The Born Queen

CHAPTER NINE

ANNE REINED Faster to a halt just before the edge of the tree line. Below her the land dropped away in gently rolling hills. Less than half a league away the land started to climb again, a bit more sharply. A little stream wound its way down the bottom of the dale, and near it was the track of North Ratheren Road.

"I see them," Artwair murmured softly. "Majesty, I won't doubt your visions again. We would have been caught between hammer and anvil."

A

"How could they know we were coming? And coming this way of all the ways we might have come?" Artwair wondered. "Even if some traitor flew to them with wings, they would have still had to march here from Copenwis or Suthschild. Look how settled in they are."

"They have a Hellrune," A

Artwair cocked his eyebrow. "I've heard those stories," he said. "It's Hansan rubbish, meant to frighten us."

"You've come to believe I can see across leagues and time. Why doubt another could?"

"Your visions have proved true time after time," he replied. "Your Majesty was blessed by the saints."

"If one can be blessed, so can another," A

Artwair still seemed skeptical. "If Hansa really has such seers, why would they ever lose a war? Or make a mistake?"

"Even a Hellrune isn't perfect, I guess, and some are stronger than others. And sometimes they are assassinated before the war begins."

"But if they can see the future-"

"Not their own, apparently," she replied.

"Then we should kill this one."

"I'm working on it," A

"So he saw us on this road-"

"And I saw the trap they set, because of what he saw," A

"We need to know their numbers," he said. "And the composition of their forces."

"I'll send my Sefry tonight," she said. "The moon will be nearly dark. They can discover what we need to know."

A

A

She opened her eyes again and sat up, trying not to vomit, pushing at the bedclothes with only four limbs, trying to regain herself.

Quiet yourself. Don't panic.

She was there again, the arilac, a brand in the night, and fear crept away.

But she still didn't know where she was, exactly.

"Mistress?

She knew that voice. Nerenai.

"Dreaming," she murmured. "Stronger every night. Harder to remember…" She shivered again, wondering what she was talking about, because she'd lost it again.

"What is it?" Another voice asked. It was Emily, her other maid.

"Majesty has had another bad dream," Nerenai said. "This is what I'm good at. Go back to sleep."

"I'll wait to see she's okay," Emily replied.

Something warm touched A

"This will help," the Sefry said. "Was it prophecy?"

"No," A

Nerenai was silent for a moment. She gave A

"I've seen that river," A

"Yes. It swallows us, and in time it pulls us apart and we forget everything. But the things we knew are still there, in the waters-but not in us anymore, because the thing in us that holds it all together is gone."

She was moving her fingers as if sketching.

"There is another river," she continued, "or perhaps another part of the same one, and there, those with the power to do so can drink and bring those memories and knowledge back into the world, held in new vessels."

"It's more than memories," A

"It sounds dreadful," Emily said.

"Was it an ordinary spider?" Nerenai asked.

"That's a weird question," Emily opined.

A

"Maybe you are the spider, remembering A

"Don't joke," A

"Yes, Majesty," she replied.

They sat there for a while in the dark, but A

She found Artwair, the earl of Chavel, and Captain Leafton of her Craftsmen mulling over and marking on a map. They all bowed when she entered.

"Yes, yes," A

"Heol and his boys make them at about ten thousand," he said. "Half on either side of the road."

"That's only about two thousand more than we have," A

"Auy. But given surprise and their situation-they expect us between them, in the valley, remember-they could have murdered us with fewer men. A few volleys from the archers and a few charges with heavy cavalry to break our center before the men could be decently ready to fight. They could have done it with six thousand."

"And so what do we do?"

"There are just over three thousand foot on this side of the valley and about five hundred horse. If we try to move our whole army up, they'll detect us and have time to bring the other half over and face us with greater numbers."

"So we send the horse now," A

"About that. We've the earl's five hundred and fifty, a thousand heavy lancers with Lord Kenwulf, another thousand of mine, your fifty Craftsmen, two hundred light horse, and your hundred Sefry mounted light infantry. If we take them unawares, we can decimate those on this side. By the time the rest come over, our foot will have arrived and we can fight this battle on our terms."

"It means leaving the foot marching unprotected by cavalry," Leafton pointed out.

"Who do they need to be protected from?"

The Craftsman shrugged.

"Raiht," Artwair said. "Better we should leave a small mounted force here. Perhaps that would suit you, Earl."

"Whatever pleases Her Majesty pleases me," the earl said, "but I would prefer to ride with the attack. I think that my archers might have been practically invented for this situation."