Sentence:  ...Mills had first spoken his gibberish of good intention, always careful, though they did not travel in armor, to lean down from their mounts to shake hands in the trendy new symbol of <WSD>emptyhandedness</WSD> and unarmedness that they'd picked up on their travels. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Lack of a weapon; the state of being unarmed.