Cold Magics (41 page)

It was depressing, tiring, cold work, and Thomas had no one to do it with.

Thomas had followed Lord John’s advice and did not ask Eileen to come out with him. Not that he would have had the chance. Lady Prellham had Eileen’s mornings occupied with lessons, and Baron Goshawk was there all the rest of the time. In the course of the week, Eileen had seen the ice sculptures, attended the theatre and spent several afternoons playing cards or dicing with the baron. Goshawk breakfasted with Eileen and Lady Prellham, ate dinner with them, took them out for excursions in the afternoon. Lady Prellham was quite happy to have his presence, and Eileen sounded like she was having fun.

It was exactly what Thomas had asked Goshawk to do. Unfortunately, Goshawk had taken to it with a will. He was constantly at Eileen’s aside, constantly attentive, and constantly charming. Especially when Thomas was around.

Thomas thought of bringing George out with him, but his friend was too busy training with the knights. He didn’t even come to breakfast anymore. And Henry was constantly off on his father’s business, talking to merchants and councillors. No one save Thomas went to practice in the mornings anymore. Thomas practised anyway, as much to drive the dreams out of his head as to keep his skills up.

Evening was closing in on the fifth day and Thomas was in the library going through the long list of dates, places, and names of the dead when Henry walked in. “You’re here.”

“I am,” said Thomas. “Where have you been?”

“Meeting with the city council. And the merchant council. And the tradesmen council. And the citizen council. One more council and I may well go mad. Where have you been?”

“In the city, talking to refugees. Or here, trying to learn more about Frostmire.”

“Then you haven’t heard that my father has invited the High Father’s envoy to dine at the great hall this evening.”

Thomas felt a chill go through him. “No, I hadn’t heard. Is it another banquet?”

“No, or you would be required to attend. But they are dining in the great hall, and would no doubt love to speak with you.”

“Wonderful.” Thomas felt a shiver of cold go through his body and willed it to stop. He told himself it was just from the cold. “What about George and Eileen?”

Henry shook his head. “Too late for them. Baron Goshawk invited them to sit at his table this evening.”

“Of course he did.”

“Been with Eileen all week, too,” said Henry. “Amelia told me.”

“I know,” said Thomas.

Henry smiled at his tone. “You don’t need to worry about them, anyway. Baron Goshawk is too high ranking for the envoy to risk upsetting. You, on the other hand, he’d do his best to embarrass. And probably ask loud questions you can’t answer in public.”

Thomas nodded. “Not to worry. I’ll stay out of the hall.”

“Good.” Henry peered down at Thomas’s notebook. “What’s that?”

“A list of the towns and villages that have fallen. I count twenty, all told.”

“Twenty?” Henry was appalled. “That’s about a fifth of the villages in the duchy.”

Thomas handed Henry his notebook. “There’s some more to add, but I think it’s about twenty.”

Henry stared at the pages and shook his head. “Any pattern?”

“To the way the enemy attacked,” said Thomas. “Walls coming down and fire. Enemy mounted or on foot. As for where and when, I don’t know yet. Got a map?”

“I can get one,” said Henry. “I’ll meet you in your tower in a bit. Get the fire going and warm the place up.”

“Can you bring some food, too?”

“Starving, are you?”

“Not starving,” said Thomas, remembering the gauntness of the men he’d spoken to in the streets. “Just hungry. And since I’m not going to be at dinner…”

Henry nodded. “I’ll bring something.”

Thomas had the fire going and the room was starting to warm up when Henry finally knocked.

Henry brought two bottles of wine and a pair of cups, plus a pair of very large sheets of vellum rolled up under his arm. Thomas looked at his burdens and relieved him of the wine. “Any food to go with this?”

“Some,” said Henry. He looked over his shoulder. “Sir Lawrence?”

“Yes, Lord Henry,” came from the dark hallway, and Lawrence stepped in, carrying a tray filled with meat, bread, cheese, and dried fruit. He placed it on the table and stepped back to the door.

“Open the wine,” said Henry. “And pour me a glass.”

“Can I get something to eat?” asked Thomas.

“Wine first,” said Henry, starting to unroll the map. “I brought the list of the towns that had been sacked before I left.”

