“What lunacy is this?” Hylus gasped. “Even if the boy was capable of such treachery, the captains of Atyion would never believe such a story, much less side with the enemy! You must be mistaken, Niryn.”
“I assure you, I’m not. Before sunset tomorrow you will see the proof for yourself.”
“No wonder he and that grass knight of his were so anxious to go over the wall,” Alben muttered.
“Shut your mouth!” Lutha flew at the older boy, knocking him sprawling.
“That’s enough!” Porion roared.
Caliel and Nikides wrestled Lutha off Alben and dragged him back.
Alben wiped blood from his mouth, and snarled, “He probably had this planned all along, he and that wizard woman of his. She was always sneaking in and out of his house.”
“Mistress Iya?” Nikides said. “She came and went openly. Besides, she was only a hedge wizard.”
“A bit more than that, perhaps,” said Hylus. “I know the woman, Prince Korin. She is a loyal Skalan, and I would swear by my own name that she is no necromancer.”
“Perhaps Tobin only put on women’s clothes,” Urmanis offered.
“Don’t be a fool!” Lutha cried, still furious. “Why would he do that?”
“Perhaps he went mad like his mother,” one of the squires sneered. “He always has been odd.”
“Korin, think!” Caliel pleaded. “You know as well as I do that Tobin isn’t mad. And he’d never betray you.”
Niryn let them argue, marking enemies and allies.
Korin had listened all this time in silence as Niryn’s magic wormed its way deeper into his heart, seeking out all the buried doubts and fears. His faith in Tobin was still too strong, but that would change when he saw the truth.
Niryn bowed again. “I stand by my word, Majesty. Be on your guard.”
Tobin’s scouts returned just before dawn with word of a Plenimaran presence at a horse breeder’s steading a few miles north of the city on the coast road. It appeared to be a prisoner camp, with fewer than a hundred men guarding it.
“We should swing wide around them and cut them off before we attack,” Tharin advised. “The less notice the main force has of us coming, the better for us.”
“Eat the beast in small pieces, eh?” Kyman chuckled.
The scouts outlined the position. The enemy had taken over a large farmstead and had pickets set all around. Tobin could imagine her old teacher Raven sketching it out on the stone floor of the lesson room.
“We don’t need the whole force to take such a small group,” she said. “A hundred mounted warriors in a surprise attack should be enough.”
Captain Grannia had fallen back to hear the report. “Let my company go with them, Highness. It’s been too long since we drew blood.”
“Very well. But I’ll lead the charge.”
“Is that wise?” Arkoniel objected. “If we lost you in the first battle—”
“No, she’s right,” said Tharin. “We’ve asked these warriors to believe a miracle. They’ll lose heart if they think they’re following a hollow figurehead.”
Tobin nodded. “Everyone expected the first Ghërilain to hang back after her father made her queen, let the generals do the fighting for her. But she didn’t, and she won. I’m as much Illior’s queen as she was, and I’m better trained.”
“History repeating itself, eh?” Arkoniel considered this, then leveled a stern finger at Tharin, Ki, and Lynx. “Don’t you leave her side, you hear me? A dead warrior is even less use than a figurehead.”
They swept down on the steading with drawn swords. A low earthen wall surrounded the house, barns, and three stone-and-wattle corrals. Tobin and her warriors rode down the few outlying pickets and cleared the walls, hacking down any defenders who ran to meet them.
It was Tobin’s first mounted fight, but she felt the same inner calm as she hacked down the swordsmen who tried to unhorse her. She fought in silence, but heard Ki and Tharin shouting as they fought beside her, and Grannia’s women screamed like demons. Pale hands waved and gestured over the top of a corral, and Tobin could hear the screams of the captives there.
Lynx rode into the thick of the fight and dismounted.
“No!” Tobin shouted after him, but he was already gone. If he was determined to court death, there was nothing she could do for him.
The Plenimarans fought fiercely, but were outnumbered. Not one was left alive when the battle ended.
Ignoring the dead, Tobin rode to the nearest corral. It was filled with women and children from Ero. They wept and blessed her as she helped tear down the palings of the gate, and crowded around her horse to touch her.
Every Skalan child had heard dark tales of people being carried off to Plenimar as slaves, a practice unheard of in the western lands. Those lucky enough to escape and find their way home brought dark tales of degradation and torment.
A woman clung to Tobin’s ankle, sobbing and pointing toward the barn. “Never mind us! You must help them in the barn. Please, General, in the Maker’s name, help them!”
Tobin dismounted and pushed through the crowd and ran to the open barn door with Ki at her heels. A fallen torch smoldered in a pile of hay, and what they saw in that smoky light froze them in their tracks.
Eighteen naked, bloody men stood against the far wall, arms held over their head as if in surrender. Most had had their bellies slashed open; intestines spilled down around their feet like ropes of grisly sausage.
“Tharin!” she shouted, picking up the torch and stamping out the burning hay. “Tharin, Grannia, get in here. Bring help!”
Lynx came up, then staggered back, retching.
Tobin and the others had heard dark tales of what Plenimarans did with captured warriors. Now they saw it for themselves. The men had been beaten, then stripped, and their hands pulled over their heads and nailed in place through the wrists. The Skalan attack must have interrupted the enemy at their sport, for three had not yet been disemboweled. To Tobin’s horror, a number of those who had been were still alive, and began to struggle and cry out at her approach.
“Lynx, go for healers,” Tobin ordered.
Tharin had come in, and caught Lynx by the arm as he turned to obey. “Wait a moment. Let me have a look first.”
Tharin let go of Lynx and drew Tobin close, speaking low into her ear as other soldiers crowded in at the door. “These that are cut open? Not even a drysian could put them right and it can take days to die.”
Tobin read the truth in his friend’s pale eyes and nodded. “We’ll speed them on.”
“Leave it be. They understand, believe me.”
“But not those three who aren’t butchered. We’ve got to get them down. Send someone for tools.”
“Already done.”
One of the three lifted his head at their approach, and Ki groaned. “Oh hell, Tob. That’s Tanil!” The man next to him was alive, as well, but had been castrated. The third was dead or unconscious.
Tobin and Ki went to Tanil and got their arms around him, lifting him to take the weight off his nailed wrists.
Tanil let out a hoarse sob. “Oh gods, it’s you. Help me!”
Grannia and several of her women went to work with farriers’ pliers while others held the wounded men upright. The one who’d been castrated let out a scream as the nails came loose, but Tanil gritted his teeth, lips curled in a silent snarl of pain. Tobin and Ki lowered him to the ground and Lynx threw his cloak over him and cut strips from it to bandage the wounds.
Tanil opened his eyes and looked up at Tobin. She tossed her helm aside and stroked the dark hair back from his brow. He’d been badly beaten, and his eyes were vague.
“Korin?” he panted, eyes wandering from face to face. “I lost him … Stupid! I turned and he was … I have to find him!”
“Korin is safe,” Ki told him. “You’re safe, too. We made it, Tanil. Tobin’s brought Atyion back to save the city. It’s all right, now. Stay still.”