“Frostbite?” asked Erik.
“Don’t know,” said Jimmy. “I haven’t taken my boots off. My fingers are fine.” He wiggled them.
“We have a healing priest here. The Temple of 52893_~1.QXD 8/30/2002 10:02 AM Page 21
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Dala, at Rillanon, sent one to provide advice to the Prince.”
Dash grinned. “You mean the King bullied them into having one close by in case Patrick was wounded.”
“Something like that,” admitted Erik as he returned the smile. “Have him look at your feet. It wouldn’t do to have you going toeless.”
Jimmy chewed, then swallowed. “Why am I suspicious you’re motivated more by my fitness for duty, Captain, than out of any concern for my well-being?”
Erik shrugged theatrically. “Because you have a reasonable comprehension of how things work in court?”
Jimmy suddenly looked very tired, as if letting down his mask. “How soon?” he asked.
Erik looked sympathetic. “The end of this week.
Three, four more days.”
Jimmy nodded. He stood and said, “I’d better find that priest.”
“Down the hall from the Prince’s quarters, next to my own. His name is Herbert. Tell him who you are; you look like a rag-picker.”
Dash watched his brother leave and said, “As his feet thawed he could barely walk. I think that priest is going to earn his keep.”
Erik took a cup of coffee from Milo, said thanks, then turned to Dash. “He already has. I’ve got a score of men fit for duty who would still be laid up if it wasn’t for that priest. And Nakor.”
“Where is that scrawny lunatic?” asked Dash. “I haven’t seen him in a week.”
“He’s out in the city, gathering converts for his 52893_~1.QXD 8/30/2002 10:02 AM Page 22
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new faith.”
“How goes the summoning of the Blessed to spread the word of Good?”
Erik laughed. “Recruiting those willing to work on behalf of good in the midst of winter, after a war has reduced the population to near starvation, is nearly beyond even Nakor’s conniving ways.”
“Any takers?”
“A couple. One or two are earnest, the others looking for a meal.”
Dash nodded. “Is this next mission something I could do? Jimmy could use a rest.”
“We all could,” said Erik. Then he shook his head. “But you’re not being spared, my friend, for we’re all going.”
“Where?” asked Dash.
“Krondor. Patrick can’t sit here forever. And if what your brother has reported jibes with the other reports we’re getting, the longer we wait, the stronger Fadawah’s forces are going to get in Krondor. We may have to hit them with everything we have sooner than we’d like.
“With Kesh threatening our southern border, Patrick’s been reluctant to return the Armies of the East. Well, the King has ordered some elements back. Seems some of the Kingdom’s eastern neighbors are getting fractious now there isn’t a large standing army or huge fleet there to keep them in line. So Patrick’s in a hurry to retake Krondor before King Borric orders more soldiers home to the East.”
Dash said, “So how many of us are going to Krondor?”
“The Eagles,” said Erik, naming the special command of soldiers that had been gathered and trained 52893_~1.QXD 8/30/2002 10:02 AM Page 23
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by Dash and Jimmy’s grandfather Lord James, the late Duke of Krondor. “We’ll have some auxiliaries, Duga’s crew”—he named a large force of former mercenaries who had come over to the Kingdom’s side during the invasion—“and we’ll be working with Captain Subai’s Pathfinders.”
“That’s all?” asked Dash.
“That’s all to start,” said Erik. “We’re not trying to conquer all of the Principality in the first week.”
He sipped at his coffee. “We were going to find a likely place to hold so we can stage, then we ride in and secure Krondor.”
“Sounds easy,” said Dash in a sarcastic tone. “If there wasn’t another army already there.” He studied Erik’s face. “There’s something else going on. Why is Patrick in such a hurry to secure the city? I can think of a half-dozen better places from which to stage a retaking of the West if I didn’t care about Krondor; we could cut it off and starve out whoever’s there, staging from a camp to the east.”
