Alshandra yet again? Brel said.
The very one. They refuse to believe shes dead.
How convenient for them, Garin muttered. Its amazing how these gods and goddesses always appear when someone wants someone elses land.
My thought exactly. Blethry nodded Garins way.
They wont stop at the Westlands, Brel said. But no doubt you realize that, or you wouldnt be here. Whats this fortress like?
In as much detail as Blethry could remember, he repeated Salamanders description of the place.
It sits on the edge of a cliff over a river gorge, Blethry finished up. Clever scum, the Horsekin.
Wooden walls, did you say? Brel shot a significant glance Garins way.
For now, Blethry said. Theyre working hard at replacing them with stone.
Huh, Brel said. Well see how far they get. I take it that your lords have worked out some sort of plan to bring this fortress down.
They have. Gwerbret Ridvars calling in all his allies, and whats more, Voran, one of the princes of the blood royal, is on hand with fifty of his men.
Only fifty? Garin said.
At the moment. Hes sure his father will send reinforcements. The messages may have reached Dun Deverry by now, for all I know. I left Cengarn weeks ago. As for the Westfolk, Prince Daralanteriels keen to join the hunt.
He should be, Brel said drily. He stands to lose everything if the Horsekin move east.
True spoken, of course. Hes promised us five hundred archers. Ridvar can muster at least that many riders.
Brel winced. Is that the biggest army you can put together?
Until we hear from the high king.
And how long will it take to get a full army up here from Dun Deverry? Brel went on and answered his own question. Too long. With what you have, youll never take the place. Youll have to lay siege and hope you can hold it.
I know, Blethry said. Till those reinforcements arrive from Dun Deverry.
The Horsekin are likely to see a relieving force before you do. All itll take is one messenger to slip through your lines when youre investing the fortress. If theyve got a town up in the mountains, they doubtless keep a reserve force there. I hate the filthy murderers, but Id never say they were stupid. Brel paused to pick a fragment of fried bat out of his grey-streaked beard. So I wouldnt plan on a siege. With us along, you wont have to.
Sir? Kov spoke up from his place on the floor. What can we
Think, lad! Brel snapped. This forts perched on the edge of a cliff.
Kov suddenly grinned. Tunnels, he said. Weve got sappers.
Theyre our main hope, Blethry said. If the High Council allows you to join us.
Brel snorted profoundly. They will. Theres not a family in Lin Serr that didnt lose someone in the last Horsekin war.
Kov. Garin turned to his apprentice. What do we owe Cengarn by treaty?
Five hundred axemen, sir, Kov said, and a hundred and fifty pikemen, along with provisions for all for forty days.
Very good. Garin nodded at him, then glanced at Blethry. Do you think the gwerbret will be offended if we replace those pikemen with sappers and miners?
Huh! If he is, and I doubt that with all my heart, then Lord Oth and I will talk some sense into him.
Good, Garin smiled briefly. The council meets tomorrow morn. We should know by noon.
On the morrow, Blethry woke at first light and spent an anxious hour or so pacing back and forth in his quarters. Every now and then he stuck his head out of the window and tried to judge how long he had to wait till noon came around. Well before then he heard a knock on the door. He flung it back to find Garin, stick raised to strike again, with young Kov behind him.
Ah, youre awake! Garin said. I thought you might be asleep still.
Not likely, is it? Blethry said. Well?
The Council saw reason quickly, for a change, Garin said. Theyre organizing the muster now, and the army will march at dawn on the morrow. Five hundred axemen and a full contingent of sappers and miners with all their gear and the like. Oh, and provisions for twice forty days.
Splendid! Blethry said, grinning. And my thanks. Ill go down and tell my men the good news.
Kov slept little the night before the march out of Lin Serr. He packed up his gear, worried about what he might have left out, unpacked the lot, added things, took things away, then packed it all up again. Although hed visited Cengarn several times, hed never gone farther west than that city. Hed never seen a war, either. When he finally did fall asleep, he had troubled dreams of shouting and bloodshed.
Just before dawn, Garin woke him when he arrived to give him some final instructions. As well as his walking stick, the elder dwarf carried some long thing wrapped in cloth.
