Sovereign

'As we discussed, I must keep the city in order for the return of its rightful ruler.' He said this without any hint of sarcasm.

Lynan smiled thinly, understanding Farben's need to remind everyone publicly and at every opportunity why he was working as administrator of an enemy-occupied city.

Korigan was awake and eating breakfast by the time Lynan arrived. She was still in bed with a big bowl of fruit nestled in her lap.

'Where did you go?'

'For a ride,' he said, sitting down next to her and picking up a piece of fruit.

'You should have taken me with you.'

'You were asleep. City life is softening you.'

Korigan snorted in disgust. 'We Chetts don't spurn luxury. Out on the Oceans of Grass we have no choice about when we sleep and what we sleep on. But when we have a chance to enjoy a soft bed and late mornings we indulge ourselves.'

'So you don't miss the plains?'

Korigan looked serious. 'Of course I do,' she said, her voice distant, as if she was suddenly standing on the Oceans of Grass. 'How much longer do we stay in Daavis?'

'Until reinforcements arrive from Haxus. We need to garrison this city, then stock supplies for our campaign into Chandra. Daavis will be our base until we capture Sparro.'

'Reinforcements may not arrive until late autumn. Haxus is recovering from a defeat, remember. That means no campaign until next spring, and by then Areava will have organised a new army.'

'Who says we have to wait for spring?'

'Will you fight in winter?'

'Winter in the east can be hard, but it is nothing compared to what the Chetts endure at the High Sooq. We can start our attack on Chandra when we're ready, even if it is in the middle of winter. Our Chetts will be fully rested by then.'

'You are not going to ask for more warriors from the clans?'

Lynan shook his head. 'No. We started with twenty thousand riders, and still have close to eighteen thousand. It is enough to take Chandra as long as Grenda Lear does not interfere with an army. Once I have Sparro we can build an army to rival anything Areava can create, using troops from Chandra and Hume and Haxus.'

'We Chetts aren't used to fighting with other forces. It will be hard to make us all work together.'

'Nonetheless, with you and Ager and Gudon helping, we can do it.' He looked downcast suddenly. He handled the fruit without eating it.

'It would have been a lot easier with Kumul,' Korigan said for him.

'Yes. I think we will miss his presence the most in the coming months. When it was winter and everyone else wanted to stay indoors in front of a fire, drinking ale and telling stories, he would be exercising the guard or polishing swords or training recruits. He knew how to turn farm boys and fishermen and labourers into the Kingdom's best soldiers. I don't have that knack.'

'Ager might,' Korigan observed.

Lynan smiled thinking about the crookback. 'Yes, dear Ager. If anyone can do it now that Kumul is gone, it is he.'

'Out of bed!'

Ager felt himself being rolled before he hit the cold stone floor with a thump. 'Urgh,' he mumbled.

Morfast stood over him, needled his back with her foot. All she got was another grunt. She shook her head in disbelief. He was getting too used to the comforts of so-called civilisation. She went to the washstand and brought back a ewer, tipping its contents over his head.

'You didn't have to do that,' Ager said, still on the ground. 'I was already awake.'

'Yes, like a tree is awake.'

He turned suddenly, grasped her ankles and yanked her legs out from underneath her. She fell on top of him. He kissed her.

'We are wasting time in Daavis,' she said.

'There is much to be done here.'

'Yes, but not for the Ocean Clan. Lynan has his builders and carpenters and stonemasons to rebuild the city. We should be riding.'

He kissed her again.

'Don't tell me you don't feel it,' she persisted.

He sighed and eased himself from underneath her. 'Perhaps,' he admitted, scrounging among the bed sheets for his breeches and jerkin. They were tangled in a clump at the bottom of the bed. Clothes always managed to do that. He wondered if there was a law involved.

'Hume itself has not been conquered yet,' she said.

He laughed dryly. 'The eastern provinces are not like the Oceans of Grass. If you take a capital city you take the heart out of a province. In the west there is no capital city.'

'There are no cities at all,' she pointed out.

'In the east the political and economic strength lies in cities and towns, and they are connected by trade and tradition to the capital. There is no Hume left to pacify because Hume became pacified the moment Daavis fell to us. And when we march on Chandra we will aim straight for Sparro. And when we take Kendra, the whole Kingdom will fall into our hands like a ripe fruit.'

Morfast shook her head. 'How strange.' She thumped her chest. 'That is why the Chetts will never be conquered!'

Ager smiled grimly at her. 'Wrong, Everyone can be conquered. You just have to know a people's weak points and go for them.'

'We have no weak points,' she said.

'Of course you have. Your sooqs and waterholes. Your cattle. Your lack of organisation. Your eagerness to bicker and argue among yourselves. All of these can be exploited. As they were by mercenaries and the king of Haxus during the Slaver War. Korigan's father had to go to war against his own people to unite them.'

He went to the washstand, looked around for the water before remembering Morfast had disposed of it. 'How am I supposed to clean myself now?'

'You are cleaned,' she said, and put her fingers through his soaked hair.

'But you are right. We must do something. I will talk to Lynan about it. Maybe he will release the Ocean Clan to scout into Chandra.'

Morfast's eyes lit up. 'To battle?'

Ager shrugged, making his crookback rise in the air like a mountain. 'Maybe. But mainly to find where they are setting outposts so we may take or avoid them when our army finally moves.'

'That could take weeks,' she said excitedly.

Ager laughed. 'Yes. It might take weeks.'

'We would be together. Alone.'

'Alone with a thousand Ocean Clan warriors.'

It was her turn to shrug. 'They are like family.'

Ager groaned. 'Nobody needs that big a family.'

'You are our father, Ager, our chief.'

He nodded and smiled. 'Yes, and proud of it.'

Morfast moistened her lips. 'And we can always add to it.'

Ager's smile turned into a grin. 'That takes practice.'

Morfast took his hand. 'The more the better.'

'I've just dressed,' he protested, but weakly.

Galen thought it was a dry, scratchy, uncomfortable place with more than its fair share of spiders, scorpions and centipedes. That's how he knew Charion would like it.

'Perfect,' she said.

'It would be,' he said under his breath, then louder: 'The hills are higher than I thought they would be.'

'Good defensive terrain,' she mused, 'and they run up close to the river.' She stood on the highest point, a boulder about the size of a house, and looked west and northwest. 'A good view.'

'Can you see Daavis?'

'Not exactly. There is a smudge on the horizon which might be smoke from all the city's kitchens.'

'Or it could just be a cloud.'

'It probably is. But I do see the north road. It is far enough away to look like nothing but a little yellow string.'

'Well, a hideaway with a view of a dusty road. Wonderful.'

'Don't be sarcastic. It doesn't suit you. What this place gives me is a perfect lookout over Lynan's main route of reinforcement from Haxus.'

Galen silently cursed himself; he should have realised the road's importance as soon as Charion mentioned it. He scrabbled to the top of the boulder and stood by her side. 'How's your side?'

She slowly moved her right arm up and down. The arc of the swing she could take increased every day, and the bruising on her chest was now nothing more than a shrinking pinkish-yellow stain. 'I'll be able to use a sword soon,' she said.