The King's Peace (31 page)

— Prayer for Fruitfulness as offered at Thansethan, early translation I went to the dawn service in the chapel. I caught the edges of some puzzled looks from Elidir and from many of my armigers. Masarn was there giving thanks that his wife had been safely delivered of another son. At least Senach had brought good news for someone.

I sat quietly unmoved through the chanting and readings and praise. I had not come for the White God, but to see Darien. I could not distinguish him among the group of robed children, but I thought I could catch him as they came out. I wanted to talk to him. The service was calm and peaceful, even if it still made me think that this was no way for respectable people to address the gods. There was a prayer for Urdo's health which named him as "our Earthly protector." When the children filed out Darien was not among them. My heart sank. Was he avoiding me? I caught up with Masarn as we came into the courtyard.

"I'm going to see Urdo. I think we'll stay here today, but we'll likely need to send out messages.

Tell the other pennon commanders rest and gentle practice, be aware orders might be sudden."

Masarn grinned.

"For a change? Is there any chance we might head down to Caer Tanaga, do you think?

It would mean a lot to my wife if I got there to see the baby before he has teeth."

I shrugged. "That'll be the High King's decision." I suddenly felt terribly envious of Masarn's uncomplicated family life. Yet the War took us all away from our families. It had been at least partly my choice not to come here before. I sighed, patted Masarn's shoulder. "It might not be today, but I don't doubt we'll get there soon. If I send anyone there, it'll be you. I'm going up to see Urdo. I'll let you know." After I'd spoken to Urdo I would seek out Arvlid and ask her how best to approach Darien.

I went up the steps of the guesthouse. Urdo had one of the little narrow cells to himself. Haleth stood on guard at the end of the corridor. She passed me through with the hand wave that meant all was well. As I walked towards his room I heard Urdo speaking.

"I'll have my work cut out to get all the kings to go along with it." I thought he must be talking to Raul, but to my amazement I heard Darien's voice answer.

"But you're the High King. Can't you just say you'll chop their heads off if they don't do what you want?" Urdo chuckled, and I froze where I was for a moment.

"If I chopped off Father Gerthmol's head, do you think the rest of the monks would do what I wanted after? Being High King doesn't mean threatening people to get them to do what you want all the time, or else I'd soon have an empty country and a large pile of heads." Darien laughed, too.

"Then maybe you could take them out hunting and ask them to let you have all the alae while they're in a good mood?"

"Now that's a much better idea." I couldn't believe how happy and relaxed they both sounded. I wanted to be there. I moved forward and drew back the curtain. Darien was sitting on the corner of Urdo's bed. Just for a moment I saw them looking naturally at each other, then they both looked up at me. Urdo raised an eyebrow, and Darien slid to the floor and stood ramrod-straight.

"Good morning, sir," he said.

This time I was determined to do it right. I bent and embraced him as family. He stood still and stiff and endured it until I stopped. I stepped back.

"I didn't mean to interrupt," I said, awkwardly, shifting on my feet.

"Darien tells me you're leaving Starlight here to foal?" Urdo said, looking up at me shrewdly.

"Yes," I said. "It's time she had another foal, and he will need a horse." I found it very difficult to look at Darien in the morning light. He looked too like and too unlike my brother, and himself.

"A good thought," said Urdo, gently. "Ten is a good age to begin to train a foal, and you'll be ten by the time you start, won't you, Darien?"

"Yes, my lord," said Darien. He looked as if he thought he'd be put on triple duties if he moved out of line. "May I go, my lord? It's almost time for language practice." He looked like a colt ready to bolt. Urdo raised his chin, and he took a step towards the door. To get out he would have to pass me. He looked somewhere over my shoulder. "Good morning, sir," he said, again.

I moved to let him go. I felt a burning in my eyes.

"Well," said Urdo, when he had gone.

"Well he likes you,"

I blurted. Urdo half laughed.

