The King's Name (14 page)

I opened my mouth, while trying to find a polite way to suggest that eating the fallen enemy was only marginally better. Celemon was looking quite green and leaning against the wall. While I was looking for words I heard Urdo's voice from behind me. "You and your people may feast on the Malmish horses, though you should know that it will cause many in the alae to have the same reaction as ap Caius here."

I spun round. I had no idea how long he had been there. He came forward and took up a place beside me. He was looking and sounding very weary. Celemon cleared her throat uneasily.

Emer smiled. "We are accustomed to being considered barbarians," she said.

"I would have that change," Urdo said. "You are all my people now. This is a good time to make the change.

Tonight, feast as is your custom. Make sure it is only the Malmish horses you eat. Then, tomorrow, I will gift you and your people with some of the Malmish horses that are left alive.

There should be two horses for each of your household warriors. This victory feast will mark the change from your people seeing horses as cattle to seeing them as companions."

Emer frowned and drew breath, but did not speak. "What about the spoils of the field?" ap Ranien asked.

"Your people may have what they have found on the bodies of our enemies," Urdo said. "We know the difference between an army that fights even partly for plunder, and one that fights for the Peace and the glory of their names." He paused, and looked from Emer to ap Ranien. "The cabbages and roots will be ripening in

Dun Morr as they are here. Your troops will need to be home to gather them. How many can you spare me for a longer campaign?"

"I can lead five hundred who would rather fight than farm," Emer said, without even glancing at ap Ranien.

"You are right that many of them will soon be needed at home."

I looked at poor ap Ranien, who was biting his lip. He shrugged a little when he caught my eye. I guessed he would not be glad to be away from Emer. He was a steady man for an Isarnagan, but I would not have liked to ride in his saddle. Lew listened too hard to advice, and Emer did not listen hard enough.

"Very good," Urdo said. "Set up camp in the stockade for tonight, and arrange who will be going home.

Tomorrow five hundred of your troops will begin marching up the highroad toward Caer Gloran."

While they were smiling and bowing and exchanging politenesses, Urdo added, almost as an
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afterthought, "Send some of your horse-collecting parties down here—we have some more dead horses in the stables and you may as well take them, too." They took this without a murmur, but I turned to Urdo, startled. He ignored me and kept smiling evenly at Emer.

After the Isarnagans left us, Urdo sent Celemon off to get on with her work. "Oh well," she said, wanly, as she left. "Think of the food we'll save. Not only the supplies we don't need to feed the Isarnagans, but the porridge we'll save on the armigers. Nobody will be able to eat a bite when they know."

"Better not to spread the news too widely," Urdo warned. Celemon rolled her eyes and made the hand signal that meant that she would follow orders.

"What dead horses in the stables?" I asked, quietly, as soon as we were alone.

Urdo ran his hands through his hair. "Marchel's armigers have all gone, sure enough. Her grooms were left in here and decided to cause what havoc they could. They poisoned the wells, spoiled the food, and went to the new stables over beyond the hall and started to kill the spare horses."

"How many?" I asked queasily. I had to know, whether I wanted to or not.

"About fifty dead. Two stables' full. Ap Selevan caught them as they were going into the third stable. They are presently barricaded inside there, demanding their lives in return for not slaughtering any more horses."

I gasped as this hit me like successive blows to the stomach. "Their own horses?" I said.

"Indeed," Urdo said between his teeth. "Ap Selevan sent a message to me. They are refusing to surrender unless you and I are both there."

"They could have surrendered at any time," I said. "Are they mad to do that, killing horses and destroying supplies to put themselves outside the law?"

"A horse is a weapon, and a horse in our hand is a weapon against them," Urdo said. "But I wonder what these Malms know of surrender. They may be zealots, fanatics, the worst kind of enemy."

"Very few of them surrendered in the fighting," I said. "And Marchel was exiled for slaughtering those

Isarnagans at Varae—" I hesitated, and Urdo raised his chin grimly. "But I do not think it is a custom of their

people."

