Crown Of Stars - Child Of Flame Part 18

He had to blink, because the weak autumn sun seemed so strong that his eyes could not adjust. Stark terror flooded him, surging like a tide through his body. In the sp.a.w.ning pools of every tribe, the nests of the RockChildren ripened. Once he, too, had been a mindless embryo bathed in the waters of forgetfulness, seeking nothing more than his next meal. In the nesting pools, those hatch-lings lived who devoured their nest brothers rather than being devoured themselves. Those that ate matured into men, and those that simply survived instead of being eaten remained dogs.

Yet before Alain freed him from Lavastine's cage, he had been, like his brothers, a slave to the single-minded l.u.s.t for killing and war and plunder that still afflicted most of his kind. How close had he come to being a dog instead of a thinking man? How close was any creature to unthinking savagery, forgetting what it was?

With effort, he forced the fear back. He had not bathed too long in those waters. He had clawed his way free. Alain had freed him from his cage, and he meant to remain the way he was. He would not let memory sleep, and instinct rule.

Slowly, the world came clear around him and he could see again. He tightened his grip on his staff. Deacon Ursuline and Papa Otto had averted their eyes, careful not to be seen noticing his weakness. But even so, they looked startled, utterly amazed.

Let them not believe he had changed, or faltered.

"This is my decision. It is true that these half-wits are your family just as the dogs who swarm around our halls are my brothers. If you can take care of these half-wits, and if it does not interfere with your labors, then I will not touch them. But I lay the same obligations on you that I did when we agreed to the bargain over your G.o.d's house. As long as their presence among you does not interfere with the tasks set for you by your masters, then you may deal with them as you see fit. If I am dissatisfied, then I will act swiftly."

"We cannot ask for more than that," said Deacon Ursuline, quick to seal the bargain.

"No, he agreed, "you cannot."

Before he could make any more rash bargains, he walked away, still shaken. Yet because of his keen hearing, he heard them as they spoke to each other in low voices.

"These slaves served the Eika for many years in such tasks as cleaning out the privies. We ought not to waste the labor of those who are clever on that kind of mindless work when they could be doing other things like tanning or building. Surely we can find a place for each person to do some task, even the ones who act little better than dogs."

Deacon Ursuline did not reply right away. He heard her suck in her breath, as at a blow to the stomach. Where the path knifed into the forest, he paused to listen. Her words drifted to him as faintly as a sigh.

"I served a lord in Saony who was less just than this one."

Papa Otto made no reply.

Silently, Stronghand followed the path into the forest. There was wisdom in what Papa Otto said, of course. By releasing the strong from tasks that could be as easily done by the weak, all would prosper.

He had acted too hastily in this matter of the half-witted slaves. A wise leader gives enough rope to those clever enough to use it well, as he would need to pay out rope to Tenth Son. Do not keep the loyal ones lashed up too tightly; their obedience is bought by trust, not by fear.

His slaves had not failed him yet, even if they thought, now and again, of rebellion and of freedom. He had no need to say more, or to act other than he had just done. They knew what the consequences would be if they failed him, and they knew what would happen to them if his rule over Rikin Fjord ended.

It was in their interest to keep him strong.

"IT S uncanny, it is," said Ingo that night at the campfire in the tone of a man who has said the same thing the day before and expects to repeat himself tomorrow." Rain behind but never before. At least my feet are dry."

"It's that weather witch," said Folquin impulsively." She's mak ing it rain on the Quman army and not on us." His comrades shushed him violently, glancing around as though they feared the wind itself might carry their words to the powerful woman about whom he spoke.

Hanna cupped her hands around a mug in a desperate attempt to keep them warm, for although it was dry, the wind out of the northwest stung like ice." Have a care, Folquin. Prince Bayan's mother has an eye for good-looking young men to be her slave bearers, and she might take a liking to you if you come to her attention."

Ingo, Leo, and Stephen laughed at her jest, but perhaps because Folquin wasn't the kind of young man girls flocked around, her words stung him." The way Prince Bayan has an eye for you, Eagle?"

