Weavers of War wotf-5

by DAVID B. COE

  “Actually that’s not it either.”

  “Then what? You feel you’ve been treated unfairly? To be honest, my lord, I believe you’re fortunate to be a free man. I don’t mind telling you that if I’d had my way, you would have been thrown in your own dungeon and left there to rot. But I had orders from His Majesty, and unlike you, I do as my liege tells me.”

  He should have been outraged. Had his soldiers been nearby, they would have had to be restrained from killing the man. At least, the duke wanted to believe that this was so. The truth was that he deserved to be spoken to in this way. He hadn’t seen Brienne’s ghost-or whatever it was that haunted his days and nights-since leaving Kentigern, but he didn’t need her to tell him that he had placed the realm at risk with all he had done since her murder, and for no good reason at all.

  “You think me impudent for speaking to you so.”

  “Please stop putting words in my mouth, swordmaster. The truth is, I wish that I hadn’t done so much to deserve your contempt. I’ll see to my men right away.”

  He wheeled his mount, intending to do just as he had said.

  “My lord, wait.”

  Aindreas would have liked to ride away and leave this insolent swordmaster to chew on whatever it was he wished to say. But something stopped him-the man’s tone, his own surety that he had already done too much to drive a wedge between his house and the Crown. Reluctantly, he faced the swordmaster again, saying nothing.

  “I’m-” Trasker looked away briefly. “I shouldn’t have spoken to you so. It was … inappropriate.”

  The duke could think of no reply. After several moments, he simply nodded and rode back to his men.

  Aindreas had left his swordmaster, Villyd Temsten, in Kentigern, refusing to trust anyone else with the protection of his castle and family. The captains he had brought with him were good men-brave, loyal-but they were not deep thinkers, and they had even less sense of what the duke had done to earn the king’s enmity than did Villyd. Clearly they did not feel that soldiers of Kentigern should be marching under the king’s banner. They accepted their duke’s orders, and began immediately to convey them to the rest of the Kentigern army, but they made it clear to the duke, with their expressions and their flat voices, that they disapproved of his willingness to yield to Gershon’s authority. Returning to the head of the great column, Aindreas was forced to wonder anew if he had been wrong to make this journey.

  An image of Jastanne ja Triln entered his mind, pale and lithe and lovely. He saw her as she had appeared that night he forged his alliance with the conspiracy, looking young and unassuming, an illusion she shattered, along with a wine goblet, using her shaping power. What would she do when she learned that he had marched with Kearney’s army? Would she and her Qirsi allies reveal his treachery immediately? Would they seek vengeance against Ioanna or his children, or would they content themselves with destroying his name? Perhaps these fears should have given him pause, made him wonder how he might aid the conspiracy here on the Moorlands. Instead they emboldened him.

  For so long he had allowed his shame and fright to render him helpless. Not anymore. Casting his lot with the Qirsi had been the greatest mistake of his life, a desperate gambit born of grief and rage and drunken foolishness. He would pay for that error until his death, and long after he was gone his family would continue to pay. But maybe he could mitigate some of the harm he had done by making a hero of himself in the coming war. Not this one with Aneira and Braedon, but the real war against the Qirsi renegades, the one that would decide the fate of all the Forelands. That was the hope that drove him onward, that left him unmoved by the dismay of his captains. They couldn’t possibly understand. Up until a few days ago, he hadn’t either, though he should have. It remained to be seen if the realization had come to him too late.

  True to his word, Gershon kept the army moving well past sundown, stopping only long enough to feed and water the horses, allow the soldiers to eat, and light their torches. The Solkarans didn’t stop for long either, but they could not increase their lead on the Eibitharians. When the two moons finally rose high enough into the star-filled sky to illuminate the grasses and boulders of the moor, Eibithar’s men doused their torches and quickened their pace, but it seemed the Solkarans did the same, for the enemy’s torch fire had vanished.

  Their first indication that the Aneirans had halted was the barrage of arrows that pelted down just in front of the column. Aindreas’s horse reared, more because of the duke’s startled response than because of the arrows themselves, but Aindreas managed to keep himself from falling.

