Reader and Raelynx (37 page)

His other hand closed around the lioness. “Of course I will.”

Kirra’s eyes closed. For a moment she looked as if she was luxuriating in a scented bath. For such a wild creature, Kirra was really a hedonist at heart. “Ah. This almost feels like healing itself. I could just stand here and soak up your energy.”

“Certainly. Do that. Don’t think about those lives you wanted to save.”

She opened her eyes and glared at him. “I never in all my days met a boy more irritating than you.”

He let surprise come to his face. “Not even Justin?”

That made her laugh. “Very well, you’re
both
irritating. But I must say, this is a very handy talent you have. I feel fresh as morning.”

“You’ll feel terrible once you’ve used up more magic and I give you back the lioness.”

She nodded briskly and turned for the tent flap. “I know. But let me first do a little good.”

Amalie had done a little good, too. Cammon could feel the soothing effects of her magic on a couple dozen of the wounded soldiers who had been suffering so mightily before she arrived. As before, the immediate impact on Amalie was both beneficial and powerful. Her hair owned a golden phosphorescence, and she glowed with a ghostly light as she picked her way through the pallets. But he still worried about the cumulative effects on her health, and he eventually insisted that she stop for the night and seek her bed.

“Kirra,” he called. “We’re leaving. I have to give you back your charm.”

Amalie leaned against him, tiring already. “But Kirra has so much charm,” she said sleepily. “How could you take it all away?”

A poor joke, but he laughed. “Well, I have special powers.”

Kirra emerged from the tent with a bouncy step. “Keep it until I find Donnal,” she said. “Because I know I’m going to collapse as soon as you return it to me.”

He nodded, and they made their way through the camp toward Amalie’s tent. Kirra and Donnal were billeted nearby—as were Senneth and Tayse, Justin and Ellynor. The other Riders were scattered strategically through the camp, and Romar and Kiernan slept near their men, but these six had chosen to stay near the princess and guard her even during their slumber.

Donnal had come looking for them, it turned out, and joined them before they were thirty paces from the hospital tents. “I just did one quick circuit over the enemy camp from the air,” he said. “Everything looked quiet.”

“Then put your arms around me and be prepared to help me back to my bedroll,” Kirra said, holding out her hand to Cammon. “I’m about to collapse.”

As soon as he placed the lioness in her palm, Kirra sagged against Donnal and seemed to shrink in size. Even her golden hair grew dull and a little lank. Donnal lifted her in his arms and carried her to their campsite.

“Time for all of us to go to bed,” Cammon said. “Tomorrow will be just as terrible as today.”

And it was.

B
AD
news came late the next afternoon, dressed in Tilt livery. Justin found the man trying to sneak across the northern battle lines, and he escorted the messenger at knifepoint to Amalie’s tent. Kirra was at the royal pavilion because she had come looking for Cammon, saying she needed an infusion of magic.

“Why, Justin, look what you’ve found,” Kirra greeted the Rider. Of course she instantly recognized the aquamarine jewels on the man’s vest, though Cammon was still struggling to identify the color. “I do believe he must be a courier from Tilt.”

“He says he’s got news from marlord Gregory,” Justin said with a sneer.

Cammon could understand Justin’s contempt. The man was small and scrawny, probably in his midfifties, and appeared to be shivering where he stood. Clearly he’d never seen much combat in his life and was terrified to be this close to it. Not the sort of brave messenger you’d entrust with a vital secret.

Amalie stood before him with her arms crossed. This morning, for the first time, she had dressed in trousers and a close-fitting jacket, and the ensemble added a certain sternness to her demeanor. “Well? What does marlord Gregory have to tell me? Is he finally going to commit troops to my cause, or is he too much of a coward to take sides, even so late?”

The courier looked around nervously. “I was told to deliver my message to the regent.”

Amalie drew herself even taller. “I am the
princess.
”

“Yes, but I—”

Justin stepped close enough to lay the edge of his dagger against the man’s throat. “Tell the princess anything she asks,” he said in a threatening voice.

The courier coughed and swallowed and bobbed his head. “Yes. I will. Majesty, marlord Gregory wants you to know that Arberharst soldiers have sailed to the northern seas and are disembarking even now. He thinks they number close to a thousand. They will be joining marlord Halchon and marlord Rayson as soon as they can mobilize.”

Justin was so angry he almost lowered his blade. “Damnation!” he swore. “We’re worn thin as it is—and the last thing we need is more foreigners prancing around, immune to our magic.”

Amalie ignored him. “And why are these soldiers allowed access through Tilt waters and Tilt lands?” she demanded.

The messenger cut his eyes back toward Justin and licked his lips. “Majesty, the marlord is—he is loyal to you—but Halchon Gisseltess made certain threats, and the marlord was afraid. He agreed to allow the Arberharst men into Tilt harbors, but he instantly sent me to warn you.”

Kirra struck her hands together in extreme frustration. “Oh, this is just
like
Gregory Tilton!” she exclaimed. “He finds a way to make each side believe he has played the ally!”

