"All is well now. You must sleep."

Anna wanted to protest, but couldn't as her eyes closed in spite of her wanting to say more, to hear Jecks' comforting voice.

52.

Anna found herself shaky the next morning, even after washing as best she could in the bucket of water the guards left by the tent entrance, until she'd eaten enough hard cheese and biscuits for three people. Even after that, she was tired, and she retained a faint, but dully throbbing headache. Her neck and shoulders were also sore. She hadn't noticed the stiffness or the pain the night before, but she hadn't noticed much of anything.

"Good morning, my lady." Jecks looked at her as she stepped out in front of the small tent in the morning light-not dawn, but not all that late, either.

Rickel and Blaz nodded greetings, but neither guard spoke.

"It's morning." Anna admitted, her eyes taking in the day. The sky was gray, and she suspected it had been since her excessive use of sorcery the day before.

Maybe that's just the way you think it should be. She shook her head at the thought, and winced. Headshaking didn't go with headaches. The trampled brown gra.s.s was covered with dew, and the damp breeze out of the northeast was cold, but the high gray clouds didn't seem to promise rain, not too soon.

"Lady Anna?" inquired two voices, almost simultaneously.

She turned. "Good morning, Jimbob, Kinor."

"Good morning, lady." Jimbob inclined his head, not deeply, but more than perfunctorily.

So did Kinor, but not before Anna saw the stark darkness in the redhead's eyes.

"Thank you both." She paused, then asked, "You see why I need guards?" Her voice was dryly humorous. "Nowhere in a battle is necessarily safe."

"I had heard such, lady," Kinor replied.

Jimbob nodded, almost fearfully.

"Kinor," Anna said gently. "Thank you for your thought about the drums yesterday. It was a good suggestion. A very good suggestion. Without you and Lord Jecks, matters might have turned out differently."

Kinor glanced at the white-haired lord, and Jecks looked at Kinor."You both suggested a spell against drums," Anna explained, "but I probably wouldn't have been able to act and come up with a spell had you both not reminded me. So thank you both."

In retrospect, the idea made sense. Even Darksong couldn't both cast a spell and protect an object made of wood and skin against a spelled arrow. She just hadn't thought about it at the time. Then, she hadn't had that much time, not as she considered the battle in retrospect.

Jimbob looked sideways at his grandsire, appraisingly. Anna hoped they'd all survive the youth's practical education.

Too many spells... she'd used too many spells, that was also clear in hindsight Does that mean that you should just go out and use the most destructive spells and clear the battlefield?And if you don't, you risk losing, or dying of a spell overdose? It wasn't fair. Every time she tried to limit the damage, it seemed, the end result was worse. Close to sixtyscore dead, and what would happen in Ebra was still unresolved.

"You need not ride today," Jecks said.

"With thirtyscore of Bertmynn's lancers somewhere?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Himar's scouts say that they rode perhaps ten deks, but that their mounts could carry them no farther yesterday." Jecks nodded to Kinor, who walked quickly away from Anna's tent.

'They're still there?" asked Anna, ma.s.saging her forehead and neck.

"That I do not know," admitted Jecks.

"It looks like Bertmynn wanted a big battle and someone else didn't," suggested the sorceress, walking toward where Farinelli was tethered on a tieline. She stopped as she caught sight of Himar striding toward her.

The overcaptain twisted the end of his mustache nervously as he stopped. "Lady Regent."

'Thiftyscore of Bertmynn's lancers-Jecks says they got away." And you nearly killed yourself and didn't get them all. "How did that happen?"

"When Bertmynn fell, the reserves turned," Himar said slowly. "They galloped over the ridge, as though dissonance were after them. The stragglers fell under the fires. Hadrenn's men say that they were likely led by his arms commander, for the one who commanded them to turn was a tall gray-haired officer, and so was this Ceorwyn..."

Anna wondered how Hadrenn's men were close enough to see, and yet had done nothing to stop the retreat. Then they'd have been outnumbered two to one. She took a deep breath. That just pointed out that she'd have to defeat-destroy- another thirtyscore armsmen for Hadrenn to have any real chance of holding all of Ebra.