  “Damn!” Gershon spat, fighting to control his mount as well. More arrows struck the ground before them, but all of them fell short.

  “We were fortunate,” Lathrop said.

  “We were careless. I was careless,” Gershon corrected. He peered ahead, eyes narrowed, trying to see the enemy in the dim glow of Ilias and Panya. Then he beckoned to one of his captains, who was marching a short distance behind the dukes and swordmaster. Immediately the man hurried forward. “Call our archers forward,” he said quietly.

  The man nodded and ran back toward the king’s soldiers.

  Lathrop frowned. “Do you think they mean to fight us here?”

  “I’m not certain what they have in mind. But they’ve loosed two volleys now to no avail. I expect they’ll move their bowmen closer and try again. I want to be ready when they do.”

  It didn’t take long for Kearney’s archers, three hundred strong, to reach the front of the column.

  “I’d suggest you move back, my lords,” Gershon said. “I don’t want a chance dart to strike one of you.”

  Caius shook his head. “I have a better idea.” He waved Gershon’s captain to his side. “Please, Captain, have my bowmen brought forward as well.”

  The captain glanced at Trasker, who, after a moment’s pause, nodded.

  “Mine as well, Captain,” Lathrop said.

  Aindreas twisted his mouth for just an instant. “Better call for mine as well.” The others regarded him silently. “Well, I can’t let it be said that Kentigern shied from a fight, can I?”

  “Thank you, my lords,” Gershon said, the ghost of a smile on his lips. “Though I’d still feel better if the three of you moved back a bit.”

  Lathrop glanced briefly at Aindreas and the duke of Labruinn before looking at Gershon again. “It would seem, swordmaster, that your authority over us only goes so far.”

  Gershon’s smile broadened. “Yes, my lord. May I at least ask that you dismount and ready your shields?”

  This the dukes did.

  Soon the king’s archers were joined by six hundred more from the dukes’ armies. Moments later, another swarm of arrows descended upon them, and this time many of them struck true. Eibithar’s bowmen had brought shields as well as their bows and quivers, but still a number of them fell, their screams making Aindreas flinch beneath his shield.

  “Loose your arrows at will!” Gershon called.

  And a moment later the moor seemed to sing with the thrumming of so many bows. Cries of pain rose from the Aneiran army, like a distant echo of those that had come from Eibithar’s sons a few seconds before.

  More darts fell around Aindreas, and more were sent hurtling toward the enemy.

  “This is madness,” the duke muttered.

  “I quite agree.”

  Gershon was closer than Aindreas had known.

  “I didn’t mean-”

  “It’s all right, my lord. I believe I understand. But I’m at a loss as to what to do. It’s too dark and too dangerous to send the swordsmen forward, particularly with both armies loosing arrows blindly at one another.”

  “What if we set one volley aflame?”

  “My lord?”

  “We wouldn’t even have to light all of them. We wouldn’t want to, because it would make them too easy to avoid. But if we light some of them, we might be able to see where the enemy is.”

  “A fine idea, my l
ord,” Gershon said, sounding as if he thought Aindreas a genius. “I’ll speak with the captains right away.”

  It took some time to get the arrows wrapped in oilcloth and lit, and in the meantime the armies traded volley after volley. Finally Eibithar’s archers loosed the flaming arrows and the duke followed their arcing flight wondering what their fires would reveal.

  Only when they struck, though, did he understand how badly he and the others had miscalculated. Several of Aneira’s bowmen lay dead on the ground and perhaps two hundred others could be seen dodging the arrows that continued to fall. But the rest of the army was gone.

  “Demons and fire!” Gershon rasped. “They’ve gone on. It was all a ruse.”

  The Aneiran archers turned and ran, and after a moment’s hesitation, the swordmaster called for his men to attack. Instantly the king’s army surged forward, followed closely by the soldiers of Labruinn, Tremain, and Kentigern.

  “How far ahead do you think they are?” Caius asked, as the soldiers overran Aneira’s men.

