Gjerdrum glanced at the near-rags he was donning. “I’ll try to find something.”
“The Queen. How’d her council go?” “Still on.”
“Lead away. Where’s he at?” “Dungeon. We thought that’d be safest.” It was Mocker. Mocker in pathetic shape. He snoozed on a straw-strewn floor.
“Open up,” he told the turnkey. “Quietly. Don’t wake him.”
There had to be a trick. He could not welcome Mocker without one. He hunkered down and tickled the fat man’s ear. He had grown an ugly, scraggly beard. This Ragnarson tweaked gently. “Wake up, darling,” he said in a squeaky falsetto.
Mocker smiled, placed one hand over Ragnarson’s. He frowned in consternation-then bounced up ready for a fight.
Bragi roared, rocked back on his heels. “Got you!” “Hai!” Mocker groaned in a weak imitation of his former self. “Greatest of great spies risks life and limb of very self-important self, endures months of incarceration, debilitation, and torture at behest of friend, weary unto death and on edge of pneumonia, with Volstokiners hordes pursuing, treks thirty miles godforsaken country after redoubtedly-redoubtably?-singlehandedly slay-ing arch-shaghun of Volstokin advisers, shaghun-general direct from councils at Al Rhemish, thereby saving bacon of ingrate associates Preshka and Kildragon, and am welcomed to saved city by dungeon-chucking natives too ignorant to recognize renowned self, there to be set upon by hairy Trolledyngjan of dubious masculinity and questionable morals. Woe! In whole universe is no justice. Very demons of despair pursue self through vale of tears called life...”
Ragnarson got lost in the twists and turns. “Rolf’s here? In Kavelin?” If Rolf had joined Reskird, Elana might have too.
“Said same, no? Preshka, Rolf. Iwa Skolovdan. Former Guild Captain. Age thirty-six. Nineteen yearsservice. Began with Lauder’s Company...”
“All right. All right. Give me the part about the shaghun again.”
Mocker regained his verve while he detailed his escape.
“Come on,” said Ragnarson. “We’ll clean you up and have the Royal physician look you over.” On the way, Ragnarson bombarded his friend with questions. Each answer pleased him more than the last.
“Gjerdrum,” he said, as they neared his room, “scare up the physician. Then have all officers assemble in the officers’ mess. Have them bring maps of the area where Vodicka’s camped. And I want my Marena Dimura there. Then meet me at the council chamber. How do I get there?”
“But you can’t...”
“Watch me. I could care less about being respectful to a gang of lard-assed Nordmen hypocrites. Tell me.”
Reluctantly, the youth gave directions.
“Carry out your orders. Wait. What the hell time is it, anyway?”
“Around midnight.”
Ragnarson groaned. He had wasted eight hours sleeping.
Two palace guards blocked the council chamber door. “Announce me,” he told the senior.
“Sorry, sir. Lord Lindwedel left instructions that they weren’t to be disturbed for any reason.”
“Eh? Why? What if something happened?”
The soldier shrugged. “I got the idea they were going to have it out with Her Majesty.”
“Ah.” The old snake had found out about Eanred.
“You’d better get out of the way.” His cold determina-tion made the younger guard gulp.
“No, sir,” the senior said. “Not till my orders change.” His knuckles whitened on the haft of his short ceremonial pike.
Bragi hit him with a left jab. His helmet clanged off the wall. Ragnarson snatched his pike, knocked the second soldier’s feet from beneath him, rattled the first’s brains again, then hit the door. It was neither locked nor barred. He crashed through.
Just in time.
Seven old Nordmen surrounded the Queen like lean gray wolves a terrified fawn. She had been weeping, was about to sign a document. The triumph on the ministers’ faces, before they turned, told Ragnarson he had guessed right. They had bullied her into abdicating.
He took three swift steps, smashed the pike head down on the document. Hurling ministers aside, Bragi seized the document, flung it into a nearby fireplace.
Lindwedel shouted, “Guards!”
“Keep your mouth shut, you old vulture!” Ragnarson growled, drawing his sword. “Or I’ll cut you a new one about four inches lower.” He backed to the door, locked and barred it.
