Part 20 (1/2)
So it wasn't just Hendon Tolly and the autarch, Tinwright thought, it was an entire movement that the church had tried to destroy. And they didn't just claim the G.o.ds were sleeping, but also that this very city-Southmarch, of all places!-had been the site of the kingdom of Heaven. Or something like that.
But how could something so mad be true, even if Hendon Tolly and some maniacal southern king agreed?
Then again, why had the Qar attacked Southmarch even before the autarch did? Why was was everybody so determined to lay hold of this minor northern kingdom when all of Eion was in play? Clearly, whether he actually meant to help Hendon Tolly or not, there was much more that Matt Tinwright needed to learn. everybody so determined to lay hold of this minor northern kingdom when all of Eion was in play? Clearly, whether he actually meant to help Hendon Tolly or not, there was much more that Matt Tinwright needed to learn.
He fell asleep that night with a hundred strange new ideas spinning in his head, and dreamed of himself tiptoeing through forests of twisted trees in near darkness, with giant slumbering shapes looming up on all sides and no one awake but himself in all the world.
16.
A Cage for a King ”With the hidden aid of Erivor they came to sh.o.r.e at last beside a village called Tessideme at the snowy northern end of great Strivothos . . .”
-from ”A Child's Book of the Orphan, and His Life and Death and Reward in Heaven”
”YOU CANNOT DO IT, Princess Briony.” Eneas could not stop pacing. Perhaps it was easier than looking at her. ”I cannot let you throw your life away on such madness-it would be a crime against your people. I am sorry, but I must forbid you to go in search of King Olin.”
”And I am sorry too,” she told him, ”but it's you who don't understand, Highness. You cannot forbid me. I am going to do it. I have not spoken to my father in a year. I will risk anything to see him.”
”No!” He turned to her, distraught. ”I will not let you!”
”And how will you stop me, my dear friend?” She fought to keep her voice low and calm-she did not want him to think it was some womanly frailty on her part. ”Will you imprison me? Will you force your men to listen to me screaming night and day that you have betrayed me?”
”What?” Eneas looked her up and down in something very close to astonishment. ”You would not do such a thing.” He did not sound entirely certain.
”Oh, I most certainly would. I know it is dangerous, but I must go to him.”
The prince threw himself down on a stool opposite her. He looked so miserable that it was all she could do not to take his hand. Eneas was a good man, a very good man, but, like most men, he believed he was responsible for the well-being of every woman who drew breath in his vicinity. ”You truly mean it, don't you, Princess? You truly mean to do this.”
”I do.”
He sucked air through his teeth and sat thinking, toying with his ring. Helkis, his captain, stood near the wall of the tent trying to keep all expression from his unshaven face. ”You say I must either imprison you or simply let you go,” Eneas said at last. ”But there is another possibility.”
”Oh?” She tried to sound calm but she hadn't foreseen any third way.
”I can help you not to get caught. I will send some of my best warriors with you . . .”
”No.” She shook her head firmly. ”That will do no good. I'm not going to fight my way in, Eneas. There are thousands of Xixian soldiers there, but there are also hundreds of local people, Marchlanders, who go in and out of the camp peddling food and drink and trinkets to the autarch's men. And there are other women visiting the camp. I think we all know what they are selling.”
Eneas was staring at her with eyes wide. ”Are you saying you will masquerade as a . . . as a woman . . . one of those . . .”
”As a wh.o.r.e?” She laughed. ”Blessed Zoria, Eneas, look at you! Did you think I didn't know the word? I will not masquerade as anything in particular. I will dress in shabby clothes and let anyone who sees me draw his own conclusion.”
”But your safety . . . !” he said, appalled.
She extended her hand. Her Yisti knife was already there, as if by magic. ”I can protect myself-Shaso dan-Heza taught me well. Besides, there is no other way. Do any of your men speak Xixian?”
He darted a helpless look at Lord Helkis. ”No, I think not. A few words, perhaps . . .”
