Like the effect of wind over grass, the men in the circle made slight bows.

“I was speaking,” Kurt said then, evenly and softly in that stillness. “And I will say one other thing, and then I will not trouble you further. There are weapons in the Afen: if Djan-methi has not used them, it is because Djan-methi has chosen not to use them. Once you have threatened her, you will have to reckon with the possibility that she will use them. You are wrong in some of your suppositions. She could destroy not only Nephane but Indresul also if she chose. You are hazarding your lives on her forbearance.”

The silence persisted. It was no longer one of hate, but of fear. Even Kta looked at him as a stranger.

“I am telling the truth,” he said, for Kta.

“T’Morgan,” said Ian t’Ilev. “Do you have a suggestion what to do?”

It was quietly, even humbly posed; and to his shame he was helpless to answer it. “I will tell you this,” he said, “that if Djan-methi still controls the Afen when Ylith-methi sails into that harbor, —you are much more likely to see those weapons used. And worse,—if Shan t’Tefur should gain possession of them.—She does not want to arm him, or she would have: but she might lose her power to prevent him,—or abdicate it. I should suggest, gentlemen, that you make any peace you must with the Sufaki who will have peace: give them reasonable alternatives, and do all you can to get the Afen out of Djan-methi’s hands and out of t’Tefur’s.”

“The Afen,” protested t’Ranek, “has only fallen to treachery, never to attack by nemet. Haichema-tleke is too high, our streets too steep, and the human weapons would make it impossible.”

“Our alternative,” said Kta, “would seem to be to take the whole fleet and run for the north sea, saving ourselves. And I do not think we are of a mind to do that.”

“No,” said t’Nechis. “We are not.”

“Then we attack the Afen.”

22

The smoke over Nephane was visible even from a distance. It rolled up until the west wind caught it and spread it over the city like one of its frequent sea fogs, but blacker and thicker, darkening the morning light and overshadowing the harbor.

The men who stood on Sidek’s bow as the Ilev longship put into harbor at the head of the fleet watched the shore in silence. The smoke appeared to come from high up the hill, but no one ventured to surmise what was burning.

At last Kta turned his face from the sight with a gesture of anger. “Kurt,” he said, “keep close by me. Gods know what we are going into.”

Oars eased Sidekin and let her glide, a brave man of Ilev first ashore with the mooring cable. Other ships came into dock in quick succession.

Crowds poured from the gate, gathering on the dockside, all Sufaki, not a few of them in Robes of Color, young and menacing, but there were elders and women with children, clamoring and pleading for news, looking with frightened eyes at the tattered rigging of the ships. Some seamen who had not sailed with their Indras crewmates ran down to the side of them and began to curse and invoke the gods for grief at what had happened to them, seeking news of shipmates.

And swiftly the rumor was running the crowd that the fleet had turned back the Methi, even while Ian t’Ilev and other captains gave quick orders to run out the gangplanks.

The plans and alternate plans had been drilled into the ships’ crews in exhortations of captains and family heads and what practice the narrow decks permitted. Now the Indras-descended moved smartly, with such decision and certainty that the Sufaki, confused by the false rumor of victory, gave back.

A young revolutionary charged forward, shrieking hate and trying to inflame the crowd, but Indras discipline held, though he struck one of the t’Nechisen half senseless. And suddenly the rebel gave back and ran, for no one had followed him. The Indras-descended kept swords in sheaths, gently making way for themselves at no greater speed than the bewildered crowd could give them. They did not try to pass the gates: they took their stand on the dock, and t’Isulan, who had the loudest voice in the fleet, held up his arms for silence.

News was what the crowd cried for: now that it was offered, they compelled each other to silence to hear it.

“We have held them a little while,” shouted t’Isulan. “We are still in danger.—Where is the Methi to be found? Still in the Afen?”

People attempted to answer in the affirmative, but the replies and the questions drowned one another out. Women began screaming, everyone talking at once.

“Listen,” t’Isulan roared above the noise. “Pull back and fortify the wall. Get your women to the houses and barricade the gates to the sea!”

The tumult began anew, and Kta, well to the center of the lines of Indras, seized Kurt by the arm and drew him to the inside as they started to move, t’Nethim staying close by them.

Kurt had his head muffled in his ctan.Among so many injured it was not conspicuous, and exposure had darkened his skin almost to the hue of the nemet—he was terrified, nonetheless, that the sight of his human face might bring disaster to the whole plan and put him in the hands of a mob. There had been talk of leaving him on the ship: Kta had argued otherwise.

The Indras-descended began to pass the outer-wall gates, filing peacefully upward toward their homes, toward their own hearths. It was supreme bluff. T’Isulan had hedged the truth with a skill uncommon to that tall, gruff breed that were his Family. It was their hope—to organize the Sufaki to work, and so keep the Sufaki out of the way of the Families.

And at the inner gate, the rebels waited.

There were jeers. Daggers were out. Rocks flew. Two Indras-descended fell, immediately gathered up by their kinsmen. T’Nethim staggered as a rock hit him. Kta hurried him further, half carrying him. The head of the column forced the gate bare-handed, with sheer weight of numbers and recklessness: it was sworn among them that they would not draw weapons, not until a point of extremity.

There was blood on the cobbles as they passed, and smeared on the post of the gate, but the Indras-descended let none of their own fall. They gained the winding Street of the Families, and their final rush panicked the rebels, who scattered before them, disordered and undisciplined.

Then the cause of the smoke became evident. Houses at the rising of the hill were aflame, Sufaki milling in the streets at the scene. Women snatched up screaming children and crowded back, caught between the fires and the rush of fleeing rebels and advancing Indras. A young mother clutched her two children to her and shrank against the side of a house, sobbing in terror as they passed her.

It was the area where the wealthiest Sufak houses joined the Street of the Families, and where the road took the final bend toward the Afen. Two Sufak houses, Rachik and Pamchen, were ablaze, and the blasphemous paint-splashed triangle of Phan gave evidence of the religious bitterness that had brought it on. Trapped Sufaki ran in panic between the roiling smoke of the fire and the sudden charge of the Indras.

“Spread out!” t’Isulan roared, waving his arm to indicate a barrier across the street. “Close off this area and secure it!”

A feathered shaft impacted into the chest of the man next to him; Tis t’Nechis fell with red dyeing his robes. A second and a third shaft sped, one felling an Indras and the other a Sufaki bystander who happened to be in the line of fire.

“Up there!” Kta shouted, pointing to the rooftop of Dleve. “Get the man, t’Ranek! You men, spread out!—this side, this side, quickly,—”

The Indras moved, their rush to shelter terrifying the Sufaki who chanced to have sought the same protected side: but the Indras dislodged no one. A terrified boy started to dart out: an Indras seized him, struggling and kicking though he was, and pushed him into the hands of his kin.