Darksong Rising (47 page)

and Anna had felt as though her tunic and trousers were perpetually soaked, half-steamed. She

blotted her forehead, then reached for the water bottle, looking at the winding road before her.

Riding ahead of the main body—if behind the scouts—were the two standard-bearers, one

bearing the purple banner of Defalk, with the crossed spears with the crown and the R beneath,

and the other bearing a green banner with gold blades crossed over a sheaf of grain.

Hadrenn rode to Anna’s right, a large hand-and-a-half blade in a shoulder harness, and a short-

sword in a scabbard. Rivulets of sweat streamed down his round face, and his tunic was splotchy

with the dark stains of sweat.

Behind Hadrenn and Anna. crowded stirrup to stirrup, rode Jecks, Jimbob, and Kinor. Behind

them rode Himar and Stepan.

"... problem with lances... one-time weapons... get under a lance, or knock it aside, and your

lancer’s chopped meat... can’t carry that many lances anyway... what do you do once you break

the first lance, or it lodges in some other armsman or lancer?” Jecks laughed, almost

sardonically. “Lances and heavy armor work well against peasants or ill-equipped foot without a

pike—if your heavy cavalry doesn’t have to ride far... and if you can find enough peasants to

carry all the baggage..."

Anna nodded, almost to herself, as she listened to Jecks’ voice carrying forward. She’d often

wondered about lances and knights, about what earthly use a lance was except in a joust or a

pitched battle in a small area. She’d heard Avery give all the arguments, but most of those

arguments were what she’d have called Eurocentric chauvinism. In Earth’s history heavily armed

knights had been an expensive and costly rarity useful only in limited circumstances, and mainly

in European settings by barons and others able to amass large amounts of wealth. No empire of

any great size or extent had ever been held through the armored knight... for all the

romanticization about knights. And of course, neither Avery nor Mario had ever listened to your

observations.

Anna snorted to herself. Some things didn’t change across worlds. Lord Dannel and Avery

would have gotten along fairly well. She shook her head. That’s too cynical, even for you. Avery

wasn’t near that bad.

Hadrenn glanced toward the Regent. “You said that the usurper’s forces were still in Elahwa?”

Anna blinked, reorienting her thoughts. “According to the mirror, that’s where he was this

morning.” She took another long swallow of water. In some ways, the steamy fall heat of Ebra

was as bad as the drought-created heat of Defalk had once been. “You think it will take another

two days to reach where the rivers join?”

“Two, if it does not rain." The stocky brown-haired lord glanced to the east, and the intermittent

thunderclouds forming there.

“Good.”

“You feel that Bertmynn will meet us there, and that he will fight. What if Bertmynn retreats to

Dolov?”

Anna thought. What if he does? Then she shrugged. “Then We will free Elahwa, and you will set

up a free state ruled by the freewomen, but under your protection. Bertmynn will return. Quickly,

I’d bet.”

“That’s a wager I’d not take.” Jecks laughed from where he rode behind Anna and beside

Jimbob.

“I yield to your judgment, Lord High Counselor,” Hadrenn responded, wiping his damp brow

with the back of his forearm.

“Bertmynn, indeed all Liedwahr, knows that Lady Anna’s sympathies lie with women who have

been ill-treated. For that reason alone," Jecks continued, “I would doubt that he would allow you

two to nde unmolested to Elahwa.”

“You are certain that Bertmynn is near Elahwa?" asked Hadrenn.

“The mirror hasn’t misled me that way yet,” Anna answered. “Unless he can cover two days’

ride in half a day, he can’t be far from Elahwa or where the rivers meet north of there.”

“He will wait for us,” Jecks said. “We should take three days,if necessary."

Anna understood that, but she worried. Even though the mirror indicated that Rabyn and his

forces had just left Esaria, the ride from Elahwa back to Denguic was farther than from Esaria to

Denguic. Lord, every military strategist ever quoted by Avery or Sandy talked about not fighting

wars on two fronts, and you’ve gotten into one? Was she acting out the old adage about fools

rushing in?

She pursed her lips and shifted her weight in the saddle.

48

Anna's tent was set up without the sidewalls, more as an awning to offer some shade for the

group that gathered in the late afternoon. She glanced at Jecks, then let her eyes travel across

Hadrenn, Stepan, Jimbob, Kinor, and Liende. Liende brushed back hair that showed less and less

red and more white, but offered an amused smile to Anna.

