Temar’s mind was on his own grievances. “I don’t see why Darni is the only choice to lead the other half of this assault.”
Usara wasn’t listening, seeing Allin come to join Darni and Halice. Darni laughed abruptly and Halice scrubbed a hand through her short hair, face intrigued. “What are they up to?”
“Let’s find out.” Temar rose and Usara followed as they hurried to catch Halice and the big warrior disappearing into the shadows behind the cabin.
“Curse it.” Temar stumbled awkwardly on a treacherous tree root. With clouds covering the lesser moon barely at her half and her greater sister waning from her own, the night was a confusion of half-light and shadow.
“I appreciate you want to attack on the darkest night we’ll have before Solstice but that hampers your troops just as much as the enemy.” Larissa’s cool voice only served to warm Temar’s resentment at being excluded.
“I don’t have time for admiring clever mages,” Halice warned bluntly. “Shit!”
Temar felt Usara freeze, as startled as him.
“How did you do that?” Halice asked cautiously after a moment.
“Do what?” demanded Usara with frustration equal to Temar’s own.
“Light is made up of varying degrees of heat.” Pride bubbled irrepressibly in Larissa’s voice. “If you see the warmth—”
“I can see in the dark.” Halice’s wonder finished the sentence for the mage-girl. “How long does it last and how many of us can you bespell?”
“Barely half a chime.” Larissa sounded annoyed with herself.
“We can bespell two or three of you,” Allin offered meekly.
“Each of us,” clarified Larissa quickly. “Call it a handful between us.”
“Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.” Laughter rumbled deep in Darni’s chest. “Kalion had better look to his conjuring when you get back to Hadrumal, ladies, or one of you’ll be nominated Hearth Mistress inside the year.”
“It was mostly Allin’s idea.” Larissa didn’t sound displeased with the praise though. “Once we decided not to provoke Muredarch by drying up his wells.”
“Larissa saw how to make it work,” insisted Allin.
“We need to refine it before it’s a truly effective spell.” The clouds cleared a little and Temar saw Larissa raise a hand. “Usara? Can you help?”
“How do we make this work for us?” mused Halice. “How much can I see where there is some light?” She headed back for the beach, the mages close around her, watching alertly.
Temar hurried after them. “You’d need a second in command whose vision isn’t altered.”
“You’re not coming.” Darni stretched out an arm like a fence rail to hold him back. “We can’t chance your loss or capture.”
“I can hold my own in a fight,” Temar said stiffly.
“Emperors fall face down in the shit, just the same as peasants.” Darni gave the young nobleman a hard look. “The rest of us are expendable. You’re not.”
“How long would Guinalle hold out if she saw you being dipped for the sharks?” Halice turned the corner of the hut and swore. “Shit, I can’t look anywhere close to a fire. It hurts worse than taking it up the back alley.” She mopped her streaming eyes.
“Stand still.” Larissa passed her hands across the mercenary’s face.
“That’s better.” Halice grunted with satisfaction “Mind you, in the right place this could weight the runes for us. Can all three of you do this?”
“It’ll be easy enough to show Usara the trick of it,” said Larissa confidently.
“You can’t all be going?” Temar stepped around Darni’s arm. “I shall need a mage here, surely. Allin can stay.” Larissa could risk her neck with her ill-concealed ambitions, but Allin was far too precious to him. That abrupt realisation blinded Temar as effectively as the firelight in Halice’s bespelled eyes.
“We need all the mages this time,” said Halice with perfunctory apology.
“What if you need to bespeak me?” Temar objected. Was there any way he could insist Allin stayed aboard ship rather than join the actual assault?
“You’ll just have to keep a good watch out,” Darni told him. “We need the wizards to get us all ashore without lights.”
“There is one thing you can do for us, Messire D’Alsennin.” Halice snapped her fingers at the young man. “Tell them why we’re going. That’s a Sieur’s job.”
Temar gathered his wits as he saw the array of expectant faces among the campfires on the beach. Catching sight of Allin’s hopeful face, radiant with trust, he realised he had to find the words to make these people fight fiercely enough to bring her back safe. He bowed to the waiting men and women, mercenaries, sailors and Kellarin folk, the golden firelight making equals of them all against the velvet blackness of sea and sky. All of them bowed back and Temar cleared his throat.
