Part 70 (1/2)

The sounds of strings and horns echo faintly in the distance, so faintly he can barely hear them-but they come from the south. He scrambles down the scree of the slope toward his mount.

”... b.i.t.c.h... the b.i.t.c.h....”

His mumbled words are lost in the clatter of the small stones dislodged by his boots.

98.

The midmorning sun beat down as fiercely as at midday in Falcor, and Anna's s.h.i.+rt was again plastered to her back with perspiration as she s.h.i.+fted her weight in the saddle-carefully, given the steepness of the slope to her left. The trail was less than that, barely wide enough for a single mount, as it wound upward, back and forth on the southern side of the flat-topped mesa. According to Anna's scrying, the mesa overlooked the south side of the Vale of Cuetayl and the central hills where Ehara's forces and the Sturinnese waited to ambush the Defalkan contingent.

Jecks glanced ahead, at the scouts posted on each switchback, and then at Hanfor.

”No one has seen us, 'the arms commander confirmed. ”They do not know about this trail, or”-he smiled- ”do not believe that a sorceress would stoop to such trickery ”Archers could inflict much damage here,” Jecks said.

”They have to be here to do such,” pointed out Hanfor, as he gestured upwards at the barren side of the mesa where little grew except for waist-high scrubby junipers at wide intervals, and intermittent patches of gra.s.s already browning. ”And there is as little cover for them as for us. They would be seen from deks.”

Jecks nodded.

Anna said nothing, just used the kerchief, once gray and now reddish brown from sweat and dust, to wipe more moisture off the back of her neck. The air was drier than it had been at Abenfel or Stromwer and smelled faintly of some form of evergreen-juniper?

She'd stopped once to use the mirror, but it had shown no armsmen on the trail or near it. She just hoped the spell had been accurate enough.

”Still,” continued the graying veteran, ”I will be happier when we can re-form all the armsmen.”

Anna eased out her second water bottle and drank, nearly draining the bottle. There were two more bottles, fastened behind her saddle. Sometimes, she felt she loaded Farinelli like a pack animal, with the extra water, the mirror and the lutar. But the lutar was light, and she wasn't exactly heavy, not anymore.

Sometimes, it was hard to believe she'd ever fought weight, now that she had to struggle to keep every pound.

The sun beat down, and on the slope above the narrow valley to the south of the Vale, not a blade of the spa.r.s.e gra.s.s stirred. Not an insect hummed, and the only sounds were those of men and horses climbing the narrow trail.

Wheeeeee... eee...

Anna glanced back-just in time to see an armsman and mount seemingly rolling down the steeper slope below one of the switchbacks, then a second as the mount following took a similar misstep. . . or lost footing on part of the trail weakened by the first mishap. She took a deep breath as the figures bounced, and slid out of sight. s.h.i.+t...

The line of riders slowed.

”Better that than hundreds of arrows,” suggested Hanfor from ahead.

Anna knew it to be true, but she still felt for the men and their mounts. Then she checked the path ahead.

Near the top of the mesa, the trail entered a depression slightly wider than the path had been on the lower slopes. A U-shaped gulch scooped out by infrequent rain runoff over the years. The sides came nearly to Farinelli' s shoulders. The end of the gulch flattened, broadened into a fan-shaped jumble of shallow and dry rivulets opening onto the flat of the mesa.

Just before leaving the gulched part of the trail at the top of the mesa, Anna glanced back. The line of mounts still stretched a third of the way down the slope like a snake running from switchback to switchhack. Her eyes turned northward. The generally flat plain of the mesa stretched ahead for nearly a dek, dotted with the same scattered junipers and clumps of gra.s.s as the slope Farinelli had carried her up.

In the distance, the sorceress could see the more jagged rocky peaks on the north side of the valley. Was the valley a juncture between geologic plates? Anna pushed the vagrant thought away. She needed to know where the Dumaran and Sturinnese armsmen and archers were.

Liende and the players had reined up to Anna's left, west of where Hanfor, Jecks, and Anna remained mounted. The guards had fanned out in front of the sorceress, watching as the rest of the armsmen appeared, mount by mount riding up out of the low gulch.

”Best we form up here, and wait until the others are here;” suggested Hanfor.

”I'll try the mirror to see where Ehara and his forces are now,” Anna said.

Hanfor nodded, his eyes still on the armsmen as they rode onto the mesa.

The sorceress rode Farinelli another fifty yards westward to a s.p.a.ce clear of the scrubby junipers and even lower creosote bushes, but sheltered by the higher boulders that cast enough shade for the mirror. Jecks and the guards followed.

She reined up and dismounted, handing Farinelli's reins to Lejun. since Fhurgen and Rickel still bore the heavy s.h.i.+elds. The white-haired lord dismounted as quickly as she did, and took the leather-wrapped traveling mirror while she uncased the lutar and began to tune it.

Jecks laid the mirror on the leather wrapping in the shade while Anna ran through a vocalise.

She had to cough her throat clear of dust and mucus. A second vocalise helped. At the sound of hoofs she looked up to see Hanfor and Liende nearing.

”Alvar is forming the companies. I should see where our enemies are drawn up,” said the weathered armsman.

”I should have thought of that.” There were still so many things she should have thought of, but she hadn't been trained to be a sorceress or a regent or a ruler. Like everything else, she seemed to have to learn what she was supposed to be doing on the job.

Liende dismounted in a businesslike fas.h.i.+on, and Anna motioned for her to join the group. You've got to make more of an effort to keep Liende included. Don't treat her like furniture....Lord, Anna hated that when Dieshr and Avery had acted as though she were Queen Victoria's chair-just expected to be there.

Hanfor smiled as he dismounted and walked toward the shadowed s.p.a.ce under the largest sandstone boulder. ”A regent and sorceress cannot remember everything all the time.”

For his words, she was grateful. She cleared her throat, and stood over the mirror, humming softly to try to get the pitch right.

”Show me now and oh so clear where our enemies now appear; whether hidden or in sight, show their places in your light.”

An overhead view of the vale appeared in the oblong mirror, bordered by a thin band of silver mist, Anna studied the mirror, with Jecks, Alvar, and Hanfor practically at her shoulder. Liende stood farther back.

Anna couldn't see anything.

”There... you see they have the archers in the center, where they can blanket the road. Those are nets.. .

darker than the rocks.” Hanfor spoke softly, but clearly. ”The white and green. . . the man by the overhang right there- he's gone now-lancers-those are the ones from Sturinn-they are on the south hills.”

”The ones from Dumar are on the north?” Anna wasn't sure she'd seen anything.

Jecks nodded.

She studied the image again before singing the release couplet. ”That valley is wide, and the hills in the middle are high enough to block my voice, even from here. I don't know if any spell will reach the north side-not unless it's strong enough to destroy the whole valley.”

”The Sturinnese are more dangerous.” Hanfor said. ”They are better trained, The Sea-Priest put them closest to the road.” - Anna took a deep breath. ”We'd better get ready.” She turned to Liende. ”The first spell will be the flame spell. After that . . . we'll see.”

”The flame spell,” Liende repeated with a nod.

”I don't think that the arrow spell will carry far enough.” Anna doubted that the arrows would carry, even boosted by her spells.

”You rely heavily on sorcery,” offered Jecks.

”I know. But what else do I have?”