Thomas snagged a slice of meat off the plate and shoved it into his mouth before opening the wine. He tossed a smile at Lawrence, but the other didn’t smile back. Thomas sighed, wishing the knight had not been so distant since he learned of Thomas’s power.
Doesn’t matter,
Thomas thought.
As long as he’s on our side, he can be as stand-offish as he likes.

He poured the wine. “Would you like one, Sir Lawrence?”

“No, thank you.”

“Don’t bother,” said Henry, unrolling the map on the floor and using Thomas’s book and some wood from the fire to weigh down the corners. “He’s got a mother hen complex. He should be at dinner with the others, but insisted on staying by me.”

“Well, someone should,” said Lawrence, his tone indicating they’d already had this discussion.

“No one needs to. But suit yourself.” Henry leaned back from the map. “Here, Thomas. What do you think?”

The map detailed every settlement in Frostmire. There was the city itself, five major towns and a dozen smaller ones, a hundred smaller settlements ranging from the small walled villages they had stayed in to simple farming communities, plus every watchtower and outpost in the duchy. Names and numbers of inhabitants were written beside each dot on the map, along with the names of the forests, hills and mountains, rivers and lakes.

“Nice detail,” said Thomas. “Are we allowed to mark on it?”

“No.” Henry spread the second large, rolled-up sheet as Thomas retrieved his notebook. The sheet was very thin and nearly transparent, and the same size as the map beneath it. Henry laid it over the first.

“Good thinking.” Thomas helped Henry smooth down the second sheet, and moved the lamp closer. He could barely make out the sheet below.

“We need more light,” said Henry.

“Aye.” Thomas turned back to Lawrence. “Could you lock the door?”

Sir Lawrence looked surprised at the request but when Henry nodded his head, went to the door and shot the bolt into place.

Thomas raised one hand above the map. He closed his eyes and thought about it a moment, then focused his mind. A white light began glowing from his palm.

Thomas heard Lawrence gasp, but didn’t stop. The light was much brighter than he usually created. Henry began roughly outlining the map. He marked every town and village, circling the ones that had been destroyed by the raiders and putting the date beside them. Even after Thomas’s list was done, Henry kept going, adding in villages and towns that had been destroyed before Henry headed south. When Henry had finished those, he quickly traced out marks for the mountains in the west and the border in the north, as well as the other major geographical features. It was painstaking work and took most of an hour, and Thomas felt himself getting quite tired by the end of it.

Henry sat back and looked at the map. “Well, what have we learned?”

Thomas let the light in his hand fade, and both blinked until their eyes adjusted. Thomas looked over the map. “The attacks run southeast.”

“Not by date,” said Henry. “They’re all over the place.”

Thomas looked over the dates on the map and sighed.

“Too bad. I thought we’d found a pattern.” He surveyed the markings again. “Of course, there may still be one.” He circled a half-dozen untouched villages with his finger. All lay within twenty miles of the city. “Do we know if these towns are still here?”

“Haven’t heard anything to the contrary,” said Henry. “Of course, no messengers have gone out since we left.”

“So they could be gone.”

“If they were fired, someone would have seen the smoke. And we would have had refugees banging on our doors, I’m sure.”

“How about these?” said Thomas, pointing at the towns nearest the mountains. “Would you know if they were gone?”

“No,” said Henry. “Too far away. But that one,” he pointed at a major town at the base of the mountain, “is where the iron mines are. It’s a fortress. Richard’s knights are based there. The Order of the Bear. If anyone is still holding, they are.”

Thomas stared at the map some more. “What about the battles you fought. Do you remember where they were?”

“Oh yes.” Henry pointed to a spot on the map, east of one of the first towns destroyed. “There,” he said, “Or thereabouts. That’s where we first came across them in the field. We were camping for the night. Fifty levies, twenty knights. They attacked out of the dark with arrows.”

“So no one saw or heard them coming?”

“Not at all,” Henry bent to the map, marking the battle as he spoke. “This was after the second village was burnt, so we were mighty alert, too. Didn’t see a thing until the first arrows came.”

“Were they on foot or horse?” Thomas asked.

“Foot. Fired three volleys of arrows, then charged the camp.”

“How many?”

“Couldn’t be sure. No more than maybe thirty, though. We rallied together and started driving them back. Then the first fire came.” Henry looked at Sir Lawrence. “Remember it?”