“I know,” said Erik, “but part of it is pride. It’s Patrick’s city, the capital of his realm. He was Prince of Krondor for only a short while before it was lost.
And he followed a legend in that office.”
Dash nodded. “Growing up in Rillanon, Jimmy and I met Prince Arutha only a few times; when I was old enough to appreciate him, he was getting on in years. But what my father and others said about him made him impressive, even then.” He looked at Erik a moment, then said, “You think Patrick’s of the notion that Arutha would somehow have held the city?”
“Something like that,” said Erik. “The Prince doesn’t confide in me. But there’s more to it than just 52893_~1.QXD 8/30/2002 10:02 AM Page 24
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wounded pride. The other part of it is logistics. That harbor is going to be useless for years. If we had the manpower and equipment we had before the war in Krondor, all the workers, dredges, and a few cooperative magicians, even, it would still take a year to clear the harbor, maybe more. As it is now, I have no idea if Krondor will ever become the shipping center it once was.
“But we have a new port south of there, in Shandon Bay, Port Vykor, and for it to be any use to us, we have to insure we have a clear trade route between there and the rest of the West, which means Krondor needs to be secured. We don’t need it, but we certainly can’t have Fadawah’s generals using it as a base to attack us.” He lowered his voice, as if not wishing for a perverse fate to overhear. “If we get cut off from Port Vykor, we may never reunite the Eastern and Western Realms.”
Dash nodded. “That makes sense.”
Erik put down his now empty mug and said,
“That’s about all that does.”
Dash nodded in agreement as Erik stood.
Looking up at the tall, powerfully built captain, he said, “I haven’t seen my sometime employer about lately. How fares your friend Rupert?”
Erik smiled. “Roo is hauling some ridiculous amount of goods through mud and ice to be first into Darkmoor with what we need.” Then Erik laughed.
“He told me he’s the richest man in the world, according to his accounts, but has almost no gold left, so his only hope for recovery is to insure the Kingdom survives long enough to pay him back.”
“An odd kind of patriotism, wouldn’t you say?”
Erik smiled as he nodded. “If you knew Roo as 52893_~1.QXD 8/30/2002 10:02 AM Page 25
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well as I, you’d judge it entirely in keeping with his nature.” Pausing for a moment as if considering a second cup of coffee, Erik looked with a faint show of regret at the empty mug. After a moment of silence, he said, “I’d best get back to see what Owen wants done.”
He departed. Dash pondered what had been said there, amidst the bustle of the kitchen, then rose to find Jimmy and see how he fared.
The priest was just departing Jimmy’s quarters when Dash arrived.
Sitting on the bed next to his brother, who lay under a heavy wool blanket, Dash said, “That was quick.”
“He gave me something to drink, washed my feet in an unguent, then told me to get some sleep.”
“How bad are they?”
“I was going to lose toes, at least,” said Jimmy,
“If he hadn’t been here.” With a nod of his head he indicated the departed priest.
“You paint a pretty bleak picture of what’s out there.”
Jimmy sighed. “I saw plac
es where men had stripped the bark off of trees to make soup.”
Dash sat back. “Patrick’s not going to be happy.”
“What’s happened here while I was gone?” asked Jimmy, stifling a yawn.
Dash said, “We’ve got reports that things are stable up north, though no one has seen sign of that bastard Duko lately.”
Jimmy said, “If Fadawah is sending Duko south, Krondor could be very difficult to seize.”
“Yes,” agreed Dash. “Kesh is not happy about 52893_~1.QXD 8/30/2002 10:02 AM Page 26
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what went on down in Stardock, and we’ve got elements of the garrison of Ran and half of the King’s Own down near Landreth, just waiting for an excuse to move south. Kesh has pulled away from Shamata, but they’re a lot closer than Patrick likes, and the vale is once again a no-man’s-land. Negotiations are underway, even as we speak.”
“The East?” asked Jimmy, this time unable to stop the yawn.