Youre not the apprentice any longer, Garin said. Youre the envoy now. Remember your dignity, lad. Speak slowly, listen when youre spoken to, and think before you answer. Follow those simple precepts, and youll do well.
I hope so. Kov caught his breath with a gulp. Ill do my best.
I know you will. Now, youve got your fathers sword, I see, so heres something to go with it.
The long bundle turned out to be a staff, blackened and hard with age, carved with runes. Kov took it with both hands and turned it to study the twelve deep-graved symbols. He could recognize Rock and Gold as Mountain runes, and two others as Deverry letters, but hed never seen the rest.
Do you know what those mean? Garin said.
Well, no.
Neither does anyone else. Theyre very old, but we do know that they once graced the door of Lin Rej.
Lin Rej? The old city?
The very one. It had carved wooden doors. When the Horsekin arrived, back in the Time of Death, they didnt hold. The besiegers lit a fire in front of them, and when the doors burned through, they finished the job with axes. But one of our loremasters carved these runes here Garin pointed at the staff on a scrap of wood so theyd be remembered. Over the years, theyve been carved on other staffs, but this one came to me from my fathers father. It was a hundred years old when he received it as a child.
It must be nearly a thousand now, then.
Yes. Theres a superstitious legend about the runes, too. Theyre supposed to contain a dweomer spell. Garin rolled his eyes heavenward. Anything thats no longer understood is supposed to contain a dweomer spell, of course. Dont take it seriously.
Oh, dont worry! I wont. But now I know why Lin Serr has steel on its doors.
We may learn slowly, but in the end, we learn. Garin paused for a smile. Now, spell or no spell, Im letting you borrow that staff because I cant go to the battle myself. Weve never had a formal badge for our envoys, but youre new on the job.
Very new. Kov could hear his voice shake and coughed loudly to cover it.
Just so. Garin smiled at him. So I decided you might need something to mark your standing and keep your spirits up. This staffs never left the city since the day my fathers father brought it inside. Carry it proudly, and never shame it.
Just so. Garin smiled at him. So I decided you might need something to mark your standing and keep your spirits up. This staffs never left the city since the day my fathers father brought it inside. Carry it proudly, and never shame it.
Im very grateful for the honour. Ill do my best to live up to it.
Thats all any man can do, eh? Now get on your way. Theres a mule for you to ride, by the by, down at the muster.
Out in the meadow, five hundred dwarven axemen drew up in marching order, followed by a veritable parade of carts, each drawn by two burly menservants. The sappers and miners were milling around, scrutinizing each cart, repacking some, adding wrapped bundles to others. Kov invited Lord Blethry to come along as he and Brel Avro inspected the muster. Blethry murmured his usual polite remarks until they came to the line of carts. Most carried provisions, ordinary stuff all of it, but those at the head of the line were loaded with mysterious-looking crates, barely visible under greased wraps of coarse cloth that would keep them dry during summer rains. Embroidered runes decorated each cloth. Blethry fell silent, studying the runes, craning his neck to get a better look at the crates.
Can your read our runes? Kov said with a small smile.
I cant, truly, Blethry said. I was just noticing the wheels of your carts here. The design is quite striking.
Good parry! Kov thought. Aloud, he said, A little innovation of ours.
Blethry nodded, and indeed, to his eyes the wheels must have possessed a fascination of their own. Instead of the solid slab wheels of Deverry carts, dwarven craftsmen had lightened these with spokes radiating from a metal collar that attached them to the axles. Strakes, that is, strips of metal studded to give them a grip on the road, protected the wooden rims.
Much lighter, Kov said, but just as strong. Easier to fix, too.
Stronger, I should think. I trust youll not be offended if our cartwrights look them over when we reach Cengarn? I shant be able to keep them away.
Of course not. Im sure our men would take it as an honour if they should copy them.
Would you two stop jawing? Brel turned on them both impartially. The suns up, and itll be hot soon. Mount up, both of you! Lets march!
Kov and Blethry followed orders. During the long ride down from the mountains, whenever the contingent camped, Blethry found excuses to walk by the dwarven carts that contained the wrapped bundles and crates, but, Kov could be sure, no one would ever give him one word of information about their contents. The design of a set of wheels they were willing to share, but the formula for the mysterious cargo was going to remain a secret forever, if the Mountain Folk had their way.
