Arms-Commander

LXXXII

Despite the heavy shutters, Saryn woke early on twoday and was washed up, dressed, and out of her chamber while the sky was still pale greenish blue-gray and awaiting the first glimmers of the sun creeping over the hills to the east. As she walked toward the barracks to the south of the tower, she did not see Zeldyan, but the regent’s shutters were closed, not surprisingly. The lightknives had faded away…mostly, if with an occasional needle flaring across her field of vision, reminding her that she was certainly not back to full strength in terms of handling the order-chaos flows.

Hryessa was also up early, out checking mounts and supplies. “Good morning, Commander. You feeling better this morning?”

Saryn raised her eyebrows. She’d never said how she’d felt.

“Every time you use magery, you look like you’ve been run over by wild horses,” Hryessa replied to the unspoken question. “That’s why Dealdron went to the trouble of getting your quarters set and some food. Not the only reason, of course.”

“Not the only reason?”

“Almost any woman would be pleased to have a man that handsome willing to do what ever he can to make her feel better.”

Saryn shook her head. “He just wants to prove his worth.”

“That he does. To you. He still takes blade practice with the better guards. Gets bruises, too.”

That Dealdron saw something more, or the possibility of something more with Saryn, handsome, hardworking, and intelligent as he had proved to be…Was that even possible for her? “How are the guards?”

“We lost Ilysa last night. Looks like all the others will pull through.”

“And the stores here?”

“Lean, but one of the head ostler’s boys sneaked back last night. He said that most of the crops hadn’t been brought in yet, and Lord Gethen warned the growers and crofters off almost an eightday ago. There’s some stored cheeses and dried meat and enough flour in dry barrels in the deep cellars. Might have some weevils here and there. We can deal with that.”

“What about making the holding more secure?”

“We’ve got fifth squad on patrol, with scouts out, and third and sixth are cleaning up the place and burying the dead. The horses, too. They’re already beginning to smell. The Lady Regent…” Hryessa inclined her head toward the villa. “She’ll need to decide. We can’t do anything there until she does.”

“I’ll talk to her once she leaves the tower.” Saryn wouldn’t press Zeldyan, not when the regent had just lost her father and her son. A few glasses wouldn’t matter, not at the moment.

“We’ve got the barracks kitchen open, ser.”

“Thank you.” Saryn smiled, then turned and headed toward the barracks. Hryessa’s statement was as much a suggestion that Saryn eat as the captain was likely to make.

First and second squads were lined up to eat as Saryn neared the end of the barracks holding the kitchen. The guards inclined their heads as she passed. She did hear some murmurs.

“…darkness around her…”

“…darkness or not…would be a lot fewer of us without her…”

“…too bad she’s not the regent…”

Saryn almost shook her head at the last. For a woman to be Overlord of Lornth-or even regent-she’d have to kill or defeat every lord-holder in Lornth…and keep doing it.

After she quickly ate fried bread and some unnamed meat strips that she suspected were probably from a fallen horse, Saryn walked back into the villa, this time trying to discover where there might be hidden entrances to a strong room or the like. She’d slowly gone through the wing with the bedchambers, sensing nothing behind the stone walls, except two places where windows had been walled up and one location where there had once been a door, when a guard called from the front foyer.

“Commander, ser!”

Saryn hurried back to the front foyer, her eyes passing quickly over the bodies laid out on the long table and looking toward the young guard, who stood just inside the archway. The woman had a long smear of dried blood on her left sleeve.

“Ser…there’s a messenger here. Right out front.”

“Thank you.” Saryn followed the guard out to the portico and the mounted armsman. Three other armsmen were reined up behind him.

All four wore tan tunics, with black belts and boots-Maeldyn’s colors, as Saryn recalled.

“You’d be the Lady Arms-Commander of Westwind?”

“I am,” replied Saryn.

“I was sent to deliver a message to Lord Gethen.”

“The regent and our forces rode in last night,” Saryn replied. “We arrived too late to save Lord Gethen, Lord Nesslek, and Lord Deolyn, but we did defeat Lord Kelthyn and Lord Jaffrayt and their forces on the way.”

“What about the Lady Regent?”

“She is secluded in the east tower for the moment. She’s just lost her father and her son. Can you convey the sense of the message?” Saryn asked.

“I don’t know what was written, ser. I can tell you that Lord Maeldyn and Lord Spalkyn will be arriving later this afternoon. They’ll have a company, and half that again from Lords Chaspal and Whethryn.”

“And the other two lords?”

“They entrusted their armsmen to Lord Maeldyn as the best commander in the north, saving Lord Gethen.”

