“Yes, ser.”
“Good. Round up the other two and take your positions. Not a word…and you cannot let them see you.”
Dyliess turned and hurried up the steps.
Saryn waited several moments before crossing the black-stone foyer. “Everything is in readiness, Marshal.”
“Except for my daughter and her accomplices.”
“She wanted the trio to be part of the demonstrations?”
Ryba nodded. “It would do no good, as we both know.”
“It might frighten them into building an alliance with everyone against us, you think?”
“That’s possible. Right now, the rulers of those lands bordering the Westhorns all have the idea that disaffected women from their lands and elsewhere comprise the majority of Westwind. They can accept that, if reluctantly. If they see that we’re able to actively train and develop another generation in addition to those who flee, that will intensify their opposition. Right now, that’s outside their belief structure. They just don’t think that way, and I’d like to leave it like that as long as possible.” There was the briefest pause before the Marshal added, “And please don’t tell me that we can’t keep training youngsters if they aren’t born here. You’re right about men, but I don’t have to like it.”
Saryn understood those words were the greatest concession she’d get from Ryba on that.
A single horn triplet echoed down from the upper levels of the tower.
“It won’t be long now before the Suthyans are here,” Saryn said.
Ryba and Saryn walked from the base of the stairs across the foyer, halting just short of the closed ironbound door that afforded access to the causeway where the Suthyan envoy and his escorts would rein up. Only when the Suthyans were in position would the two women step out to greet the functionary and his entourage.
“He has two squads of troopers.” Ryba wore a silver-gray tunic, belted in black, above black trousers and boots.
“That’s enough to protect him and not enough to be considered a challenge.”
“It’s also an expression of their beliefs. They’re traders who’d rather not spend any unnecessary golds. In the end, they’ll be easier to handle than Arthanos.”
“Because they’ll weigh the cost of losing men against the dubious value of controlling inhospitable territory, while Arthanos will fight to maintain the myth of masculine superiority?”
Ryba nodded. “But traders are more likely to deal in treachery because it costs fewer golds.”
The tower door opened, and Llyselle stepped into the foyer. “The envoy is here, Marshal.”
The Marshal stepped forward, and Saryn followed, a pace back. Once outside the tower, Ryba halted on the wide single stone step above the stone-paved causeway. Saryn stood by her left shoulder and Llyselle by her right.
Suhartyn and a half score of Suthyans were reined up on the causeway, with guards on each side. The remainder of the Suthyan force was reined up on the road leading to the stables. Saryn had also taken the precaution of stationing several archers inside the tower windows overlooking the causeway.
For a moment, Ryba said nothing. She just stood there, radiating authority. Then she spoke. “Welcome to Westwind, Suhartyn, as envoy and honored guest. While we can provide but austere hospitality, that we do offer.”
“I am pleased to be here, Marshal. All have heard of Westwind. All know that the only entry is as a guest, and we look forward to learning more about the Roof of the World.”
“We will be pleased to let you see Westwind.” Ryba smiled. “Once you have had time to settle in the guest cottage and your men in the auxiliary barracks, we will be offering you some demonstrations on the arms field that I am most certain you will find entertaining.”
“Entertaining, Marshal? Or of great interest?” Suhartyn offered a smile that was half-pleasant and half-ironic.
“We would hope that you would find it both interesting and entertaining. After that, your men will be fed, and after that you and your closest advisors will join me and mine.”
“You are most gracious, Marshal…”
Saryn sensed that Suhartyn had expected Westwind to be far more elaborate than he had found it and that he had expected a far grander welcome, perhaps because of all the rumors that had filtered across Candar in the past years.
“Grace we can provide, most honored Suhartyn, but expansive and elaborate banquets are limited here on the Roof of the World. But then, when we arrived…there was nothing here. In another ten years you will not recognize it.” Ryba gestured. “My guards will escort you, and, in a glass or so, we will meet on the arms field for some diversion.”
