Sisters moved through the houses, touching, murmuring chants. He assigned a surly-faced Ozian corporal to stay outside Melody’s door, with orders that no Sister was to have access to her. He couldn’t have said why.
Meanwhile the enemy had ridden away northward, their wounded in a train of crowded wagons. The base they left behind, Fort Ternass, wasn’t much of a fort. Far too small for so large an army, its walls might keep out vagrants, but they’d be little obstacle to a military assault. As soon as it had been vacated, Jeremid had a Miskmehri infantry cohort occupy it.
The ylvin departure drew Macurdy out of his numbness, and he sent an order for his senior staff to meet with him. While he waited, he unrolled a captured imperial military map. Just a few miles north, it showed a broad stretch of country liberally marked with wetland symbols. The road continued north through it. Six miles to both east and west, other roads crossed it; eight or ten miles beyond them, the wetland symbols disappeared.
Macurdy stood silent a few moments, thinking. The army they’d fought that day would no doubt join forces with the Throne Army riding south. An army by itself too large for him to deal with, reportedly a full legion of cavalry and another of mounted infantry. Under its General Cyncaidh, his wife’s captor, who when he was at home, no doubt took her to his bed at night.
He shook the thought off, and wished Blue Wing was with him. But the great raven had left near winter’s end, for his tribe’s rookery in the Great Eastern Mountains. It wouldn’t do to take sides in such a war. And he’d never had a mate, he told Macurdy, never raised nestlings. It seemed time.
When Macurdy’s staff had gathered, they quieted on their own. “Somewhere north of the marshes,” Macurdy said, “there’s an ylvin army riding south, and the people we fought this morning will be joining it. We don’t know when they’ll get here.” He looked at his operations officer. “Jeremid, what are the swamps like ahead?”
“The only patrol that’s back so far followed the road to the other side and came straight back. It’s five or six miles across, mostly cattail marsh, with creeks and open pools. Impossible to cross, even on foot. But the road? You’d have to see it to believe it. It’s not only ditched; it’s got a raised bed of rock, packed with dirt and topped with gravel.”
Macurdy examined the map again. If he continued north with his army, they’d face a much larger ylvin army, with the marshes between themselves and escape, and only the road to funnel out on. And with the likelihood of more ylvin cohorts hitting them from east and west later. While if they stayed where they were, holding the marsh roads, the ylver could bypass the marshes. It might take them a couple of days.
He could, of course, turn around in the morning and head south, leaving rear guards to block the roads, giving the rest of the army a start. It was doubtful the imperials would catch them north of the Big River. Not in force.
For a moment that seemed to be the answer: Get south of the Big River with his army. Then he remembered his purpose—why he was there. South of the river wouldn’t get Varia back, nor put him in position to bargain with the emperor. Anxiety flooded. And say we arrive at the river a day ahead of the ylver: What then? There’s no fleet of boats waiting. We’ll be trapped! They’ll capture thousands. First they’ll murder the prisoners and wounded, then they’ll cross the river and rape the Rude Lands. Anxiety became despair. You’ve deluded yourself, he thought, and Wollerda, and everyone else who trusted you. There was never any prospect of a treaty. Your blind determination to get Varia back has already killed thousands, and thousands more will die before it’s over.
Then abruptly, snarling, another part of him rose up. Bullshit, Macurdy. Make things happen!
“Jeremid! I want a platoon from the 2nd, ready at sunup in presentable uniforms. And couriers, and an Alliance flag, and a flag of truce. They’ll ride north with me. Pick up the pikes the militia dropped today, and arm some companies with them. Make sure they know how to use them. Assign two companies of infantry and one of cavalry to plug each of the roads.”