“Well, he has done us some good, if the news is true,” Justin said practically. “It gives us time to prepare.” He put away his knife and glanced at Cammon. “
Is
it true?”

Cammon nodded. “At least as far as
he
knows. He’s not lying.”

“I saw them,” the courier said. “I saw the ships sail in, and I saw the men in their blue uniforms come to shore.”

Justin swore again. “Then let’s tell Romar and Kiernan and Tayse.”

Amalie spoke softly. “Let them finish the day’s fighting first.” She pointed at the messenger. “You will stay with me until my commanders gather tonight, and you will repeat your news. Justin, thank you for bringing him to me. You may return to battle.”

Justin hesitated. “Majesty—I cannot leave him here with you unguarded. He
says
he has brought news of a fresh invasion, but perhaps he has a secret mission, and that is to do harm to you.”

“I didn’t! No! I wouldn’t!” the messenger cried, instantly alarmed.

“I don’t think so,” Cammon said.

Amalie just smiled and gestured toward the raelynx, who was sitting quietly nearby, its dark eyes fixed on the newcomer. “I’m not undefended,” she said. “Cammon has a sword, and the raelynx is close by. I’m not afraid.”

Kirra laughed and clapped Justin on the back. “Replaced by a mystic and a cat,” she crowed. “A bad day for a Rider!”

Justin merely bowed, his fist against his shoulder. “Majesty,” he said, “I return to fight where I will do the most good.”

R
OMAR
and Kiernan read the situation much as Kirra had—a canny ploy by Gregory Tilton to prove his worth to both sides of the warring factions.

“I despise him, but I admire his strategy,” Kiernan said calmly once the messenger had been dismissed. “This bit of information will keep us from dispossessing him as a traitor if we manage to beat back our enemies and win the war.”

“Which seems even unlikelier, given this news,” Senneth said. Cammon thought she looked even more exhausted tonight. She had managed to throw and sustain fire several times these past three days, effectively cutting off pockets of enemy troops, but Arberharst soldiers remained on the front lines and made it impossible for her to simply hold back the entire advancing army with a wall of flame.

“I had wondered why Rayson Fortunalt recruited so few foreigners,” Tayse said in his serious way. He ignored Senneth’s “So
few
?” and added, “He knew they would be most effective against us. He would have been justified in pouring all his resources into hiring those fighters. He was smart to hire another thousand men.”

“Let’s spend less time applauding Rayson’s clever investment of gold and more time determining how we can block this new army,” Kiernan said.

Tayse shrugged. “Unless we can spare forces to meet them somewhere north of Ghosenhall, I don’t know that there is any plan we can make,” he said. “And I don’t think we have the soldiers to send.”

“No,” Romar said. He looked angry and trapped—not yet beaten, but staring straight at the possibility of defeat.
This is how the ending begins,
he was thinking. “Well, we thought they would start with a frontal assault, and then, once we were worn down, try a few tricks,” he said. “I suppose that is what has started now.”

“So then we must be on the alert for more maneuvers,” Kiernan said.

Romar nodded wearily. “I suppose we must.” He hauled himself to his feet. “Rest while we can. Make ourselves strong to fight another day.”

It was a plan that Cammon heartily approved. He was not successful in keeping Amalie away from the wounded that night, but he did coax her back to the pavilion before she had used up all her strength. Even when they had blown out all the candles and curled up together in bed, he could see the faint luster of her hair.

“You’re alight with magic,” he observed, smoothing down the stray strands.

She laughed sleepily. “And prickly with it,” she agreed. “My skin feels like it’s crackling—like I’m standing too close to a fire.”

“Do you like it now?” he asked. “Your magic? You were afraid of it before.”

He felt the nod of her head against the pillow. “I like it so much! Because I can
do
things with it—things I want to do, good things.”

“You haven’t been singing the songs Ellynor taught you to honor the Silver Lady,” he observed.

“I’ve been afraid to, with Coralinda Gisseltess so close,” she confessed. “Maybe the Pale Mother will hear me but help her.”

“I’m sure the Lestra is offering up plenty of prayers of her own,” he said dryly.

“But I have prayed to her,” Amalie said hesitantly. “At night. Silently. And when we’ve walked through the rows of wounded soldiers. I’ve asked for her blessing. I think she can hear me—at any rate, sometimes I feel as if
someone
is peering over my shoulder, smiling when I get something right. I don’t know. Maybe it’s my imagination.” He heard the smile in her voice. “Maybe it’s
you
that I feel.”

“But maybe it’s the goddess,” he said. “I hope so. I hope she is watching over you. I hope she is watching over all of us.”

Amalie fell asleep almost instantly. Cammon, who had trained himself to stay awake as long as she did, just in case she needed him, tumbled into sleep right after her. But even his dreams were not restful these days. It was harder to keep his mental shields up while he was sleeping, and so he was plagued by the unrelenting misery of the wounded men. Images of warfare clattered through his mind. He relived again and again the striking blow, the falling sword, the moment’s inattention that had resulted in a blade through the leg, or the ribs, or the throat.