”Nor do I, so we are not going to fool them that way. It would be stretching the point to try to pa.s.s an entire troop of soldiers off as farmers come to sell their onions. No soldiers, Eneas. I will go myself. No one will suspect I am anything but a local girl.”
”As if that guaranteed your safety.” He gave her a hard look. ”I think you have been traveling with the players too long, Princess. You have fallen in love with legends and pretense. Just remember, such things are meant to entertain, not to instruct. In our time, great Hiliometes would have eaten the famous bull, not carried him up the mountain.” He frowned. ”Very well, then all I can offer you is a distraction. I will not risk my men's lives in a full a.s.sault, but there is a deserted village on Millwheel Road just to the southeast of the autarch's camp that his men use as a sentry garrison. If we attack it with substantial force and then withdraw I think we will draw attention and make it easier for you to slip into the camp.”
Briony realized how quickly Eneas had s.h.i.+fted his thinking, and she was again impressed. Was there a cleverer prince anywhere in Eion? ”You would do that for me?”
”I would do much more, Princess,” he said seriously. ”If only you would let me.”
As the afternoon wore on and Briony prepared, she began to wonder if Eneas had been right: was she really too much in love with old stories? Had she taken the example of Zoria or even her own great-great grandmother Lily Eddon too much to heart? Outside her tent she could hear the men readying themselves for the attack on the Millwheel Road garrison and knew that despite the prince's best intentions some of them might not come back alive. It reminded her of a favorite saying of her father's, ”Until you've worn a crown, you have no idea how heavy it is.” The thought of Olin sent a pang through her, not just missing him, but thinking about the fierce impossibility of ever living up to his example. Did she really want to put men's lives at risk to satisfy her own need to reach her father?
But what if I never have another chance to see him again? Worse, what if I could have saved him but failed to try? How could I live with that?
She owed it to her people as much as to herself, she decided. The best thing for Southmarch would be King Olin free again.
Still, it continued to trouble her as she used the little hand mirror Feival had once given her and leaned close to the candle. She carefully rubbed wet dirt onto her face, a thin wash to darken and roughen all her features, but she laid it more thickly around her eyes and in the hollows of her cheeks to make her face appear gaunter. She needed to look much older and much less healthy if she wanted to escape anything but cursory inspection. Even here in the camp of the Temple Dogs, where she was protected by the power of the prince himself, men stared at her when they did not think she was looking-even sometimes when they knew she was. A woman in an army camp always attracted attention, unless she was very very unappetizing. Briony had been thinking all day about what she could do to make herself less interesting and she had a few ideas. unappetizing. Briony had been thinking all day about what she could do to make herself less interesting and she had a few ideas.
”By the Three, what is that on your face?” Eneas drew back. ”Are you hurt?”
She laughed, although she was not feeling very cheerful: the sight of the prince in full battle array had reminded her that she was not going to be the only one taking risks. ”It is a wound made from mud and a little berry juice. Never fear, it is not real blood.”
”I hope that is the only such thing I see today,” he said. ”On you or any of these others.”
”We may b.l.o.o.d.y a few Xixies,” Lord Helkis suggested with a harsh laugh. ”Or even a few fairies.”
Eneas shook his head. ”No. I will not make that mistake twice, Miron. Until we know better what these . . . Qar are doing, we will treat them as we would treat Marchlanders and will not show harm to them unless we must.”
He was a good man. Why could she not feel more for him? ”May the G.o.ds grant you and your men all come back safe, Prince Eneas,” she said.
”And what will help you you to come back safely, Briony?” to come back safely, Briony?”
”My disguise,” she said, pointing at her face, trying to speak lightly. ”And my cunning.”
”I pray to the Three Brothers that it will be so.” He reached and took her hand before she could think about it, then brought it his lips. ”Take care, Princess.”
The closer she got to the autarch's camp the more terrified she became. It did not help that the scout who led her over the hills was a taciturn southern Syannese whose thick dialect she could barely understand.