“My guard will show you to the stables and the barracks. You can either keep the missive until Lady Zeldyan is able to receive it or entrust it to me. I will not open it if you do.”

“I’d best keep it, begging your leave, Commander.”

“I understand. I will tell Lady Zeldyan as soon as I see her.”

Saryn watched as Maeldyn’s armsmen headed off, led by the guard, but before she could turn, she saw Hryessa walking toward her, following two wounded men in the green-and-yellow tunics of Lyntara.

“Commander…there were several survivors who were hiding in the reeds of the pond over the hill. They were all wounded, and some died there. I thought you might like to hear what these two had to say.”

“Thank you. I would.”

The two armsmen did not look at Saryn directly.

“Go ahead,” prompted Hryessa, “tell the commander what you told me.”

“Well…ser…we was with Lord Deolyn, and we rode half the night before we got here, and we’d no more ’n gotten here when all the rebels attacked. Must have been six companies, and they had a couple of white wizards. That was how they got through the gates. Threw those fire-bolts at anyone who got close to ’em until no one would…”

“Lord Deolyn, he had a big iron shield,” added the second man. “He finally got a squad back to the gates. He musta beat ’em back five, six times. They just kept coming, especially the ones in red…”

Keistyn’s forces, of course. Saryn wondered how Henstrenn had managed to get the other lord-holders to take the brunt of the fighting…and the casualties.

“…Lord Gethen, he and his fellows, they had piles of bodies around them. Even the little lord got a couple…just too many…”

When the two had finished their gory tale, Saryn nodded. “Thank you. You may go.”

“This way,” Hryessa said to the two.

Before returning to her inspection of the villa, Saryn paused, thinking about the costs of loyalty. Lord Deolyn had proved his faith by answering Gethen’s summons quickly, and his reward had been to be killed. Shartyr had been loyal to no one but his own interests and had so far survived. As had Jharyk.

Saryn was about to reenter the villa when Zeldyan appeared, flanked by two Lornian armsmen.

“Did you receive the message from Lord Maeldyn, Lady?” asked Saryn.

“I did. He and a company and a half will arrive later today. Would that they had come sooner.” The last words were tinged with bitterness.

“Quaryn is farther than Lornth from The Groves, is it not?” asked Saryn. “Yet you did not receive a messenger.”

Zeldyan looked coldly at Saryn.

“That is not what I meant, Lady. I have no doubt that your father sent a messenger. We did not receive such a message. That could only mean that Henstrenn and the other rebel lord-holders were close enough already and in enough force that no messenger was successful in evading them.”

Some of Zeldyan’s coldness faded. “There was not enough time for Maeldyn and Spalkyn to receive the message and travel here.”

“That is how it seems. I just talked to two wounded armsmen from Lord Deolyn’s forces who survived by hiding in pond reeds. Lord Deolyn marched his forces through the night to reach The Groves, and they arrived just before the first attack.”

“He was always fiercely loyal to Father. He was a good man.” Zeldyan shook her head, then looked at the pair of guards. “The commander and I will be inside.”

Saryn followed Zeldyan into the front foyer, where the regent stopped and looked at the three still figures laid out on the long table. Then she turned her eyes to Saryn.

“If you would make arrangements for a funeral pyre…on the top of the hill beyond the tower…at sunset…” Zeldyan swallowed, once, twice, then straightened. “The study…if you would.” She did not look back or sideways.

Saryn followed Zeldyan out of the foyer and down the wide hall and into the study. Someone-most likely Zeldyan, Saryn thought-had picked up the scattered items and put them back in the desk or on it or in the bookcases.

Once they were alone in the study, Zeldyan turned, and asked, “What do you think I should do?”

Saryn didn’t want to answer that question. Instead, she said, “Are you and Relyn not the only survivors who could hold The Groves?”

“According to the customs of Lornth, I could not hold anything.”

“You could hold it as regent for your brother. He is certainly entitled to succeed his father.”

“So you would have me go through the grief of position without power once more? The southern lords will claim I have no authority.”

Saryn realized that Zeldyan hadn’t fully considered what had happened over the last half season. Only two of the southern lords who had taken up arms were still alive, and the successors to those who had fallen had almost nothing in the way of armsmen. “They would have to bring forces against The Groves once more. Would they wish to do that now?”

Zeldyan looked at Saryn. “You ask much. Why? Why now? You have lost, as have I, for the next Overlord of Lornth will not be friendly to Westwind.”

“How will the lord-holders determine which lord becomes the Overlord of Lornth?” asked Saryn.

“There is no rule. It has been generations since the overlord has died without a blood heir.” Zeldyan shrugged. “They will bow to the strongest, no doubt.”

