Gayar was about to ask again, but Hanbun spoke.
“Let’s go out. The fighting isn’t over yet.”
Eight o’clock. An uneasy silence enveloped Hawk House.
As the sun slipped past the western bell tower and sank beneath the roofs, the square reddened and the shadows lengthened. A night breeze blew. Sawdust rose from the barricade heaped in the back yard. Blood dripped through it.
The enemy had camped before the square, as when they first arrived. The same hush prevailed. Hawk House looked out at them through its gaping entrance, as though a great fist had struck it in the mouth. A plank still attached to its hinges dangled above the broken timber. Filthy water from the melted ice pooled beneath the steps.
A person stepped over the remains of the door and stood at the top of the steps.
The battered black boots were the same ones she always wore. Above them, a pale blue skirt fluttered. White eyelet lace over blue linen gave the dress a distinctly feminine air. Half her loose hair had been gathered and pinned up, making her look much neater. She held a torch. It was not yet dark, but the torch was enough to draw attention.
The soldiers in the square watched. Their faces looked blank, but Rosa noticed bewilderment spreading through them. Their natural movements had stopped. She had expected this. In truth, it would be more accurate to say she had aimed for it.
A short while before, while the fighting had paused and they gathered their men, they had counted eleven dead. Almost everyone was wounded, and eleven could not move. Two of them would die soon if a doctor did not come. Some of the survivors wept. Gayar had said, “Hey, this is very well done. You can be proud of yourselves.”
Then the enemy had requested a parley. Among the gathered senior patrolmen, Rosa had dismissed it as a meaningless conversation. She judged that they did not intend to prolong the fight, only to find a justification for withdrawing. Hal asked, “Then should we ignore them?”
“No. Let’s use it to gain time.”
“Pretend to talk?”
“Talk, rather than pretend to.”
“But wait. You mean to go out yourself?”
There was no need for Rosa to do it. No one had suggested it. The moment they heard her, the patrolmen objected. If she stood unarmed on the front steps as the enemy demanded, a single arrow could kill her. Harat was positively indignant.
“Why should a young lady take such a dangerous part? We’ve still got this many able-bodied men!”
Objections rose on every side, but Rosa had already decided. There were two reasons. Something had happened in the first-floor hall a little while before. The patrolmen must have felt it, though they had not asked what it was. The enemy certainly would have felt it too. Once the men who had run from the hall recovered themselves, they must have wondered what had happened to them. Their withdrawal and request for a parley made it clear they wanted to say something. It was a question no one but Rosa could answer, whether truthfully or with a lie.
And Rosa too needed to learn what they knew, and how much. Hadn’t these men, the general’s soldiers, kidnapped Nana almost as soon as the sisters entered Delphinad? She still did not know why. What if it was because they truly knew something about Nana? And what of the men who had threatened Rosa in the library? If people in Delphinad were after Nana, she had to establish their identity and purpose. Talking to them was the quickest way. Anyone who opened his mouth was bound to let something slip, however small.
Unexpectedly, Gayar supported her.
“Being a young lady might make you safer.”
“We think alike.”
“That doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous.”
“I have a plan.”
At first glance, the plan was absurd. Rosa changed her clothes before going out, into the dress she wore now, and arranged and pinned up her hair. Neups, watching her preparations, asked slyly, “You’re not planning to use your beauty on them?”
Rosa gave him a sidelong glare and told another patrolman to bring her a torch. Soon she stood at the entrance. While the enemy’s representative walked out, she frowned slightly and muttered, “This isn’t what I bought the dress for.”
While Gayar had backed Rosa, Hanbun had been watching both her and Nana for some time. Gene’s former subordinate was sharper than he looked, and cautious too. He clearly had suspicions, but had not spoken of them to anyone, not even Gayar. When and where had this man, so much older than Gene and seemingly a soldier to the bone, become his subordinate? Neither Rosa nor the patrolmen knew.
“I am Binias, adjutant to General Nikephoros. Where is the representative we agreed upon?”
Binias stood about ten paces away. Strictly speaking, he had entered bowshot himself, though there was not a single bow inside the house. Rosa answered, “Open your eyes and look carefully. You should see one person.”
A woman in a dress, plainly no combatant, was an awkward person to attack, especially with a war hero’s honor to consider. Even the wind seemed to have come to Rosa’s aid. Her fluttering skirt and hair made her unmistakably a woman, however distant the observer. There were plenty of unseen spectators at this battle. With nothing more entertaining to be seen in Delphinad today, neighbors who had fled and crept back, vagrants and unemployed men, self-proclaimed brave citizens, mercenaries and retired soldiers, members of organizations interested in developments in their trade, patrolmen, and passing idlers hid among the houses, watching so as not to miss a fight, the next best entertainment to a fire.
Binias frowned. Her sarcasm offended him, but he had come to carry out a duty and could not turn back.
“I know the Shadowhawk is absent. Are you telling me he has not a single loyal subordinate to take his place?”
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