---
"You spoke to his requests," Kai said. "Hear mine."
He lifted his hand, palm out, not in blessing and not in threat.
"First," he said, "you will take back three men with the honors their enemies owe them. Skall holds a spade. Oru holds a spear. Mardek holds the stone he brought to command the day. They will be wrapped in nets that do not preach but do remember hands. You will tell your general I returned them whole enough for what the desert does to everything after breath."
The messenger's eyes flickered once, that small private gesture men make when they recognize a thing that tastes like the truth.