He wished he had a few Trolledyngjans along. He would have to hurry instead...
“You men get over against that wall.” He moved to the Queen’s side. She appeared uncertain whether to be grateful or angry. He scowled at a minister edging toward the door.
“If I were younger, I’d...”
“You’d get your ass killed. Haven’t met a Nordmen yet who could butcher a chicken without help. Let’s get this settled civilly. We’ll let the lady make up her mind on her own.”
Their glares promised trouble. There would soon be plots to eliminate the foreigner who defended the foreign Queen.
“Why’d you bust in?” the Queen whispered.
“Friend of mine just arrived,” he replied softly. “From Vodicka’s camp. Wanted you to know what he said. When I got trouble outside, I figured these old buzzards were up to something.”
“What was so important?”
“Vodicka’s shaghun is dead, Vodicka has gone insane, and his army has been decimated by sickness. H is men are deserting. My associate Kildragon has placed a force west of them as an anvil against which I can hammer them. I’ll begin tightening the noose in the morning.”
“You’re pushing too hard. Killing yourself. You’ve got to rest sometime.”
“You rest between wars,” he muttered. Then, “We can’t ease off. There’re still too many variables. And Shinsan’s vultures are perched on the crags of the Kapenrungs.”
“You won’t wait for your man Blackfang?”
“No. But he’ll be here soon. I don’t intend getting in a fight anyway, just to maneuver Vodicka into a bad position.”
“The numbers don’t look good.”
“Numbers aren’t important. Still want to run away? To quit when we’ve got a glimmer of hope?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t made for this. Intrigue. War.”
“I promise you, if it’s within my power, that I won’t go till I can leave you with the quietest country in the Lesser Kingdoms. If I have to leave rebels hanging like apples from every tree.”
“But you’re a mercenary. And have a family and home, 1 hear.”
Did she sound just the least disappointed? “I have no home while the Greyfells party retains any power. The appointment?”
“They’ll never agree.”
“Bet?” He turned to the Ministers. “Her Majesty wishes your confirmation of my appointment as Marshal of Ravelin.”
Some turned red and sputtered. Lord Lindwedel croaked, “Never! No base-born foreigner...”
“Then we’ll hang you and appoint some new Ministers.”
The door rattled as someone tried it. The Ministers perked up.
Ragnarson could force his will here, he knew, but how would he keep them from reneging?
Haroun’s would be the simplest solution. He would have them murdered.
“You wouldn’t dare!”
Men smashed against the door.
“Try me. The charge is treason. I believe Her Majesty will support it.”
Axes began splintering the door.
The Queen touched his arm. “Appearances will decide this. Back into the corner like you’re defending me.”
She had chosen. He smiled, did as she suggested. She attached herself to his left arm in the classic pose of damsel hanging on protector.
Lord Lindwedel surrendered. “All right, damn it. Have the documents prepared.”
Bragi held his pose long enough for Gjerdrum and the Queen’s troops to catch a glimpse. Thus it was that, dishonestly, he won their loyalty.
IV) The challeng
e
There was snow on the ground, a sprinkling scarcely thicker than frost, tainted ruby in the dawnlight. A harsh cold wind stirred skeletal trees. Bragi, astride a shivering horse at wood’s edge, glanced up the road that snaked over the hill masking Vodicka’s camp. With him were the irrepressible Mocker and a dozen of his own and the Queen’s men. Mocker blew into shaking hands and bemoaned the impulse that had brought him into the field.
For a week Ragnarson had maneuvered his forces into position, hoping for a fiat that would spare lives. He would need every man in the spring.
To the north, blocking the route to Volstokin, were Blackfang and Ahring with the Trolledyngjans and Itaskians. Sir Andvbur, for the moment commanding the Queen’s Own and palace guard, held the routes eastward. In the south lay Altenkirk with eleven hundred Wessons and Marena Dimura. The woods behind Vodicka were held by Kildragon and Preshka.
Everyone had been in position since the day before. The men had been given a night’s rest and plenty to eat... This one he wouldn’t hurry. It would be his most crucial battle, one that, in its handling more than its winning, could make him as Marshal of Kavelin.