"He likes me, and he likes Starlight, and if you don't push I think he would like to like you. He was asking me about you and I told him you were a most valued praefecto. Let him come to it in his own time. You can't expect to make up nine years in a day. If you keep coming to see him, he will come to know you."

"He frightens me," I said, and scuffed my feet like a child myself. "I don't know how to feel like a mother to him. I just left him here."

"If the gods give us time, the fear will wear off," Urdo said. "I am perhaps not the best person to ask about this." I blushed. I had forgotten for the moment that his mother had left him here, too.

"But Rowanna and I have come to a friendship, if not exactly the sort of relationship most men seem to have with their mothers. I think growing up here was an advantage to me, and may well be to Darien. And I was four when she left me here, old enough to know but not really to understand. Danen has never known anything else."

"He said you said it was a good place to grow up," I admitted.

"It was. And he will come to know you. He is your son, after all." I looked up sharply.

There was some envy in the king's voice.

"I'm sure you will, the Queen will, you'll get your own son soon," I stammered. Urdo shrugged, and grimaced as if it pulled at his wound.

"That's with the Mother," he said. "And this last few years hasn't been a good time for it. I'd not have been able to give a child the attention they need either. When the War is over there will be time for these things. And for you and Darien to make friends, too."

I bit my lip hard to stop myself crying. Tears of self-pity are the worst sort of tears, hateful to the gods. I swallowed, but I could not stop my voice shaking a little. "He thought I didn't like him."

"Then you'll just have to show him that you do," Urdo said, calmly. "And don't try to rush things. Leaving him Starlight is a really good idea, even if it is going to leave you a horse down.

Is Glimmer ready to ride?"

"Next year," I said, getting control of my voice.

"Ah, next year," said Urdo, in a contemplative tone. "Everything depends on what we can do next year. I shall have to send the Isarnagans back, and I ought to send a pennon or two back with them. It will be hard to go on as we have been without them. But we don't want to go on as we have been, of course. I must break the Jarnish kings who oppose my rule, or who
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support Sweyn's, and to do that I must either fall on their kingdoms one by one or defeat all of them together in the field."

Urdo sighed. "To the distress of careful strategic principles, the alae cannot hold ground and take it only poorly, which means it must be all of them together. So I must give them a reason to do that."

"The kings won't like you getting all the alae together in one place," I said.

"No. They won't like it at all. I'm going to call them all to Caer Tanaga this autumn and talk to them about it, tell them this is our chance to make a real change and stop the War dragging on and on. They're mostly tired of it."

"Even so, they won't like being completely stripped of troops." I was picturing Duke Galba's reaction. "However loyal they are, they care about their homes and their farmers first.

Everyone does."

"I won't strip anywhere completely. But they might be down to a pennon instead of an ala.

Enough to keep off the raiders. But we can do it, I think. We've never trained with more than three alae together, but I think we could manage seven. Seven alae. Thirteen hundred armigers!

Can you imagine? We could break anything they can put against us with that."

"If we can get the Jarns to stand and fight," I said quietly. It was always the problem when we had enough force. Sweyn was no fool and would not come out to fight unless he saw some solid chance of victory.

"If we can, yes. Which means giving them a reason to think they can win." Urdo was smiling now.

"Where?" I asked, but as soon as I had said it I knew. If we had to break all the Jarns there was only one place. "Tevin."

"Tevin. Yes. Exactly." He grinned. "Send Raul in. We'll send out some messages today.

Tomorrow I should be well enough to ride, and we'll head back to Caer Tanaga."

I sent Raul in to him and spent an hour talking to Arvlid. She had nothing but good to say of how Darien progressed at his studies. She had matured into a plump woman, though I couldn't think how, on the food in Thansethan. It was hard to imagine her now running ten miles to warn the monks. I soon fell back into my friendship with her, but somehow I could not explain to her about Darien. She knew him too much better than I did. When we left Thansethan he bade me farewell formally, and embraced me formally.

