That was when she knew Karostei could not be saved.
Another puff of black smoke went up from the town’s signal post, and Fie spied clusters of black cloaks gathered a dozen paces from the barred gates. Half a dozen Hawk guards stood in an uneasy line between the Crows and the only way in, as two cloaked figures argued with a man in Crane yellow.
Lakima cleared her throat. “Chief… how close can we get to those walls?”
“Treat it the same as a corpse,” Fie said. “Keep a few paces off. Looks like we’ll need you to clear the way, but you’ll be safest outside. I doubt there’s aught in there but dying sinners now.”
“Understood. Shall we take the lead?”
“Aye.” Fie let the Hawks form up ahead of her. Better to let Karostei’s arbiter negotiate with them first. Besides, she had a single Phoenix tooth left on her string now. She couldn’t afford to waste it on cowing an arbiter.
That proved to be the right choice. The Crows on the road ahead parted to let them pass, trading baffled looks when they saw Fie’s band in the Hawks’ wake. Lakima marched them right up to the arbiter and the two Crows he was arguing with. This close, Fie could see the strings of teeth about their necks that marked them for chiefs like her.
“Corporal Lakima Geli szo Jasko of the Trikovoi fortress,” Lakima barked. “Who’s the ranking officer here?”
“I am,” the arbiter said.
Fie couldn’t see the look Lakima gave him, but she had a wonderful view of how he seemed to almost wilt beneath it.
“That’s… doubtful,” the corporal said. She wasn’t wrong; though an arbiter was meant to serve as a town’s leader, it didn’t mean a Crane could give orders to Hawk soldiers.
“The sergeant died two days ago.” The voice came from the signal post above, where a fresh string of black smoke had begun coiling into the sky. “We’re all guard rank, so until a new officer arrives—”
“I’min command,” finished the Crane arbiter. Their arrival had drawn the notice of some idling citizens, who were edging nearer, and that seemed to make the arbiter even more nervy. “Put that out at once. We don’t need their help.”
Fie ignored him, staring up at the guard by the beacon. “Tell me your sergeant didn’t die of theplaguetwo days ago.”
“Oh, it’s much worse than that,” one of the other chiefs answered. Lakima stepped aside, and the woman spoke direct to Fie, anger and weariness in her lined face. “The first sinner diedfourdays ago. This scummer”—she flicked her hand at the arbiter—“decided he could deal with the body like the dead king and just had a couple Sparrows burn it.Theywere dead of the plague by the next morning, then the sergeant’s house came down with it, and next thing you know most the town’s run to the fields with what they could carry.”
“I’m telling you, it’ll blow over,” the arbiter insisted. “We burned the quarantine hut, same as they did with the king. Wouldn’t we have heard if the palace were rotting from the inside out?”
“Imagine that, it’s almost as if the king didn’t actually die of the plague at all and the queen is just exploiting an opportunity to further vilify the Crows and consolidate power,” Khoda muttered under his breath.
The arbiter blinked at him. “What was that?”
“Nothing,” Khoda said. “Though perhaps I’m wrong, but… a corporal qualifies as a ranking officer, correct?”
“Correct,” Corporal Lakima said, and yet again, the arbiter shrank. Lakima’s voice rose. “Guards, stand down and let the Crows in.”
The six Hawks on the road didn’t need further prompting. Fie couldn’t help noting that they took the opportunity to distance themselves from both the arbiter and the decaying wall.
“You can’t—these bone thieves just want money! It’ll pass!” The arbiter threw himself in front of Lakima. “All they’ll do is burn the town to the ground!”
The other chief, a man near Wretch’s age, spat into the road with disgust. “Don’t blame us because you called too late,” he said. “You know damn well how it runs with the plague. If we don’t stop it here, it’ll take your fields next, and your livestock, and your people, and then the only mercy you’ll get is death before the famine.”
“We won’t pay for you to destroy our homes,” the arbiter insisted. “Go cheat someone else.”
“Viatik fits the means,” the first chief said. She pointed to the ragtag camp. “Your means aren’t much right now. Nor are our expectations.”
“Let them in!” a woman shouted from the gathering crowd. “If the plague takes the fields, we’ll all starve!”
“My father’s suffering in there right now! Give him mercy!”
“I SAID IT WILL PASS!” roared the arbiter, nigh purple in the face.
Something about that caught Fie’s notice. She took a step closer to the arbiter, eyes narrowed. “How many did you leave in town?”
“It doesn’t matter—”
