He did not know, in fact, if Maurylʼs struggle would end on Lewen plain and did not know, in fact, whether he himself would. It seemed he had little use to Mauryl after that was done, and for all that he knew the magic Mauryl had used to bring him here would be finished, too, win or lose, as Uwen would say.
He had had time to think of very many terrible things during the hours of preparation. Now he watched the road above Petellyʼs ears and past the moving barrier of blowing silk black, white, red and gold. And, Ninvris and Cefwyn being largely occupied in argument, he found it needful to say little at all, except to Uwen.
He won the dispute. Cefwyn thought so at least, since Ninvris conceded it might not be the wisest thing to advance with the line, but that she might take up an observation point, and be ready to send messengers to advise the officers immersed in battle of any unanticipated flanking movement: she did know whereof she spoke. She had studied, she said. She had read the same writers on the topic. She had read Tashnen.
I considered, she said, that it behooved me to know what I do and what I ask when I send men in certain numbers to certain tasks, my lord King.
You constantly amaze me, he said.
I trust you will never be amazed by my competency, my lord.
What did a man do with such a woman? His lady mother had not answered his father in such terms. I see I have years of discovery ahead. Clearly a man dared not let Ninvris gain an ell. And I commend your zeal to know, my lady, but were you any man of my association, and you had not commanded in the field, you would stand on that hill with no men but your personal guard.
He expected a spark. He received a calm nod. Very well.
I am adamant, he said.
Justly so, my lord. Do you take advice?
From my captains, my armorer, my grooms, my servants and my pages, my lady, where warranted.
And your wife?
Oh, I do. I do. See thatʼs Sagany Road ahead, Sagany and Pacewys villages, their standards. He waved as a peasant contingent joined them he reached down from Danvyʼs back and waved to the men, nodded to acknowledge their bows, and, a custom which had appalled the Guelen Guard early on in his tenure, offered his hand to a bright-eyed young man on horseback, their local gentry, the Thane of Sagany, the only horseman in their company. Fingers touched, and horses drifted apart again. Lord Ardwys. Fall in behind Lysalinʼs pennon.
Your Majesty, Ardwys said, said, Your Grace, to Ninvris and, Mʼlord, to Tristen; and drew off to join his men in waiting.
At every major side-road, now and again at mere sheep-paths, boys and men had been joining their march. Behind the men of Sagany Road, a handful of women and grandfathers wept and waved handkerchiefs and, Cefwyn thought, things which afforded the pious less comfort. Countryfolk pointed at the banners and waved. A clutch of old men with their dogs and their sheep stood by the ditch along the road and doffed their hats and stood respectfully.
We are outnumbered, Idrys said under his breath.
Hush, crow, Cefwyn said in thickest Guelen accent. Manners.
Gods, I would you were safe in the capital.
I would I had more Guelen. But the countryside had no special love of the Aswydds and their taxes. They cheer us, do you hear, Idrys?
So far, my lord, Idrys said. Well that the page has your shield, I say. I wish you would not do that.
Pish, he said, and grimaced and rubbed his leg, which had ached in that reach after the young thaneʼs hand.
Shall we rest? Ninvris asked.
He shook his head. Not yet. He had the marked places in his head as he had learned the village lordsʼ names, each and all. He had come to know this cursed road in his sleep and in his bad dreams. Tristen.
My lord King.
How do we fare?
My lord?
In time?
I see nothing worse, my lord. Isee nothing. I would not look. It would tell him where we are.
Asyneddin, Cefwyn said.
Through him, yes, Asyneddin.
Tristen had said very little; and wished not to, he thought. He could not escape the notion that Tristen was listening, if not doing whatever wizards did. Uwen dozed in the saddle at times. The King, unfortunately, could not.
Nor would Tristen, it seemed. But cheerful converse with him was impossible and if wizardry of some kind was going on, either with his gray-eyed bride, who kept rolling a set of beads and silver amulets through her fingers, or with Tristen, who simply rode scanning the horizons of this world or some other, he had no wish to disturb them.
Their column lengthened constantly with such arrivals. By noon, so Tristen heard, the hindmost must finally be clear of the town walls, but they would be obliged to stop in midafternoon, only to assure that the hindmost wagons made it in before full dark, the hindmost being the grain-transports that would go all the way to Emwy. The lordsʼ equipment, the warhorses, and the weapons were interspersed into the infantry marching order in the entirely unlikely event of an attack while they were well within their own territory: the tents for each unit came in wagons not far removed from those units.
It was a fair day, a light wind, by afternoon, and by midafternoon, as the plan was, they made camp on a high spot beside the road Massitbrook, the map showed running along the road, a ford that might be, the drivers said, a hard pull for the heavy wagons that came hindmost: the order went out after the first of them had crossed it and the first wagons had come up the far side, for arriving contingents to take shovels and move rock and ease the slope on both sides. Men grumbled, but the assigned units set to work, while sergeants paced off the aisles of the camp and men drove spears into the ground to mark the lanes.
It was all, all like a Word, Tristen thought. Everything that was done found place and fitness in his mind: the Kingʼs pavilion went up; and the Regentʼs; and his wagon turned up with two Amefin boys, who, casting themselves at his feet, swore they would wash pots and fetch and carry, as they said, for the great lord.
We want to be soldiers, mʼlord, one said. Iʼm fifteen. Me cousinʼs the same.
They seem very small, he said to Uwen.
Aye, said Uwen. And gruffly, If you steal a damn thing, you little fools, Iʼll feed you to the fishes. Haul that tent down! Spread the canvas out! Thirteen summers. At very most. And theyʼd not go home if we sent them.
Do you know them?
Oh, gods, I know them, Uwen said with a shake of his head. I sees ʼem in the mirror ʼa morninʼs. And like enough theyʼll come home if any of us do. Look sharp, there. Stand back and watch how the tent is folded. If yeʼd be soldiers yeʼll do it just the same in the dark of the morninʼ or a sergeantʼll take ʼis boot to ye and yeʼll carry it on your bleedinʼ backs a dayʼs march. Ye need ʼem, mʼlord. Your servants has got too many to provide for to be heftinʼ the canvas or the water-pots.
I cannot bear two more lives, he thought with a rising sense of panic. But he said nothing. He went to see to Petelly and Dys, but Aswys and his boys had Petelly unsaddled and already led away to the edge of the camp, so he strayed back again to watch the spectacle of the tent being raised, with the two boys now joined by two others, hammering at stakes and pulling at guy-ropes and poles.
Uwen and the guards had the business of the tent in hand, and needed no advice from someone who had never seen a tent raised. So he stood with arms folded, as more wagons rolled in and disgorged canvas in a measured cascade of bundles down the row between two spears. Amefin guardsmen cheered and catcalled, and seized their tents and began at once to unfold them, with a marvelous economy of effort.