Suhartyn bowed from the saddle. “We look forward to that, and to learning more about Westwind, for there must be far more here than meets the eye.”
“You will learn what you need to, and very little will escape your eyes. Of that, we are most certain.” Ryba inclined her head.
Saryn said nothing until the Suthyans and the two guard companies were well out of earshot, riding slowly up the stone road west of Tower Black. “I’d like to see how that pampered trader and his men would fare up here in winter.”
“About as well as I’d fare in Armat in midsummer,” Ryba replied dryly. “Is everything in place?”
“All the targets are set, and Hryessa’s first squad will mount up once everyone is gathered on the field. The other companies will be deployed in and around the tower and the stables, just to make sure that our guests behave.”
“I’ll leave you, and I’ll join you when the envoy heads down to the arms field.”
Saryn nodded and took her leave.
The sun was approaching the western horizon, seemingly barely a hand above the highest peaks, turning the glistening ice needle that was Freyja into shimmering golden white, when Suhartyn, flanked by four armsmen, walked onto the arms field. Ryba and Saryn stood waiting with ten guards from Llyselle’s second squad. Behind the envoy and his guards followed four other better-dressed men, also with guards. All wore heavy winter leather jackets, unlike the riding jackets of the Westwind contingent. Two of the four Suthyans following the envoy wore uniforms, and two wore more ornate riding garments.
“We are here at your pleasure, Marshal.” Standing before Ryba, Suhartyn was slightly shorter and considerably more rotund. His ginger beard was well trimmed and shot with gray, and his wary eyes were guarded by dark pouches beneath. His voice was high, not quite unpleasant. “What are we about to behold?”
Saryn felt Suhartyn’s company would prove wearying over time.
The Marshal gestured to the south end of the arms practice field, a good half kay from Tower Black and the stone road up to the stables. Ten woven brush-and-wood targets, each roughly the size and shape of a mounted armsman, stood solidly anchored in the stony ground. The section of each target that resembled a rider had a tunic and a breastplate and a battered helmet. “In a few moments, you will see. We should walk a bit closer.”
Suhartyn nodded, then inclined his head northward. “I see that you are building a larger hold uphill from the black tower.”
“After a time, any successful community finds it must grow,” replied Ryba, moving toward the targets. “Growth on the Roof of the World requires solid stone and careful planning.”
“I can see that you have, what, several full companies of your guards?”
“We do, and we will have even more before long. Guards are not our only defense, as you may recall. Our abilities do not lie in just the numbers and skills of the guards, as Lord Sillek and his sire discovered.”
“Ah, yes. How could anyone forget that? Still…that was some time ago.”
“You should watch the demonstration, Envoy Suhartyn. It might answer some of your questions. If not, afterwards, I will be more than pleased to do so.” Ryba’s voice was calm and cool, like a polished short sword.
Saryn had stepped back, matching steps with the four men behind Suhartyn, the closer two of whom wore officers’
cold-weather jackets of a dark green wool.
One inclined his head. “You’re the arms-commander?”
“I am. Saryn. And you?”
“Lygyrt, Captain of Horse. This is Undercaptain Whulyn.”
Lygyrt was young, barely twenty local years, while the grizzled Whulyn looked to be a good ten years older than Saryn…and probably wasn’t. Saryn marked him as the equivalent of a noncom who’d come up through the ranks, even more rare in Candar than in the UFA.
“Then you both should find the demonstrations of interest.”
“I’m certain we will,” Lygyrt replied.
Whulyn nodded brusquely.
Ryba stopped in the middle of the field. Almost as she did, the twenty riders of Hryessa’s first squad, two abreast, started down the stone road at a quick trot. Lygyrt and Whulyn immediately began to watch the guards. The other two Suthyans, more richly dressed in golden brown leather coats with black brocade-trimmed sleeve cuffs, did not survey the riders but kept their eyes on Ryba and Suhartyn.
