Part 55 (1/2)

”We are ready, Regent.”

Anna nodded. ”It will have to be the long flame songs.” To destroy more innocent armsmen for higher goals...

The chief player, whose red hair had become mostly white in the few years since Anna had come to Defalk, did not quite meet the Regent's eyes.

”I've tried, Liende. But we can't lose any more armsmen,” Anna said. And any spell that would enchant them would be Darksong and probably kill you and the players with the backlash. She wanted to shake her head-another example of ignorance. if she hadn't used Darksong so often and so unwittingly when she had first come to Liedwahr, then she might have been able to use it now.

Anna dismounted slowly, then began another vocalise- carefully. ”Heeee sees theeee. . . he sees.. . thouuu...” She had to cough, but her reaction wasn't as violent as before. Still, her eyes teared slightly, and she blotted the dampness away, clearing her throat and looking westward. She saw neither hors.e.m.e.n nor dust.

”...nothing easy in this world. . . even for sorceresses...”

”...looks so thin. . . high wind take her...”

”...might be.. . you want to face her?”

Anna pushed away the murmurs, not even sure whether they came from the newer guards or some of the players, so low were the words. She concentrated on the words of the spell she would use-it had to be the flame spell, much as she had come to dislike using it.Kinor walked toward her, extending one of her water bottles. ”Thank you.” Anna took several swallows. She glanced westward where a scout in purple rode toward the center of the Defalkan lines of lancers, toward Hanfor. Behind the rider in the distance appeared a smudge of something-dust. She nodded. The Mansuurans were coming, but they were two hills away.

Because she wasn't as clear as she'd have liked, she tried another vocalise.

”He. . . sees.. . theee...” She nodded-a little better.

Hanfor rode toward her, reining up. ”'They will be here in less than a quarter of a gla.s.s. What do you need?”

Anna offered a crooked smile. ”Just keep them off me until we can finish the spells. That's all.”

Hanfor nodded. ”I wish this were otherwise, Regent.”

”You and me both.”

Rickel and Lejun stepped forward-on foot-bearing the oversize s.h.i.+elds. Each stationed himself on one side of Anna, slightly forward of her. They let the s.h.i.+elds rest on the dusty ground, but their eyes remained on the dust cloud rising behind the crest of the nearer hill, less than a dek away.

”Have them finish tuning!” Anna called to Liende.

”Stand ready to play!” ordered the chief player.

Anna swallowed, trying to keep her body and cords relaxed as the Mansuuran forces poured over the hilltop, along the road, and hundreds of yards north and south of the road proper- their speed increasing from a quick trot to almost a gallop, looking like a wave of maroon surging toward the thin Defalkan line that held a slightly higher crest on the road.

”Liende! Have them start-the long flame song!”

”The flame song,” Liende ordered, loudly, but with a quaver in her voice.

Anna pushed back the doubts. With more than two thousand lancers charging her force of perhaps three hundred, she had no choice but to use a spell that left no survivors.

Turn to fire, turn to flame all those who do oppose Defalk's claim, turn to ashes, turn to dust...

Even before the music died away, the ground rumbled and s.h.i.+vered, and three forked spears of lightning flashed from the clear sky. A pillar of flame flared momentarily on the adjacent hilltop, and the sky began to darken, clouds forming from somewhere near instantly.

The sun dimmed.

Tears poured from Anna's eyes, and she bent forward, hanging on to Farinelli and practically hugging the gelding, trying not to let the ma.s.sive sobs shake her.

Why... why? Was Liedwahr so alien? So alien that an over-captain of lancers who weren't even from Neserea felt he had to sacrifice everything because he refused to admit. . . what? That a sorceress had as much right to declare terms as aliedfuhr? That the lives of his armsmen were worth more than his honor? Careful there... you're saying that your terms are worth more than their lives.

Thunder-the natural kind-rolled across the sky, then echoed back under clouds that had become almost black.

Anna shook her head. There was honor, and there was honor, but she'd never see that there was much honor in insisting that you had the right to subject another country to a set of rules that it didn't want. Except that's exactly what you're doing in Defalk.

But it wasn't. You're upsetting the ideas of those who rule, not those who live there. Those who live there don't want their daughters to have to submit to any n.o.ble who wishes it. They don't want taxes and tariffs levied w.i.l.l.y-nilly. They don't want to have to sc.r.a.pe and bow because they'll get killed if they don't....

It's still a fine line... and you know it.

But the sobs still came.

And so did the odor of death and fire, and charred brush and bodies.

Then came the wind-cold and empty, metallic, bearing the memory of another kind of death-moaning across the road and the hills.

With the wind came the rain, rain that was more like liquid ice, colder than anything Anna had felt in Liedwahr, hard drops to pelt both body and soul, cold as a d.a.m.ned soul in Dante's inferno's lowest level.

Slowly, the Regent-sorceress walked toward Farinelli, sensing, rather than really seeing the gelding, feeling that through the cool downpour, Kinor and Jimbob, and all her players and lancers watched... and waited.. . waited for the sorceress of destruction to leave the field.

Even tall Nelmor sat motionless on his mount. Appalled... no doubt.

Chill, ice-and guilt-poured over her.

95.

The mixture of ice and cold rain rattled and pattered against the tent. Anna sat on the stool, slowly sipping water and chewing on cold bread and colder cheese. Her head still throbbed. Her eyes were blotchy, and her voice was shot.

Liende stood just inside the tent, looking at the bedraggled Regent.

Idiots! They invade another country, and then they think that they've been insulted after their allies have been destroyed when they're asked to do something reasonable-like let somebody with experience who's a Neserean run the place. Was she being unreasonable? Anna shook her head. Was it just because you're a woman who had the temerity to suggest something different? All those men killed... every time you try to avoid killing, somehow you end up having to kill more people. Is any form of compromise or common sense considered weakness unless you scorch the earth first?

Another line crept into her thoughts: ”unlettered lads as mad as the mist and snow.” But the lords and officers of Liedwahr weren't lads, even though they behaved like spoiled brats. Then, maybe there was more of an Irish heritage in Liedwabr than she knew. Or had the Celts stayed Germanic in Liedwahr?And how soon before some of them understood what her sorcery could do? She shook her head. People don't like to believe what they haven't seen or felt, and you haven't left a lot of survivor... and communications here aren't the most rapid or reliable.

”Chief Player? Regent?” Hanfor peered into the tent, water oozing down his face and into his beard.

”Come in, Hanfor. You can take a moment and get dry.”

The arms commander stepped out of the rain and shook himself slightly, then wiped the water off his forehead to keep it out of his eyes.