Part 29 (2/2)

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 gla.s.s, 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 gla.s.ses.”

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 a.s.sistance 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 makes.h.i.+ft 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 head. ”No...we have kept the drums hidden from her, and we cannot do that for long. Nor dare we use Darksong too often. We must ensure that her forces are concentrated in one place, where we hold the high ground. She must be destroyed all at once. Otherwise, we will fight and fight and fight, and neither the Liedfuhr nor the Sea-Marshal will send us golds week after week, season after season.”

”The sorceress cannot linger long in Ebra, my lord,” counters the gray-haired warrior. ”Many of the lords of the Thirty-three are less than pleased with her, and should she stay in Ebra too long, she risks an attack from the mad young Prophet of Music. He, too, is building Darksong drums to use against her, and he can call upon near on a hundredscore Mansuuran lancers, and two hundred-score of his own lancers and armsmen. You have far more armsmen than does Hadrenn. You can afford to wait She will have to leave, and soon.””No...I cannot afford to wait I cannot defeat the b.i.t.c.h without Darksong, and I cannot long use it and still see my way across a room, let alone to a mount. And I must use it while she suspects it has not yet been raised.”

”Do not use it... wait. Harry Hadrenn's forces, and avoid the sorceress. She cannot linger,” counsels Ceorwyn. ”She cannot, and have a land to return to.”

”Hadrenn can retreat back to the hills. He sent but half his forces down the river. The sorceress can send him golds. Then... what will I do when Elahwa rises again, or the SouthWomen send more golds and blades? Or when the Sturinnese send more than a mere three s.h.i.+ps? Will I be forced to follow Lord Ehara of Dumar's example? Then, the Thirty-three might well unite behind her, and even the b.i.t.c.hes of the south might send the sorceress golds. So I would then be fighting half of Liedwahr and Hadrenn.

”Hadrenn is an inexperienced young lord.”

”He is, but his force leaders are not, and he has the wit to listen to them, the dissonant young puppy.” Bertmynn coughs and spits on the ground in the corner of the tent. ”So I would be fighting Hadrenn, the freewomen and the SouthWomen, and the sorceress again. Or I would submit to being a counter for the Sea-Lords.”

'Those may not happen.”

Bertmynn looks hard at Ceorwyn. 'Think you not?” After a time, Ceorwyn's eyes drop.

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