  Gershon had already remounted. “They could have gained an hour on us. Maybe more.” He spat a curse. “I’m a fool!” He rubbed a hand over his face. “We’ll have to drive the men even harder now, keep them at a trot for as long as we can.”

  The dukes climbed onto their horses, and Eibithar’s army resumed its pursuit of the Solkarans. There were fewer of the enemy ahead of them now, but still enough to make a difference in Kearney’s battle with the empire. The soldiers, heartened by their easy victory over the archers, maintained a remarkably brisk pace for some time before finally flagging as the night wore on. As dawn approached, Gershon was forced to call a respite. The soldiers seemed utterly spent, and Aindreas felt what little hope he had left wither and die.

  But when the sky began to brighten at last, revealing the Solkaran army, the duke’s spirits lifted. It seemed that the Aneiran swordsmen had not left their bowmen as early as Aindreas had feared. Or perhaps they too had taken some time to rest during the night. The Aneirans had increased their advantage, but not so much that they could not still be caught. He sensed that the soldiers behind him realized this as well and he felt the lethargy of a long night being lifted from Eibithar’s army.

  Looking past the enemy, the duke saw far in the distance several thin plumes of pale smoke rising into the morning sky. He thought he could see tents as well, and a great host of men. The battle plain. It would still be several hours before the Aneirans reached the other armies gathered there-he could only assume that Kearney’s forces held the southern ground-but that made the morning’s pursuit even more urgent.

  “It seems the king has held them,” Lathrop said, already mounted and ready to ride on.

  Gershon gave a curt nod, his expression grim. “All the more reason to keep moving.”

  Lathrop eyed him in the dim grey light. “I quite agree, swordmaster,” he said pointedly. “I was merely observing what I suppose was already obvious to you.”

  The swordmaster’s mouth twitched. “Forgive me, my lord.”

  “I already have. I believe it’s time you forgave yourself. We all shared equally in what happened during the night. And to be honest, I’m not certain there was anything else we could have done. The Solkaran’s deception didn’t make their arrows any less deadly. Until we defeated the archers, we couldn’t resume our pursuit. I thought you dealt with them as well as anyone could have. And your decision to light our arrows aflame was quite brilliant.”

  “That was Lord Kentigern’s idea, my lord.”

  Lathrop looked at Aindreas, raising an eyebrow. “Really.”

  “Don’t look so surprised, Tremain. I still have occasional lucid moments.”

  “So it would seem.”

  Aindreas had to grin. Truth was, he had always liked Lathrop.

  Gershon rode back to address the men, and though Aindreas couldn’t hear all that the swordsmaster said, he could imagine well enough. He had rallied armies himself, and the words never changed much. Judging from the earsplitting roar that greeted Trasker’s words, it seemed to work on this morning.

  They started forward again moments later, and almost immediately began to gain on the enemy. It seemed that the Aneirans were slowing their pace deliberately, as if they suddenly understood that they were to be crushed between the two armies of Eibithar. Throughout the morning Gershon’s forces drew nearer to them, his soldiers singing so loudly that the Solkarans could not help but hear.

  Aindreas kept an eye on the distant armies as well. They were fighting again, and though the distance was too great to make out much of what was happening, it didn’t seem that the battle lines moved at all. He could only imagine the carnage.

  “Our soldiers may well tip the balance.”

  He turned to find Lathrop riding beside him.

  “They may indeed, if there’s anyone left alive when we get there.”

  “I’m sorry to have to ask this, Lord Kentigern, but I feel that it is my duty as a loyal subject of the king. Can you be trusted not to betray us at the end?”

  He should have expected this. It shouldn’t have stung at all. Just because he had chosen to turn from the path he had been on did not mean that the arrogance and self-righteousness of Glyndwr and his allies would magically disappear. Yet the question cut his heart like a blade, perhaps because he had always thought that Tremain was different from the rest, that he might have understood, even as he continued to stand with the king.

