nor where are his men, but I worry.”
“BroadWing has been talking to me,” said StarDrifter.
Maximilian smiled, moving his horse aside momentarily so it could avoid a great rut in
the road. “Good,” he said, “that was to be my next question. StarDrifter, I believe there are some
three thousand Icarii now with this column.”
“Just over,” StarDrifter said.
“And,” Maximilian said, “of those three thousand, BroadWing tells me he has five
hundred who were once in Axis” Strike Force.”
StarDrifter noted the careful distinction between the Strike Force that existed before Axis
took over its command—which was weak and ineffectual—and the Strike Force under Axis”
command, which was a highly skilled and deadly force.
“Easily,” said StarDrifter. “Maybe a few more.”
“BroadWing has them training to the north.”
“Yes. What do you want, Maxel?”
“They are doing well?”
StarDrifter grunted. “Better than the Lealfast. Maxel, what do you want? ”
“I may have a use for them. Can you contact BroadWing? Fast?”
StarDrifter”s eyes twinkled. “Do the stars shine in the heavens? Maxel, they are yours.
You do not need to ask my permission.”
Maximilian gave a smile. “Call BroadWing to me, if you would, StarDrifter.”
Ravenna pulled her horse to a halt, allowing the weary animal a long rein so it could
stretch its neck and relax.
It had been a hard ride getting here, but get here they had.
“They”re just ahead,” Ravenna said to Lister and Vorstus, who had pulled their horses up
beside hers. “Look, here comes a scouting party. My friends,” she said, turning a little in the
saddle so she could look them in the eye, “leave Armat to me. He is touchy, and somewhat
difficult. I don”t want to—”
“We know how to behave, Ravenna,” Lister said, “but you also need to know that we
must get what we want. Armat setting off on his own dangerous ambitious tangent is not what
either Elcho Falling or this world needs.”
“Then leave him to me,” Ravenna said. “Please. I”ve managed him thus far.”
“And you don”t want us stepping onto your territory?” Vorstus said.
“Leave him to me! ” Ravenna snapped.
“As your ladyship wishes,” Vorstus said, kicking his horse forward, Lister immediately
behind him.
A moment later Ravenna gathered up her reins and urged her horse after them.
Armat heard them enter, but amused himself by keeping them waiting a few moments
while he shuffled useless bits of paper on the table.
Finally he turned about, gracing Ravenna with a very slight inclination of his head. “My
Lady Ravenna,” he said. “How good to see you in the flesh. Those apparitions were interesting,
but somehow…unsatisfying.”
“Just Ravenna,” she said. “I make no claim to pretension.”
“A marsh-witch,” Armat said to the two men who stood just behind and to one side of
Ravenna. “Did she tell you?”
“Ravenna is well known to us,” said the more commanding of the two, a tall, spare man
with an ascetic face.
“As you are not yet to me,” said Armat. “Ravenna, if you please?”
“This is Lord Lister,” said Ravenna, indicating the man who had just spoken. “He is a
man of great power and knowledge, and shall be invaluable to us. He knows Maximilian well.”
Armat raised his eyebrows, although he was not in the least impressed. “You can deliver
to me Elcho Falling?” he said to Lister.
“I know Elcho Falling intimately,” said Lister. “I lived there for a time and know its
mysteries.”
Armat beamed. “Than we might as well just murder Maximilian now and depend on our
new friend for what we need!”
“We still need Maximilian to open the mountain,” Ravenna said. “Don”t be hasty,
Armat.”
“I shall delay a day or two, then,” Armat said. He looked to Vorstus. “And you are…?”
“I am Vorstus,” he said, “Abbot of the Order of Persimius. I also know Maximilian well,
for I have been an intimate of the Persimius family all his life.”
“Maximilian has certainly chosen his friends well,” said Armat, “if such cherished
acquaintances and his lover stand here in my tent plotting his downfall. But enough of that. You look weary. Would you like some food and drink before we continue?”
Armat waved them toward a table on which was set food and decanters of warmed ale,
and for a while there was nothing but banalities passed between them as Ravenna, Lister, and
Vorstus ate.