"Hush, now, lad," scolded Ingo." It isn't any fault of Hanna's that the Ungrians think her light hair a sign of good luck."

"No matter," said Hanna quickly as Folquin seemed ready to fall all over himself apologizing for his wretched tongue." Mind you, Prince Bayan's a good man- "And no doubt would be a better one if he could only keep his hands to himself," said Folquin with an appeasing grin.

"If a roving eye is the worst of his faults, then G.o.d know, he's better than the rest of us," replied Ingo." I've no complaints about his leaders.h.i.+p in battle. We'd all be heads dangling from Quman belts if it weren't for his steely nerves at the old high mound last month."

"If it had been Prince Sanglant leading us," said taciturn Leo suddenly, "we'd have won, or we'd not have engaged at all, seeing that the odds were against us."

"Ai, G.o.d, man!" exclaimed Ingo with the sneer of a soldier who has seen twice as much battle as his opinionated comrade, "who was to know that Margrave Judith would fall dead like that, and her whole line collapse? She had a third of our heavy cavalry. With her Austrans routing we hadn't a chance. Prince Bayan made the best of a bad situation."

"It could have been much worse," agreed Stephen, but since he was accounted a novice, having survived only one major battle, his opinion was pa.s.sed over in silence.

The fire popped. Ashy branches settled, gleaming briefly before Leo set another stick on the fire. All around them other campfires sparked and smoked as far as Hanna could see up along the cart track that the army followed as it retreated toward Handelburg. But the sight of so many fires did not make her feel any safer. She sipped at the hot cider, wis.h.i.+ng it would warm the chill that constantly ate away at her heart.

Ivar was missing. She'd searched up and down through Bayan's retreating army and not found a trace of him. She hadn't even found anyone who remembered seeing him on the day of the battle except the injured prince, Ekkehard, who was so vexed at having lost his favorite, Baldwin, that he couldn't be bothered to recall where and when he'd last seen Ivar.

"Only G.o.d can know the outcome of battles in advance," she said at last, with a sigh." It's no use worrying over what's already happened."

"Have you any milk to spill?" asked Ingo with a laugh, but he sobered, seeing her grief-stricken expression." Here, have more cider. You look cold, la.s.s. What's the news from the prince's camp?"

"Princess Sapientia has taken a liking to Lord Wichman, now that he's recovering from his wounds, and you know how Prince Bayan humors her in everything. But that Wichman and his lordly friends-" She hesitated, but she could see by their expressions that her comments would shock no one here." Truly, I'd as soon run with a pack of wormy dogs. Sometimes I think the princess- well, may G.o.d bless her and I'll say no more on that score. But she'd be better served in attending to her poor brother."

"He still can't use his spear arm?" asked Ingo.

"For all I know he'll never regain use of it, for he was sorely wounded. Lord Wichman is insufferable precisely on that account, for he was the one who rescued Prince Ekkehard from the Quman prince who was about to cut him down."

"I tell you truly," said Folquin in a low voice, "and not meaning to speak ill of the princess, may G.o.d bless her, but I wonder does she know what Prince Ekkehard does in the evening here in camp?"

"What do you mean?" demanded Hanna.

Folquin hesitated.

"You'd better show her," said Ingo." There's been some fights about it already, in the ranks, and an army in our position can hardly afford to be fighting among itself."

"Come on," said Folquin reluctantly.

Hanna drained her mug and gave it to Ingo. The four Lions had stationed their campfire where wagons had been lined up in a horseshoe curve to form a barrier between the rear guard and the outlying sentries. The wooden cart walls gave some protection against the winged riders who dogged them persistently as they retreated north just ahead of the most astoundingly bad weather. There always seemed to be a rainstorm following at their heels, and as Hanna followed Folquin she could hear it like a storm front breaking in front of her. Wind and rain agitated the woodland behind them, but no rain ever touched Bayan's army. The dry ground they walked on surely was churned to muck behind them, hindering their pursuers so badly that the main ma.s.s of the Quman army had never been able to catch up and finish them off. *

Such was the power of Prince Bayan's mother, a formidable sorcerer, princess of the dreaded Kerayit people.

