The Born Queen - J. Gregory Keyes [167]
“It shouldn’t. We’ve come to escort you to Eslen.”
“How nice. I was going there anyway. But why do I need an escort?”
“The city is under siege. You’ll need our help to get in.”
“But why are you interested in helping? I suppose is my real question.”
“We’re not,” Cauth said. “Austra is our concern. Whether you’re there or not is immaterial.”
“What do you want with Austra?”
“That’s nothing to concern yourself about.”
“Oh, I’m very much concerned.”
Cauth started to say something, but then he peered beyond Cazio, and his face wrinkled in what seemed to be chagrin.
“Not traveling alone, after all,” he said.
Cazio turned and saw, on the hill, a line of pikemen forming up.
“Z’Acatto,” he murmured.
“Come along,” Cauth said, drawing his sword. Cazio drew Acredo, noticing as he did so that six archers had arrows aimed at him.
“We’ll go up the hill and talk to your friends,” Cauth said. “We’ll explain that there’s no need for a fight, yes?”
“If you insist,” Cazio said.
“Don’t forget that Austra will be here, with my men.”
“I won’t.”
He marched up the hill with the Sefry. Z’Acatto watched them come, sitting a gray stallion in front of his men.
“I didn’t ask for your help,” Cazio shouted once they were in earshot.
“No, you didn’t,” the old man said. “And I wasn’t planning to give it. I told the men I would get them to Eslen, that’s all.”
“Good, then.”
“Who are your friends?”
“Anne’s old guard,” he replied. “They’ve kindly offered to escort me to the castle.”
“Well, good,” z’Acatto said. “Then you’re well off my hands.”
Cazio nodded. “How was the wine? Did you drink it yet?”
“Not yet,” z’Acatto said. “It’s not the right time.”
“I’m not sure there’s going to be a better one.”
“You just want a taste of it.”
“I won’t deny that,” Cazio said. Then he spun and punched Cauth in the jaw, drew Acredo, and threw himself flat as arrows whirred overhead.
They want Austra alive, he thought, praying he was right, knowing in his bones this was the best choice.
With a roar the pikemen started down the hill.
CHAPTER SIX
BRACKEN HOPE
FEND DIDN’T HAVE much of his army left, either. One of the Vaix stood behind him, favoring an injured leg. Of monsters, Aspar saw only a greffyn, a wairwulf, and two utins.
That was still likely to be more than he could kill, but he was ready to try. “I told you you were going to need my help,” the Sefry said.
“Yah, thanks,” he said, nocking an arrow to the string of the unfamiliar bow.
The wairwulf and the utins were fast, though, moving in front of Fend before he could aim.
“Aspar,” Fend called. “If you manage to kill me here or, more likely, if I kill you, what happens to Winna, to your child, to your precious forest? I’ll tell you. That knight of Gravio and his twenty men are going to catch her. Probably they’ll kill her. Whoever sent them—and I’ll bet my other eye that it was Hespero—doesn’t have any interest in bringing a new Briar King into the world, not until they’ve taken the sedos throne and hold sway over everything. You and I have the same interest, Aspar.”
“I doubt that.”
“Doubt it if you want; my offer to help still stands. I can find the Vhenkherdh; you know I don’t need you for that. And yes, I’d love to kill you now, but then I would have one less man—or monster, which is more what you are—to go up against this knight with. We need each other. We can settle our differences afterward, don’t you think?”
Aspar stared into Fend’s single eye, remembering the sight of Qerla’s dead body, remembering the last time they had been in the valley of the Briar King.
He had never hated the Sefry more, but the geos wouldn’t let him fire.
“Let’s stop bloody talking, then,” he snarled, lowering the bow. “Let’s go.”
Stephen and Zemlé floated in the grip of the Vhelny, which, now that Stephen had gentled it, was soft, firm, almost velvety. He had determined that the demon’s limbs were more like tentacles than arms. It was still obfuscated from the examination of Stephen’s senses; no power he had or command he could give would lift that apparently ancient magic and