Tirnya hoped that others-her father? Gries? Hendrid?-would rush to gainsay him, but no one said a word.
"We're not leaving," she finally said.
Enly nodded once, as if he'd expected her to say as much. "Then I'd suggest we prepare for battle. And I'd also suggest that we give free rein to the Mettai."
Gries frowned. "Free rein? You can't be serious."
"I am. I don't know about you, Captain, but I'd like to survive this war. We're facing a Fal'Borna army; a true one this time. None of us has ever done that before. This is no time to get squeamish about resorting to magic of any sort. Given the choice between a couple of Fal'Borna Weavers and those wolves we saw the other day, I'll take the wolves in a heartbeat."
"That may not be the only choice," Jenoe said in a tone seemingly intended to end their discussion. "Here comes the eldest."
They all turned. Fayonne and her son were striding purposefully in their direction, following the mounted scout. The rest of the Mettai were behind them.
"I brought all of my people, Marshal," the eldest said, stopping in front of Jenoe. "I hope you don't mind. I assumed that you'd have me send for them soon enough."
A faint smile flickered on Jenoe's face. "Thank you, Eldest. I appreciate your foresight."
She inclined her head, then looked past him toward the sept. "We've found another settlement, I see."
"Yes. There's no evidence that the plague has struck this one. We'll be facing a full Fal'Borna sept this time."
Her eyebrows went up, but otherwise she offered no response.
Jenoe glanced at Tirnya, uncertainty in his deep blue eyes. "We're wondering what kind of magic you think might work against such a force," he continued after a moment.
Fayonne turned to her son. "The sleeping spell worked well last time, as did the finding spell."
"Yes," Mander said. "Either of those."
"But don't we have to be close to the sept for you to use that kind of magic?" Gries asked.
"Yes, Captain," Fayonne said. "We'll have to be far closer to the sept for just about any of our spells to work. That's the nature of Mettai magic."
"Can you do anything to help with their horses?" Tirnya asked.
Fayonne looked puzzled. "Their horses?"
"Well, last time the Fal'Borna used language of beasts against our mounts and we had to advance on foot. I assume that these Fal'Borna will do the same. But they'll be on horses, which gives them an advantage if it comes to close fighting."
"The blood wolves," the eldest said plainly. "They can attack their horses. Their mere presence will unnerve the animals." She shrugged. "But you've made it clear that you don't want us to conjure any more of them."
Tirnya took a breath, holding the woman's gaze. "Well, I may have to accept that we have no choice in the matter."
The woman shrugged again, her bearing maddeningly calm.
"Pardon me, Eldest," Enly said. "You said a moment ago that we had to be closer for just about any of your magic to work. Are there spells you can use from this distance?"
"There may be one or two," Fayonne said. "But if you didn't like the blood wolves, you might not like these conjurings, either."
"Why not?" Jenoe asked. "What are they?"
"Early in the Blood Wars, when we first fought alongside your people, we had many sorts of creatures that served our armies. The wolves were one. There were also blood eagles, great birds of prey that could attack an enemy from the sky. They could he sent forth from farther away. Of course, the Qirsi could fight them off with shaping magic, but the eagles were said to be deft fliers. Some of them might be able to avoid the conjurings of the Fal'Borna."
Gries wore a troubled expression. "I take it you can't control them any more than you could the wolves."
"That's right. But like the wolves, they can be slain with arrows or put to sleep with a spell."
"But until they are, they'll be killing indiscriminately. They won't distinguish between us and the Fal'Borna."
Fayonne regarded the Fairlea captain coldly. "No, they won't. On the other hand, I can assure you that the Qirsi will be quite precise with their killing. Have you heard tales of the Blood Wars, Captain?"
"Yes," Gries said thickly.
"Then you have some idea of what Qirsi shaping magic can do to an army when directed by a Weaver."
"What other creatures did your people use in those early battles?" Jenoe asked, drawing the woman's gaze once more.
"Serpents, bears, hornets."
The marshal's eyebrows went up. "Hornets?"
"As long as a knife blade and with enough venom to bring an Aelean soldier to his knees."
Tirnya felt herself blanch. Suddenly the blood wolves didn't seem so terrible.
"And you can conjure all of these creatures today?" Enly asked.
Fayonne shook her head. "Not all of them, no. I can conjure hornets, but not the kind that my ancestors used against the white-hairs. But the wolves and eagles I can summon are much the same as those used in the Blood Wars."
Jenoe was gazing at the sept again. Tirnya looked that way as well, but saw no evidence that the Fal'Borna were headed toward them. Was it possible that they hadn't spotted the army yet? Or had the white-hairs decided that they wanted to defend their settlement rather than face the Eandi on the open plain?
"Send the eagles," Jenoe said after a brief pause. "You can direct them toward the sept, can't you? They won't turn on us immediately."
"We'll move a bit closer to the settlement," Fayonne told him. "And we'll do everything in our power to send them to the Fal'Borna."
Tirnya's father didn't look satisfied with this reply, but he nodded, perhaps sensing that this was the most assurance he was likely to get.
One thing about the Mettai: Once they were given an order, they didn't waste time in carrying it out. No sooner had the eldest answered Jenoe's concerns than she led her people away from the army and toward the sept.
"I want archers ready to march as soon as these magical eagles are flying," Jenoe said. "And I want swordsmen just behind them. This will work best if the Fal'Borna have to fight off eagles and arrows at the same time."
"Yes, Marshal," Enly said.
He started shouting orders to the men of Qalsyn. Gries and two other captains from Fairlea hurried off to ready their army, and Hendrid's captains started back toward the men of Waterstone.
The Mettai, in the meantime, halted after walking about a hundred fourspans. They pulled their knives free, stooped to pick up handfuls of dirt, cut themselves, and finally gathered blood on the flat edges of their blades and mixed it with the earth in their hands. Tirnya couldn't hear them speaking, but she knew that the next step in this odd process was for all of them to mutter their spells. A moment later, acting in near perfect unison, they flung their clods of bloody mud into the air.
When the Mettai conjured the great wolves during their last encounter with the Fal'Borna, Tirnya had been disturbed by the way the dirt in their hands contorted and grew in those moments before the animals took form. This magic was no different. If anything, it seemed more alien to watch those small clumps of dirt sprout enormous wings and talons and heads. But in just a few seconds, nearly fifty eagles were soaring above the army.
They were larger by far than any bird Tirnya had ever seen. Even from far below, their hooked beaks and sicklelike talons appeared large and sharp enough to rend a full-grown rilda in two. The creatures circled once over the army, and when their shadows passed overhead Tirnya shuddered, feeling as a rabbit must when it finds itself under the gaze of a hawk. But whatever intelligence the Mettai had imparted to the great birds seemed enough to allow them to distinguish between friend and foe, or Eandi and Qirsi. After completing one turn above the soldiers of Stelpana, the birds wheeled toward the sept. They flew in a series of loose columns, like airborne warriors in formation. They gave only one or two flaps of their great wings, and then glided, their tails twisting slightly this way or that to keep them in line.