Raul went off that first day to make a harvest truce. We did not have long before the news that we had lost the Isarnagans reached Sweyn. We knew they had spies among Alfwin's troops. Recruits would arrive and swear for the year or the season, and when that time was up go home. A few of them would break their oaths and tell all our doings.

Others, meaning no harm, would let slip the general talk of the camps. There would be no way to keep such an important development quiet. We could not stop them going home.

As long as they fought for us and not against us while they were with us there was nothing we could do about loose tongues. It would have reduced their numbers too much if we expected all the armsmen to swear their lives to Urdo, as an armiger might. Nor could any king support such a great army. Already Urdo had more sworn followers than any other king since before the Vincans came.

Raul had no trouble making that truce, which would last until the spring thaw. Gerda was pregnant, and Sweyn wanted to be home for the birth. By spring we hoped to be ready again.

Our Isarnagan allies went back to their own land along with Thurrig, his son Larig, and two pennons from Caer Thanbard. We could ill spare them, but we were bound to fulfill our obligation. With Larig went his brother Chanerig, which caused much trouble later.

For now it is enough to say that with Elenn's mother died all the advantage we ever had of our Isarnagan alliance.

Within half a month of our return to Caer Tanaga the kings began to come in.

Custennin came first with his priest Dewin. Urdo and Elenn sat up late with them talking about the White God. The next morning Dewin's countenance was even more smug than normal. I soon learned the gossip that he had converted the Queen over supper. This news was not a surprise to me. Elenn had long been interested in the White God. She had spent time in Thansethan and she was very friendly with Chanerig ap Thurrig. I had guessed for some time that she would take the pebble. It seemed to suit her. She was a woman who would want the whole world and all the gods to praise in one direction. Dewin could not have been more pleased if he had converted the gods themselves. I had to laugh when I heard it from a dour ap Cathvan. He was among those who had sought an Isarnagan Queen precisely to avoid this situation.

Angas arrived very late that night. The next day Mardol the Crow and Penda of Bregheda rode in together. Urdo took Danen's advice and took them off hunting. Angas and I went with them and found a boar that gave magnificent sport. We were eating it for dinner when Guthrum and Ninian arrived with Rowanna, who immediately started to scold Angas for not bringing Eirann and Teilo with him. He surprised her by listening very quietly until she had finished and then telling her that Eirann was brought to bed of another daughter two days before he left. The whole company drank her health.

Custennin then set everyone laughing by asking if the girl were betrothed yet. His son was five years old and he was starting to look for alliances. He looked at the Queen hopefully when he said this, as if to ask about her womb, but she said nothing and only refilled his cup smoothly as if that were all he could want of her.

Then Flavien ap Borthas arrived. Masarn was out of sorts when he told me this news.

It seemed he had bet Gredol two night-guard duties that Flavien would not come. This was rather hard on their pennons, but it would teach them to be more sensible in future.

That day I was up on the walls surveying the guard when Haleth called out that she had seen Galba approaching. I walked around to where I would have a clear view of him. It was a month since I had heard from home, and Aurien's new baby had been due any day when Veniva last wrote.

I knew at once when I saw them. Duke Galba was there, and Galba ap Galba in his white praefecto's cloak, and riding between them my brother Morien. Their armsmen and guards came a little behind. I told myself that my father's wounds must have been bothering him too much to make such a long journey. It was the kind of comforting lie we disdained in the alae.

I knew. I left the walls without saying anything and went down to the city gates to greet them.

When they came closer I could see that all three of them had their hair close-cropped, and then I knew for sure. Morien wore the colors of a decurio.

He did not meet my eyes. Duke Galba dismounted first and embraced me.

"I'm so sorry, Sulien," he said, and then all the false hopes faded away as if they had never been, and there was no denying it anymore.

"My father?" I asked. He raised his chin. Morien came forward.

"It was a fever," he said. I remembered now that Veniva had mentioned a fever in the town when she wrote. Some Malmish traders had brought it she had said. "He went among the sick seeking a cure. He found one, but too late for himself."