target, but more because I had to have a victory in the first major
battle to put some steel back into my dispirited subjects.
The next part of my plan was more difficult to get across to my
soldiers. My southern army was largely of Wacite descent, and a vast
rumbling of discontent – verging on open mutiny – went through my
southern forces when Malon passed the word to Halbren and the
other generals that any patrol encountering Asturians was to run
away. Running away isn’t a part of the Arendish vocabulary, I guess.
‘We’re trying to lure the Asturians into a major battle, Malon,’I explained
patiently to my friend when he passed along the objections of
Halbren and my other generals. ‘I want Carteon’s army to believe that
we’re completely demoralized and afraid of our own shadows up here in
Erat. Then, when they come across the River Camaar, they won’t expect
any real resistance. That’s when we’ll fall on them like hungry tigers. I
want their screams to reach all the way down to the bottom of whatever
rat-hole Garteon’s hiding in.’
‘Yer after hatin’ that Garteon, ain’t y’, me Lady?’
Hatred just begins to describe what I feel for him. I could cheerfully
roast him alive over a slow fire for several weeks.’
‘I’ll start carryin’ some kindlin’ wood in me pocket, yer Grace.’
‘What a dear fellow you are, Malon.’
‘I’ll be after steppin’ on th’ toes o’ yer generals down in Muros, me
Lady,’ he promised. ‘I’ll make ’em pull in their horns an’ bide their time
until th’ cursed Asturian come traipsin’ across th’ river. Then we’ll have
em fer breakfast. I’ll have t’ go down there in person t’git their attention,
so I won’t be talking’ t’ y’fer a week or so. Don’t be after worryin’ yer
head about it, me Lady. I’ll be busy layin’a trapfer Garteon’s army, don’t
y’ know.’
‘I understand perfectly, Malon.’ The fact that he so closely resembled
Killane, not only in appearance but in his manner of speech and in
his thinking, made our relationship grow very close in a surprisingly
short time. In a sense, I was just taking up where I’d left off several
centuries earlier, so there wasn’t that awkward period of what’s
called ‘getting to know each other’.
There wasn’t anything particularly original about the strategy
set in place around Muros, but the Asturians of that era weren’t
addicted to reading, and history books tend to be dry and dusty,
so I was fairly sure they wouldn’t be familiar with my tired old
ploy. Halbren and my other generals finally got my point, but the
common soldiers seemed to have a lot of trouble with it.
The Asturians grew steadily bolder as a result of our deception,
and by early autumn Carteon’s army was massing along the south
bank of the River Camaar. Father’s continued snooping made it
totally impossible for me to personally direct the counterattack I’d
been planning, so General Halbren would be on his own. Halbren
was certainly up to the task, but that didn’t keep me from going
back to my childhood habit of biting my fingernails. A thousand
what if’s’ kept me from sleeping very soundly.
There was one thing I could take care of, however. I instructed
Malon to gather as many leaders of the Wacite resistance as he could
find among the trees in the ruins of a village about half-way between
Vo Wacune and the River Camaar on a certain night so that I could
talk with them.
I evaded my father that evening, went falcon and flew on down
to the appointed meeting place. The Asturians had burned the
village, so about all that was left of it were heaps of charred timbers
and tumbled stone walls. It was a moonless night, and the
surrounding forest pressed in on the ruins ominously. I could sense the
presence of a fair number of men, but they cautiously evaded me
as I walked through the ruins toward what had been the village
square where Malon was in the middle of a ragged-looking group
of armed men. ‘Ah, there y’ are, yer Grace,’ he greeted me.
He introduced me to a motley collection of Wacite patriots. Some
were noblemen, several of whom I recognized from happier days.
Others were serfs or village tradesmen, and I’m fairly sure that there
was also a sprinkling of bandit chiefs in the group as well. As I
understood it, each of these men commanded a band of what the
Asturians called ‘outlaws’, men who entertained themselves by
ambushing Asturian patrols.
