‘All right,’ said the man in the red shirt. ‘Suppose all you say is true. You still have to find a temple that is no longer there.’
‘It must be there, Stavi. It is the source of the power. And the power still operates. If it was truly gone the artefacts would already have become useless.’
‘This is all very well,’ he said, taking her hand. ‘But I would think more clearly if you were to take a little walk in the woods with me.’
‘You would not think more clearly,’ she said. ‘You would fall asleep with a smile on your face.’
‘So would you,’ he countered.
‘That is true.’
Hand in hand they crept through the sleeping Jiamads and away into the woods.
Memnon did not follow. He had seen people rut before.
Instead he flew back to the palace. There was so much to think on, and so many plans to initiate.
There were times in Jianna’s long life when she considered boredom to be almost terminal. Intrigue had long since lost the fascination it had held for her when young, and the new Queen of Naashan.
Manipulation, coercion, seduction had been exciting then, and each small victory had been something to celebrate. This last hundred years particularly had seen those skills honed to a perfection she felt she should have been proud of. Instead the practice of them had become a chore. There was a time when she had found men fascinating and intricate. Now they were — at best — merely diverting. Their needs and their values were always the same, their strengths and their weaknesses so easy to manipulate. It was one reason her heart yearned for Skilgannon; why she had sought his body for so many centuries. The prophecy did not weigh with her. She had lost count of the number of prophecies concerning her that had come to nothing over the centuries. It was not that some of the seers did not possess genuine talent. It was merely that a level of wish fulfilment entered their heads, colouring the visions they had. No, Skilgannon was unique among the men she had known. He had loved her fully and completely — loved her enough, indeed, to walk away from her. Even after all these years the shock of his departure remained a jagged wound in her heart.
He would have enjoyed this victory.
Agrias, apparently outnumbered and outmatched, had pulled back his army towards the ruins of an ancient city. Jianna’s forces had swept forward, through a valley between a line of wooded hills, pursuing the fleeing enemy. It had been a trap, and beautifully worked. Agrias had sent out three regiments, two of men, one of Jiamads. The beasts had attacked from the high woods to the west, the enemy infantry sweeping down from the east. The third regiment of lancers had emerged at the rear of Jianna’s forces, completing the circle. It was a splendid ploy, which she had much enjoyed. Sadly for Agrias she had also anticipated the manoeuvre, and had held back the regiment of Eternal Guards, the finest fighting men on the planet. Highly trained and superbly disciplined, they had fallen on the enemy rear, scattering the lancers. Jianna’s own Jiamads had torn into the enemy ranks. The encircling manoeuvre had been the only potent weapon in Agrias’s arsenal. When it failed the spirit of his troops was broken. They had fought well for a little while, but then panic set in, and they fled the field. In the rout that followed thousands were slain.
Agrias himself was taken, and the war in the north was over in just under twelve days. There were still pockets of resistance to overcome, mainly in the Drenai lands to the west. This, however, was a relatively simple matter. The Legend Riders had a few thousand doughty fighters, but no Jiamads, and no reserves to call upon.
Jianna opened the flaps of her tent and stepped out into the moonlight. The two guardsmen saluted.
Several of her generals were waiting outside, and she saw Unwallis walking across the campsite towards her tent. He had been hurt by her rejection of him. It amazed her that he could have considered becoming a regular lover again. The man was old, and lacked the stamina she had once enjoyed in him. Bedding him was not a mistake she would make again.
Agrippon, the Senior General of her Eternals, bowed as her gaze fell upon him. Jianna liked him. She had tried to seduce him several years ago, but he was a married man, and ferociously loyal to his wife.
She felt that with a little extra effort she could have broken down this resistance, for he was obviously besotted with her, but she rather liked his stolid honesty and his attempt to be true. So she had drawn back, and now treated him with sisterly affection. Summoning him to her tent she told the guards to admit no-one else until she ordered it.
‘Sit down, Agrippon,’ she bade him. ‘What are the figures?’
‘Just over a thousand dead. Eleven thousand enemy corpses — not counting their beasts.’
‘And my guards?’
‘We lost only sixty-seven men, with another three hundred bearing light wounds.’
‘Excellent.’
‘As indeed was your battle plan, Highness.’ The compliment was clumsily made, but she sensed his sincerity. Agrippon was not a man given to compliments.
She gazed at the black-bearded soldier, and wondered if she should reconsider her sisterly demeanour. The battle had been exciting and Jianna felt the need to have the tension relieved. He grew uncomfortable under her direct gaze and rose from his seat.
‘Will that be all, Highness?’
‘Yes, thank you, Agrippon. Convey my congratulations to your officers. Will you have Unwallis attend me?’
‘Of course, Highness,’ he said, bowing.
After the general had left the statesman ducked under the tent flap. He too bowed.
‘How did you enjoy your first battle?’ she asked him. He had ridden alongside her at the centre of the army, looking faintly ludicrous in a gilded breastplate and overlarge helm.
‘It was terrifying, Highness, but having survived it, I wouldn’t have missed it for all the wine in Lentria.
I thought we were trapped.’
She laughed. ‘It would take someone with more skill than Agrias to trap me.’
‘Yes, Highness. Might I ask what your plans are for him? I thought. .’
‘You thought I would have had him killed immediately.’
‘Indeed, Highness. He has been a thorn in our sides for many years now.’
‘I expect he is contemplating his situation even as we speak. We will allow that contemplation to continue.’
‘Exquisitely cruel, Highness,’ he said with a sigh. ‘He is an imaginative man, and will be considering all the horrors that could come his way.’
‘Indeed so. You wanted to see me. Do you have news?’
‘We have been questioning some of the captured officers. It seems that the Legend Riders attached to Agrias — some three hundred of them — left his service two weeks ago. One of the riders is fond of a local whore. She was, in turn, fond of the particular officer we questioned.’
‘For the sake of my sanity,’ said Jianna sharply, ‘can we cease talking of fondness. I am not a temple maiden. The whore was humping both men, and probably a score of others. What did she say?’
‘That the leader of the Legend Riders had found some mysterious armour, important to them. In bronze. And that a mystic voice had compelled him to leave Agrias’s service and follow a man with two swords.’
‘The Armour of Bronze,’ said Jianna. ‘It was a legend even in my own time.’ She shivered suddenly.
‘I do not like this, Unwallis. Too many damned portents. A Reborn Druss the Legend, carrying his axe, Skilgannon rediscovered, and now the Armour of Bronze. Perhaps that cursed prophecy is not so far-fetched.’