But even with her magic to aid them, they had had a miserable month following their defeat by Bulkezu's army at the ancient tumulus. The Ungrians had a saying: a defeated army is like a dying flower whose falling petals leave a trail. Every dawn, when they moved out, the freshly dug graves of a few more soldiers, dead from wounds suffered at the battle, were left behind to mark their path. Only Prince Bayan's steady leaders.h.i.+p had kept them more-or-less in one piece.

But even his leaders.h.i.+p had not been enough to save Ivar.

The Lions formed the rear guard together with the stoutest companies of light cavalry left to Bayan, now under the captaincy of Margrave Judith's second daughter and her admired troop of fighters. Lady Bertha was the only one of Judith's Austran and Olsatian commanders who hadn't lost her troops to rout when the margrave had lost her head on the battlefield. A popular and unquenchable rumor had spread throughout the army that Lady Bertha had so disliked her mother that the margrave's death had emboldened rather than disheartened her. It was to the fringe of her bivouac that Folquin now led Hanna.

Six campfires burned merrily to mark out a circle. In their center sat Lady Bertha and her favorites, drinking what was left of the mead they'd commandeered from a Salavii holding two days before. Usually Hanna could hear them singing all the way up in the vanguard, for they were a hard drinking, tough crew, but tonight they sat quietly, if restlessly, and Lady Bertha bade them be still as she listened to Prince Ekkehard.

"It's the same story he's been telling every night," whispered Folquin. A dozen or more Lions had come to stand here as well, positioned out of the smoke that streamed south-east from the fires. Those nearest turned irritably and told him to be quiet so that they could hear.

Prince Ekkehard was an attractive youth, still caught on that twilight cusp between boy and man. With his right arm up in a sling and his hair blown astray by the cold wind, he made an appealing sight. Most importantly, he had a bard's voice, able to make the most unlikely story sound so believable that you might well begin to swear you'd seen it yourself. He had his audience enraptured as he came to the end of his tale.

"The mound of ashes and coals gleamed like a forge, and truly it was a forge for G.o.d's miracles. It opened as a flower does, with the dawn. Out of the ashes the phoenix rose. Nay, truly, for I saw it with my own eyes. The phoenix rose into the dawn. Flowers showered down around us. But their petals vanished as soon as they touched the earth. Isn't that how it is with those who refuse to believe? For them, the trail of flowers is illusory rather than real. But I believe, because I saw the phoenix. I, who was injured, was healed utterly by the miracle. For you see, as the phoenix rose, it gave forth a great trumpeting call even as far as the heavens, and we heard it answered. Then we knew what it was."

"What was it?" demanded Lady Bertha, so intent on his story that she hadn't taken a single draught of mead, although she did have a disconcerting habit of stroking her sword hilt as though it were her lover.

Ekkehard smiled sweetly, and Hanna felt a cold shudder in her heart at the single-minded intensity of his gaze as he surveyed his listeners." It was the sign of the blessed Daisan, who rose from death to become Life for us all."

Many in his audience murmured nervously.

"Ivar's heresy," Hanna muttered.

"Didn't the skopos excommunicate the entire Arethousan nation and all their va.s.sal states for believing in the Redemption?" demanded Lady Bertha." My mother, G.o.d rest her, had a physician who came from Arethousa. Poor fellow lost his b.a.l.l.s as a lad in the emperor's palace in Arethousa, for it's well known they like eunuchs there, and he came close to losing his head here in Wendar for professing the Arethousan heresy. It's a pleasing story you tell, Prince Ekkehard, but I've taken a liking to my head and would prefer to keep it on my own shoulders, not decorating a spike outside the biscop's palace in Handelburg."

"To deny what I saw would be worse than lying," said Ekkehard." Nor is it only those of us who saw the miracle of the phoenix who have had our eyes opened to the truth. Others have heard and understood the true word, if they have courage enough to stand up and bear witness."

"Are there, truly?" Lady Bertha looked ever more interested as she swept her gaze around her circle of intimates. After a moment, she settled on a young lord, one Dietrich. Hanna recalled well how much trouble he'd caused on the early part of their journey east from Autun last summer, when she'd been sent by the king with two cohorts of Lions and a ragtag a.s.sortment of other fighters as reinforcements for Sapientia. But at some point on the journey he had changed his ways, a puzzling change of heart that hadn't seemed quite so startling then as it did at this moment.

