She could tell he wasn't joking. Failla wiped her cheeks with the edge of her cloak. "I'll be good." Her voice broke treacherously.

"Please, don't be afraid." The tall man was doing his best to control the restive horses. He sounded almost as upset as she was.

His Lescari accent--Carluse, no less!--spurred Failla to sudden wrath. "Don't be afraid?"

"Don't blame the lad," the first Mountain Man said calmly. "Now, where were you heading?"

"Thymir Manor." The truth was out before she thought to lie. "Where we will be missed," she added quickly.

"Not before nightfall." He grinned. "We'll be leagues away by then."

"Who are you?" Failla clung to the anger that was holding her fear at bay. "What do you want?"

The first man bowed elegantly. "I'm Sorgrad and this is my brother Gren."

"Pleased to meet you." The second Mountain Man's bow wasn't as polished, though his smile was more engaging.

"I'm Tathrin." The tall man was still struggling with the horses and now the mule was being awkward.

"There are Woodsmen in these coppices. They don't take kindly to bandits hunting on their roads." Failla tried to sound convincing.

"Is that so?" The less polished Mountain Man, Gren, looked around with happy anticipation. "Will they put up a better fight than that sack of shit?"

Slung over his own saddle, Parlin stirred and moaned.

"Let's be on our way." Sorgrad took Ash's reins from the tall man, Tathrin. "Give the lady a hand up, lad."

Failla noted that the tall one was wringing his hand as if he had hurt it punching Parlin. Ostrin said he had broken a knuckle and serve him right, she thought vindictively. He bent nevertheless, so she could use his linked fingers as a step and mount.

"Why's the duke sending you all the way to Thymir?" Sorgrad took hold of Ash's bridle to lead the mare beside his own horse. "That's a long way to come from Carluse to chase you round the bedposts."

Failla looked at him, suspicious. Was this false friendliness to tempt her into indiscretion?

"I'm leaving for a few days while Lord Ricart visits."

Let him pick the truth out of that and carry it back to Duke Garnot.

"The young cat's sniffing around the old tom's quean?" Riding by her other stirrup, Gren laughed. "Can't blame the lad, mind you." He leaned forward, not menacing, more confiding. "So what would a man have to do to get a pretty puss like you purring? Can anyone less than a duke tickle your belly?"

"Gren!" The Carluse man, Tathrin, was scandalised.

Following on behind, he was leading the mule and Parlin's horse. Failla saw him looking at the groom's hanging head with concern.

Failla returned her attention to Gren. His eyes were paler than his brother's. "Your rank is irrelevant," she said calmly. "I may be a duke's doxy but I am no whore."

"Good." By her mare's head, Sorgrad was smiling with more approval than she would have expected.

Had Duke Garnot sent them to test her loyalty to him? Was that what this was all about?

She held herself ready to answer their questions with measured defiance that would prove her devotion. Only there were no more questions. Sorgrad led them down a narrow lane cutting between the coppices and on through a spread of fields where the first spring wheat showed frail green shoots.

They finally reached a larger stand of trees that Failla guessed was the edge of the hunting forest separating Thymir Manor from the next demesne. "Where are we going?"

"For the moment, this'll do." Sorgrad led her mare into a green hollow amid the trees.

"My lady." Dismounting, Gren spread his cloak carefully over a log. "You don't want the moss to stain your skirts," he explained reasonably, "otherwise someone might think you'd had a tumble in the long grass." His grin told her he didn't mean a fall from her horse.

"We have bread, cheese and chicken." Tathrin was busy with a saddlebag. "And wine."

"Come on, girl, you must be hungry." Mouth full of bread, Sorgrad jerked his head. "Sit down."

"What about him, hanging there with his ears flapping?" Gren scowled at Parlin.

Failla wondered if the groom was still unconscious or merely, wisely, pretending to be.

"Fetch him another clout and he might not wake up." Sorgrad bit into a lump of cheese. "Hood him."

Failla dismounted as Gren dragged Parlin's cloak down over his head and tied it tight. What part did the groom have to play in all of this? They'd said he was to carry the tale back to Duke Garnot. Was Parlin the one under suspicion? Did the duke want to compare whatever the youth told him with the report these mercenaries made? Did he want to see if Parlin told anyone else what had befallen her? She breathed a little easier. Parlin was most assuredly innocent of any involvement in her uncle's schemes.

"Chicken?" Tathrin offered her a nicely browned leg.

"Who are you?" She glared up at him. "Why's a Carluse man riding with mercenaries within his lord's own borders?"

"I'm no mercenary," Tathrin protested.

Gren took a hunk of bread from him. "Not so's you'd notice."

"We are, though," Sorgrad said calmly, "and we need to know what Duke Garnot plans for the summer--which mercenary captains he's corresponding with and where he plans to fight."