“I know some of you and you know me, after these last seasons working for Kellarin’s benefit. I don’t suppose Sieur D’Alsennin means a lot to the rest of you; I’m sorry I’ve had so little chance to introduce myself as yet. Forgive me; we’ll do something about that on your return. You might pick up a few barrels of Kellarin’s wine that those thieves have stolen. It’s always easier to make new friends over a drink.”
A ripple of appreciative laughter encouraged him. Temar waved a negligent hand.
“You’ll be well paid, that goes without saying, but all the gold ever minted can’t buy a life and it’s the lives of those innocents in that foul stockade you must fight for tonight. You’ve all heard what was done to Naldeth. You’ll not stand to see that done to anyone else, will you?”
A dour chorus of agreement ran around the sands and Temar saw righteous anger on most faces, coloured here and there with ferocious anticipation.
“This isn’t the night for making those scum pay for their crimes, mind you. That’ll come soon enough, never fear. Tonight you take away the stick they think they can beat us with. Then we wait for friends elsewhere to cut away the prop of their treacherous magic. Once that’s gone we’ll send them all so fast to the shades there’ll be standing room only in Poldrion’s ferry. Saedrin himself will have them drawing lots to see who steps up first.”
That didn’t get much of a laugh so Temar stopped straining his eloquence.
“Go in, get the prisoners, get back here with your skins whole.” He shrugged. “It’s simple enough. You know what you’re doing.”
That won him a rousing cheer and a slap on the shoulder from Halice. “We’ll make a leader of you yet, my lad.”
“Not if you keep calling me that,” he retorted.
“We’ll keep it between you and me, then.” She grinned, unapologetic. “Come on, Allin, Usara.”
Halice didn’t look back as she strode down the beach, her handpicked troop gathering around her. She’d stop calling Temar ‘lad’ when he’d earned the respect to go with the title birth and chance had conferred upon him. Not that he was doing so badly, she allowed, though that romantic streak would have had him long dead in the viciousness of the Lescari wars.
“What’s the joke, boss?” Minare was at her elbow, the rest following on behind.
“Nothing.” Halice’s smile vanished. “We’re ready for dealing out blood and filth and death and pain?”
“All single minds and no hearts,” Minare confirmed. “I should have known there’d be a price due for a peaceful life in Kellarin.”
“Make sure anyone within reach of your blade dies there and we can all go back to it.” That’s what Halice’s mind was set upon. “Come on, get a move on!” She waved the fighting force towards the waiting boats.
The captain of the Dulse was waiting on the main deck when she climbed aboard. “How close do you want me inshore?”
“We’ll tell you when we get there.” Halice looked to check the longboats were being securely lashed to the Dulse’s stern. “Wait for our signal and then come in to get us.”
“It’s poor
light and worse water,” Master Jevon warned her.
“The wizards have that in hand,” Halice reassured him. “Usara? This way.”
The mage followed her to the shallow deck of the forecastle where Halice found a dark-haired man with a coil of thin rope in his hands, leather and bone tags marking its length.
“Jil, this is Usara. Right, Master Mage, prove this idea of yours works before I risk all our necks trusting you.” She nodded to Jil who deftly cast the lead weight he held over the prow, fingers noting the thin rope’s progress without conscious thought. “We’ve got—”
Halice hushed him with a curt hand. “Usara?”
Usara frowned. “There’s five spans of water beneath the keel. The bottom’s sandy here but there are rocks about a plough length that way.” He pointed into the darkness. “And over there.”
“Jil?”
“That’s what the charts say,” admitted the sounding man.
“We’ll make a pilot of him yet, won’t we?” Halice grinned.
“Good enough to put me out of work.” Jil didn’t sound too thrilled.