Slowly, Lord Dietrich rose. For a hulking fighting man he seemed unaccountably diffident." I have witnessed G.o.d's work on this Earth," he said hesitantly, as though he didn't trust his own tongue." I'm no bard, to speak fine words about it and make it sound pretty and pleasing. I've heard the teaching. I know it's true in my heart for I saw-" Amazingly, he began to weep tears of ecstatic joy." I saw G.o.d's holy light s.h.i.+ning here on Earth. I sinned against the one who became my teacher. I was an empty sh.e.l.l, no better than a rotting corpse. l.u.s.t had eaten out my heart so I walked mindlessly from one day to the next. But G.o.d's light filled me up again. I was given a last chance to choose in which camp I would muster, whether I would chose G.o.d or the Enemy. That was when I discovered the truth of the blessed Daisan's sacrifice and redemption- Hanna grabbed Folquin's arm and dragged him away." I've heard enough. That's a wicked heresy."

The light of many fires gave Folquin's expression a fitful inconstancy." You don't think it might be true? How else can you explain a phoenix? And the miracle, that all their hurts were healed?"

"I'll admit that something happened to change Lord Dietrich's ways, for I remember how you Lions complained of him on the march east this summer. Is it this kind of talk that people are fighting over?"

"Yes. Some go every night to hear Prince Ekkehard. He'll preach to any person, highborn or low. Others say he's speaking with the Enemy's voice. Do you think so, Eagle?"

"I've seen so many strange things- The horn call came, as it did every night. Men cried out the alarm. Ekkehard's audience dissolved as soldiers grabbed their weapons, lying ready at their sides. Out beyond the wagon lines, winged riders broke free of the storm to gallop toward the rear guard, but only a few soggy arrows skittered harmlessly into camp before Lord Dietrich and his contingent of cavalry chased them off with spears and a flight of whistling arrows.

By the time Prince Bayan arrived from the vanguard to investigate, all lay quiet again except for the ever-present wind and the hammer of rain off to the southeast. He rode up with a small contingent of his personal house guard, a dozen Ungrian hors.e.m.e.n whose once-bright clothing was streaked with dirt. Foot soldiers lit their way with torches. Bayan had the knack of remaining relatively clean even in such circ.u.mstances as this-in the torchlight Hanna could see the intense blue of his tunic-and the contrast made him all the more striking, a robust, intelligent man still in his prime whom adversity could not tarnish.

"Fewer attacked tonight," said Lady Bertha, handing him an arrow once he had dismounted." It may be that they've fallen back so far they've given up catching us. Or perhaps they mean us to grow complacent, until they attack in force and take us by surprise."

Prince Bayan turned the arrow over in his hands, studying the sodden fletchings." Perhaps," he echoed skeptically." I like not these attacks which are coming each night same time."

Lady Bertha had the stocky build and bandy-legged stance of a person who has spent most of her life on a horse, in armor. She looked older than her twenty or so years, weathered by a hard apCHILD or FLAME prentices.h.i.+p fighting in the borderlands." I've sent three scouts back to see if Bulkezu's army still follows us, but none have returned."

Bayan nodded, twisting the ends of his long mustache." To Han-delburg we must go. We need rest, repair, food, wine. With good walls around us, then can we wait for-" He turned to his interpreter, Breschius, a middle-aged cleric who was missing his right hand." What is this word? More troops to come."

"Reinforcements, my lord prince."

"Yes! Reinforcements." He had trouble p.r.o.nouncing the word and grinned at his stumbling effort.

Lady Bertha did not smile. She was not in any case a woman who smiled often, if at all." Unless we can't get word out from Handelburg because Bulkezu has used the cover of this storm to move his army so that he surrounds us."

"Not even Quman army can ride all places at one time," replied Bayan just as he caught sight of Hanna loitering in the crowd which had gathered to observe the commanders." Snow woman!" His face lit with a bold smile." Your brightness hides here. So dark it has become by my campfire!"

