Silver powerforce's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

Silver stood past the bait door with her hands loose at her sides. The six riders slowed at fifty paces and then walked their horses in. She kept her chin up so the sun caught her white hair. Let them see the ruler before they saw the gate. Celeste breathed steady behind her. Pearl was a shape on the wall, bow low but strung. Silver counted them as they came. Four men, two women. Light travel packs. Swords at the hip, not drawn. No crossbows. No shields slung forward. One rider at the front held both hands where she could see them, palms flat on the saddle horn. That was the tell she wanted, and she did not trust it yet. A trained crew could sit clean until the last three paces. She raised her right hand, open. "Stop there," she said. Her voice carried in the still yard. The lead rider pulled up ten paces off. He was older, gray at the temples, road dust on his coat. "Silver Powerforce," he said. "We ride from the north holdings. We came to swear to the new seat or turn around. Your choice." Silver did not answer yet. She watched the second rider's hands, then the third's. The second woman's right hand had drifted toward her thigh. Silver marked it. "Second row, right side," she said, loud enough for Pearl. "Hand on the belt." The woman froze, then lifted the hand slow and set it on the saddle horn like the leader. Silver let a breath out. Not assassins. If they were, that hand would have moved faster and the leader would have kept talking to cover it. "Off your horses," Silver said. "Blades on the ground. Walk to the gate one at a time. My guard takes your weapons. You get them back when you leave, if you leave friends." The leader dismounted first and set his sword in the dirt. The others followed. No one argued. Celeste came out through the bait door and gathered the blades in a bundle. Pearl stayed on the wall. Silver walked them into the yard herself. Inside, she went to the board on the wall, wiped the morning's line, and picked up the marker with the red cap. She wrote: six sworn, north holdings, disarmed, held in yard. She capped the marker and set it down. Six new bodies inside her wall. Six mouths she had not fed. Six stories she had not checked. She had wanted a guard. She had one now, and she did not yet know what it was made of. She turned to Celeste. "Feed them. Split them into three rooms, two to a room. No one talks to another room until I do." Celeste nodded and moved. Silver stood a moment in her hall and listened to boots on her floor that were not hers.