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.they have good eyes, they can shoot straight and stay in the saddleall night.It seems they saw a whole host in the Eisweg passes.Every handthat can lift a sword is being mustered, from Althea to Lochrain and Joab which means you and me, princeling.The order is, we march at dawntomorrow. So soon? Tristan whispered. If we don t move our arses, Rogan breathed,  we ll be fighting thebastards in Harbendane.You want to be defending the walls of Althea? Orit could be Coepen Highdale all over again.Sybella s voice cut like steel. You were almost beaten there.He matched her, glare for glare. We were.And now we know why.It s not Nordheimers we re fighting, Brandel.Not the usual rabble oflandpirates.It s Eamon and Bardolf, in league with Hrald Barbansen, thewarlord of Eisweg.Their captains plan the strategies, their cohort com-manders marshal the rabble into an effective force. And they had you by the throat. Sybella looked Rogan up and downcritically. I read the reports.You waited too long before you committedyour cavalry. Our scouts had been killed, Rogan said tersely. Shochene scouts arethe best, but they re as mortal as you and me.We sat at Huyuk two daystoo long, not knowing where we should be, before a straggler made it intocamp, bleeding from a dozen wounds.By that time the landpirates werealready at Coepen Highdale, ransacking the steadings, raping anythingthat moved, and burning what didn t.It s a bad place to fight.You knowit? I know it, Sybella said bleakly, though Tristan was making negativenoises. I fought there many years ago.I was little more than a girl.Theseason was spent, it was just short of winter, and a wolfpack of Nordheim-ers was raiding across High Harbendane.Their hunting and fishing hadbeen poor, they were going into winter with too little in the larder, so theywere going to help themselves from anyone s steadings.and Eamon hadjust allied himself to Bardolf, not long after Bardolf had signed the treatywith the Thered in.So the Sheld in and the Ferush in were sent north todie.Eamon, she said bitterly,  had just wedded the Alscod in third cous-ins, that whey-faced brat, Sendra Artus, and a cruel little bastard, AbelardHverdsson, of the Ferrush in.The last I heard of them, Sendra was big withher ninth child by Eamon, and Abelard had tried to seize power in Leysach.Eamon flogged him half to death and gave the remains to a slave dealer.Idare say Abelard is still out there, somewhere in some frontier town inNeathland or Eisweg, whoring to keep a whole skin.She did not see Tristan close his eyes, nor did she feel him shudder, butRogan saw the scholar s reaction. I remember the battle, he said quietly,wishing he could take Tristan s hands, or hold him. I had fifteen summersand winters under my belt.Damiel s parents reckoned we were too youngto be sent north with winter coming in and the landpirates on the rampage.I heard all the stories.You were there? Sybella nodded mutely. My bloodran cold, Rogan admitted. You survived. I survived, Sybella said in rasping tones. I never wanted to see thenorth again, as long as I lived. Yet we re headed out at dawn, Tristan said quietly. We are. Sybella frowned deeply at him. I would rather you stayedin Althea, but.But the city was full of men and women who had already noticedTristan s beauty, and the chances of him being plucked like a ripe peach inher absence were too high.Rogan could hear the cogs and gears ofSybella s mind turning over.What would she have said  and done  ifshe had guessed what had already happened in this very room? Rogan hida wry smile and cleared his throat. If we re to ride out at first light, I have a great deal to do.Your leave,Tristan.Sybella, he added, as if on an afterthought. I have preparations to make too, she said, physically manhandlingTristan through the door as if he were a child, or a handbarrow.Did she hear his harsh little sound of annoyance? Rogan did, andswore quietly as he shuffled the pages Tristan had written into roughorder. I ll make sure Damiel gets these, he said to Sybella s back.If sheheard, she made no response, but Tristan lifted a hand, and Rogan bit off asoft curse.A day s work was waiting for him, with an afternoon to do it in.Hewould give the report to Damiel, and then check his weapons, harness andhorses, repair what must be repaired, replace what was worn beyondmending.He would see the farriers and smiths, the stablemen and stew-ards, and present himself at sundown in the hall, for a council of war, whenDamiel would speak to the colonels, captains, scouts.Everything she knewwould be shared; even her guesses would be made public to every manand woman who was northbound with the Althea regiment.This morning she looked bruised, he thought.She might not have sleptin days, and she was anxious for her sons [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]