play with your men as a sarcat plays with his prey before the kill,' Desio observed, having lingered to watch the display.
Tasaio raised one cool eyebrow. 'I train them to treasure their lives,' he amended. 'On the battlefield, they must fend for themselves against our enemies. If a servant cannot keep himself alive, and be where I need him, he is of no use, yes?'
Desio conceded the point with an admiring chuckle.
Tasaio said, 'I am done, I think. No need to wait an hour, my Lord. I will accompany you back now.' Desio clapped his cousin on the shoulder, and together they started down the hill.
The Minwanabi First Adviser met them in the private study, his grey hair damp from his bath, and his back erect as a sword blade. He was an early riser, inspecting the estates with the hadonra in the morning hours. Afternoons he spent over paper work, but years of watching sunrises had given him the weatherbeaten appearance of an old field general.
He watched with a commanders perception as he made~j bow before the cousins.
Lord Desio was sweating, though he had already c~
sumed three mugs of rare, iced drinks. Runners continually drove themselves to exhaustion to provide him with luxury; as the summer progressed, and the snowline receded up the northern peaks, the young Lord's craving for cold dishes could no longer be satisfied Then he would turn to drink to dull the heat, but unlike his father Jingu, he did slacken his intake after sundown. With an inward frustrated sigh, Incomo regarded Tasaio, who still wore his armor and archer's glove, but who showed no fatigue from ~
hours of practice in the hills. His only concession to comic was the slightly loosened lacing at his throat; at all time even just after rising, Tasaio seemed but a half second away, from being ready to answer the call of battle. .
'Tasaio has finally devised his plan to defeat the Acoma,'
Desio opened as his First Adviser took his place on the cushions beneath the ceremonial dais.
'That is well, my Lord,' answered Incomo. 'We have just i received word of our ambush on the Acoma thyza wagons.'
'How did it go?' Desio rocked forward in his eagerness.
'Badly, my Lord.' Incomo's expression remained wooden. 'We were defeated, as we expected, but the cost was much higher than anticipated.'
'How costly?' Tasaio's voice seemed detached.
Incomo shifted dark eyes to the cousin. Slowly he said,
'Every man we sent was killed. Fifty raiders in all.' ~
Desio sat back, disgust upon his face. 'Fifty! Damn that A woman. Is every move she chooses ordained to win her victory?'
Tasaio tapped his chin with a finger. 'It may seem so now, cousin. But victory belongs to the last battle. In the end, we shall see where Mara is vulnerable.' He inclined his head to Incomo and asked, 'How did our enemy achieve so total a success?'
'Simple,' answered the First Adviser. 'They had three times the guards on the wagons that we would expect.'
Tasaio considered this, his fingers motionless on his knees. 'We expected them to know we were coming. That they responded with so much force tells us two things: first, they did not want us to capture that wagon, at any price, and second . . .' His eyes widened in sudden speculation. 'That damned cho-ja hive must be breeding warriors like jadeflies!'
Desio seemed confused. 'What does this have to do with uncovering Acoma spies?'
Incomo smoothed his robes with the fussiness of a bird ruffling feathers. Unbreakably patient, he qualified. 'Our offensive was aimed at tracing information leaks. Mara's too competent Spy Master has just confirmed the guilt of one, or all three, of our household suspects. Timing is all, my Lord Desio. Had we planned our attack on commerce more consequential than the grain trade, we would certainly have drawn notice to our purpose.'
Tasaio broke his silence. 'There could well be something else at play here: a garrison as undermanned as Mara's should not have responded so forcefully to so minor a threat. This overreaction is meaningful.' Tasaio paused, his brow furrowed. 'Suppose our action has in some way disrupted a plan the Acoma have under way? Suppose we just blundered into their next move against our interest?
They were desperate for us not to capture that wagon, willing to pay a price far above the worth of the grain or the minor loss in honour of abandoning a small caravan.'
'Now, there is a point to pursue,' Incomo broke in. 'Our factor in Sulan-Qu reports that