"Thurrig has honor," Urdo said.

"And Larig did. But what I was thinking was Marcia An-tonilla writing about them two hundred years ago when they first attempted to cross the River Vonar. They had honor then, as a people."

"That's good to know," Urdo said soberly. "Now, they are waiting for us to get there, so we will go. Have you a fresh horse?"

I looked around as if expecting a fresh horse to be standing at my side and saw Urdo's groom, ap Caw, with

Thunder and one of the summerhorses, both saddled and ready. "Not nearer than the stockade,"

I said.

"Then take Thunder," Urdo said. "He will remember you."

"Why do they need me there?" I asked, belatedly realizing that this was strange. "You, yes, but why me?"

"There could be all sorts of reasons. In the worst case they want to kill us both in a charge. But we will have two pennons there, so they cannot do it." He signaled to ap Caw, who brought the horses up.

I was tired already. All my bones ached. I wished I could summon up a fresh body as easily as a fresh horse.

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I swung up onto Thunder's back, talking to him reassuringly, all sorts of nonsense if I should write it down afterward, just making noises to let him know that he knew me and while I wasn't Urdo I was still someone he should take notice of.

Urdo smiled to hear this stream of nonsense as he mounted the summerhorse. "This is Harvest," he said, patting her face.

"Did Dalmer find you?" I asked, the name reminding me uneasily of the destruction of the supplies.

"Yes, he did," Urdo said, looking grim as we started to move off. "There is no stored food here at all. I think

Marchel meant Magor to be a problem for us. I have no intention of getting caught up down here longer than I

have to. But we can't leave it empty to be reoccupied either. I had wondered about leaving the Isarnagans as guards, but I suspect they'd terrorize the countryside. We'll have to leave a pennon at least, preferably one of those which is usually here. If Masarn does not catch up with Marchel we should leave two. What did you do with the farmers?"

I rode close beside him so we could talk without being much overheard. "Sent them off to Derwen, out of the way. I can send them back again."

"We're going to have to go to Derwen anyway," Urdo said. "Since there's no way from here over the mountains to Nant Gefalion we have to go up the track from Derwen. We also need to get hold of supplies.

The problem with moving alae around like pieces on a fidchel board is feeding them on the squares they get to. I will set Dalmer and Celemon working on the problem, but it is a problem."

"There are some supplies at Derwen, but you will have to speak to Nodol about them," I said.

"Why do we have to go to Nant Gefalion? Is Cinvar coming down that way? I sent Hiveth's pennon up to block it. The last news I have there was no trouble there. Oh, and he had invited Marchel's sons to join us, and sent them to

Derwen where they are safe with my mother."

"Invited?" Urdo frowned. "You haven't been taking hostages?"

"No. Duncan and my mother wanted to, but I insisted it would be an invitation."

"Good." Urdo sighed. "I'll have a word with them when we get to Derwen and see if they'd like to join the ala. I

would have done it years ago, except they never let me know they were back here, so I felt they might not want my attention." We threaded our way past the house, along to where the new stable blocks were.

"Marchel isn't the real problem though. Nor is Arling, even armed with' mysterious machines from Caer

Custenn. In some ways he's a blessing because he's an obvious foreign invasion."

"Morthu," I said.

"Morthu could be brought to trial for treason with the evidence of Rigg's letter," Urdo said.

"The real problem is the kings, and you know it. We have to put this revolt down as quickly as we can and let them know that having civil wars just isn't an acceptable way to settle differences anymore. By the latest news I have none of them have done anything beyond raising their levies, which is no crime. None of them, that is, except Cinvar, who has killed two men of Cadraith's who happened to be visiting him and declared that he will have none of my rule. I have sent Luth and ap Erbin up into Tevin to help Alfwin against Arling when he lands. I have written to Cadraith and ap Meneth to come to Tathal to join us there. If we crush Cinvar quickly then maybe Flavien

and Cinon will see the folly of their plans."

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"What about Ayl?" I asked.