“That will be Henstrenn. He was smart enough to suggest that Kelthyn and Jaffrayt take the river road, and he managed to maneuver it so that Keistyn’s forces took most of the losses in taking The Groves. That leaves Henstrenn with more golds, probably augmented by the Suthyans, and his forces are far greater than those of Keistyn, or of any other remaining lord-holder.” Saryn paused, then asked, “Do you want him to be Overlord of Lornth?”

“Part of me no longer cares. Should I? You and the angels came, through no fault of your own, and over the past ten years I have lost all I held dear.”

“Six lords in the south, prompted by Kelthyn and Henstrenn, decided that you should not be regent and that Nesslek should die. They demanded you step down, and before you could even respond, they attacked.”

“I can do nothing about it. I have less than one company of armsmen left.” Zeldyan looked at Saryn. “Do what you will, Angel.”

“I would suggest we wait until Lord Maeldyn and Lord Spalkyn arrive. They are levelheaded.”

“A few glasses will not matter, one way or another. Perhaps nothing will.” She sank into one of the chairs set at an angle to the table. “You must have much to do, Commander.”

“Until later, Lady.” Saryn inclined her head to Zeldyan and headed out to see how Hryessa and the guards were doing in restoring order to the holding.

By midday, some of the surviving holder staff-those sent away by Gethen-had begun to return. Second squad had completed stacking and arranging the timbers and wood for the pyre on the hill, and the remaining disorder in the villa had been largely removed, although Saryn had cautioned the guards and staff not to disturb Zeldyan.

She and Hryessa also made certain that the kitchens would be able to prepare enough for the additional armsmen. Saryn asked Dealdron to assure that the stables would be ready.

His response was simple. “We will do what is necessary, as will I for you.”

Saryn smiled at that, but only replied, “Thank you.” She did watch him as he headed toward the stables.

As soon as the outlying patrols reported the approach of Maeldyn and Spalkyn, Saryn informed Zeldyan, and the two made their way, in time, to the portico of the villa just before the head of the column arrived, and the two lord-holders reined up.

All of the mounts looked tired, as did the armsmen behind the two lord-holders. Saryn could sense the fatigue in both lords.

“Greetings, Lady Regent,” offered Maeldyn.

“Lord Nesslek is dead. By definition, I am no longer regent.”

“I am most sorry, Lady. We left within glasses of receiving word.”

“You have always done your best, both of you.”

“As I understand matters, from the scouts I sent out on our way here,” Maeldyn said slowly, looking down from his mount, “Commander Saryn and your forces, Lady Zeldyan, encountered the forces of Lord Jaffrayt and Lord Kelthyn on your way to relieve The Groves. You routed both.” The dour-looking lord glanced to Saryn. “Might I inquire about the lords in question?”

“They were both killed in the fighting, as were the majority of their forces,” replied Saryn. A bare majority, but a majority. “When we reached The Groves, it was already too late. Lord Deolyn, Lord Gethen, and Lord Nesslek had been defeated and killed.” Saryn nodded toward the archway behind her. “They are there, and we have made arrangements for a funeral pyre for sunset.”

“From our approach, I surmised something of the sort,” added Spalkyn. “What about the other southern lords?”

Zeldyan looked to Saryn.

“Lord Orsynn attempted an ambush last eightday. He did not survive, nor did two of his sons and most of their armsmen. Lord Mortryd begged for aid against an attack by Lord Rherhn, but when we arrived to help, they both turned and attacked us. Both are dead. We have not seen either Lord Keistyn or Lord Henstrenn, but presume that, from their tracks, they took the eastern road to return to their own holdings.”

“Or to Duevek,” suggested Maeldyn, “which is easier to defend and closer to Lornth.” He paused. “The last days have been long. If you would not mind, Lady of The Groves, I would like to settle my men. Perhaps we could talk in greater detail later.”

“Later would be best,” replied Zeldyan, “even in the morning.”

“The barracks kitchen has prepared food,” Saryn offered, “and our ostler has adapted the stables to handle your horses.”

Maeldyn nodded. “We thank you.”

As they led their men past the villa, Zeldyan watched for a moment, then looked at Saryn. “I am not at my best. Thank you.”

“I would not be at my best if I’d had to endure what you’ve had to go through, Lady.”

“May you never have to, Angel. No one should.” Zeldyan hesitated. “I will be in the study.”

“I’ll have your supper brought to you, Lady. It will be simple.”

“Simple is enough, now. If I can even eat that…” Zeldyan turned away and walked resolutely back into the front foyer of the villa.