"Army?" Kudursin laughed. "What do you know of an army, settled prince?"
Jamin forced himself not to lunge for the slithery cobra and adopt the stone-faced expression he had seen so many times on his father.
"I know that the winged demon builds one within my village," Jamin's voice was filled with ice. "And that all of the Ubaid tribes move to unite beneath him."
A flicker of something moved beneath the serpent's gaze, some disquiet, some confirmation of something he had suspected which Jamin had just confirmed. Both he and Kudursin glanced over at Marwan at the same time, that desert shaykh so intently studying his chick peas and watercress, pretending not to watch their exchange.
"If you move against my village again," Jamin leaned forward to study the man's serpent-still eyes. "Whet
