Sovereign

Lynan tried to calm his beating heart, tried not to shout out in joy at seeing them again. He watched them slow from a trot to a walk, and they approached him slowly, almost cautiously. Ager was the first to reach him, then Gudon, and finally Korigan. He could see the uncertainty in their faces, the vestige of fear. He drew in a deep shuddering breath.

'It's me,' he said.

Ager reached out and touched his face. 'Your skin has changed. It's almost normal.'

Lynan did not hide his surprise. 'I have not seen myself in a mirror. But look.' He held out his right hand, still blistered and raw from grasping the red hot sword from the fire.

'What happened?' Ager asked.

'Silona died,' he said simply. He had no other explanation.

Korigan manoeuvred her horse so she was sitting right beside him. She took Lynan's head in her hands and forced him to meet her gaze. He did not flinch from her. 'Your eyes are brown,' she said in wonder. 'Like a Chett's. I was never able to tell before.'

Gudon looked on, a knowing smile tugging at his lips. 'Truth, little master, I knew you never really left us.'

Lynan felt his eyes sting. 'Truth, Gudon, I did for a while.'

'But you came back,' Ager said, and Lynan could see tears stinging his eyes, too.

'Because of Jenrosa,' he said, the words tumbling out.

Ager and Gudon swallowed hard then.

'News of her death sent your army into grieving,' Korigan said carefully. The other three knew the two women had not been friends. 'Especially Lasthear and the other magikers. They cannot believe they have lost their Truespeaker so soon and in this way.'

'I don't think she ever accepted she was a Truespeaker,' Lynan said. 'She just wanted to be Jenrosa Alvear.' He blinked away his own tears. 'Whoever that was to be.'

'If she lived,' Korigan said, 'I think she would have accepted her fate.' She smiled unexpectedly. 'As you know we did not get on; that is always the way between a monarch and a Truespeaker.'

'Truth,' Gudon said.

Korigan gently touched Lynan's hand. 'I am sorry for the pain her death must be causing you, and so soon after the death of Kumul Alarn. At least they will be together now in whatever peace death may bring.'

Lynan nodded his thanks for her words. 'When the war is finally over, we will have time to grieve properly for both of them, as well as all our friends and supporters who sacrificed their lives for my cause.' He glanced at all three of his companions and felt a surge of great love for them. 'Until then, let us use our grief to drive our anger and fury against the enemy.'

'Tell me, my lord,' Barys said to Tomar, 'what do you think of having several thousand Chetts on your doorstep?'

'I think, my champion, that I prefer it to having several thousand Kendrans, Amanites, Lurisians and Storians on my doorstep.'

They spoke in a low voice so the mayor could not hear them. The mayor was a nice enough fellow, likeable and hard working in his office, but the kind of man who thought everyone should always get on, even in time of war. He was sitting on a placid, bow-backed hack, and looked as uncomfortable as it was possible to be done up in mayoral finery and with nothing witty to say in the company of a king and his champion.

'You still have those, I'm afraid,' Barys continued. 'The Great Army will not leave now you have declared war on its queen.'

'I have done no such thing.'

'Semantics, my lord.'

'Politics, my champion. And never forget that Lynan may have won his victories with his army, but he won his army—and won over the entire Chett nation—with his mother's knack for diplomacy. In the end, when all the fighting and dying are done, it is politics that will determine the shape of the future, and Lynan has proven to me he understands that.'

'Do you think you can win this war?'

'I believe Lynan can. I do not pretend to understand the changes that seem to have overtaken him, but they do his campaign no harm. You've spent time with him the last few days. What do you think?'

'I think he is like his father in some ways.'

'He has a softer tongue.'

'He has the same hard head, which bodes well for all of us. Sometimes, when I look at him, I think he is the General reincarnated, but then he'll say something or do something that reminds me Lynan is his own man.' He glanced quickly at Tomar. 'Ultimately, however, the only thing I am not sure about is this army of his.'

'They've done well so far,' Tomar pointed out.

'They lost to the first Grenda Lear army they met.'

Tomar shrugged. 'Not much of a loss, really. The Chett army remained largely intact while the Grenda Lear army was reduced to not much more than the rump of its former strength, and then within two seasons the Chett army recovers well enough to capture Haxus—something never achieved by a Grenda Lear army, I might point out—and then Hume.'

'Some would say they have captured Chandra as well.'

'Some would be wrong then, although I have no doubt Chandra would have fallen to Lynan had I had not joined with him.'

'I'm curious, my lord. When did you make up your mind to join him?'

'I think a part of me must have decided as soon as I read his letter. A great wrong was done in Kendra when Berayma was murdered, and if it isn't revenged, the heart of the Kingdom will rot away.'

'I did not think you cared so much for Grenda Lear.'

'I am not foolish enough to believe that little Chandra can survive by itself in this age of giants. If—when— Lynan wins his throne, it is only a matter of time before Theare holds only one Kingdom. I'd rather be a part of that than opposed to it.'

'Well, then,' Barys said, pointing up the road where Lynan and his three companions had just appeared, 'here comes the future.'

The king smiled at the mayor and waved him forward. 'How are you feeling, Lord Mayor?'

The mayor smiled nervously. 'F-F-Fine, thank you, your Majesty.'

Tomar patted his shoulder. 'You'll be alright. Just remember not to insult the Chetts accidentally; they hold a grudge better than any other people on the continent.'

The mayor stared wide-eyed at Tomar.

'Cruelly done,' Barys said under his breath.

'Just want to keep him on his toes.'

'He won't sleep for a week now, afraid some barbarian assassin is after him.'

Tomar cleared his throat and said to the mayor: 'It is very difficult to insult a Chett, by the way.'

'W-w-wonderful,' the mayor said, unconvinced.

Sparro's docks were almost empty. All the ships belonging to the great merchant fleets from Lurisia and Kendra had fled to their home ports when Chandra changed sides in the civil war. Tomar's soldiers had been able to seize eight before the others made their escape, but that had only been a small proportion of the traffic in the harbour at the time. There were still ships belonging to Chandran merchants tied up at the docks, as well as increasing numbers of ships from Haxus, but in a way they made the vacant berths even more obvious.

'Did you ever go to sea during your time in the east?' Korigan asked Gudon. They were walking along the harbour's edge, a little behind Lynan and Ager. It was late afternoon, and the sun made the water ripple with flames. Korigan had never seen anything quite like the sea, and for the first time in her life felt the pull of something as grand and limitless as the Oceans of Grass.

Gudon shook his head. 'Never tempted, I must admit. It took me a long time to get used to being a barge pilot on the Barda, what with all that water underneath me. On an ocean-going ship it would be infinitely worse.'