Halice left the mage to placate the sailor and went down into the waist of the ship, balancing herself as the ship got underway. Her troop was gathered on one side of the deck, Darni’s on the other. Halice listened with half an ear as Darni spoke to those under his command. She’d been relieved to see he treated his men well as they’d drilled their motley band into some semblance of a corps. He was appropriately courteous to the few women under his command as well, but cut them no slack that might trip the entire troop. Halice had no quarrel with that.
The Dulse’s crew moved round and above them, alert to every peril of night sailing. Master Jevon stood, arms akimbo, on the aftdeck. The helmsman didn’t take his eyes off his captain as he felt every movement of sea and ship through the whipstaff.
“Will this be like taking that watchpost?” Halice saw the lad Glane was looking apprehensive.
“Easier, if we all keep our heads,” she told him unemotionally. “Keep one eye on the enemy, one eye on your mates and one on Vaspret.”
Glane managed a hesitant laugh. “I’ll try.”
“You know where that third eye comes from, lad?” Peyt was sharpening a sword that gleamed brilliantly clean in contrast to his unshaven dishevelment.
Glane shook his head, mystified.
Peyt clutched his groin with a suggestive grin. “What’s got one eye in here?”
“Think with what’s between your ears, not between your legs,” Halice interrupted him. “Chance your arm like you did in Sharlac and I’ll leave you behind.”
“Peyt’ll just walk back across the open water,” Deglain laughed from his seat in the shadow of the mainsail.
Peyt sneered at him but, before he could reply, Halice bent close to whisper in his ear. “Don’t think you’ll get a chance to stay and turn pirate. I’ve someone ready to put a bolt through your head if I give the nod, you and all your cronies.” She watched him with a dangerous smile as he realised the men he’d relied on to back him in Kellarin were scattered between the two troops. The arrogance faded from his face.
Halice stood in the centre of the deck. “Tonight, we put a scare into them. Do that well enough and they’ll break like reeds when we make our main attack. Check your weapons and be sure you’re ready to go as soon as we get there.”
She moved on to the sheltered stretch of deck just below the aftcastle. Rosarn looked up from bundling sheaves of arrows into oiled skins to save them from salt and damp. “We’ve less than five quivers a bow,” she warned. “And fewer spare strings than I’d like.”
“It’s a raid, Ros,” Halice reminded her. “We’re not taking the field against the Duke of Parnilesse again.”
Rosarn smiled. “He’s too much sense to fight in the dark.”
“Nobles are supposed to be wise. It’s mercenaries are madder than rabid dogs.” Halice watched the crossbowmen checking ratchets, windlasses and quarrels. “Did you get those pictures from Pered?”
Rosarn patted the breast of her jerkin. “We’ll know them better than their own mothers.”
“If you get a shot, take it but we’re not out to kill them at any cost.” Halice raised her voice so all the archers heard her. “Just keep them scared and ducking their heads as we break the prisoners out.”
“All set?” Darni came up to join them.
“Well enough,” Halice confirmed. “Yours?”
Darni nodded. “The experienced lads know we’re saving some pottage for another day. They won’t let the green ones start a fight to the death.”
“As long as they’re blooded before we take them into a real fight.” Halice looked the length of the ship, her gaze halting on Usara still high in the forecastle. “Fighting was so much simpler without magic to complicate it.”
“Don’t blame the mages,” Darni grinned. “Planir’s all for a simple life.”
“Let me know if he manages one,” Halice said drily. “I’ll bottle the secret and hawk it round the fairs. Where’s his favourite complication?”
Darni nodded towards the aft cabin. “Taking a rest, along with little Allin.” The Hadrumal warrior’s square face was unreadable in the gloom.
Halice beckoned and he followed her up to the aftdeck. The helmsman and Master Jevon ignored them, intent on guiding the ship safely through the dark waters.
“How is your troop?” Halice asked Darni quietly. “Who would you send them up against? Who would you run from?”
Darni considered her question before answering. “They’d hold their own in a skirmish with the Brewer’s Boys, as long as we got the drop on them, that is. I wouldn’t want to face them in line of battle. I’d be the first one running if we fell foul of Arkady or Wynald.”
“Fair enough.” That Darni had fought in Lescar at the Archmage’s behest was a secondary consideration for Halice, as long as his judgement agreed with hers.
