“For anything more we can wait – Swordswoman.”
She nodded. But all she said was, “Let us go, then, and greet your father.”
But they did not reach Carolin’s tent before they met Orain, hurrying toward the place where the birds were kept. He said, “Mistress Romilly, your sentry-bird is wanted-” and stopped, blinking, at the sight of her companion.
“Father,” Alderic said, and bowed.
Orain took him, for a moment, in a brief, formal embrace. The sight hurt Romilly; she was so accustomed to Orain’s rough affection. She thought, he would have greeted me with more kindness than that! He said, “I did not know you had come, my boy. Carolin has need now of any who are skilled at laran; perhaps you have heard that he came down on us with clingfire.”
“I heard it when I came to camp, Father,” Alderic said, “and I was making haste to offer such small skill as I have to Carolin’s service; but I came first to greet you, sir.”
Orain said, with constraint, “For that I thank you in his name. The king’s leronyn are gathered there-” and he gestured. “Mistress Romilly, bring your bird; we must know how long we have before Rakhal falls on us again.”
“Are we to march out on Rakhal, then?” Alderic asked, and Orain said, with his mouth set in a grim line,
“Only to get free of the bodies here, so that we can maneuver if we must. If Rakhal has clingfire at command, we dare not meet him in the woods, or all this land will be burned over between here and Neskaya!” And as Romilly looked toward Carolin’s headquarters she saw the tent struck, and the Hastur banner taken out by his guardsmen. Alderic glanced once at Romilly, but all he said was, “I must join the others, then. Guard yourself well, Romilly,” and hurried away.
She went back swiftly to prepare herself for riding, and set Temperance on her saddle, leaving it to Ruyven’s young assistant to strike the tent and pack it for moving with the army. Could Rakhal indeed be so thoughtless of the land as to send fire-arrows in forested country, at this season, and risk fire? Well, it was like what she had heard of the man. For that reason, if for no other, somehow they must defeat that unprincipled man who called himself king!
Now that she knew what she was seeking, it proved easier to send up the sentry-bird. Because of the rain, Temperance was reluctant to fly, but this time Romilly did not hesitate to send the bird up, almost to the bottom of the low-lying clouds. She flew her slowly in circles, gradually widening, so that she could see Rakhal’s army on the move. As she rode, half of her mind on the bird, she joined Carolin and his array of skilled leronyn, men and women; it crossed her mind, briefly, that she was one of them, that perhaps at last, she had found her true place.
I am Swordswoman still. But I am grateful that I need not bear a sword in this combat. If I must, I think I could do so, but I am glad that my skills lead me elsewhere. I do not want to kill… and then, grimly, she forced herself to be realistic. She was a part of this killing, as much as if she bore sword or bow into the battlefield; more, perhaps, for her sentry-bird’s eyes directed the killing. She took her place, resolutely, between Lady Maura and Ranald. One or both of them would remain in rapport with her, to relay the information to the ears of Carolin and his general.
It cannot be easy for Jandria, to go against Lyondri this way, and know that she will be instrumental in his death- and now there is no help for him but death. She was not sure at that moment whether the thought was hers, or Lady Maura’s, or even, perhaps, Lord Orain’s. They were all in a tight little group, clustered around Carolin, and Alderic was among them. At the edge of her awareness she saw Alderic greet Jandria kindly, and call her “My lady Aunt.” As if it were something she had dreamed a long time ago, it crossed her mind that if she married Alderic, she would be kinswoman to Jandria.