“We won’t know until the spring, but some of the smaller kingdoms may get playful. Patrick and the King have exchanged messages, and I get the impression Borric wants some of his Army of the East back as soon as the thaw starts.”
“What’s Father say?”
“To me?” asked Dash. Jimmy nodded. “Not much,” said Dash with a smile that reminded his brother of their grandfather in his more playful moods. “He’s pretty closemouthed about things.”
“Mother?” asked Jimmy.
Dash nodded again. “I get the feeling it may be a long time before Mother visits us. She seems to find court life in Roldem preferable to living in a tent in the burned-out remains of Krondor, irrespective of the rank of Duchess.”
Jimmy closed his eyes. “She and Aunt Polina are most likely shopping right now, or having gowns fitted for a banquet or dance.”
“Most likely,” agreed Dash. “But it’s hard on Father. You’ve been away for most of the winter, and the few times you’ve been here you’ve seen him when he’s busy.”
“Grandfather and Grandmother?” asked Jimmy.
“Yes,” said Dash. “When he’s alone and thinks I 52893_~1.QXD 8/30/2002 10:02 AM Page 27
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don’t notice, he broods. He knows there was nothing he could do, but he silently rages about it. I hope once spring comes and we start the campaign he’ll snap out of it, but he’s drinking more than he used to and seems withdrawn most of the time.”
When Jimmy said nothing, Dash glanced at his brother and saw his chin on his chest, his eyes half-closed as he fought to remain awake. Dash quietly stood up and moved to the door. He took a long look at his brother, and for a moment saw an echo of their dead grandmother in his features, the pale skin and nearly white blond hair. Finding a tear coming unbidden to his eyes, Dash quickly left, silently closing the door behind, while he said a silent prayer of thanks to Ruthia, the Goddess of Luck, for the safe return of his brother.
“Erik!”
Dash turned to see Rosalyn hurrying down the corridor, and stood aside to let the young woman pass. Dash knew the girl felt overwhelmed at times by being the mother of the next Baron—she was Gerd’s mother because of her rape at the hands of Erik’s half-brother—and Erik was her closest friend.
They had been like brother and sister as children, and he was the first person she turned to when in distress.
Dash watched as she came to the Captain’s door and started knocking.
Erik opened the door and said, “What?”
Dash hesitated a moment, then continued to walk past as Rosalyn said, “It’s the Baroness. She’s refusing to let me bathe my own son! It’s just one more thing she’s taken from me! Do something!”
Dash stopped and said, “Excuse me.”
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Both Erik and Rosalyn turned to the young man.
“Yes?” asked Erik.
“I hesitate to intrude on the basis of overhearing a conversation I’m not party to, but to avoid any embarrassment, may I make an observation?”
“What?” said Rosalyn.
“Given her somewhat . . . forceful nature, the Dowager Baroness has actually been rather leisurely in acquainting your son with his new office.”
Rosalyn shook her head. She had been a pretty girl growing up in Ravensburg with Erik, but the birth of two children, hard work in her husband’s bakery, and the travail of the recent war had put premature grey in her hair and robbed her face of the softness Erik had known in his youth. Her eyes were now hard, and she was leery of hearing anything from Dash that would further remove her from her son.
“Gerd is now Baron von Darkmoor,” said Dash, trying to be patient and instructive without sounding patronizing. Rosalyn might be an untutored common woman, but she wasn’t stupid. “For the rest of his life, many of the things you did for him will be done by servants. Had you been Baroness, you would never have bathed him, nor changed his diapers, nor perhaps even nursed him.
“It’s time for you to begin his education as Baron.” Dash waved around, indicating the castle.
“This is now the frontier of the Kingdom, until the West is retaken, and may continue to be a critical stronghold for years, far into Gerd’s adulthood. Gerd is almost five years old, and soon will spend most of his day with tutors and instructors. He needs to learn to read, to write, the history of his people, riding, 52893_~1.QXD 8/30/2002 10:02 AM Page 29
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weapons, court protocol . . .”