Saryn glanced to Catya, the nearest guard, then inclined her head toward the two civilians, both with short-trimmed beards, doubtless the equivalent of Suthyan gentry—or dressed to convey that impression. Catya nodded and dropped back slightly, easing gradually westward so that she took position behind the two. Another guard—Trecya—joined her.
Whulyn’s eyes flickered toward the two guards as they shifted position, then back to Saryn, before returning to scrutinize the mounted squad as the riders turned onto the packed gravel on the west end of the arms field.
Just before the southwest end of the field, the column turned, and the riders urged their mounts into a canter, then a gallop, with the guards on the north side holding their mounts back just enough that each file was staggered, but with each rider maintaining the same interval between mounts.
Each target received two flung blades, released from ten yards away. Every one struck the torso area of the designated target.
“Rather impressive,” offered Suhartyn, “if not terribly practical in large battles.”
“They’re not finished,” said Ryba.
At the end of the field, the squad turned right and headed back westward along the south end. They continued due west up the long slope that served as the archery range.
“Bows?” asked Whulyn, looking at Saryn.
She nodded. “At two hundred yards.”
Near the top of the slope, short of the cliffs that formed a natural backdrop, the squad turned and reformed. Barely had they done so than their bows were out. Each guard loosed three shafts.
In instants, every single target had sprouted shafts.
“You will notice that every shaft penetrated a vital area,” Ryba said conversationally.
“Picked squads can do that,” noted Suhartyn.
“Have you ever seen one that could do what that squad did?” Ryba looked hard at the Suthyan.
“I’m certain it is possible,” Suhartyn said pleasantly.
“Indeed it is. We just proved that. But have you seen any other squad do that?” She paused. “Still, we have another demonstration.”
Two guards ran across the field carrying a leather-covered sphere slightly less than a yard across. They set it on the ground twenty yards in front of the Marshal, then ran back to their positions with a squad to the east of the Marshal.
“Do you see the ten archers on the road above the smithy?”
Suhartyn turned. “Yes.”
“They are a different group, and the distance is about three hundred yards.” Ryba raised her arm, then dropped it.
In instants, the wicker globe became a hedgehog of feathered shafts.
“One hundred shafts in a target a yard across at three hundred yards in little more than a score of heartbeats.”
Saryn could sense the concern and the tension in the two Suthyan officers, but none from Suhartyn. Didn’t the envoy have any idea just how accurate the archers were?
“That is most impressive marksmanship,” acknowledged Suhartyn.
“In the field, of course, they would all target different armsmen, all across the front lines, so that any charge would slow, if not halt. Then they would pick off those trapped behind.”
Whulyn nodded, if almost imperceptibly. Lygyrt glanced at his undercaptain, but Whulyn did not look at his superior.
“We have one last demonstration for you, Envoy Suhartyn. Would you indicate an officer to accompany my arms-commander?”
Suhartyn turned. “Undercaptain? If you would?”
One of the junior guards led two horses out onto the field. Saryn mounted her gelding, where the heavy black hood was draped over the front of the saddle. Whulyn was almost as quick with the other mount, and he rode beside her as they headed uphill on the road.
Less than a hundred yards above the northwest corner of the field, Saryn turned her mount and reined up. Then she extended the heavy black hood to Whulyn. “Look it over, then put it over my head.”
Whulyn edged his mount closer with an ease of long experience, then bent forward.
Saryn leaned toward him, waiting until the hood was in place. “Is there any way I can see?”
“No.” Whulyn’s voice contained veiled amusement. “There wouldn’t be, would there?”
Saryn managed to keep from smiling, not that the undercaptain could have seen her expression under the hood. “No. There’s no trickery involved. You can follow me to watch and see what you think.”
“Thank you, Commander.” The amusement had vanished from Whulyn’s voice.
Using her senses, Saryn guided the gelding back down the road toward the arms practice field. Her free hand checked the blades in the shoulder harness and the one in the sheath at her knee. At the west end of the field, she turned south, then, once she was past a point even with Ryba and Suhartyn, she urged the gelding eastward and into an easy canter.