Hanna felt her face flame with embarra.s.sment, but luckily Bayan was distracted by Brother Breschius, who leaned over to speak to the prince in a low voice.

"Ekkehard?" exclaimed Prince Bayan, looking startled.

Hanna glanced over at the ring of campfires, but Prince Ekkehard had vanished. She grabbed Folquin's sleeve and slipped away, eager to be out of Prince Bayan's sight. She had sustained Sapientia's anger more than once and didn't care to suffer it again as long as she had any choice in the matter.

By asking permission of Sapientia to continue searching out news of Ivar, she kept a low profile in the last days of the march until they came to the frontier fortress and town of Handelburg. From the eastern slopes, as they rode down into the valley of the Vitadi River, she could see the walled town, situated on three islands linked by bridges across the channels of the river. West lay the march of the Villams, which stretched all the way to the Oder River. To the east beyond spa.r.s.ely inhabited borderlands spread the loose confederation of half-civilized tribes known as the kingdom of the Polenie.

The biscop's flag flew from the high tower to show that she had remained in residence in her city despite the danger from Quman attack. All the gates stood closed, and the few hovels resting along the banks of the river, homes for fisherfolk and poor laborers, sat empty, stripped of every furnis.h.i.+ng. Even crude furniture could be used for firewood in a besieged city. Fields had been harvested and the riverbanks stripped of fodder or bedding: reeds, straw, gra.s.s, all shorn in preparation for a Quman attack. In a way, the countryside surrounding Handelburg looked as though a swarm of locusts had descended, eaten their fill, and flown on, leaving not even the bones.

A messenger came from the vanguard: the Eagle, representing the king's ear, must ride in the front. With trepidation, Hanna left her good companions among the Lions and rode forward to take her place, as circ.u.mspectly as possible, beside Brother Breschius.

"Stay near me," he said in a low voice." I'll do my best to keep you out of their way."

"I thank you, friend."

The gates were opened and they advanced into the city. The townsfolk greeted Bayan and Sapientia and their ragged army with cheers, but Hanna noted that the streets weren't crowded despite this welcome. She wondered how many had already fled west into the march of the Villams.

Biscop Alberada met them on the steps of the episcopal palace, dressed in the full splendor of her office and wearing at her throat the gold torque that signaled her royal ancestry. A number of n.o.ble ladies and lords attended her, including one das.h.i.+ng man who wore the peaked cap common to the Polenie. The biscop waited until Princess Sapientia dismounted, then descended the steps to greet her and Prince Ekkehard. With such precisely measured greetings did the n.o.bles mark out their status and territory. Had it been King Henry riding into Handelburg, the biscop would have met him on the road outside of town. Had it been Margrave Vil-lam, come to pay his respects, Alberada would have remained inside so that he had to come in to her.

Sapientia and Ekkehard kissed her hand, as befit her holy station, and she kissed their cheeks, the mark of kins.h.i.+p between them. It was not easy to see the resemblance. Alberada was older than Henry, fading into the winter of her life. In the year since she had presided over Sapientia's and Bayan's wedding, she had aged noticeably. Her hair had gone stark white. Her shoulders bowed under the weight of her episcopal robes.

She turned from her niece and nephew to greet Bayan and acknowledge the other n.o.bles, those worthy of her immediate notice. Hanna could not tell whether she meant to greet Bayan's mother, hidden away in her wagon, or ignore her, but in any case by some silent communication the wagon was drawn away toward the guest wing.

If Biscop Alberada noticed this slight, she gave no sign." Come, let us get out of the cold. I wish I had better news to greet you with, but troubles a.s.sail us on every side."

"What news?" asked Sapientia eagerly. The long march had made the princess more handsome; what she lacked in wisdom she made up for in enthusiasm and a certain s.h.i.+ning light in her face when her interest was engaged.

"Quman armies have attacked the Polenie cities of Mirnik and Girdst. Girdst is burned to the ground. Both the royal fortress and the new church are destroyed."

"This is sore news!" exclaimed Lady Bertha, who stood to Sapientia's left.