"Ayl can learn from example," Urdo said grimly.

"You don't think he might join Arling?"

"It's not impossible. But there was no news of Arling landing when I left Caer Tanaga, and Marchel and Cinvar were already a problem. I think this is the right order to tackle them in. I've written to Ayl, for whatever good that will do. I've left half an ala in Caer Tanaga for all that I have a whole ala here—I recalled all the veterans who live nearby." He grinned. "Like Masarn.

They all came. I'm proud of them. Most of them are here, and I left three pennons under Gor-mant who are used to fighting together."

"And what about Angas?" I almost didn't want to ask.

Urdo sighed again. There was a guard on the door of the first stable block; we returned his signal that all was well as we rode past him. "Angas is another sort of problem. I need to talk to Angas. As you said in your letter, Angas needs someone to sort things out for him. We need to bring Morthu to justice and then Angas's problems will go away, I think. In any case, Angas is right up in Demedia; it will take him half a month or more to get anywhere he can be a problem. Invading Bregheda, well, it's possible, but he knows the terrain well enough to know how foolish it would be. The land is packed thick with mountains. Everyone knows that in all Penda's wars with Borthas, Mardol was the only winner, nibbling away at the south instead of going head-on at the hills. Invading Bregheda from the north would be even more foolish."

"I wish there was some way of knowing whafs going on far away," I said. "I'm worrying about Angas and

Arling, and we just can't know, it's too far. And if Morthu has infiltrated the red-cloaks then we don't know what news to trust."

"Elenn is looking after the messages for the time being," Urdo said. "And I have sent to Garah to ask her to come back to Caer Tanaga and do her old job for the emergency. Nothing is likely to get lost or copied at

Caer Tanaga with them there. It does no good to worry about it anyway."

"You still haven't said why Nant Gefalion rather than up the highroad to Caer Gloran," I reminded him as we exchanged signals with the guard on the second door.

"I'm going to send the Isarnagans up the highroad. They can hold it; they can prevent people coming back down it at speed. But we ought to go through Nant Gefalion to get the supplies from Derwen, send the farmers back here. And also, if Cinvar isn't invading south, that way we'll be more likely to surprise him coming up there."

"If we head off for Derwen in the morning, and spend tomorrow night there, we won't be pushing the horses too hard. Then Nant Gefalion is a day from there, and we can be at Caer Gloran the afternoon of the next day," I said.

Urdo raised his chin. "I also want to take your nephews to your mother. Galbian is too young to rule here without help, and he's been spoiled, you're right. He needs a few years in the ala to sort him out. I thought when all this is over we might leave your man Duncan as steward of Derwen and I might take Galbian to Caer

Tanaga for training. What do you think?"

"Duncan's dead," I said. "Ten days ago, in the fighting. But there must be somebody who can do it."

"I'll think about it," Urdo said. Then he drew Harvest gently to a halt, for we were almost around the second stable and could already see a press of armigers outside the third. I halted beside him. "Will you stay down here or come up to Tathal with me?"

"I will certainly come," I said, without hesitation. "Veniva can look after the day-to-day affairs of Derwen. And the ala is ready, of course. I have also raised the militia, and though some will be needed for the harvest we could take the rest. They know our signals and they may be a help against Cin-var."

"Are you sure Derwen can risk them?" Urdo asked.

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I thought of the militia for a moment, all those young and eager farmers who came to fight at my word. They were my people, my responsibility, even as my armigers were, even as the land was. They trusted me to make choices for them that might kill them, that would kill some of them, inevitably. "Yes," I said, after a moment. "If we lose, then there is no holding Derwen alone, no matter how many troops are there. I would not risk my people for glory, nor myself neither, not now I have a duty to the land." I looked over at him, sitting still and patient on the summerhorse, listening to me. Then I bit my lip and looked away, seeing and not seeing the two pennons clustered outside the stable. "I joined the ala because I wanted to fight, and for a long time that's all it was for me; the glory, the skills, the comradeship. Most of the war I was fighting for the