Himar stood before the group, and his voice was raspy as he talked. "...likely that we will meet

with Bertmynn’s forces on the morrow. He brings near-on eighty score, though some are foot

levies from Dolov... with little experience or training. His own lancers are well seasoned, and

they will be at the fore…”

The faintest of breezes carried a hint of coolness from the river to the north then faded, leaving

the group sweating in the unseasonably sultry heat.

“Lady Anna has studied Bertmynn’s forces with her glass, and they are here." Using a whittled

length of pencil wood, Himar pointed to a spot on the crude map just south and east of where the

River Syne and the River Dol joined. “Where he now waits is perhaps a ride of three glasses.”

Hadrenn looked at the maps and then toward Anna before speaking. “We could circle south of

him, cross at one of the lower fords, and then go downriver and take Elahwa from behind. We

would not have to face Bertmynn…”

Anna shook her head, without even thinking about getting opinions from Jecks or Himar. “That’s

not the reason I’m here. I want it set up so that all of Bertmynn’s armsmen are in one battle.”

“You risk all of your armsmen as well,” countered Hadrenn, “and much of my forces.”

“Yours are at risk in any eventuality; Lord Hadrenn,” suggested Jecks. “You cannot raise the

numbers he has, nor can you count on assistance from the Liedfuhr or the Sturinnese.”

“Well we know that,” answered the brown-haired lord of Synek. “Well we do.”

Himar cleared his throat, and the others looked at the mustached overcaptain. “Ah. . . also, if we

circled south, Bertmynn could well be between us and either Synek or Defalk, and then we

would have to fight more in a place of his choosing.” Himar addressed Hadrenn. “Also, should

aught go amiss, you can return to Synek more easily if we fight more to the north."

Jecks nodded. After a moment, so did Hadrenn.

“We’ll have to move slowly in the morning,” Anna said. “We can’t afford to attack from lower

grounds—”

“Or be attacked from higher ground,” added Jecks.

“And we’ll need time to set up the players.” Anna glanced toward Liende, who nodded. Then she

inclined her head to Himar.

“The Regent and Lord Hadrenn have explained our aims,” Himar said. “It is now time for you to

tell your subofficers and those men who will carry them out. Remember that the task of all the

lancers is to protect the sorceress and the players first. If we succeed in that, Bertmynn will fall.”

As the others hurried away, in the burnt orange of twilight, Jecks and Anna remained under the

awning tent, with Kerhor and Blaz a dozen paces away.

“You do not wish Ebra to be like Dumar," Jecks offered in a low voice.

“That’s partly it.”

“You could take Ebra, and none would gainsay that.” The white-haired lord’s eyes flicked in the

direction where, a hundred paces away, Hadrenn was speaking with Stepan. “You would likely

rule better than young Hadrenn, even from Falcor.”

“I can’t rule Defalk very well,” Anna said. “The last thing I need... anyone needs. . . is another

set of lords to argue with. This way, the women of Ebra who don’t like the old ways have

somewhere to go. Those who like the old ways can keep them, and outside of complaining about

the free state, and me..." She shrugged. “Whatever.”

“You do not wish to leave a trail of fire and spells,” Jocks suggested.

“No. In Dumar, I ended up destroying a whole city of innocents—or mostly innocents. That was

because I let myself get backed into a corner.”

“You backed Ehara into a corner, most would says.”

“No. In losing, he forced my hand. Or I let him, because I worried about spending too much time

in Dumar with the Thirty-three machinating in Defalk. And…I was trying to be merciful, and it

didn’t turn out that way. This time..."

“Is that why Gestatr remains in Synek?” Jecks’ eyes twinkled.

“Yes. He’s more valuable to Ebra than Hadrenn.”

“And so, to Defalk,” Jecks affirmed.

Anna nodded. Except nothing works out the way you plan it, not the details or the costs, anyway.

49

NORTHWEST OF ELAHWA, EBRA

Bertmynn runs a hand through his thick blond hair, then glances at the scroll on the folding camp

table. He picks up the scroll once more, squinting to read it by the light of the candle. “She

travels the Syne River road... she is camped less than a half day’s ride from here.” He drops the

scroll and stands, stretching, before he looks at the older man, who is the only otherone in the

tent with him.

“We could swing northward, through Nuvann, and then strike at Synek..." Ceorwyn lines a

general path on the map pinned to the battered board set on a makeshift easel of lashed branches

beside the table.

Bertmynn picks up the scroll once more, studies it, and sets it back on the table. He shakes his