"So you can make your fortunes out of Carluse misery?" She spat on the ground at his feet.

"So we can put a stop to it," Tathrin said forcefully.

Startled, she saw he was wholly serious. "How?" she challenged.

Sorgrad answered. "We know you pass word of Duke Garnot's plans to some of the guildmasters so they can get innocent folk out of harm's way. We want to save you the bother. There are folk, Lescari folk, far beyond your borders who want to buy off the mercenaries before the fighting starts."

"And not just in Carluse."

As Tathrin told her a halting, complex tale of people meeting and talking in distant places, Failla listened with growing incredulity. Finally concluding, he looked at her with eager expectation.

"Have you run completely mad?" She didn't know whether to be appalled or bleakly amused. "Have you and all these merchants forgotten the truth of life in Lescar, living in exile for so long?"

"What's your point?" Sorgrad asked mildly.

"You think Duke Garnot will simply give up his plans just because he can't hire mercenaries to fight at his bidding for a season?" She rounded on him. "That he'll renounce all he desires for himself and his son and his son's sons? The High King's crown isn't just the spur for this year's fighting. It's his life's central ambition, like his father and his grandfather before him. It's the one aim that unites him and Duchess Tadira."

"They will be forced to see reason," Tathrin said obstinately.

"Reason has nothing to do with it," she retorted. "I read their letters and I hear Duke Garnot and Duchess Tadira talking. I see all their calculations as they weave their carefully contrived marriages and alliances. Come Solstice and Equinox, I see whichever dukes might be visiting Carluse doing exactly the same, them and their duchesses. They don't just plot and scheme because they have nothing better to do with their time. It's what they learned as life and duty with their mother's milk. It's what they breathe with every waking moment. Every duke dreams of uniting Lescar as a kingdom under his rule!"

"If they have no mercenaries to fight their battles, all they can do is dream," Tathrin insisted.

"Until they call up the militias. Do you think the vassal lords will refuse to fight when their liege-lord calls them to defend their own by attacking his enemies? They'll whip their tenants into line if they have to," Failla cried. "Duke Garnot's successes offer his vassal lords wealth and honour. They will carry on fighting just as they always have." She shook her head. "Folk say scholars are next to fools. I never thought so till now."

"If the dukes have no coin to finance their wars--" Tathrin began stubbornly.

"They'll sell their peasants' children into Aldabreshin slavery to raise it," Failla interrupted him mercilessly. "Garnot of Carluse has done it before and so has Ferdain of Marlier. The other dukes would do the same."

That finally silenced Tathrin. Failla looked down to find she was still holding the chicken leg. Absurdly, she realised she was hungry and began to eat.

"It always comes back to these dukes." Gren chewed a crust, contemplative.

"So, Tathrin, don't have your friends in Vanam pay mercenaries to fight each other." Sorgrad went to a saddlebag and found a wineskin. "Pay them to get rid of the dukes."

"What?" Tathrin stared at him.

"That's not a bad notion." Gren produced a horn cup from a pocket. "Lescari militiamen are weak as wet wheat at the best of times. Even before your man Reniack starts convincing them not to fight with his night letters nailed to shrine doors." He paused to let Sorgrad pour him some wine. "If we brought all the best warbands together, we could throw down these dukes and whatever lords are fool enough to stick with them."

"Why not see if that wins you some peace?" Sorgrad produced a silver cup from his belt pouch and filled it.

"Who would rule over the wasteland you'd make?" Failla demanded.

"Aren't you already living in a wasteland? You soon will be once this summer's fighting starts." Sorgrad drank his wine. "All because of these dukes of yours. All your country's ills can be laid at their door. Ever seen a man lying sick with a rotting foot, Tathrin? Cut off all that dead flesh and pus, right back to healthy blood and bone, and he might just live."

"Is this some other notion of Charoleia's that she didn't think to share?"

Failla saw that Tathrin was angrier than ever, but not with her.

"Read her letter for yourself. Then see if you can apologise before I slap you senseless."

Sorgrad smiled at Tathrin and Failla felt a chill.

The younger man subsided, red-faced. "I beg your pardon."

"Let's get moving." Gren threw the dregs of his wine into the grass. "You don't get to kill this idea, lad, not without your friends having their say first."

"You're going back to Vanam?" Failla made a swift decision. "I'm coming, too. If there's any conspiracy to set mercenary bands fighting each other or fighting the dukes or anyone else, your people need to hear what I can tell you. Then I can warn the guildmasters. You won't get anywhere without their help and they won't believe anyone but me."

"Indeed." Sorgrad refilled his silver cup with wine and handed it to her. "Welcome to the dance, my dear."

