Part 29 (1/2)
”Ser... your seers report that the Regent of Defalk is marching down the river road from Synek, and that lancers and armsmen loyal to Hadrenn accompany her.”
The gray-haired Ceorwyn bows slightly to Bertmynn.
”Are the drums ready?”
”Two are prepared. She is four days ride to the west... or five.” Ceorwyn's eyes avoid the bound figure on the table.
”How many lancers and armsmen?”
”She has perhaps fifteenscore lancers, and another fifteen-score armsmen in green.”
”Those are Hadrenn's.” Bertmynn frowns. ”Fifteenscore is less than half of what he has raised.”
”It is said, ser, that she took but fifteenscore lancers into Dumar. She returned with fourteen score, and Ehara and the Sturinnese lost twenty times her force, and every city on the Falche River.”
”Ebra is not Dumar. I am not that dunce Ehara.” Bertmynn snorts. ”No woman will prevail in Ebra.” He turns and his eyes go to the bound woman. ”As you will discover.”
The faintest smile crosses the captive's lips.
”You will not mock me.” Bertmynn's hand crashes against the woman's cheek. The captive remains silent, and her face becomes impa.s.sive, but rage pours from her eyes.”Yes... rage if you will, but rage you will but against the dying of the light.”
Bertmynn laughs. ”No sorceress will save you... or your frail deeds. Or your freewomen-those few that remain uncaptured.”
The Lord of Synek strides out of the room and out onto the porch that overlooks the river quays of Elahwa. Ceorwyn follows silently.
”Twentyscore armsmen lost here... who would have thought it...” Bertmynn mutters. ”Who possibly would have thought a gaggle of geese, of untrained women, of green archers... twentyscore?”
”The sorceress' forces are well trained, and all have seen battle,” Ceorwyn says.
”No....they have seen her battle,” corrects Bertmynn. ”And how the lords of Defalk could let a woman...” He shakes his head. ”They have betrayed their own heritage and will indeed suffer.”
Ceorwyn does not respond, but remains in the shadow cast by the overhanging eaves.
”Dissonance... that I should be required to call upon Dark-song to hold my own lands.” Bertmynn's lips tighten, and he looks northward at the calm and nearly still waters of the river. ”But better Darksong than a woman ruling over Ebra.
Better anything than that.”
47.
The River Syne wound through the sun-splashed rolling hills of mid-Ebra, and the road to Elahwa followed the slightly higher hills on the south side of the river, though there was a lane or dirt track on the north side that she could see occasionally across the river. The air was moist, 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 circ.u.mstances, and mainlyin European settings by barons and others able to ama.s.s 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 rus.h.i.+ng in?
She pursed her lips and s.h.i.+fted 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.