And what will that make you?

Jecks stepped up beside her. "Their mounts were spent, and they could not go far." He looked at Himar. "Was that as your scouts found?"

The overcaptain nodded. "Yes, ser, Lady Regent.""We need to follow those armsmen, and, in a day or two, strike at them," Anna insisted. "Otherwise, we'll have more trouble here in Ebra."

"Not today and not tomorrow," insisted Jecks.

"Not today," Anna half agreed, looking at Himar.

The overcaptain nodded. "I will send out the scouts once more."

Anna kept her glance level until Himar looked away, then turned.

Seeing Anna unoccupied, Liende approached from the fire ring to the south where the players had gathered.

"How is everyone?" asked Anna.

"Yuarl and Delvor are most tired, and weak" Dark circles ringed Liende's eyes.

"They cannot play, and may not for several days. The others are tired."

"So am I. I don't have plans for any spells for a while." Anna paused. "Not for another day or so, anyway." Should she tell Liende about her grat.i.tude to Kinor?

No...better that Kinor tell his mother. "We will have to ride today. It may be a shorter day, but we need to follow the last of the armsmen so that we can hurry back to Defalk."

"I understand."

"Liende... you and the players did very well. Without you, without them... well, yesterday could have been very bad." Just how bad you don't even want to consider right now. "Thank you, and tell them that I'm very grateful and pleased."

"Thank you, Regent. They played well, and it was hard to play against the Darksong drums."

"I know. You... and they... will be rewarded."

Liende bowed slightly. "We will make ready, Regent."

"Thank you." How long could she call upon the players for such destruction? As long as you need them... and you can. She sighed to herself.

53.

In the cool sunlight and long dawn shadows outside her tent, Anna stretched. Her neck was still stiff, and her shoulders ached, but not so much as the day before. The pungent odor of the wood fueling cookfires drifted to her, and she rubbed her suddenly itching nose, then tried to clear a dry throat On the lower rise to the south, lancers were beginning to form up, and behind her Kerhor and Blaz were beginning to strike her tent.

She glanced at Rickel. "If we... if I... let those armsmen return to Dolov, battles will go back and forth across Ebra for years. That will be an invitation to the Stuninnese. With the maybe twentyscore lancers we have, we cannot stop them without sorcery." Anna shrugged, unsure if even she were willing to spell out the conclusion.

"My lady," Rickel offered cautiously after a short silence, "armsmen have choices. We do. We are not slaves. That is why many remained with Hanfor and Himar. That is why some captains have but butchers and fresh-faced boys. We havefollowed this Ceorwyn for two days, and none of his armsmen have left. They will fight... and fight-unless you stop them." The blond guard offered an embarra.s.sed smile. "Some armsmen are going to die. Might be Hadrenn's, probably will be if you don't do something, and it might be ours if the Sea-Priests do like they did in Dumar..." He broke off as Jecks walked toward Anna from the back side of the tent.

"Best you not slaughter those armsmen without some gesture," Jecks said.

"Ceorwyn did leave the field." The white-haired lord looked toward Rickel.

"Would you not say so, Rickel?"

"Folk like that... they'd never take terms from... a sorceress."

"You mean, from a woman," Anna replied.

Jecks laughed, easily. "Always the truthful Regent."

"So I should offer terms," asked the sorceress, "knowing that they won't accept them." If they do, they'll just lie about it, and you'll have to come back.

"They may not, but do you wish all Ebra to know you killed armsmen without offering any chance of surrender? Or some of the Thirty-three to know that?"

"No." Anna glanced toward her small camp table and the saddlebags on the cot, standing under just the roof canopy since her guards had removed and begun to roll up the sidewalls. "There's some parchment... I'd better draft them on the rough paper first." She laughed, knowing that she'd make a mess with a quill.

"I will tell Himar that we needs must send a parley messenger to Ceorwyn." Jecks gave a brisk nod before turning.

Anna pulled the campstool toward the table, and took out the quill to sharpen it.

The drafting was as laborious as she had feared, and Jecks had returned and was standing at her shoulder long before she finished. All too conscious of his presence, she found herself scratching out phrases and rewriting them, seemingly in every line of what she penned.