"Yet there is worse." It began to rain, a misting drizzle made colder by the cutting wind." The Polenie king is dead, his wife, Queen Sfildi, is a prisoner of the Quman, and his brother Prince Woloklas has made peace with the Quman to save his own life and lands. This we heard from Duke Boleslas-" She indicated the n.o.bleman standing on the steps above." -who has taken refuge with his family in my palace."

"Who rule the Polenie folk, if their king is dead?" asked Bayan.

Evidently Duke Boleslas could not speak Wendish well enough to answer easily, because Alberada replied." King Sfiatslev's only surviving child, a daughter, has fled east into the lands of the pagan Starviki to seek aid. Shall I go on?"

Bayan laughed." Only if I have wine to drink to make the news go down easier. Of wine there is none this past month."

"Let us move into the hall!" exclaimed the biscop, looking more shocked by this revelation than by the Polenie defeat. Or perhaps she just wanted to get out of the rain, which began to come down in sheets. Her servants hurried away to finish their preparations." Of course there is wine."

"Then I fear not to hear your news. The war is not lost if there is wine still to drink."

Biscop Alberada had laid in a feast worthy of her status as a royal b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Because of her kins.h.i.+p with the Polenie royal family, she had been allowed to found the biscopry of Handelburg thirty years ago when only a very young woman newly come to the church. One of King Sfiatslev's aunts had been taken prisoner during the wars between Wendar and the Polenie fifty years ago, and this young n.o.blewoman had been given to the adolescent Arnulf the Younger as his first concubine, a royal mistress to a.s.suage his youthful l.u.s.ts while he waited for his betrothed, Berengaria of Varre, to reach marriageable age. In the thirty years Alberada had overseen the growing fortress town of Handelburg, the n.o.ble families of the Polenie had all been thoroughly converted to the Daisanite faith in a right and proper manner.

The biscop reminded them of her successful efforts at conversion as wine was poured and the first course brought." That is why I fear for Sfiatslev's daughter, Princess Rinka, for the Starviki have been stubborn in holding to their pagan ways. What if they induce her to marry one of their princelings? She might become apostate, or even worse, fall into the error of the Arethousans, for the Starviki are known to trade furs and slaves to the Arethousans in exchange for gold nomias. What news of your father, Sapientia? I trust we expect him in the east soon, for truly we have need of his presence here."

Sapientia glanced toward Hanna, standing back among the servitors." This Eagle brought the most recent news," she said in a tone which suggested that whatever bad news she had to impart was Hanna's fault." King Henry means to ride south to Aosta. He sent a paltry contingent of two hundreds of Lions and not more than fifty hors.e.m.e.n even though I pleaded with him that our situation was desperate."

"He seeks the emperor's crown," said Alberada." I wonder what use the emperor's crown if the east burns," mused Bayan.

"These are troubled times in more ways than one." Alberada gestured to her steward, who refilled all the cups at the table." An emperor's crown may bring stability and right order to a realm afflicted by the whisperings of the Enemy. These Quman raids are G.o.d's judgment on us for our sinfulness. Daily my clerics bring me more stories of the pit of corruption into which we have fallen- After so many days on spa.r.s.e rations, Hanna was glad enough to be obliged to serve, since it meant she could eat the leavings off the platters. A stew of eels was followed by roasted swan, several sides of beef, and a spicy venison sausage. Despite the biscop's forbidding disquisition on sinfulness, the n.o.bles ate with gusto, and certainly there was enough to spare both for the servants and for the dogs.

Prince Bayan had cleverly turned the topic of conversation to what interested him most: the war." We must hold here the whole winter."

"Surely winter will put a stop to the Quman raids." Freed from her armor and heavy traveling cloak, Sapientia looked much smaller. She hadn't her father's height or breadth of shoulder, but months riding to war had given her a certain heft that she had lacked before her marriage.

Bayan laughed." Does my lion queen tire of war?"

"Certainly not!" Sapientia had a habit of preening when Bayan paid lush attention to her. She could never get enough of his praise, and the prince had a knack for knowing when to flatter his wife." But no one ever fights during the winter."