"Excellent." Gren beamed. "Now, what kind of ransom would Garnot be willing to pay for you, sweetheart? Where's a good place to have him send it between here and the Caladhrian border? Tathrin, dig out your pen and ink and unwrap the pudding from his cloth so he can play courier." He gestured towards Parlin.

"A ransom?" Failla looked at Sorgrad, horrified. "No, I won't go back. Not now."

Not now she had the chance to get as far away as Vanam. If that meant leaving family, hoarded coin and secrets behind, it need only be for a little while. The odds were good that these people, whoever they were, would soon provoke enough turmoil to occupy Duke Garnot. Then she could come back and retrieve everything precious to her, after which she would flee as far and as fast as she could, a thousand leagues if need be. They were welcome to their victory or to ignominious defeat. She didn't care either way.

"We need to give Garnot a reason for your disappearance." Sorgrad smiled reassuringly. "We'll take the ransom and we'll take you, too, never fear."

Gren angled his blond head, mildly exasperated. "You Carluse folk, you do understand what mercenaries do, don't you?"

"If Duke Garnot thinks you're dead," Tathrin said reluctantly, "he won't go looking for you and discover something he shouldn't."

What did he mean by that? How could he know? No, he couldn't possibly. Failla's hand trembled and she drank the wine hastily before she spilled it.

Chapter Thirteen.

Litasse Triolle Castle, in the Kingdom of Lescar, 1st of For-Summer of For-Summer

"I can't be long." Litasse slipped through Hamare's door. "Iruvain and I must welcome For-Summer at Ostrin's altar at noon."

They would lead the prayers and pour libations of last year's wine in hopes that the god would grant a fruitful season. There would be revels in the market square for the townsfolk and Iruvain had promised they would show the commonalty that Triolle's youthful duke and duchess didn't scorn their humble entertainments. Then there would be dancing and feasting with the vassal lords who lived close enough to spend the day in fawning attendance. While Iruvain listened to the vassals' inevitable complaints, Litasse had high hopes of interesting gossip from their ladies, along with flattering admiration for her beauty, her gowns and her jewels.

Even though she had little time to spare, her skin tingled at the thought of Hamare's touch. For the first time in a handful of days, his man Karn was guarding the door, so they wouldn't be disturbed.

"What?" Hamare looked up from the letter he was studying, his eyes unfocused. He wore no doublet, his creased shirt ink-stained.

Had he been working all night? Even with the sunlight flooding through the windows, Litasse saw a couple of candles still lit. Burned down to a finger-length, they were clotted with wax.

"I needed to catch you before you left." He shot her a weary smile. "I take it you and Duke Iruvain will be sending your salutations to the other dukedoms as soon as you return from the ceremonies at the shrine?"

"Indeed. That's to say, Iruvain will walk round the room throwing out ideas. Then he'll take himself off to the stables or the kennels tomorrow morning while I spend my time stringing fine words together." Curiosity replaced Litasse's idle desire for her lover. "What do you want me to say?"

"We need to know if Draximal and Parnilesse are truly preparing for war." Hamare looked grim. "These mercenaries who seized Emirle Bridge have offered it up to the highest bidder. If Duke Orlin of Parnilesse has a mind to, he can buy himself a foothold half a day's march inside Duke Secaris of Draximal's borders."

"Why does this concern us?" Litasse took a chair, mindful of her pink gown's golden lace.

"Beyond making it advisable for Triolle to raise a militia contingent in every town along our side of the river, with all the expense and disruption that will cause?" Hamare grimaced. "If it's just Parnilesse and Draximal fighting, that's one thing. But Duke Garnot of Carluse is negotiating with mercenary bands. At the moment, I've no notion what he's planning."

"Do you think Carluse would attack Draximal's eastern border in support of Parnilesse?" Litasse saw where Hamare's thoughts were leading. "For Duchess Tadira's sake?"

"She has a long history of arguing how Carluse's best interests are served by helping her brother of Parnilesse." Hamare rested his elbows on the table, steepling his fingers.

"What would that mean for Triolle?" Litasse looked at the tapestry map hanging behind Hamare. "Iruvain would seek a treaty, wouldn't he?"

With Carluse to the north-west and Parnilesse to the east, Triolle would have the choice of enemies on both flanks or being the linchpin in an alliance that could dominate Lescar. Duke Ferdain of Marlier would be isolated in the south-west. Duke Moncan of Sharlac and Duke Secaris of Draximal could be menaced separately in the north.

"He's always admired Duke Garnot of Carluse, too much for my peace of mind," Hamare admitted. "We need some clue as to Sharlac's likely reaction if Carluse attacks Draximal. Please, do all you can to convince your mother that Duke Moncan must write to Duke Iruvain. We must know what's going on in the north. If Duke Garnot of Carluse is recruiting mercenaries because he's planning a strike against Sharlac, that's a whole different fistful of runes."