103.

THE EASTERN RIVER HILLS, DUMAR.

JerRestin stands, then walks around to the far side of the small cooking fire. He stares into the darkening east.

"I do not look forward to facing this sorceress," muses Ehara, not looking at the taller man.

"You have few choices, Lord Ehara. Not a hamlet east of the Falche and north of Dumaria remains loyal to you. And no holder west of the Falche will support you if you do not confront her."

"I did so poorly as lord?" Ehara snorts. "That I find hard to believe."

"She has used sorcery to force loyalty." The Sea-Marshal turns toward the Lord of Dumar. "There is a price to be paid for that, but unhappily for us, she has already paid much of that coin.

"How has she paid? What has she given up?"

"Her life on the mist worlds. From what your spies say, her children. From what I know of youth spells, her ability to have more children. From what I know of power, any chance at friends in a strange land.

And the ability to sleep with any ease at night" JerRestin's voice hardens. "True as it may be, all that is little consolation to you or to me.

"No consolation at all," agrees Ehara. "How do we defeat her and reclaim my land?"

"She cannot handle many sorceries. You must split your forces into groups-each larger than her total force."

"She will destroy them one by one."

"No. Before each large force, a dek forward, will be a smaller force, and that force will attack. All the small forces will attack at once. Because they will attack from separate positions, she must address each with a different spell." JerRestin glances from the rose-lit clouds over the river hills to the west to Ehara.

"Once she has committed her sorceries, the larger forces will rush forward, when she is exhausted."

Ehara looks long at jerRestin. "Was that not your strategy at the Vale of Cuetayl?"

"It would have worked there, but none save I attacked the sorceress."

"And what of you, Sea-Marshal? You escaped, but you did not slay the sorceress."

"I had to ride too close, and I was seen. I will not be seen this time. I will not be seen." JerRestin's eyes burn.

Ehara looks away from those eyes, and his big hands knot around each other, but he does not speak.

104.

The five figures stood on the shady side of the barn wall as Jecks unwrapped the leather from the mirror.

He glanced up at the sorceress. "Have you thought-"

"About the ensorcelled weapons? Yes." Anna felt almost cruel in the way she cut him off, but at times she felt, in subtle ways, everyone was asking something, somehow. "I might have something," she added quickly to a.s.suage her guilt.

"That would be good." He handed her the mirror with the battered frame.

Anna hung the traveling mirror from an old iron bracket In the mid-afternoon sun, the meadows to the north were empty of sheep, the fields empty of workers. The houses had all been abandoned, hurriedly, with tracks and animal prints in the road dust showing that even the animals had been driven away.

Anna smiled as she stepped back and caught sight of a tan chicken pecking at the side of the empty cot fifty yards westward. Not all animals had vanished.

Jecks followed her eyes. "A chicken supper, later."

"If you can catch it," said Hanfor.

Anna bent down and took the lutar from its case, beginning to tune it, as she ran through a vocalise.

The faint hum of summer insects rose again once she stopped, clearing her throat On the south side of the road, Alvar directed the Defalkan forces as they lined up to water their mounts from a long stock-trough.

Anna cleared her throat a last time, then sang.

"Show from the west, danger to fear, all the threats to us bright and clear..."

Surrounded by silver mist, the image was clear-a series of green fields, crossed by narrow lanes for horses and wagons, roughly a semicircle in shape, flanked on the north, south, and west by low and irregular hills.

"Ehara must have his forces on the back side of all of those hills, and all are mounted and well-rested,"

said. Hanfor.

Liende inclined her bead, ever so slightly. ''You can see armsmen before the hills, but a few."

"He has foreguards or vanguards in front of each group," confirmed Hanfor.

"Each company is more than a dek from each other company," added Jecks with a glance at Anna. "And shielded by the hills."

"Can you use sorcery on them all at once?" asked Hanfor.

"Not as long as they're on the back sides of the hill," Anna admitted. "Not unless we could take the heights to the west."

"We could circle to the north," ventured Jecks, "and take them from the side, one by one. Or take the first two companies and seize the higher ground to the west."

"We would still face half his forces, almost a hundredscore." Hanfor touched his trimmed and gray beard.

"They hold the higher ground. To defeat them would cost us armsmen, or require much sorcery from the lady Anna."

That was clearly what Ehara and his Sea-Priest advisor or sorcerer, or whatever, had in mind, and Anna didn't like that option, not if there were a better one.

"We're what?-ten deks from the nearest of those hills?" she asked.

"Mayhap twelve," said Liende.

"What if we stop here for today?"

Jecks smiled, and Anna could tell he'd hoped she'd come to that conclusion.

"That would rest mounts and men," Hanfor acknowledged. "And on the morrow?"

"We move slowly."

"To place them on blade edge? That would help,' Hanfor said, following her unspoken logic.

"Do we have enough arrows?" Anna asked.

"How much is enough?" asked Hanfor. "What have you in mind?"

"At least one for every enemy armsman," said the regent and sorceress. "I think we let them attack,"

Anna said, "but I'd like to be able to prod them if necessary."