“I must thank you,” Armat said eventually, wiping his mouth with a napkin after sipping
at a goblet of the warmed ale, “for sending me Insharah and his men. They shall come in useful.”
“And weaken Maximilian,” said Vorstus.
“Indeed,” said Armat, rising from his chair and stretching a little as if he had a stiff back.
“But we must insist,” said Lister, “that you do not attack Maximilian right now. We need
him to—”
Armat was now walking about the table. “I shall attack whoever I damn well wish to,
when I damn well want to,” he said. “Just like this.”
In a sudden brutal movement, he whipped a dagger out of his belt with one hand, gripped
the back of Vorstus”s neck with the other, and slid the dagger through Vorstus”s throat. Armat
held him as he struggled briefly, drowning in his own blood, then allowed the dying man to sag
forward across the table.
“You will do well,” Armat said very quietly as he wiped his dagger on the back of
Vorstus”s robe before sheathing it, “to remember that you are but my allies and my guests. You
are not my lords, to command me as you will.”
Then he looked at Ravenna, a query on his face. “Did I kill the right man of the two,
Ravenna? I didn”t dispatch the most useful, by any chance, did I?”
“There was no need—” Ravenna began.
“There was every need,” Armat hissed. “I am your ruler, and you must not believe
otherwise.”
Ravenna glanced at Lister, then bowed her head.
“Lord Armat,” she said.
“Good,” Armat said, then looked at Lister.
Lister had been staring at Vorstus, but now he lifted his eyes to the general. “I shall not
be so easily disposed of, Armat.”
“Don”t make it a challenge, Lister,” Armat said.
We should allow him to think he is our better, Ravenna said into Lister”s mind, and very
reluctantly Lister inclined his head.
“Excellent,” Armat said, pushing Vorstus”s body to the floor and taking the man”s chair.
He poured another measure of ale into Vorstus”s goblet and took a sip.
“Where are the other generals?” Ravenna said after a long moment of uncomfortable
silence.
“Kezial commands sixty thousand men about Adab,” said Armat. “He undoubtedly thinks
he”d like to use them against me, but he knows that by now—if, as we all suspected,
Maximilian”s portion of the army deserted him for me—I would have well over three hundred
thousand soldiers in the Central Outlands, and Kezial is not a stupid man. He will wait where he
is for the time being.”
“And Lamiah?” Ravenna said.
Armat fiddled with his goblet. “Lamiah was stationed close to the Salamaan Pass,” he
said after a moment. “I have not heard from him recently.”
“Is he heading north?” Lister said.
Armat raised his eyes and looked at Lister. “You tell me.”
“How many men does he have?” Ravenna said.
“I don”t know,” Armat said. “Probably at least thirty thousand…but he may have more.”
“Isaiah commanded a huge army,” said Ravenna. “Where are the others?”
“Isaiah led a convoy that included settlers and families as well as soldiers,” said Armat.
“The settlers have now largely dispersed themselves about the southern and eastern Outlands. Of
soldiers he had close to five hundred thousand. The others? Stationed here and about, and some,
I assume, chose to remain with Maximilian.”
“Ten thousand at most,” said Ravenna. “You command by far the greater portion of the
five hundred thousand, Armat, but even taking into account the men Kezial and Lamiah control,
there must be tens of thousands elsewhere.”
“They are likely scattered,” Armat snapped. “The Outlands is a large area. Besides, they
have almost no command save for relatively junior officers. They will be no trouble.”
Ravenna raised an eyebrow at that, but said no more on the matter.
“Axis,” said Armat, making Ravenna jump.
Axis?
“He is currently sitting,” Armat continued, “together with Georgdi, a physician, and a
somewhat bedraggled Lealfast woman in a pit within my camp.”
“What?” Ravenna said. “How?”
“How did the almighty Axis SunSoar manage to allow himself to be captured by such a
poor commander as I?” Armat asked. “Sadly, far too easily. I am wondering what to do with
him.”
He leaned back in the chair, tilting it backward, and rested his booted feet on the table. “I
have several options,” Armat said, numbering them on his fingers. “I could keep him as a
hostage to bargain with against Maximilian. I could parade him and use him to demoralize the
few pitiful remnants of fighting men that remain with Maximilian. I could kill him as the pathetic