Her forehead was damp when she finally finished what she thought were the last words.

Then, with a deep breath, she forced herself to read over the oft-corrected terms, skipping from line to line.

...continue as arms commander of Dolov, as regent for the heirs of Bertmynn...

...acknowledge Lord Hadrenn as Lord High Counselor of Ebra, under the protection of the Regency of Defalk...

...acknowledge, accept, and protect the free state of Elahwa established by the freewomen...

Finally, she handed the terms to Jecks.

He took the rough draft and read slowly before finally stopping and looking up.

"He will not agree to the women in Elahwa."

"I know that. But those are my terms. What's the point of agreeing to another lord just like the last one? All sorts of people get killed, and nothing changes? No, thank you." Anna snorted."You have offered terms, and you do not ask for executions or slaves." Jecks offered a broad shrug.

"Your tone of voice suggests that those might be more acceptable."

"For some, perhaps," Jecks agreed. "I would prefer your terms, but, then, I have come to know you." His hazel eyes offered the slightest hint of a twinkle.

Anna responded with a crooked smile before she pulled out one of the few sheets of parchment and began to write, far more carefully, the final draft. Jecks nodded, then walked out of the half-disa.s.sembled tent, and toward Kinor and Jimbob, who stood waiting with Kerhor and Lejun.

"...will not be long... she drafts terms for Ceorwyn..."

"He should ask for terms," said Jimbob.

"He will not," countered Kinor. "He cannot."

Anna pushed away the conversation and concentrated on the scratchy quill and the draft, laboriously transferring one word after another. She ignored the muted clamor from the camp as mounts were saddled, cookfires banked, and as her guards disa.s.sembled and packed her tent around her, leaving but the table she worked on and the stool.

It took a good gla.s.s before she had completed the short doc.u.ment. When she looked up from writing her signature and t.i.tle, Jecks was waiting, patiently. So was Himar. Behind them, in the cool harvesttime sunlight, stood the two young redheads.

"I have told Himar that you were near-finished, and he has the lancers ready to ride." The white-haired lord smiled sadly. "No Ebran can accept terms and remain as a leader. So we must arrive most close to Ceorwyn's forces. We must be prepared for battle when he sees them and rejects them."

"You still believe he will attack?" asked Himar. "After the last... battle?"

Jecks offered a wintry smile. "He may choose to retreat, in order to preserve his forces. Or to obtain days or seasons to rebuild. But..."

Anna understood the pause. You can't afford to spend days or weeks chasing Ebrans northward along the river-not with Rabyn poised to invade Defalk as soon as he learns you're in Ebra-if he hasn't already. Except the gla.s.s had only shown Rabyn on the march, and not clearly in Defalk. Not yet.

Anna stood, and Blaz stepped forward to take the stool. while Kerhor glanced at the quill and inkstand.

"You can pack them," Anna said, extending the scroll to Himar "I'll get Farinelli ready, and..." She shrugged. You'll use more sorcery because no one seems to respond to anything besides sorcery and armsmen... and armsmen will die needlessly because Ceorwyn will not accept terms from a woman or women as people.

"We are ready to ride, lady." Standing on the trampled gra.s.s, with the ends of his mustache drooping, Himar inclined his head, portraying almost a caricature of the professional soldier knowing that politics would result in armsmen being kilIed. Unnecessarily killed. But how necessary were so many killings?"I'll be ready as soon as I can be." Anna turned, looking toward the tielines, where Kinor and Jimbob stood by mounts aleady saddled and packed. Liende and the players stood by their mounts as well, to the right of the two young men.

Anna stepped toward the chief player. "Liende.. . Lord Jecks thinks that this Ceorwyn will reject my terms. We're only asking that Hadrenn be a regent over Ebra. Lord Bertmynn's heirs will retain most of their lands, but I will insist that the freewomen hold Elahwa."

"I fear Lord Jecks is right, lady." Liende's voice was level.

"If he is, we will need the flame song as soon as he rejects those terms."

"We are your players, lady. We will be ready with the flame song."