  “Yes, Lord Tremain. I can be trusted. Before leaving Kentigern, I swore to you on Brienne’s memory that I would keep faith with you and your king. Do you honestly think that I would dishonor her in that way?”

  “Aindreas, I’m sorry. But I had to-”

  “No,” the duke said. “You didn’t.” He kicked at his horse’s flanks and rode ahead of the man. And for the rest of the morning he kept to himself.

  By midday, they were once again as close to the Aneirans as they had been the previous evening. They were also near enough to the battle to make out the colors of the pennons fluttering in the wind above the armies of the realm. The purple and gold of Eibithar flew over the King’s Guard, and Aindreas also saw the colors of Thorald, Heneagh, and, of course, Curgh.

  Seeing the brown and gold of Javan’s house, the duke felt his chest tighten with old, familiar pains-grief, fury, bloodlust. Maybe Lathrop had been justified in asking about his intentions after all. Could he really fight beside Curgh’s duke, beside his son?

  His son didn’t kill your daughter. The Qirsi did.

  He knew this to be so, but his hatred for the men of Curgh ran deep.

  As the Solkarans drew ever nearer to Kearney’s army, they began to slow, then halted altogether. Aindreas saw a small group of Aneiran archers-perhaps a hundred-position themselves between their army and Gershon’s force. He could only assume that the enemy’s other bowmen had gone to the far side of their army to loose their arrows at the king’s men.

  “Archers!” Gershon cried, and the word was echoed by the captains marching behind them. Within moments, several hundred of Eibithar’s bowmen had come to the front of the column, arrows already nocked.

  At Gershon’s command the army resumed its advance until it seemed that the bowmen were within range of the enemy. Then the swordmaster called a halt and ordered the archers to begin their assault. The Solkarans tried to answer, but there were few of their bowmen left to face those of Eibithar.

  “They’ll attack His Majesty first,” Gershon said, his voice taut. And it did seem that they would. Though their archers sent volleys of arrows at Gershon’s force, the swordsmen behind them appeared to be massing for an attack northward. “If they can fight through to the empire’s army all is lost.”

  Before the Aneirans could strike, however, a great gale began to rise from the north, abrupt and unnatural.

  Many of Gershon’s archers, who had been about to fire again, paused, glancing at one other with puzzled expressions. The swordmaster stared up at the sky, as if
expecting to see some great beast swoop down upon them from the clouds. The squall continued to gain power, until Aindreas felt that he would be swept off of his mount.

  “This is no natural wind,” the duke said, shouting to be heard. “It’s sorcery. I’m certain of it.”

  The swordmaster nodded, staring up at the sky. “Aye, but who among the Qirsi is powerful enough to summon such a gale?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Grinsa could see now that this was in fact two armies-the Aneirans had another force following on their heels-and even without seeing the banners of this second army, the gleaner had an idea of who they were.

  “They’re trapped now,” Keziah said over the roar of their gale, reasoning it out for herself. Fotir gave a puzzled look and she added, “That’s Gershon behind them.”

  “You’re certain?”

  “I’d know the swordmaster from any distance. They must have followed the Solkarans from Kentigern.”

  “Then we’ve hope after all.”

  Grinsa nodded, his eyes fixed on the Aneiran captains riding at the head of the column. “There’s hope for the king and his men, yes, but our situation hasn’t improved much at all.” He glanced about quickly before staring at the captains again. The three of them had ridden a fair distance from Kearney’s lines to meet the Aneiran threat, thinking to protect the king from an attack on the rear of his lines. They were quite alone on this side of the Solkaran army.

  Keziah frowned. “Of course it has. They’ll have to fight off Gershon’s assault as well as ours. How can that not help us?”

  “We’re still three against hundreds.”

  “When we first rode to meet them we thought we were three against thousands. Or had you forgotten that?”

  “That was when I thought we had no choice!”

  She glared at him. “So now you’ve changed your mind?”

  “Can you do this?” Fotir asked. “Or are they too many?”

  “We can do it.”

  Keziah was still eyeing him, the wind howling all around them, though her hair remained still. “Then why does it sound like you’ve lost your nerve?”