They reached the border of Gwerbret Ridvars rhan when they came to the dun of one of his vassals, a small broch tower inside a high stone wall, perched on a hill wound around by a maze of earthworks. All around it stretched litter from a military camp firepits, garbage, broken arrows, broken tent pegs, and assorted ditches, hastily filled in. The dwarven contingent drew up to camp some distance away in a cleaner area. Kov remembered this dun as belonging to the clan of the Black Arrow, but men wearing Cengarns sun blazon on the yokes of their shirts came trotting over to greet them.
Whats happened to Lord Honelg? Kov asked Blethry.
I dont know yet. Blethry gave him a grim smile. But Im assuming hes dead. He turned traitor, you see. When I left Cengarn, the gwerbret was getting ready to march on him. From the look of things, Ridvar took the dun.
Cengarns men, left on fort guard, confirmed Blethrys guess. Lord Honelg was dead, his lands attainted, his young son a hostage, his widow gone back to her fathers dun.
Whos the new lord here? Blethry said. Or has Ridvar reassigned the lands yet?
He has, my lord, the fortguard captain said. Lord Gerran of the Gold Falcon. You might remember him as the Red Wolfs common-born captain, but hes a lord now.
I do indeed, and hes a grand man with a sword and a good choice all round.
We all feel the same, my lord. Are you marching down to Cengarn on the morrow?
We are.
His grace may have left already. Hes mustering his allies at the Red Wolf dun for the march west. The captain turned to Kov and bowed. It gladdens my heart to see your people, envoy, with a war about to start.
My thanks, Kov said. But it sounds to me like the wars already started.
You could look at it that way, truly, the captain said, grinning. But either way, were glad youve come in on our side.
The Mountain Folk werent the only allies of Gwerbret Ridvar who were readying themselves for the Horsekin war. At the dun of the Red Wolf, a good many miles south-west of the dun that now belonged to the Gold Falcon clan, Tieryn Cadryc and his men were only waiting for the arrival of his overlord to ride out. Preparing the warband for that ride fell to Gerran of the Gold Falcon, its lord and so far one of its only two members, the other being his young page Clae. Despite his sudden elevation to the ranks of the noble-born, Gerran still considered himself the captain of the tieryns warband, mostly because none of the tieryns other men could fill the post. Although the tieryn had a son, Lord Mirryn, Cadryc was leaving him behind on fortguard.
Every night at dinner in the great hall, Mirryn would stand behind his fathers chair like a page. When Cadryc arrived, Mirryn would bow to his father, then without a word pull out the chair at the head of the honour table to allow Cadryc to sit down. He would wait to eat, too, until all the others at the honour table had finished their meal. After three days of this treatment, Cadryc had had enough.
Still sulking, are you? Cadryc said.
Well, ye gods! Mirryn snapped. How do you think I should feel, Father, left behind out of the fighting like a woman?
And whats this business with my blasted chair? Cadryc continued without acknowledging the question.
Since Im being treated like a servant, I thought I should act like one.
Just sit down, and do it right now. Youll drive me daft, hovering like that.
With a grunt Mirryn sat himself down at his fathers left hand, but he crossed his arms over his chest and stared out at nothing. The tieryn swung his head around to glare at his son, who pretended not to notice. Although most of the tieryns hair was either grey or missing, and Mirryn still sported a thick mop of brown hair to go with his freckles and the family blue eyes, no one would have doubted they were father and son, lean men, both of them, and stubborn.
If you starve yourself at my table, Cadryc said, youll be too weak to fight even if I should change my mind, which I wont, so by the black hairy arse of the Lord of Hell, stop sulking and eat your blasted dinner!
Mirryn went on studying the empty air. Finally Lady Galla, his mother, leaned across the table from her place at the tieryns right. Mirro, she said, please? This has been dreadful for all of us.
Oh very well, Mam. Mirryn drew his table dagger from the sheath at his belt and placed it next to the trencher in front of him. Shall I cut you some bread?
If youd be so kind. Lady Galla smiled at him, then favoured her husband with another smile, which he ignored.