Rules of Ascension: Book One of Winds of the Forelands (58 page)

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Authors: David B. Coe

BOOK: Rules of Ascension: Book One of Winds of the Forelands
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Shurik returned to the duke’s side and together they watched for Curgh’s reply. It took several moments, but at last a lone rider rode out from the opposing camp carrying the gold and brown flag of Curgh. The rider was Eandi, with light brown hair—it might very well have been Hagan himself. He stopped a short distance from the Kentigern banner and placed the Curgh flag in the ground as well, so that the two danced together in the breeze.
The lynx and the bear. Not long ago, barely more than a single turn, the two houses had been on the verge of an alliance. Now they were readying for a parley of war.
“Shurik, Villyd. I want the two of you with me. And four bowmen.” He would have felt safer with more, but four was customary.
“Yes, my lord,” the swordmaster said. “Do you wish to ride forward now?”
Aindreas shook his head. “Wait until they come out.”
“They’ll be waiting for you, my lord,” Shurik said quietly. “You requested the parley.”
They’re marching on my castle!
he wanted to say.
Doesn’t that count for anything?
Instead, he just nodded. “All right. Then let’s get this over with.”
Daylight was slipping away quickly, though it was brighter on the plain than it had been among the trees. To his credit, Hagan didn’t keep him waiting long. Before Aindreas and his company had reached the Kentigern banner, Curgh’s swordmaster was already riding forward to meet them, accompanied by the duchess, a thin, balding Qirsi whom Aindreas had never seen before, and four archers.
“Your army looks small, Hagan,” Aindreas said as the swordmaster reined his horse. “You had hoped to topple my castle with so few men?”
Hagan bristled, but said nothing.
Rather it was the duchess who spoke. “You’ll address yourself to me, Aindreas. In Javan’s absence, this is my army and my banner.”
She wore a coat of mail and carried a sword in a simple leather scabbard that hung from her belt. Her golden hair was pulled back from her face, and her cheeks were flushed. She looked small atop her white mount, but she sat confidently. If she feared the coming battle, she hid it well. Aindreas didn’t think that he had ever seen her looking more lovely.
“As you wish, my dear,” the duke said. “That should make this far more pleasant. It’s not often that a duke gets to parley with such an enchanting foe.”
“Tread lightly, Kentigern!” Hagan said. “That’s the queen you’re addressing.”
Shonah lifted a hand. “It’s all right, Hagan.” Her eyes were fixed on Aindreas’s face, as green as emeralds in the twilight. “You asked for this meeting,” she said. “What is it you want?”
“I may have offered the first flag, but it’s you and your men who march on my castle. I’d ask you the same.”
The duchess didn’t hesitate for a moment. “Very well. I want my husband, his first minister, the MarCullet boy, and the rest of their company released from your prison immediately. If you refuse, we’ll wipe out your army and take your castle.”
It was well said. Aindreas was forced to wonder if he and Shurik had taken her too lightly. Of course, he kept these thoughts to himself, laughing and shaking his head.
“It’s an empty threat, Shonah. A more experienced warrior would know that. Kentigern hasn’t fallen in centuries, and it’s not about to fall to you.”
“No? How many of your men remain there, Aindreas? Perhaps five hundred? My force is at least as large as yours, and we hold the plain. If we defeat you here, who’s to stop us when we reach your castle?”
No doubt Hagan’s spies had told her all she needed to know about Aindreas’s strength, both here and in Kentigern. Still, the duke found it disquieting to hear her speaking with such certainty on these matters.
“This is foolish, Shonah,” he said, fighting to keep his temper. “Your entire premise is wrong. Javan and his men are not prisoners in my castle. They’re my guests. Do you honestly think they’d choose to leave before your son was found and his fate decided?”
Hagan leveled a finger at him as if it were a blade. “You’re a liar!”
“Now it’s you who should tread lightly, swordmaster. I am duke of Kentigern, and I expect to be treated as such.”
“You’re a traitor, who has imprisoned his king!”
“That’s enough!” Shonah said, glaring at both of them.
Hagan looked away, though he fingered the hilt of his sword. Aindreas continued to stare at the man, but he was aware of Shonah watching him.
“You say my husband is a guest,” she said, her voice even. “His letters say something else. He’s in the prison tower, as are the others in his company. He cannot leave, he cannot speak with his men. Are all your guests treated so?”
“Not all, my lady. Only those whose heirs murder my children.” He swung his gaze to her, not caring anymore who held the plain or whose army had more men. He would crush them all, the duchess as well as the swordmaster. “If he was a prisoner, he’d be in my dungeon, as your son was until he managed to escape. I should have hanged them all the day Brienne died. That was my great mistake, and it’s one I intend to correct as soon as I finish destroying you and your army.
He didn’t wait for a reply. He didn’t even glance at Shurik or Villyd. He merely wheeled his horse away and started back toward the wood, spurring the beast to a run. He sensed that the Qirsi and his swordmaster were just behind him, but his mind was already on the coming battle. The position of Shonah’s army posed problems, but they could be overcome. Tavis had escaped him, and he had spared Javan, though he suddenly couldn’t say why. But with dawn he would finally have his revenge.
The duchess was silent as they rode slowly back to the encampment. Hagan watched her closely, trying to gauge her thoughts, but she was as skilled as the duke at keeping her features from revealing anything of her feelings.
“That went as well as one could expect, my lady,” the second
minister said, riding on her other side. “Lord Kentigern wasn’t interested in preventing this war. I think it far more likely that he was trying to determine whether you were committed to attacking him.”
Hagan didn’t like the minister, but he couldn’t help but agree with him in this instance.
“Danior is right, my lady. There was nothing you could say that would have resolved this matter without bloodshed.”
