‘As soon as Macks is destroyed we will deploy three more regiments in the north. What of Macy and his men?’
‘They will attack Shelding tomorrow morning at dawn.’
‘Always dawn,’ said Winter Kay. ‘I have often wondered why it is never midnight or dusk.’
‘Yes, my lord,’ said Eris Velroy, wearily.
‘Macy has two thousand men. How are they allocated?’
‘Three hundred musketeers, fifteen hundred cavalry and two hundred heavy infantry with pike and sword.’
‘And Macon?’
‘Just under six hundred, my lord. One hundred musketeers, four hundred and fifty cavalry and forty riflemen.’
‘Most of whom will be asleep when the attack begins. Very well. You made it clear that I want Macon’s head delivered to me?’
‘I did, my lord.’
‘Excellent. Tonight the world order changes, Velroy. Tomorrow a new age begins. It will be the Age of the Redeemers. I shall be riding with Kalmer and his knights – after saying my sweet farewells to the king and his family.’
‘Will you take the crown yourself, my lord?’
Winter Kay looked into Velroy’s tired eyes. ‘You know, young Marl was always asking me such questions. He wondered why I never answered them. I suspect, having watched him die, you now know why.’
Velroy swallowed hard. ‘Yes, my lord.’
‘Come, make obeisance to the Orb. Restore your strength. The night to come will be long and bloody.’
Gaise Macon scanned the reports from his scouts. Columns of mounted soldiers had been seen heading west, some three miles north of Shelding. This was most odd. Luden Macks – who was camped some twenty miles west – had agreed a truce and a four-mile-wide neutral area between the armies. Shelding was at the western edge of this area, and if cavalry units were heading west they would be in danger of breaking the ceasefire.
And it was not only cavalry that had been identified. Taybard Jaekel had seen units of artillery on the southern road the previous night. Major movements of this kind would usually have followed meetings of the General Staff, and yet Gaise had not been summoned to any such gatherings.
Not only was the Eldacre Company now apparently excluded from such meetings, but with the withdrawal of supplies they had been left with food that would not last more than another two days.
Had it riot been for a moment of luck they would also have lost their horses. This last incident had angered Gaise and he had written a letter to Lord Winterbourne. Earlier in the afternoon he and Mulgrave had decided to ride out and scout the countryside. They had walked to the long meadow where the four hundred and fifty cavalry mounts were picketed – and arrived to find the grey-haired sergeant, Lanfer Gosten, involved in a furious argument with an officer of the Second Lancers. A troop of twenty riders were sitting their mounts close by.
‘What is going on, Lanfer?’ asked Gaise, as he approached the group.
‘This gentleman says he has orders to remove our horses to new locations, sir,’ said Gosten. ‘It’s not right. You can’t leave cavalrymen without mounts.’
‘Indeed you cannot,’ agreed Gaise. He walked to where the officer sat a handsome grey gelding.
‘I am Gaise Macon.’
‘I have orders, general, to remove—’
‘Get off your horse.’
‘Sir?’
‘You are in the presence of a general. Now get off your horse and salute.’
The man stepped down from the saddle and offered a swift salute. He was tall and slender, and wearing the red tunic, emblazoned with gold epaulettes, of a captain in the King’s Second Lancers. ‘Your name?’
‘Konran Macy, general.’
‘You are related to General Barin Macy?’
‘I am his brother, sir.’
‘Very well. Now what is this about the mounts?’
Macy handed Gaise his orders. They were explicit. All mounts in Shelding were to be taken to Lincster, four miles east. The order was signed by Macy’s brother.
‘There seems to be an error here,’ said Gaise Macon. ‘First, the Eldacre Company does not come under the control of the Second Lancers.’
‘Lord Winterbourne has put General Macy in command of this section of the front, sir,’ said the officer, smugly.
‘And second, the Eldacre mounts are private property, owned by myself, and not the property of the army. Should General Macy wish to commandeer my mounts he can seek a written order from Lord Winterbourne. Such an order would be challenged by me, and subject then to a decision from a military court of inquiry.’