing her temper. 'Then speak to Jican about rescuing the remnants of our silk from the mountains and getting it to market at Jamar! For we need our Keyoke alive, or all will be lost. We cannot afford to slight the Lord of the Xacatecas.' Even for Kevin's sake, this statement needed no elaboration. The promise of Lord Xacatecas' alliance had held many enemies at bay; should the Acoma give a family that powerful any cause whatsoever for enmity, they would beg a swift ruin, engaged as they were in their blood feud with the Minwanabi. 'The estate here must not be left in jeopardy,' Mare finished.
'Dustari is a trap,' Nacoya said, voicing a point all except Kevin were aware of. 'Tasaio will be there, and no move you or your four companies can make will not be anticipated in advance. You and the men you take with you will go the way of Lord Sezu, betrayed to your deaths on foreign soil.'
'All the more reason why Keyoke must hold these lands secure for Ayaki,' Mara finished. And the last high colour fled her face.
The imperial messenger departed with Mara's written acquiescence to the High Council's demands. After that, her household factors and advisers hurried off to initiate a frenzied list of preparations. Lujan detailed officers to make an inventory, then he and Kevin departed for Keyoke's bedside, neither with enthusiasm.
Jican arrived as they departed, summoned from the needra fields by the runner slave.
'I need a full accounting of Acoma assets,' Mara demanded before the little man had entirely risen from his bow.
'How many centis we have in cash, and how many more we might borrow. I need to know how many weapons our master armourers can turn out in two months, and how many more we might purchase.'
Jican's brows went up. 'Lady, did you not already decide to send our new arms to the markets? We will need the sale to balance our deficit in the silk.'
Mara frowned and restrained a sharp impulse to snap.
'Jican, that was yesterday. Today we must outfit four companies to relieve Lord Xacatecas in Dustari.'
The hadonra was adept at figures. 'You'll be bargaining for more warriors from the cho-ja, then,' he surmised. His straight brows tightened into a frown. 'We'll have to sell off some prime stock from your needra herds.'
'Do it,' Mara said at once. 'I'll be with Ayaki. When you have the accounting complete, bring your slates to the nursery.'
'Your will, Lady,' said Jican unhappily. Wars were the perpetual ruin of good finance, and that Mara must indulge in one through the plotting of dangerous enemies made him frightened. So had great houses fallen in the past; and the disaster of Sezu's betrayal and death had happened too recently for any servant on the estate not to feel