“What?” Shonah said at last, looking from one of them to the other. Then she waved her hand impatiently, as if their words had finally reached her. “Oh, I know all that. Stop treating me like a dullard. Aindreas wanted to see if I was afraid of war. That’s why he offered the flag.” She shook her head, her expression softening. “But I find him sad. He’s so desperate to avenge his daughter that he barely knows what he’s doing.”
Hagan and the minister exchanged a look. “My lady,” the swordmaster said, “he’s imprisoned the duke. He just said that he means to kill him. This is not a man deserving of pity.”
“Of course he is, Hagan. You think me soft because I’m a woman. But right now you’re the fool. Both of you are,” she added, glancing at the Qirsi. “I have no intention of sparing him or his army. If Aindreas is bent on war, then I’ll give him war, and more than he can handle. But don’t mistake, he does deserve our pity and more. He’s lost a child, and you, swordmaster—who have lost a wife and now fear losing a son—you of all people, should understand his grief. More than that though, you should know that to defeat an enemy, you must first understand him.”
She was indeed a formidable woman, worthy of being Eibithar’s queen. In that moment Hagan wondered if Aindreas truly understood what he faced in the coming battle.
“What is there to understand?” Danior asked. “That he’s a madman?”
Hagan shook his head, though his eyes remained fixed on the duchess. “That he fights out of grief and rage. That he’s not interested in conquering the House of Curgh, but rather in hurting it. At this moment I would guess that he’d gladly trade the lives of all his men just to kill the duchess with his own blade.”
Shonah gave a thin smile. “I suppose I should be flattered.”
Hagan laughed, struck once more by how much she shared with her husband.
“Well, if that’s what he has in mind, my lady,” the minister said,
sounding alarmed, “you’ll have to keep to the rear of the army. Our first concern must be your safety.”
“Again, he’s right,” Hagan said.
“No, he’s not, swordmaster, and you should know this as well. A man who fights out of rage makes mistakes. As long as he can see me and direct his hatred at me, he’ll be guided by his passions rather than by reason.”
“A man who fights from rage may make mistakes, but he’s also far more dangerous than any other foe. He’s erratic. He follows none of the accepted rules of warfare. We can’t risk your life in the hope that Aindreas will stumble.”
“That’s not your decision to make, swordmaster!” the duchess said.
Hagan looked away. “No, my lady.”
Reaching the camp, the duchess swung herself down from her horse and tossed the reins to one of her servants.
“Tell the men to prepare for battle,” she said, looking up at Hagan. “I want the army ready at first light. And double the watch, particularly on our flanks. I don’t want Aindreas thinking he can surprise us.”
“Yes, my lady.”
She started away, then stopped herself, heaving a big sigh and facing him once more. “Forgive me, Hagan. I have every confidence in you and your men. But this is my first battle.”
“There would be no shame in letting me lead the charge, my lady. The army is yours, but so is the dukedom, some would say the entire kingdom. We can’t lose you.”
“And you won’t. But if I don’t lead us into this battle, Aindreas will think he’s won already and that will only embolden him.”
“Will you at least allow me to assign some men to guard you?”
She shook her head. “We need every man fighting Kentigern. Besides,” she added, smiling now, “I don’t plan to stray from your side. That should be all the protection I need.”
The swordmaster felt his color rising. “Very well,” he said, quickly, steering his horse away. At times she reminded him too much of Daria.
“Swordmaster.”
He glanced back, frowning for just an instant at the sight of Danior riding after him.
“Yes, Second Minister.”
“Do you still think you’ll need my mists?”
Hagan shrugged. “I can’t say right now. We’ll have to see what the morning brings.”
“I see,” the Qirsi said.
“Is something troubling you?”
Before the minister could answer, one of the men called to Hagan. Several of his soldiers were standing, their eyes fixed on Kentigern Wood.
Following the direction of their gazes, Hagan saw a long line of torches spreading in either direction along the fringe of the wood.
“What are they doing?” Danior asked.
What, indeed? The torchlight didn’t appear to be drawing nearer to their position, but Aindreas’s army was definitely on the move.
“Swordmaster!” he heard the duchess call.
“Yes, my lady,” he answered, his eyes still on Kentigern’s men. “I see them.”
A few moments later the duchess was beside him again, watching the torches as well. “Are they already on the attack?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then what?”
He shook his head, and for some time they merely stood there, watching. Hagan sensed that his entire army had ceased doing anything else, that all of them were staring to the south much as he, Shonah, and the second minister were doing.
After a while, a pattern emerged. It seemed only some of them were on the move. Aindreas had split his army into thirds, positioning one cluster of men to the west and another to the east, while keeping the rest where they had been.
“Damn him,” the swordmaster said quietly.
Shonah frowned. “What is it?”
“It’s as if he knew the minister had the power of mists. By dividing his army this way, he makes it dangerous for us to shroud the battlefield. We won’t be able to keep watch on all three groups of men.”
“Can we split our army as well?”
“We can, but we don’t know how their numbers are divided. All we can see are the torches. He may be trying to trick us into doing just that. Damn,” he said again. “Say what you will about the man, but he is clever.”
“So what do we do?” Danior asked.
Hagan thought for several moments, rubbing a hand across his face as his eyes continued to scan the plain. “Nothing for now,” he finally said. “We’ll keep watching them and see what the morning brings. If he had an ally in this, another army to throw at us, I’d worry about our flanks. But I’d guess that he still has only as many men as we, in which case we should be able to guard the east and west without weakening our center too much.”
“Very well,” the duchess said. She remained there for several minutes more, her gaze still fixed on the distant torchlight. “Wake me if anything changes,” she said at last.

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