Spirit Gate

It was so quiet. The horses had been strung up on a line near the council house, visible from here by the distant glimmer of light from a single lantern hung at the porch. The mascot dogs who accompanied the cadre were tranquil beasts, and he supposed they were now sleeping. In truth, it was the look of the men with whom he marched that agitated him.

Like Twist. The man's jaw had been damaged and healed wrong. He was missing two fingers. He had a net of lash scars on his back. He carried himself with the bravado of a man who relishes a fight over nothing.

A figure appeared on the road out of the darkness and loped up to them in that gangling, hopping way he had.

"Eh, there, Rabbit," said Twist. "Finally remember you have sentry duty?"

"Heh. Heh. Yah."

Like this one, who tolerated the others calling him "Rabbit" and who had a way of gri

"How long have you been on this road?" he asked Rabbit, because the silence was making him twitchy.

Rabbit fished a strip of dried flesh out of his pouch and chewed on it before answering. "Eh. Since I was kicked out of m'mam's village and forced to take cover up in the hills. There I found some who were more like me than otherwise. Comrades, you might say." He hawked and spat, then wiped his mouth clean. "Let me see. That was ten years ago now, I'm thinking."

Kesh whistled. "That's a long time. How old are you?"

"Oh, I'm a Goat, sure enough. You work it out."

"Huh. Same as me."

"Really?" said Twist. "You look younger than Rabbit."

It was true. Rabbit had the wiry strength of a young man but his face was seamed and weathered in the ma

"How long, you?" the older man asked Kesh.

"Oh, in the service of that one, since I was twelve," said Kesh, figuring it better to tell as much of truth as he could.

Rabbit twitched. "Heh! You ever done it with her? Front or back?"

"Her? No."

"I bet that reeve done it. That one was carrying her. Heh! He was as ready as a split log to burn. Popping right out of his leathers, near enough. Fancy them dropping down just like that to warn us of you waiting there by our dead comrades just ahead." Rabbit scratched where Kesh did not want to look. That weird, crazy grin crept up the corners of his mouth. "Wonder who killed them."

"I'd like to know," said Twist. "I've been camping with Jeden and Ofass for five years now. If I caught that one who did them, I'd open their chest and squeeze their beating heart 'til they told me. And then burst it anyway."

"Heh. Heh. Just like we did at that place… huh… it had a name."

"Reyipa," said Twist.

Rabbit snickered. "Then we tossed them from the cliff, four at a time. Heh. Heh. 'It's the flying fours for you!' Remember how we called that out? Heh. Pretty clever."

"Whew! I do have to pee," said Kesh, not liking the turn of this conversation. "I'll be right back."

Trying not to disturb the sleeping gi

If he ran, they would just be on him. This motley group, part of a larger unit that called themselves the Flying Fours, had embraced him into their ranks only because the reeve and his fascinating passenger had dropped down beside their cadre and warned them to "pick up the lad who is just up the road, and keep him safe." Or so the sergeant had made sure to tell him. How Bai had managed to persuade them he could not imagine, since he hadn't been there to see, but she seemed at this juncture capable of anything except, he hoped, raping corpses.

He peered into the trees, but it was all darkness beneath the canopy of rustling leaves. The river ran close by, a constant chuckle of amusement, no doubt laughing at his plight. What was he to do? He could race to the shore and throw himself into the water, but he didn't know how to swim, and anyway the gi

Everything had gone wrong. But at least he was still alive.

He heard what was not a sound, felt the shadow although it could not be seen in darkness. A prickling sensation ran from his ears to his neck, and his throat went dry, and he was suddenly horribly, terribly, genuinely scared, so badly that he would have wet himself if he hadn't just peed.

He stepped away from the trees, thinking at first that the threat came from beneath the canopy, but as he set a foot on the slope of the road's underbed, a shape passed low over him. He and the other sentries ducked, covering their heads although nothing came close to hitting them.

On the road behind them, the shape descended sharply. His breath lodged in his throat. The creature made the transition effortlessly from flying to trotting. When those mundane hoof-falls slammed on the road, he choked and gasped, and scrambled up to the road's pavement to stare after it as it moved away from them and toward the tent.

He would have called it a horse with two heads, one equine and one human, each one streaming wings like smoke. But as it came to a halt a little away from the campfire, it separated as its rider dismounted; it was a person wearing a voluminous cloak that had gusted out in the landing. But the horse really did have wings, fa

" 'Rid us of all that is evil,'" he muttered.

"What did you say?" asked Twist.

"What is that thing?"

It was the wrong question to ask. Twist and Rabbit looked at him, chins lowering as might muzzles dip on dogs who are thinking of taking a bite out of you.

"You don't know?" asked Twist.

"Heh," said Rabbit suspiciously.

"I've never been out of the south," said Kesh in a choked voice. "Never saw such a thing before." He sorted through his choices and opted for belligerency. "You want to make something of it? I can't help it I'm not well traveled like your sort. I have to go where the mistress tells me, and she doesn't stray far, let me tell you. She works for the temple, and they don't let their hierodules off the leash. If you take my meaning."

"Heh. Heh." Rabbit scratched himself. "Like to see that."

The creature and its rider vanished inside shed and tent respectively. One of the guardsmen detached himself from the campfire and jogged down to the sentry post.