‘Gentlemen,’ I addressed them, ‘I’m a bit pressed for time here,
so I’ll have to be brief. The Asturians are going to invade my duchy
before long. They’ll probably strike across the River Camaar to lay
siege to Muros. They won’t expect any trouble because they think
my army’s made up of cowards.’
‘We’ve heard about that, yer ladyship,’ a burly serf named Beln
interjected. ‘We found it very hard t’ believe, don’t y’ know. We’ve
all got kinsmen up around Muros, an’ they’ve never bin noted fer
timidity.’
This was why I’d arranged this meeting. These Wacite leaders
had to know that the seeming cowardice of my army was strategic.
‘I ordered ’em t’ be chicken-hearted, me Boy-o,’ I replied in his own
dialect. ‘I was after settin’ a trap fer th’ Asturians, don’t y’ know.
‘Y’ kin take it from me, Laddybuck, me army’ll shed its feathers
.when th’ time comes.’
No, my use of his dialect was not a way of making fun of it. I
was quite deliberately breaking down certain barriers that existed
between the social classes. I wanted the Wacite resistance to be a
cohesive fighting force, and that necessitated the abandonment of
some ancient bad habits.
Beln looked around at his friends with a broad smirk on his
face. ‘Ain’t she th’ darlin’ girl, though?’he said to
‘It jist fills me heart wi joy t’ hear y’ say so, Beln,’ I said. ‘Now,
then, after the battle on the plains of Muros – which I am going to
win, by the way – the Asturians are going to be totally demoralized,
and they’ll come fleeing back across the River Camaar in total
disarray. That’s where you gentlemen come in. Don’t interfere with
them when they go north across the river,’but when they try to
come back, feel free to settle old scores. To put it bluntly, there are
going to be two battles that day. I’ll beat the Asturians out on the
plains, and you’ll beat them again down here in the forest when
they try to run away from me.’
They cheered at that.
‘Oh, one other thing,,’ I added. ‘After their double drubbing, the
Asturians are going to be so totally demoralized that they won’t be
paying much attention to any ordinary groups of people moving
around down here. I’m sure you all have loved ones you’d like to
get to safety, and there are others as well who’d rather not live
under the Asturian yoke. Let it be known that they’ll all be welcome
in Muros. I’ll see to it that they have places to live and food to eat.’
‘Will that not strain thy resources, your Grace?’ the blond young
Baron Athan, whom I’d met several times in Vo Wacune, asked me.
‘I’ll manage, my Lord,’ I assured him. ‘I’ve been making
preparations for the care of Wacite refugees since the fall of Vo Wacune.’
I spoke to them all again. ‘I know that most of you would rather
stay here and fight, but get your women, children, and old people
to safety. Don’t leave innocents here to be taken hostage by the
Asturians.’
‘Thy point is well-taken, your Grace,’ Athan approved-. Then he
said, In passing, my Lady, I must needs have a word with thee at
the conclusion of our meeting here.’
‘Of course, Baron.’ Then I looked around at the other patriots.
advise moving the refugees up to the river in small groups,
gentlemen. Establish safe routes through the forest and send a dozen or
so people up those trails each time. I’ll make sure there are boats
,Waiting to ferry them across to safety.’
We discussed the details of my proposed mass emigration for
about a half hour or so, and then most of the patriots faded back
into the woods. Baron Athan remained behind. ‘I have a most
sorrowful duty to perform, your Grace,’ he told me. ‘I must regretfully
advise thee that Baron Ontrose, thy champion, died during the siege
of vo Wacune.’
My heart froze within me. In spite of everything, I’d still clung
to some small vestiges of hope that my beloved had survived.
II was with him when he died, your Grace,’ Athan continued. ‘It
had been mine intent to sponge the stain of Baron Lathan’s treason
from off our family honor by giving mine own life in the defense
of Vo Wacune, for indeed, the scoundrel Lathan was a distant cousin