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"No, but you can appear to do it." Otorin drew up a chair and looked at the
maps. "Bring down three hun-
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dred men from the garrison at Gapguard," he advised.
"Keep them hidden in the woods north of Upper Walt-
ham, assemble your men with panoply and march them away. If you're lucky,
Bardolph will be tempted out and then your new rear guard can fall on him."
Darius nodded. "I'll send a cloudsteed to Gapguard with the orders. I think
you should stay here and take charge of this end of the operation. That'll
allow you to keep your lines of communication to Oxeter open.
I'll leave you two squadrons ofcloudsteeds."
"I rather doubt that Queen Arabella would approve of that," Otorin said.
Darius produced a rather wolfish grin. "I have no intention of telling her.
Have you? Besides, for all your theoretical knowledge, you've never actually
had a field command, have you?"
"You are an exploitive, old bastard, you know that?"
"Yes, I do," Darius said comfortably.
"I wish to go on record as officially protesting this high-handed action on
the part of the General of the
Paladinian Forces," Otorin said formally, and then smiled.
"Your protest is noted and overruled," Darius re-
plied.
"In that case, I have no recourse but to accept. Now, I think you should leave
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the sappers here and you'll need a token force in front of both gates or he'll
become suspicious."
"Stop trying to teach your grandmother how to can-
dle eggs," Darius replied with high good humor. "The orders have already been
given."
"You were that sure of me, were you?"
"Yes, 1 was," Darius replied smugly.
"I'm losing my touch," Otorin said in a mock grum-
ble. "Have you picked a spot for the battle?"
Darius stabbed a finger at the main map. "They
THE UNICORN PEACE + 81
probably crossed the Salvant at Astly Bridge. From the description of their
arrival at Aldersgrove, they must have spread out to forage. Not too much
coordination between the commanders, I suspect, and scant discipline among the
men.''
"The Duke's men are well trained, I'll vouch for that," Otorin commented.
"Same informant who missed their departure?" Da-
rius asked.
Otorin shrugged. "Try to remember that 1 have to depend on Paladinians." The
two Arundelians ex-
changed a smile. "So, when do you expect to engage them?"
"Can't tell. I'll want them to move north of Alders-
grove. There's a range of hills running south-southeast."
His finger traced a line on the parchment. "If I could coax them out onto the
plain with my troops waiting behind the hills, I could attack them from the
flank."
The finger flicked across the map.
"Nice plan," Otorin said approvingly. "Seems to me that I saw something like
it in Umbria."
"Bite your tongue," Darius replied. "That engagement was a disaster."
"It's always best to learn from other people's mis-
takes," Otorin said sardonically.
A sennight later, Darius marched south, banners fly-
ing. Otorin watched them go. He had great faith in
Darius' capabilities; he'd seen them put to the test out-
side Angorn, but that had been eighteen years ago.
Other than the recapture of Fort Bandor, an altogether different kind of
operation, and a couple of skirmishes early in Naxania's reign, he'd had no
battle experience since. Skills, like suits of armor, rusted when they were
not used. Otorin was fond of the General, more fond than he would readily
admit, and Darius was no longer
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young. It worried him. He turned his horse and headed back toward Upper
Waltham.
Now that he was on his own again, Otorin allowed his natural pessimism to
surface. Not that he thought of it as pessimism; being realistic was a phrase
more to his liking. It was true, however, that he normally ex-
pected the worst. If it happened, he was ready for it. If it didn't, he was
grateful. In this present pass, he gave
Darius no better than an even chance of winning. The recapture of Sparsedale.
at this point, would be rela-
tively simple, but the real fight would be won, or lost, by Darius. In either
case, he himself would soon be free to continue his real calling.
He tossed his reins to a groom and strode into the inn. Darius had thought
that he was doing him a favor by leaving him behind and putting him in charge
of the siege. The man had, with his usual shrewdness, ac-
knowledged the uses of information, a trait not com-
monly found in generals. The problem was that Darius had only been thinking of
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the present situation. Back in Stronta messages would be accumulating, always
dangerous, and going unanswered, which was worse.
Stronta, for the moment, was the center and he was away from it. Otorin of
Lissen was a worried man.
chapteR 9
ie Paladinian capital basked somnolently in the summer sun. There was little
sign of crisis, though the barracks wore a hollow air. Cats prowled languidly
and dogs lay panting in the shade of buildings. The Court continued, cool
behind the thickness of the ancient walls, but most of the courtiers,
following a tradition that had grown up since the war and doubtless spurred by
the political uncertainty, had returned to their es-
tates and would remain there through the harvest. Sheep and kina now grazed
the land between the Great Maze and the Upper Causeway. The Outpost drowsed
peace-
ably.
Most of the members of the Commission for the Out-
tand had returned home, pending developments, but the
Elector of Estragoth, using his advanced age as an ex-
cuse, had remained at Stronta. Malum of Quern, his chief deputy, had returned
home for a visit, but was expected back any day. There were Isphardi traders
to be seen, as usual, but, commerce apart, the Umbrians were the only foreign
presence in the city. It was a sit-
uation that pleased Estragoth.
He had been surprised and somewhat nattered when
Varodias had chosen him as the Empire's representative to the Commission. The
partition of the Outland was a major concern, and that took the sting out of
the in-
voluntary exile that went with the post. It was, he thought, a fitting
conclusion to his service to the Crown.
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He had helped to steer the Empire's course for more than forty years, always
trying to look to the future with eyes unblinkered by factionalism. The
partition was the future and the signing of the treaty would allow him to
retire on a triumphant note. He had never dreamed that it would take this
long. The wretched Isphardis . . .
He shifted in his padded chair and winced as the gout that plagued his joints
twinged. He had been less happy when the Emperor had charged him with the task
of developing a network of informers in the Magical King-
doms. He had had his sources in Umbria, no politician could survive without
them, but he had never consid-
ered himself a spymaster. Now he was and he had come to enjoy it.
The Paladinian landowners had but a rudimentary feel for intrigue, though
their Queen saw plots every-
where. Even the Duke of Oxeter, by far the craftiest of his clients, had
handled this uprising clumsily. It was doubtful now that the Umbrian treasury
would recover its investment. Still, he had relished his dealings with
Paramin and the entree they had provided to the other disaffected nobles. He
had a good grasp of what was going on in Paladine and a fair understanding of
Arun-
del.
His major weakness, ironically, was that he no longer knew, with any
certainty, what was going on back home. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]