With more destruction? She held in the wince at her own self-question, forcing a bland smile that had to appear cold and cruel.

105.

PAMR, DEFALK.

I don't see what you're doing, Fa.r.s.enn." The drummer in the stained and sleeveless brown tunic rubs his forehead. "Your spells...they make a fellow's head ache. My eyes cross, and you don't spell that long."

"Mine do, too." Fa.r.s.enn smiles. "Darksong isn't like Clear-song. It's more like poison. Use a little here ...

a little there." A laugh follows. "You'll see."

"The sorceress...she's still high and mighty." The drummer turns and gestures at the rough clay figure that is perhaps three-quarters human size on the crude wooden pedestal. "Not like that. No matter what you make them see, it's still just clay." He ma.s.sages his forehead again, blinking rapidly.

"For now, Giersan, my brother, for now. Darksong must be used slowly; bit by bit...but the time will come when every man not on the estates of that b.i.t.c.h Lady Gatrune will rise, and we will hold Pamr."

"And then the sorceress will come and destroy us." The drummer's words are flat.

"No. She will come, and I will destroy her."

"How?"

"Never before has an entire town risen, with every man bearing arms. The sorceress has but a few score armsmen, and she cannot use levies against the people within Befalk. And while she struggles with the people, I will strike her with Darksong, pierce her soul."

"She will use her fires from the heaven."

"Against who? Every soul in Pamr?"

"She might."

"When she rests upon the support of the people themselves?" Fa.r.s.enn smiles cruelly. "We will be Lord of Pamr, and she will he dead, and that little boy she has propped up as heir will treat with us. He will."

106.

Rickel and Fhurgen, shields resting on the lanceholders, rode before Anna as the Defalkan forces ad- vanced to the crest of the low rise. Beyond the lush gra.s.s of the hill spread out a series of fields, bordered by hedge-rows not even as tall as Farinelli's ears. Farther to the west and north and south of the fields, the meadows resumed, merging into the low hills.

The road traveled due west, vanishing into a gap between two of the larger hills.

"This is the highest point on this side of the valley." Jecks rode on Anna's right.

"It is hard to believe that the river is only a dozen deks beyond the hills," added Liende from Anna's left.

Anna's eyes ranged over the flat fields ahead, and then studied the hills. The entire area was empty of people or animals-just fields filled with green plants of differing shades, narrow lanes splitting fields, the hedgerows, and gra.s.s. The low wind blew out of the west, into Anna's face, bearing the faint scent of damp earth and gra.s.s.

"I'd like to stop here, Hanfor," Anna called to the arms commander. "I need to see where the Dumarans are."

The arms commander nodded. "That might be best."

The sorceress dismounted, giving Farinelli a pat on the shoulder. "You're a good fellow." She blotted her forehead, damp as much from the more humid climate as from the late-morning sunlight.

Rickel took Farinelli's reins, and Anna unstrapped the scrying mirror. Jecks, who had dismounted quickly, took it from her.

Then Anna unstrapped the lutar and took it from its case, beginning a vocalise even before she had begun to tune the lutar.

One of the guards behind Fhurgen held the reins to Jecks' mount, and those of Liende's. Hanfor held his own, standing where he could see the mirror, but still surveying the valley while he waited.

Anna's chest felt heavy-asthma again, or too much sleeping on a cot in strange places with barely adequate food? Then, how long had it been since she'd slept in a bed that was considered hers? Almost two seasons? And some ancient kings of earth had enjoyed military campaigns?

She coughed some mucus clear and started the second vocalise.

The valley remained ominously silent, except for the sounds of her voice, the low murmurings of the Defalkan armsmen, and the tuning notes of the lutar.

Finally, the sorceress cleared her throat a last time and glanced around the group of those who waited.

Hanfor took a last look at the valley and then turned his eyes to the mirror as Anna began to sing.

"Mirror, minor on the ground, show me where Dumar' s forces can be found..."

Again, the silver mists swirled around the gla.s.s briefly, then cleared to show an aerial view of the valley.

The Dumarans. crimson-uniformed dots against the green of the gra.s.s and vegetation, remained grouped generally the way they had been the afternoon before. There were two battle groups behind each of the five hills-a smaller. group higher on the back side of each gra.s.sy hill, and a larger group lower and more shielded from arrows... or sorcery. From what Anna could see from the small images in the silvered gla.s.s, none of the Dumarans were mounted, and their mounts remained on tielines.

"The nearest group is about two deks there." Jecks pointed to the northeast. "The most distant more than three deks."

After a moment, Anna sang the couplet to release the image. She didn't want to hold it any longer than she had to, not with the spells she knew she'd have to sing shortly and the small drain from the newest enchanted shield. She swallowed, then licked her lips.

"They are not in ready battle order," observed Hanfor.

"They do not expect us to attack immediately," sald Jecks.

"Even if we attacked," said Hanfor, "they could withdraw quickly."

"How long will it take them to mount and organize for an attack?" asked the sorceress.

Hanfor shrugged, squinting at the mirror. "Almost a gla.s.s."

"And how long would it take for us to form up if you gave everyone a break?" asked Anna.