Night fell cold.'l'he wide cloudless sky seemed to pull the warmth of
the day and land up into it, and Otah, most honored and powerful man in
his city, wrapped an extra cloak around himself and settled down against
it tree, Ashua Radaani snoring gently at his side. I Ic had expected his
dreams to be troubled, but instead he found himself ice fishing, and the
fish he saw moving below the ice were also Kiyan and his children,
playing with him, tugging at the line and then darting away. A trout
that was also Kiyan in a silver-blue robe leapt from the waterwith the
logic of dreams frozen and vet unfrozen-and splashed back down to Otah's
delight when a rough hand shook him awake. Dawn was threatening, gray
and rose in the east, and Saya the blacksmith towered over him, checks
so red they seemed dark in the dim light, nose running, and a grin
showing his teeth.
""They've come, Most High."
Utah leapt up, his back and hip aching from the cold night and the
unforgiving ground. To the east, smoke rose in a wall. Coal smoke from
the Galtic wagons strung along the road from Cetani like beads on a
string. It was earlier in the day than he'd expected them, and as he
pulled on his makeshift armor of boiled leather and metal scale, his
mind leapt ahead, guessing at what tactical advantages the Galtic
captain intended by arriving with the dawn. .
None, of course. They had no way to know Otah's men were there. And
still, Otah considered how the light would strike the road, the trees,
what it would make visible and what it would hide. He could no more stop
his mind than call down the stars.
The sun found the highest reaches of the smoke first, where it had
diffused almost to nothing. Closer to the ground, the smoke was already
visibly nearer. The Gaits had passed the third log barrier while the
runners had come to him. The fourth lay in wait where Utah could see it.
The innocent forest was alive with his men, or so he hoped. From his
place at the ridge of the low hill, he saw only the dozen nearest,
crouched behind trees and stones. Utah heard somethingthe clank of metal
or the sound of a raised voice. He willed them to be silent, fear and
anger at the sound almost enough to make his teeth ache until he heard
it again and realized it was the first of the Gaits.
The bear hunter appeared at his side. He held three of the spearlike
bolts and the great bow. Saya the blacksmith scampered up with another,
its steel heads only just fastened to it. Men appeared on the road below
them.
"The horn. Where's the horn?" Utah said, a sudden fear arcing through
him. If he had learned the lesson of drums and horns from the Galts only
to misplace the signal at the critical moment ... But the brass horn was
at his hip, where it had been since they'd set their trap. He took the
cold metal in his hands, brushing dirt from the mouthpiece.
""They look a bit rough around the edges, eh?" Saya whispered, pointing
at the road with his chin. "Amnat-Tan must have done them some hurt."
Utah looked at the Galtic soldiers. "There were perhaps a hundred that
he could see on this small curve of road. Ile tried to recall what the
men he had faced outside the 1)ai-kvo's village had looked like; how