Gemmell, David – Morningstar

‘Angostin knights!’ stormed Mace. ‘Angostin nobles! North against South. Who cares what happens to Angostins? How many Highland knights were there? How many Highland nobles? But this war we will not lose. Even now I have an army building that will sweep the enemy from our lands. A Highland army!’Where is this army?’ asked another man. ‘I see no warriors.’You will see them, my friend. But they are not needed here -not where there are Pasel men of stout heart and great courage. Highlanders! Or has Angostin wealth eaten into your souls, turning your blood to water?’

‘It hasn’t turned mine to water!’ shouted a stocky bearded man, rising to his feet. ‘What would you have us do?’Sit down, Jairn,’ ordered Greybeard. ‘No one here has given this man the right to speak for us.’Yes, sit down, Jairn,’ said Jarek Mace. ‘Sit down for the injustice. Sit down while they slay your captain. Sit down while they break their promises and rape your wives. Sit down and listen to spineless old fools like this one.’No!’ roared Jairn. Til be damned if I will. When my leg was broke the Fall before last, it was Brackban who came to my farm and brought in my crops. And you, Cerdic, who was it that gathered the men to help you rebuild when the fire gutted your home? It was Brackban! And when raiders took the prize cattle, who was it that hunted them down? Who was it that brought them back to their owners? Is there any man here who would sleep well at night knowing that he did nothing to help Brackban in his hour of peril?’Several of the men shouted agreement but the majority began to talk among themselves, arguing in loud voices. Mace raised his hands for silence, but he had lost the attention of the crowd.

I sent up a swift spell-sphere, dark and small, that exploded like a thunderclap.

There was silence then all right!

‘Now there is no more time for talk,’ said Jarek Mace. ‘All those who will fight to see Brackban freed, walk to the left. Those with no stomach for justice can remain seated.’Jairn was the first to stride across the barn. Others followed until only seventeen were still seated. Mace called the sentries to him. ‘Make sure none of these cowards leave this barn until morning,’ he said.

‘You can’t imprison us!’ a balding sandy-haired merchant complained.

Mace dragged the man to his feet. ‘I can do what I like with you, you gutless piece of horse-dung! Be thankful I’m leaving you alive!’ Hurling the man from him, he swung on the remaining sixteen. There comes a time when a man has to choose sides,’ he told them. ‘When the day of freedom comes the Highlanders will know who fought for them – and who left them to rot. Then there will be a reckoning. Prepare yourselves for that day!’

I think he was unfair on them. Several were old and as to the others – well, it is no crime for a man to know fear, or to need time to reach weighty decisions. Some, no doubt, were family men concerned for wives, children or infirm parents. But he left them feeling ashamed.

We walked into the sunlight where Mace sat down with Jairn and the others. For some minutes I sat with them, but battle plans and strategies were of little interest to me then and I wandered away with Ilka to sit on a stone wall and stare out over the mountains. I had no idea as to why Mace should suddenly become the hero, and it unsettled me. I felt I had missed something of import – as indeed I had.

Ilka sat beside me and pointed to the harp-bag slung from my shoulder.

‘I am in no mood for music,’ I told her. She looked crestfallen and I relented. ‘What would you like to hear? A ballad? A dance melody?’ She shook her head. ‘What, then? A marching tune? A battle song? No? Then I am at a loss, lady.’Leaning forward, she touched my chest just above the heart, then gestured towards the trees and the mountains and the sky.

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