It was almost a relief to startle awake, still in the dead of night, and lift his head and wonder what cue had alerted him that something was wrong.

No sound broke the silence immediately outside the tent. All the souls that Cammon had a particular interest in lay quietly sleeping. He pushed his attention outward, searching for trouble, wondering what spike of violence or fear had ripped through his slumbering mind and jerked him awake.

There. A slow creeping movement, coming closer. A single soldier, dispatched on a dangerous mission, harboring a steady murderous intent in his heart. It was hard to judge distance, but Cammon thought the man had made it about halfway through the royal camp.

An assassin. Heading for Amalie.

Cammon gathered his energy to send an urgent summons to Tayse—but the message went unsent. He became aware of a second stealthy presence, just as intent, just as lethal, prowling through the sleeping rows of soldiers. It moved soundlessly and with a primitive joy, and it was stalking the intruder.

The raelynx.

Relaxing a little, Cammon covered Amalie’s mouth and shook her awake. She immediately opened her eyes and rolled over to look at him. When he pulled back his hand she mouthed,
“What’s wrong?”

“Just wait,” he whispered.

Another few moments they lay there, tense with listening, hearing nothing but silence and their own breathing. Then an unearthly scream split the night—an inhuman sound from a human mouth—and suddenly the whole camp was clattering with the sounds of soldiers jumping to arms.

“What was that?” Amalie demanded.

“Assassin. Raelynx,” Cammon answered succinctly.

Amalie pushed herself upright. “Senneth will be here in a second.”

“Tayse first.”

“Then I’d better get dressed.”

She had no time. That instant, Tayse ripped back the tent flap and bounded in. “Majesty? Cammon?” He was naked except for his trousers. In the faint moonlight, Cammon could just see the gleam of an upraised sword in his hand.

“I’m fine,” Amalie answered. “Apparently the raelynx caught an intruder.”

Senneth hurried into the tent, and all the candles instantly winked to life. Her hair was wild, but otherwise she appeared calm. Tayse looked like avenging death, but his expression was beginning to smooth back to normal. Outside the tent, Cammon could hear Justin shouting questions and commands.

He actually felt like laughing. Impossible for the princess to be any more well defended. What could harm her with safeguards like these in place?

“What happened?” Senneth asked. “Was that the raelynx?”

Cammon wanted to get out of bed, but he was completely nude and it seemed like a bad idea. Amalie, who was wearing a thin nightdress, merely wrapped the covers tightly around her body and assumed an expression of great dignity. Cammon tried for a similar look. “I woke up, felt someone sneaking through camp,” he said. “I was just about to call for Tayse when I felt the raelynx. I figured he could take care of whoever was coming.”

Tayse still hadn’t sheathed his sword. “Then all is clear? The assassin had no companions?”

Cammon shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

Senneth looked at Tayse. “Unless he brought Arberharst friends with him.”

“I think the raelynx would have gone for them, too,” Cammon said.

“We’ll make a circuit of camp,” Tayse said, and ducked back out the door.

Senneth surveyed them. It was the first time she had been confronted with direct evidence that Cammon was sharing Amalie’s bed. “And now I suppose you’ll tell me to be grateful that you’ve disregarded every warning I’ve given you to keep your reserve with the princess,” she said. She didn’t sound angry, but she didn’t sound elated, either.

He risked a grin. “Well, actually, it was the raelynx that saved Amalie tonight, so I don’t suppose I can even make that argument.”

“Senneth, I want him with me,” Amalie said. “I love him.”

Senneth sighed heavily. “I suppose you do. I would kill him, but he’s too valuable, at least for the moment.”

Kirra poked her head through the tent flap. “Sen, Tayse wants you outside. Oh, look, Cammon and Amalie are sleeping together. What an interesting development.” She wasn’t surprised, either, Cammon could tell—but neither was she horrified. In fact, in typical Kirra fashion, she seemed to find the awkward situation delightful. “Nothing like keeping your bodyguards close at hand.”

“Speak with more respect to the princess,” Cammon said, trying to frown her down, but Amalie was smiling.

“He has continued to render me the most valuable services,” Amalie said.

Kirra hooted with laughter and didn’t even try to answer. “Sen. Outside,” she repeated and then disappeared.

Senneth gave them both a darkling look and followed Kirra. The candle flames blew out as the flap fell shut.

“She didn’t seem too angry,” Amalie said.

“She’s got other things to worry about,” Cammon said. “At the moment. The conversation isn’t over, I assure you.”

Nor was the influx of people into the tent. “Is she all right? What was that scream?” came Valri’s voice, and a moment later the queen ducked through the tent door. “Amalie? What happened?”

Cammon sighed, reached over, and again lit one of the candles as Valri felt her way across the floor. As soon as the light came up, she stopped, and regarded the two of them with disfavor. “The raelynx attacked an enemy creeping through camp,” Cammon said. “Amalie’s fine.”