“You’d better get going,” he told Mocker.
The fat man kicked his new donkey into a walk. He had volunteered to find Haroun. He would skirt the battlezone and, hopefully, would know the outcome before passing Kildragon’s last outpost. He also bore messages to Vodicka’s family.
Ragnarson turned to another of his companions. “Bring her out.”
Against his advice and over the protests of her supporters, the Queen had insisted on joining him.
In minutes she was at his side, bundled in furs that concealed ill-fitting chain mail. She bubbled.
Ragnarson nodded. “We begin.” He urged his mount forward. She kept pace. His party trailed by twos.
Ragnarson’s heart hammered. His stomach flipped and knotted. Doubts plagued him. Had he chosen the best course? Sure, it was the way to slay the rumors about him not leading from the front, but... What if Vodicka refused his challenge?
He leaned toward the Queen, said, “If you bring as much excitement and stubbornness to ruling as you do to getting in a fight, you’ll...”
Her thigh brushed his. He wasn’t sure, but it seemed she’d guided her mount the slightest bit closer to his. He remembered riding thigh by thigh with Elana, with mortal dangers waiting to strike.
“You’re a beautiful woman,” he croaked, forcing the compliment. Then he ameliorated his boldness with, “You shouldn’t risk yourself like this. If we’re taken...”
There was red in her face when she looked his way. Had he angered her?
“Marshal,” she said, “I’m a woman. Noble by birth, Queen in marriage to a man long dead, and leader by circumstance. But a woman.”
He thought he understood. And that was more frightening than anything that might be waiting beyond the hill.
They crested that hill. “You’re sure the messages went out?” He had asked her to send commands to every Nordmen to post public pledges of fealty or face banishment or death. News of today’s events would pursue the messengers, would convince or condemn.
“Yes. Slight exasperation.
He studied the encampment. Vodicka had restructuredit along Imperial lines, throwing up ramparts and cutting trenches. Towers for archers were under construction. It had taken two attacks for Vodicka to learn that he wasn’t on bivouac.
“Banners,” Ragnarson growled over his shoulder. They had been noticed.
The Krief family ensign broke beside a white parlay flag. Ragnarson advanced till they were just beyond the range of a good Itaskian bow. This would be the point for one of Greyfells’ rogues to materialize.
They waited. And waited. The nearest gate finally opened. Horsemen came forth.
“Here,” Ragnarson told the Queen, “is where, if I were Haroun, you’d learn the difference in our thinking. He’d make some innocuous signal and our bowmen could cut them down. Haroun goes for the throat.”
Vodicka wasn’t with the party.
“They look like they’ve spent a year besieged already,” the Queen remarked. She was old enough to remember the bitter sieges in her homeland.
Ragnarson signaled an interpreter. The common speech of Volstokin was akin to Marena Dimura. The upper classes used a different dialect.
The party was a mixed bag including several senior officers of Volstokin’s army, a few of El Murid’s advisors, Kaveliner turncoats, and a man with a bow who looked Itaskian.
A Kaveliner recognized the Queen, babbled excitedly to his companions.
“Tell them our business is with Vodicka,” Ragnarson told his interpreter. The lingua franca of the upper classes was the speech of Hellin Daimiel.
An officer replied, “I speak for King Vodicka. No need for the interpreter.” He spoke flawless upper-class Itaskian. “I’m Commander of the Household, Seneschal Sir Farace Scarna of Liolios.”
“Guild Colonel Bragi Ragnarson, Marshal of Kavelin, with and speaking for Her Supreme Highness Fiana Melicar Sardyga ip Krief, Queen of Kavelin, daughter and ally of His Highness Dusan Lorimier Sardygo, Lord Protector of Sacuescu, the Bedelian League, and the
Auszura Littoral, and Prince Viceregal to Their Majesties the Kings of Dunno Scuttari and Octylya.” Which didn’t mean much, Sacuescu being powerless, Dunno Scuttari still recovering from the wars, and Octylya an Itaskian Protectorate as subject to pressure from the Queen’s enemies as friends.