Darni studied the men down on the main deck. “We can still use all the time we can get to drill them but I don’t suppose Sorgrad will dally just to suit our convenience.” There was respect for the Mountain Man in the warrior’s voice.
“No, I don’t suppose he will.” Halice wrinkled her nose in a private grimace. She’d rather have Sorgrad as her co-commander on this raid but better a bony fish than an empty dish. Besides, Darni had won Sorgrad’s esteem when they’d fought together in the Mountains last summer. That made Darni one of a very select company.
Still, Halice acknowledged, if the big dog’s loyalty to his master’s quail got him killed, she wouldn’t weep for Darni. If he got any of hers killed for the mage-girl’s sake, she’d claim a slice of his hide for each and every one of them. She’d try, anyway. Could she take him? She mentally measured his reach and stride. She hadn’t gone up against another corps commander in a long while. Not since before she’d had her leg smashed.
Halice rubbed absently at her thigh, feeling as always the slight thickening of the mended bone. She’d been crippled as surely as Naldeth until Artifice had reshaped the twisted and shortened limb. Magic certainly complicated the fighting life but there was no denying the value of skills like Guinalle’s, and the mages’ come to that. If she had to take up her sword again, better for a cause like this than some mere coffer of gold.
“Are your banner sergeants clear on their tasks?”
Darni was unscrewing the pommel of his sword. “Absolutely.” He took a coin out of the hollow in the hilt and polished it against his jerkin before putting it back. He grinned at Halice. “A luck piece from Strell, my wife. What do you carry?”
Halice smiled briefly. “A good whetstone.” She looked over her troop again, satisfying herself that Minare and Vaspret were best placed to strengthen the less experienced lads like Glane.
The ship ran on through the silent seas, everyone deep in their own thoughts. As the darkness of Suthyfer carved an outline against the stars, every head turned towards the crouching islands and the rushing of th
e surf. Sailors rushed aloft to furl sails and the ship slowed.
“How close do we go?” Master Jevon asked Halice.
“Watch the wizard.” She pointed to Usara standing shoulder to shoulder in the prow with Jil. The mage was intent on the black sea beneath the bowsprit and the entire ship fell silent, watching him. The helmsman moved the whipstaff with agonising delicacy at every shift of Jil’s hand. The ship crept closer and closer to the mouth of the strait where the pirates lurked. Ominous, the islands closed on either side of the Dulse, blotting out the few stars breaking through the rents in the cloud above.
“Stir the girls,” Halice said quietly.
Darni slid silently down the ladder to summon Larissa and Allin. They joined him on the deck, faces pale in a passing gleam of the scant moonlight.
“Call up the boats.” At her order, Master Jevon snapped his fingers at the boatswain and the Dulse’s crew began hauling up the longboats that had followed her like so many ducklings. The stealthy flap and rustle of canvas overhead was overtaken by the noise of cautious boots on the deck as both troops began climbing down the ladders and netting that the sailors draped over the rails on either side. Only a few whispered oaths broke the hush as somebody was jostled, and then stealthy oars slid into the water.
“See you later, Commander,” said Rosarn. Burdened with arrows and bows, the archers climbed carefully down to a boat crewed by men from the Dulse.
Halice went down to the main deck where Allin waited for her, bundled up in a dark cloak. “Let’s go.”
She went down the ladder first, ready to catch the mage-girl if she slipped. The last thing they needed was that kind of commotion. Once they were aboard without mishap, Halice looked across the inky water to find the longboat where Darni hulked massive in the prow, Larissa hooded beside him. She nodded to Minare who silently signalled the men to start rowing. The boats crept forward, silence more precious than speed, sliding into line, each behind the other. Darni led the rest on the other side of the strait.
Halice saw a coppery thread curling through the blackness of the night sea, a sheen like firelight glittering in the very water that should kill it dead, just far enough ahead so the tiller man could see it. Allin sat beside her, round face grave with concentration as the guiding light led them through the rock-strewn shadows of the ever-narrowing strait. Halice rubbed absently at her thigh.
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