When she was still a good twenty yards from the wicker target, she released the first blade, smoothing the flows and sending it toward the breastplate once worn by a Lornian lancer. The second blade was away at about fifteen yards. Then she turned the gelding, and with her back to the target, flung the last blade.
She slowed the gelding gradually, wishing she hadn’t had to ride on the field, then turned and rode back to where Ryba, Suhartyn, and the Suthyan captain stood. After reining up, she removed the heavy black hood and gently tossed it to the captain. Ten yards away, all three blades were buried to their hilts in the iron breastplate, each spaced two fingers from the one beside it.
She dismounted, and a guard hurried up and handed Saryn another blade, which she slipped into the left shoulder scabbard one-handed. The guard took the gelding’s reins and led him away. Saryn walked forward to Suhartyn, inclining her head politely. “I trust that these small demonstrations provide some idea of what our guards can do.”
Suhartyn, a good half head taller than Saryn, smiled politely. “You are all most impressive. But there are not that many of you.”
“There were less than forty of us when we destroyed the thousands of Lornth,” Ryba replied calmly. “We would prefer not to fight, because fighting wastes golds and resources. That is why we destroy all those who try our patience. It keeps us from wasting resources too often.”
“Ah…yes.”
Saryn slowly drew the short sword, then looked to Lygyrt. “Would you like to see if you could put this blade, or your own, through the breastplate of the target?”
“I’d prefer not to dull my own.”
Saryn reversed the short sword and extended it, hilt first, to the captain.
She and Lygyrt walked to the target.
The captain jabbed, and the short sword skittered off the iron. “This is a useless, blunted weapon.”
“Please return it to me, then.” Saryn extended her hand.
The officer reversed the weapon and offered it.
Saryn took the short sword, stepped back some three paces, summoned the blackness around her, and re
leased the blade. It turned exactly once before the tip sliced through the iron, directly below the middle blade of the three she had thrown from horse back. Like the others, it buried itself up to the hilt.
Lygyrt swallowed.
Saryn smiled. “It doesn’t seem that blunt to me. All the short swords are balanced to be used as both blade and weapon.”
“…demon-woman…all of them…”
“…wouldn’t have one chained and stripped bare…”
Saryn ignored the mutters her senses picked up and walked back across the field to where Suhartyn stood beside Ryba.
The Marshal turned to Suhartyn. “Do you still think it was a trick?”
“Perhaps…I should have said that it was a form of magic.”
“And all of the archers were using magic?” Ryba paused. “I suppose skill with weapons is a form of sorcery.”
Whulyn had dismounted and returned the mount to a guard. He said nothing when he rejoined Lygyrt and the two nobles.
Ryba half turned so that she could speak to both Suhartyn and the others. “That concludes our little demonstration. We have tried your patience, and it is time for your men to be fed in the main hall at Tower Black. The rest of us will meet there in two glasses for the banquet. Perhaps we should call it a dinner. There will be places for you and up to a half score others.”
“We will be there, and we look forward to conversing and enjoying your hospitality.” Suhartyn inclined his head.
Saryn could sense something, particularly from one of the two well-dressed men who had said nothing, not while she had been in earshot, anyway. But she said nothing until the Suthyans had left the field, and she and Hryessa walked toward the tower, following Ryba.
“They’re planning something,” Saryn told the guard captain. “Have two squads watching their armsmen at all times. If they try anything, kill anyone who lifts a weapon.”
“Yes, ser.”
Once she entered the tower, Saryn went to the armory. There, she drew another short sword before heading up to her small corner of the tower, where she slipped out of the riding jacket and battle harness and donned a formal sword belt, slipping the blade into the scabbard. Then she walked down to the main hall, to wait and watch while the Suthyan armsmen were fed, followed by the Westwind guards.
Arms-Commander Page 4