“What do you want?”
Ragnarson was pleased by Sir Farace’s businesslike manner. A fighting man all his life, Bragi judged.
“I challenge Vodicka to individual combat. And demand the surrender of himself and his forces. The former as Champion, the latter as Marshal.”
“Champion?”
“Your King has had that much success, Sir Farace,” the Queen interjected.
Sir Farace said something in his own tongue. Reluctantly, all but he withdrew a hundred yards.
“Pull back the same distance, Dehner,” Bragi ordered.
“The lady too, and it please you.”
Ragnarson turned. She was putting her stubborn face on. “My Lady.”
“Must I?”
“I think so.”
Once they were alone, scant swordswings apart, Sir Farace asked, “Man to man? Not as Seneschal and Marshal?”
“All right.”
“Can you beat us?”
“Easily. But I’ll starve you out instead. I’ve talked to deserters. I know what’s going on inside.”
“Damned foreigners... Intrigues and magic. And greed. Destroyed an army and a King.” He paused, spat. “I’d surrender. Save what I could. But I’m not His Majesty. The weaker he gets, the more he grows sure we can finish Kavelin if we’ll just hold on till we get another sorcerer from Al Remish.” He spat again. “He won’t surrender. He might fight.”
“You could sally, come over the hill, and surrender.”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so. How bad is he?”
“Very. Healthy, he’d give you a battle. He fought
Tarlson to a draw once. Years ago. He wears the scar proudly.”
“What happens if I kill him? In Volstokin?”
“You wouldn’t notice the change. His brother, whom you defeated at Lake Berberich, succeeds. The war goes on.”
“How, with Volstokin in ruins and threatened by famine?”
“The rumors are true?”
“I know bin Yousif.”
“Why this confrontation?”
“This army’s a nuisance. I’ve got more dangerous enemies to worry about. Suppose I grabbed Vodicka and threw him in a cell somewhere? Kept him in style, but didn’t ransom him?”
“A regency. Probably the Queen Mother. His Majes-ty’s brother, Jostrand, isn’t that popular.”
“And this infamous alliance with El Murid?”
“Dead. Dead as the Emperors in their graves.”
“Then impriso
nment might best serve both Volstokin and Kavelin.”
“Perhaps.”
“A gift to show my feeling that there should be peace between us. Anstokin moves with spring. They intend to take the provinces above Lake Berberich, all the way to the Galmiches.”
Sir Farace grew pale. He started to say something, nodded. Then, “Of course. We should’ve anticipated it.”
“Our sources are unimpeachable.”
“I believe you. I’ll talk to His Majesty, but I guarantee nothing. Good fortune.”
“The same.” He said it to Sir Farace’s dwindling back.
V) Personal combat
“Well, what’d he say?” the Queen demanded. “We might work something out.” “You won’t attack?”
“Not if I can help it.”
“But...”
“I didn’t get this old fighting for fun. Let’s get back to the woods. This wind’s killing me.”
While the others piled brush into a windbreak and got a fire going, and saw to the horses and weapons, Bragi and the Queen sat on a log and stared at Vodicka’s encampment. Bragi was looking for weaknesses, she the gods knew what.
“Beckring,” Ragnarson said presently. “Find Sir Andvbur. Tell him I need a crossbow, a pony or his runtiest horse, and a Cerny.” The Cerny, a breed developed near that small city in Vorhangs, was a gigantic horse meant to bear the most heavily armored knights.
“Now what?” the Queen asked.
“Hedging my bets. That’s another way you stay alive in this business.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I just remembered. Haroun isn’t the only guy who thinks his way. His whole race... Can you kill a man? If he’s trying to kill you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Better think about it. Better be ready when the time comes.” He began fiddling with his boots.
Beckring brought the animals and weapons just as a party left Vodicka’s camp. Ragnarson explained as he hurried his people to the meeting point. He rode the Cerny, she the pony. The men crowded close so they could hear.
When the Volstokiners arrived, without Vodicka or Sir Farace, Ragnarson had the Cerny sideways to them with the Queen masked behind him. He presented his shield side.