Erik nodded, putting his hand on Rosalyn’s shoulder. “Dash is right.” The young woman looked defiant and Erik felt her shoulder tense under his hand. He smiled. “But there’s no reason you can’t stand nearby and watch as the servants care for him.”
Rosalyn said nothing for a moment, then nodded and turned off to retrace her steps to where her son was housed in the Baron’s quarters of the castle. Erik watched her retreating back, then turned to Dash.
“Thanks for pointing things out.”
“I hesitated to insert myself into your conversation, but it’s only the truth.”
Erik glanced down the hall to the corner where Rosalyn had turned out of sight and let his eyes fix on the distant space. “So many changes. We all have so much to adjust to.”
Dash said, “Again, I don’t mean to presume, Captain, but if you require any assistance . . .”
Erik smiled. “I suspect I will. And I will count on you and your brother. If you haven’t heard yet, you’re both being assigned to my command.”
“Oh?” said Dash.
“It’s your father’s idea. He’s going to take a hand personally in this coming campaign.”
Dash nodded. “He’s his father’s son.”
Erik said, “I didn’t know your grandfather well, I must say, but well enough to know that’s a compliment.”
Dash grinned. “If you had known him better, you might not think so. Ask my mother if she ever decides to return to the West.”
“Anyway,” continued Erik, “the King has his hands full in the East, with most of his army absent 52893_~1.QXD 8/30/2002 10:02 AM Page 30
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and his navy sunk, in keeping the Eastern Kingdoms from starting trouble. The Prince has Kesh in the South, so that leaves it to our merry little band to reclaim the West.”
“Why does that not fill me with joy?” asked Dash rhetorically.
“I believe you would be in need of a healing priest if it did. You would obviously be bereft of your senses.”
“When does this campaign begin?” asked Dash.
“When you hear the first sound of ice breaking in the West, start packing.”
Dash said, “I heard ice break this morning.”
“Well, get packing,” said Erik. “We leave for Krondor within the week.”
Dash nodded. “Ver
y good, Captain.”
As Dash turned away, Erik said, “One other thing.”
“What, sir?” asked Dash.
“Your office as Court Baron does you no good in the army, so you and James are both being given the rank of Knight-Lieutenants.”
“Thank you, I think,” said Dash.
“Tomorrow head down to the quartermaster and draw uniforms for yourself and James.”
“Sir,” said Dash with a weak salute, then he turned and walked toward his own quarters.
Muttering to himself, he said, “Damn. I’m in the army.”
Jimmy tugged at his ill-fitting black tunic.
“Damn. I’m in the army.”
Dash laughed. He gently elbowed his brother, indicating the Prince was about to speak.
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“My lords, gentlemen,” he began, addressing the gathering in his audience hall, formerly the Baron von Darkmoor’s. “The King requires the presence of most of the Army of the East along the Keshian border and to the east. That leaves it to what is left of the Armies of the West to drive the remaining invaders from our shores.”
Dash whispered to his brother, “Perhaps we shouldn’t have sunk all their ships. It makes the trip home so much more difficult.”
Arutha, Duke of Krondor, threw his younger son a dark look, and Dash fell silent, while Jimmy attempted not to laugh aloud. One thing James admired about his younger brother was an ability to find something funny in almost any situation, no matter how bleak.
Prince Patrick said, “Of course it does,” looking directly at Dash.
Dash had the good grace to blush before his Prince.
“But we can arrange to transport them home at a later time. First they must surrender.”
Dash tried to wish himself invisible.
Patrick continued. “Intelligence confirms that this General Fadawah is seizing the opportunity created by the Emerald Queen’s defeat to fashion a little Empire for himself.”
He walked to a map and took a pointer and indicated the area between Krondor and Ylith. “From Sarth to Ylith, Fadawah’s forces are in complete control.” The pointer swept to the east. “They control the forests up to the mountains, and most of the passes to Nightmare Ridge. We have a stable front along the ridge.
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