The Born Queen - J. Gregory Keyes [85]
Quiet yourself. Don’t panic.
She was there again, the arilac, a brand in the night, and fear crept away.
But she still didn’t know where she was, exactly.
“Mistress?
She knew that voice. Nerenai.
“Dreaming,” she murmured. “Stronger every night. Harder to remember…” She shivered again, wondering what she was talking about, because she’d lost it again.
“What is it?” Another voice asked. It was Emily, her other maid.
“Majesty has had another bad dream,” Nerenai said. “This is what I’m good at. Go back to sleep.”
“I’ll wait to see she’s okay,” Emily replied.
Something warm touched Anne’s lips, and then she tasted something slightly bitter. She liked it and drank more.
“This will help,” the Sefry said. “Was it prophecy?”
“No,” Anne replied. “Those are—sharper. No, this—this is different. Like memories so real, I think they’re mine. Sometimes not even human memories. I think, just now, I was a spider.” She stopped again. “It sounds crazy, but it’s getting harder to remember who I am when I wake up.”
Nerenai was silent for a moment. She gave Anne another sip of the tea. “Nothing vanishes,” she said. “When we die, the river takes it all, but what is in us does not go away.”
“I’ve seen that river,” Anne said. “I’ve seen it take a man.”
“Yes. It swallows us, and in time it pulls us apart and we forget everything. But the things we knew are still there, in the waters—but not in us anymore, because the thing in us that holds it all together is gone.”
She was moving her fingers as if sketching.
“There is another river,” she continued, “or perhaps another part of the same one, and there, those with the power to do so can drink and bring those memories and knowledge back into the world, held in new vessels.”
“It’s more than memories,” Anne said. “There is something more there.” She took a longer sip of the tea and realized she did feel better. “It will drive me mad. What use to have the memories of a spider?”
“It sounds dreadful,” Emily said.
“Was it an ordinary spider?” Nerenai asked.
“That’s a weird question,” Emily opined.
Anne considered that. “No,” she said after a moment. “Nerenai is right. I think the spider was like me. I felt power in it, the way I feel when I use Cer’s gifts.”
“Maybe you are the spider, remembering Anne,” the Sefry said.
“Don’t joke,” Anne said, feeling sick again, knowing the Sefry wasn’t joking.
“Yes, Majesty,” she replied.
They sat there for a while in the dark, but Anne didn’t feel like going back to sleep. Not much later, word came that the night patrol had come back, so she rose and dressed and went to the war tent.
She found Artwair, the earl of Chavel, and Captain Leafton of her Craftsmen mulling over and marking on a map. They all bowed when she entered.
“Yes, yes,” Anne said. “What’s the report, Duke Artwair?”
“Heol and his boys make them at about ten thousand,” he said. “Half on either side of the road.”
“That’s only about two thousand more than we have,” Anne noticed.
“Auy. But given surprise and their situation—they expect us between them, in the valley, remember—they could have murdered us with fewer men. A few volleys from the archers and a few charges with heavy cavalry to break our center before the men could be decently ready to fight. They could have done it with six thousand.”
“And so what do we do?”
“There are just over three thousand foot on this side of the valley and about five hundred horse. If we try to move our whole army up, they’ll detect us and have time to bring the other half over and face us with greater numbers.”
“So we send the horse now,” Anne said. “We have what, three thousand?”
“About that. We’ve the earl’s five hundred and fifty, a thousand heavy lancers with Lord Kenwulf, another thousand of mine, your fifty Craftsmen, two hundred light horse, and your hundred Sefry mounted light infantry. If we take them unawares, we can decimate those on this side. By the time the rest come over, our foot will have arrived and we can fight this battle on our terms.”
“It means leaving