As Harat lifted his head a little to study Gene’s face, Jamalik came in and asked, “Tell me, what happened while we were away?”
“We fought. They were throwing stones this big…”
Harat was not particularly eloquent. Jamalik listened for a while, then asked again, “And where is everyone else?”
“At other lodgings. With so many hurt, we couldn’t hold out here. Captain Tahyang said… But who are you?”
“One of those who serve the captain. You say Captain Tahyang is unharmed? That’s a relief.”
Jamalik had never met Tahyang himself, but like Hanbun and Gayar, he knew about Gene’s life. Listening to him with repeated winces, Harat answered, “Don’t even ask. If Captain Tahyang hadn’t been there, we might all have died. But did you say Gayar just now? Are you one of their group?”
Gene suddenly came to himself. At the familiar names, fear arrived together with the shock. One by one, he saw the faces of the people who would have been inside when the fight began. Jamalik was asking the same thing.
“Gayar? Gayar and Hanbun were here? Are they unharmed?”
“Those two are all right, of course. You couldn’t put a blade through them.”
They heard men calling from outside, and before long, the patrolmen rushed in. Like Harat, they dropped to their knees and shouted, “Forgive us!”
There were seven of them, including Neups. Gene looked over them one by one. They had the strength to walk, but not one was unhurt. Neups had an injured ear. Beside him, Mikun’s arm was bound, and his fingertips had turned dark. Neups spoke.
“We are truly ashamed to have let this happen while you were briefly away. A man called General Nikephoros brought an army against us. We did everything we could, but there were too many enemies. We feel we should all die for disgracing the Shadowhawk’s name.”
When Neups closed his mouth, silence fell. Wind blew through the open back door, rattling odds and ends. At last Gene spoke.
“How many died?”
“Fourteen.”
“Where are they?”
“Some have been taken by their families… The rest are at the coffin maker’s on Seredos Street. They’ll go to the pyre this evening.”
“Are the others hurt like you?”
“About half. Two with severe wounds are at Master Temena’s house.”
They explained a little more: the ambush, the hundreds of enemies, the catapult, the guards’ refusal to act, even the demand for a one-on-one duel. Gene listened, then raised a hand to stop them. He went through the back door and examined the barricade and the building’s rear wall. In their arrangement, he felt the traces of Hanbun and Gayar. He had been certain there would be no attack by fire, yet for a moment he forgot both his certainty and the reason behind it. It had been sound judgment, but it did not seem like something Hanbun or Gayar would have thought of. Hanbun was an outstanding horseman, Gayar a seasoned swordsman, but neither was a strategist or commander.
He went inside again, walked along the first-floor wall, then out the front to circle the building. Next he examined the ground in the square. Since the siege, people had been reluctant to approach, leaving many traces in the earth. Gene went as far as Saltcart Street to confirm where the catapult had stood, then returned to the house. Jamalik, who had been looking around in his own way, said, “There must have been several hundred of them. It’s a miracle only fourteen were lost.”
Gene thought the same. It must have been because Tahyang commanded them. Otherwise, the situation looked so impossible he might have suspected the account itself was false. It was fortunate that Gayar and Hanbun had come in time, but was that truly all? He could not shake his doubts.
He knew that Tahyang too had left the city before he departed for Kamaha. Unless he had particular business, Tahyang generally traveled around the outskirts rather than staying inside Delphinad. For someone born among nomads, a great city was a confining place. This time in particular, he had said he meant to visit the point where the Nemi River divided east and west. Even the shortest estimate would have kept him away for four or five days.
Tahyang came and went as swiftly as the wind, so the patrolmen had not noticed, but in practice he spent half of every month outside the city. With a mount capable of military service, he ranged far and wide and knew the terrain within a hundred miles of Delphinad as well as the palm of his hand. Gene had even joked that he might be planning to conquer Delphinad. Had Tahyang truly happened to change his plans and return on that very day?
Yet without his strength, could the losses have been so few?
However fortunate the outcome, it would not have been fortunate for the dead.
When Gene returned to the first floor, his men were still sitting on the floor. He sat before them. No, he knelt. Neups and the others started and tried to rise. Then Gene spoke.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t beside you when this happened. Forgive me.”
Hesitantly, they knelt again. It was a strange sight. In their ruined home, they were apologizing to one another for things that were not their fault. A dusty wind blew in through the back door, making everyone blink. It might not have been only because of the dust. Gene clenched his fist once, opened it, and looked down at his palm. Everything he trusted and relied on was there.
Closing his hand again, Gene rose.
“If I cannot repay this, never call me the Shadowhawk again.”
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