you. There's a dozen of us. Did you think you were going to cut us all
down?"
"Can't hurt Danat," the driver said.
"Who's Danat?"
When the driver didn't answer, Eustin shook his head and spat. Sinja
could see what was coming next from the way Eustin held his shoulders
and the blood in his face. Danat, still in cart, made a mewling sound,
and Sinja looked at the boy, looked into his eyes, and took a small pose
that told him to prepare himself.
"Well, we aren't leaving the boy out here, whatever his name is," Eustin
said. "Get him out where this idiot can see the price of attacking a Galt."
The soldier nearest the cart grabbed at the boy, and Danat yelped in
fear. Eustin swung his blade in the air, his eyes locked on Nayiit's.
Sinja nodded to the man at the cart when he spoke.
"Hold off there," he said, then turned to Eustin. "You're a good
soldier, Eustin-cha. You're loyal and you're ruthless, and I want you to
know I respect that."
Eustin cocked his head, confused.
"Thank you, I suppose," Eustin said, and Sinja drew his sword. Eustin's
eyes went wide, and he barely blocked Sinja's thrust. Blood showed on
his arm, and the other ten men pulled their own blades with a soft sound
like a rake in gravel.
"What are you doing?" Eustin cried.
"Not betraying someone."
"What?"
This isn't how I'd hoped to die, Sinja thought. If the boy had any
mother in the world besides Kiyan, he'd stand hack and let the thing
take its course. Instead, he was going to be cut down like a dog. But if
the men were watching him, Danat could slip away. A boy of five summers
was no threat. The men might not bother tracking him. Danat might find
his way to the tunnel or some low town or into friendly hands. There
wasn't a better option.
"Call them off, Eustin. This is between the two of us."
"What's between the two of us?"
Sinja raised the tip of his sword by a hand's span in answer. Eustin
nodded and dropped his own blade into guard position.
"He's mine," Eustin called. "Leave us be."
Sinja took a step hack, away from the cart, and smiled. Eustin let
himself be drawn. In the corner of his vision, Sinja saw Danat drop from
the cart's hack. He took a hard grip on his sword, grinned, and swung.
Steel rang on steel. Eustin closed and Sinja darted back, the snow
crackling under his boots. They were both smiling now, and one of the
bowmen had pulled out his quiver, prepared to act in case Eustin should
fail. Sinja took a deep breath of cold air, and felt strangely like
shouting.
He'd been wrong before; this was exactly how he'd hoped to die.
NIAATi CHANTED UNTIL HIS MOUTH WAS DRY, HIS EYES LACKED ON THE scrawled
note on the wall before him. Each time he began to feel his thoughts
taking shape, it distracted him. He would think that the binding was