A Time of Omens - Katharine Kerr [128]
Yraen would have asked him more about this mysterious being, but a couple of other men joined them with rumors to share.
In the afternoon, Yraen had a word alone with Lady Melynda, who bravely smiled her tight-lipped smile and talked of her husband’s eventual victory. It seemed that Comerr alone had thirty fresh men in his dun, to say nothing of the men they could muster from other allies.
“If they can assemble them all, my lord swears they’ll outnumber the enemy. He tells me that Adry and Tewdyr already had every man they could muster at the siege.” Her bright smile faded abruptly. “I wonder if that’s true, or if he’s trying to spare my feelings?”
“It’s probably true, my lady, because he’s already let the worst news slip. What matters is whether they can assemble them in time, and Rhodry says that’s a hard thing to do.”
“Just so.” Melynda was silent for a long time. “I’m going to try to prevail upon my lord to send to the gwerbret for his judgment on this matter.”
“Do you think he will?”
Melynda shook her head in a no and stared at the floor.
“Not with this defeat aching his heart. He’d feel too shamed.”
When he left the lady, Yraen climbed up to the walls and looked out at the silent hills. Somewhere out there was the enemy army, perhaps riding for them, perhaps off licking its own wounds. He wondered if Erddyr would stand a siege or sally out right away should Adry appear at his gates, but in the end, the lords decided to leave the dun as soon as possible and ride round the countryside to collect their allies, rather than risk getting trapped in a siege. Although a dun with an army inside was a prize worth having, it was unlikely that Tewdyr and Adry would try to take an empty one, simply because they’d be too vulnerable to attack themselves. There came a point in any war where it was best to settle the matter open country rather than trusting in stone walls, or so Rhodry always said.
Late that afternoon, one of the scouts returned, rushing into the great hall and blurting out his urgent message: Adry and his allies were riding their way and had made camp not fifteen miles off.
“There’s close to two hundred of them, my lord,” the scout finished up. “Fully provisioned.”
“Only two hundred?” Erddyr said, grinning, “Well, then, we left a few scars on them before we called the retreat.”
“Maybe so,” Comerr said. “But we’d best get out of here before they pin us at your gates.”
The dun turned into an orderly madhouse. The warband ran to fetch their gear and horses. Servants frantically loaded the last pair of carts left in the dun and commandeered extra horses for pack animals to carry what supplies they’d been able to scrape together. Yraen collected his horse, donned his armor, and realized that everything he’d wanted was about to come to him. Soon he would test himself and all the weaponcraft he’d teamed; soon he would discover for himself what battle and battle-glory had to teach a man. Mow that the time was upon him, he felt preternaturally calm and oddly light, as if he floated through the crowded ward to Rhodry’s side. Only his heart refused to quiet itself; he could feel it knocking in his throat, or so it seemed, like some wild creature in a trap.
“We’ll be at the rear, no doubt,” Rhodry said. “Silver daggers always eat the whole cursed army’s dust”
Yraen merely nodded. Rhodry gave him a look as sharp as a knife blade,
“Tell me somewhat, lad. Have you ever fought before?”
The time was past for bluster. Yraen shook his head in a no. Rhodry swore under his breath and seemed to be about to say more, but at the head of the line the horns sang out the order to mount and ride. As the men swung into their saddles and started moving, trying to sort themselves into warbands in the too-small space, Yraen ended up separated from Rhodry, and there was no time to find him again as the riders began filing out the gates. When they first reached the road, Yraen made a futile try at spotting him, then fell back with the squad assigned to guard the supplies.
Once the moon rose, bright and swollen just a night off