“Aye, my lord,” said Lawrence. “Burned through our line. Killed a half-dozen men with the first blast, then the same again. At that point there were horses screaming and people on fire. Lord Henry tried to reform the line, but by that time the enemy was gone. Didn’t even leave a body behind.”

“Did you chase them?” asked Thomas.

“We tried. Had good trackers with us, too. Both were killed by archers on the first day. We charged whenever we’d see an arrow, but it did no good. They’d be gone by the time we got there.”

“Good at woodcraft, then.”

“More than that,” said the knight. “They’d attack us from the only cover in a mile; we’d surround it, charge in looking, and not find anything. The last time we did it, the archer was in a grove. Henry had us surround it and we cut down every bush and tree, looking for him or some sign of where he’d gone to ground. There was nothing.”

“That night, we camped in open ground,” said Henry. “No fires so we could see in the dark. They still caught us unaware. Lost another half-dozen men that night. We came back to Frostmire the next day with our tails between our legs to get reinforcements.”

“We went out with everyone, the next time,” said Sir Lawrence. “Lord Henry brought the entire levy with him—nearly two hundred men, plus all of the Wolves. We scoured the country and didn’t find a thing.”

“Odd,” said Thomas.

“Aye, that’s one word for it.” agreed the knight. “Then on the way back they ambushed us. A hundred of them, on a guess, though we never saw them all.”

“Day or night?”

“Day, but you could barely tell. There was fog enough that you couldn’t see ten yards away. They hit us with archers first, then cavalry. When we rallied, they used fire again. We held, but that’s all we did.”

“Lost another five knights,” said Henry. “And twenty or so of the levies.”

“That’s when Lord Henry took the arrow in the thigh,” said Sir Lawrence.

Thomas looked down at the map. “And where was that?”

“There,” said Henry, pointing.

“And the other battles?”

Henry drew the battles on the map and told the stories that went with them. Men killed, attacks in the dark, fire and fog and an enemy that was impossible to find. John and Richard had also led out excursions. Richard had chased the enemy for four days, but never saw them. John faced a troop of two hundred of the enemy and was soundly defeated.

“That was the last of the battles before I went south,” said Henry. “I guess there haven’t been any since.”

“But a lot of villages destroyed.”

“Aye. Then father ordered the gates closed, and decided to wait out the winter.”

Thomas looked over the battles on the map, a record of lost lives and defeats, laid out before them. The battles were in the same swath where the enemy had been making their attacks. “Where were we when we were attacked?”

Henry pointed at the map. “Here.”

Thomas made the mark, and added a note. “Enemy defeated. Sixteen killed.”

Henry nodded. “Small victory. But I’ll take it.”

“Me, too. More wine?”

A knock at the door caught them by surprise. Henry looked to Thomas. “Expecting anyone?”

Thomas caught the edge in his voice. “I’m not. Should I be worried?”

Henry thought about it for longer than Thomas would have liked. “Shouldn’t be,” said Henry. “Open the door.”

Thomas got to his feet.

“Not you,” said Henry. “Sir Lawrence, please.”

“Are you not telling me something?” asked Thomas.

The question went unanswered as Lawrence opened the door. Amelia swept under his arm and into the room.

 “Oh, you are here, Lord Henry! You were expected at dinner with Father Roberts and didn’t come. I was worried about you and offered to come find you!”

“How thoughtful of you,” said Henry, with barely any irony in his voice.

“And to find you here, of all places.” Amelia turned on Thomas. “How could you take Lord Henry away from his dinner?”

“He asked me to.”

“And what is this?” Amelia demanded, looking past him to the large sheets spread out on the floor.

“A map,” said Henry. “It shows all the villages and towns destroyed by the raiders.”

Amelia peered over the map, and her sunny disposition faltered. “I had not realized there were so many.”

“Too many,” said Henry.

“Thirty,” said Thomas. “Or at least, thirty before the gates of the city were shut.”

“Oh.” Amelia stared at the map, her smile lost. It was a while before she could take her eyes away from it, and a while longer before she managed to say, “Well, it is good to see you working at the problem. Still, your father was wondering where you had gone, Lord Henry. He was most insistent that you join him at the table. I am sure he wants you to have a chance to speak to Father Roberts.”