years ago. For all it’s got to do with you. What’s the meaning all of this, anyway?’
Captain Sanson ignored her for a moment. He took another long questioning look at Ash, then at the tents where the girls were still sleeping. He bowed his head to Mistress Cheer. ‘My apologies,’ he told her. ‘Some enemy scouts may have been in the area last night. We’re making a security sweep of the beach, that’s all.’ A flick of his hand commanded the others to follow as he strode away.
‘My thanks,’ said Ash when they were safely out of earshot.
Mistress Cheer shivered in the cool morning breeze, then released her grip on his arm. ‘I repay my debts, that’s all. Is there something you wish to tell me, Ash?’
‘You heard what he said. Enemy scouts.’
She looked away for a moment, then fixed him with a hard stare.
‘I noticed you were gone for most of the night, before I came and joined you.’
Ash tightened his lips and looked to the sand at his feet.
Last night, when he’d finally returned from his botched mission, he’d collapsed in exhaustion next to the dead fire of their small camp. Some time later, confused and still half dreaming, he’d half awakened to find a blanket placed over him, and Mistress Cheer pressing her soft body against his own.
‘Be that way, then,’ she snapped at him now, and her anger was unmistakable. She took a few steps away before rounding on him. ‘I don’t care if you were thieving or worse last night. But I can’t have a bodyguard I can’t rely on to be here when he’s needed. Nor a liar whose secrets I can’t fathom. I’ve paid my debt to you. Help yourself to some hot food when the others awake, then I’ll give you your coins. But no matter how much I may be fond of you, Ash – if that even be your real name – I think it best that you move on after breakfast.’
It was her loss of trust in him, he could see. She was a woman sensitive to past betrayals.
He cast his mind back to the early hours of the morning. Their long kisses beneath the blanket and the clouds overhead, their slow tender passion. She’d been the first woman Ash had lain with in several years, and it had made him realize how much he missed it; the intimacy, the shedding for a short time of his loneliness.
Knowing there would be no changing her mind, though, he bowed his head low. ‘You and the girls – you will be safe?’
‘I’m sure we can find another hungry blade for hire somewhere on this forsaken beach. We’ll be fine.’
He nodded again, then surprised her by kissing her full on the mouth, her scarred lip feeling strange but thrilling against his own.
‘Good luck to you, strange old man from Honshu,’ she said as he walked away.
Ché returned from the latrine feeling poorly rested after the late night before, but he was thankful not to be hungover like many of the other men and women he passed in the encampment, with their pale faces and bloodshot eyes.
It was a windy day, and the press of it against his face was cool and refreshing. He could feel the new-grown stubble on his scalp rubbing against the hood of his robe; Ché had stopped shaving his head now that he was here in Khos, preparing for whatever mission amongst the population might be required of him. It felt good to have some hair again.
In the open space of ground before the Matriarch’s tent, the spy-master Alarum was cinching a bedroll to the saddle of a zel.
‘Going for a ride?’ Ché enquired as he stopped and looked up at the spymaster, who this morning resembled nothing more than a local peasant bandit. The priest was dressed in plain civilian clothing; fur-trimmed riding trousers, an outer coat of green wool, a bandana tied across his bald head. He’d removed his facial jewellery, and had replaced it with a single loop of gold in his right ear. Two long curved knives protruded from the thick leather of his belt.
Alarum glanced in Ché’s direction with one foot in the stirrup. He hopped a few times and swung his other leg over the saddle, righting himself as the zel snorted and shifted back a step. ‘Priest Ché,’ he said, tightening the reins in his gloved hands. Behind his mount, a string of two more zels stood loaded with supplies. ‘Yes,