The horn did not come again that night, but nobody in the village slept well. At first light, Devika went down to the stream to wash, and found a man lying face-down in the shallows.

He wore the leather and bronze of a Suryapur foot soldier. One arm was bent beneath him at a wrong angle, and the water around his thigh ran pink. A broken arrow shaft stuck out just above his knee, and his lips were blue with cold.