Sovereign

'Thank you, sir.'

'Don't thank me. You're responsible for their safety as well as the safety of your own sappers. Understand?'

'Um, yes, sir.'

On the second day of the siege of Daavis, Korigan rode up and down the stake fence that now surrounded the city. She talked to banner commanders and clan chiefs on the way, getting a feeling for the morale of the Chetts and their leaders. When she came to the Red Hands, Gudon joined her for the rest of the tour. By midday they had finished and the pair rode to a gentle hill near the centre of the line that allowed them to look towards the north wall of the city.

Korigan dismounted, fidgeted with the girth straps on her saddle, remounted and fidgeted with her sword belt and bow string and poncho. Gudon watched her for a while, then said: 'What ails you, cousin? Did you sit on a branch from a thorn tree?'

'I don't know what you mean,' she answered irritably, fiddling with the reins.

'You don't like being in the same place for too long.'

'It's not that,' she said, then shook her head. 'Yes, it's that. I'm used to getting up in the morning and moving the army to the next camp site. The only time a Chett is at one place for more than a day is in winter at the High Sooq. But this is summer! We should be moving.' She faced him. 'Don't you feel it?'

'What ails you goes deeper than that.'

'The Chetts have never carried out a siege before. Nor an assault. I don't know that we're ready for this.'

'We have to be ready at some time. You have put us behind Lynan, and he intends to take the east, and the east is filled with cities, some of them with bigger walls that Daavis.'

Korigan turned away from Gudon and her whole body tensed. 'Gudon, did I do the right thing? Have I made a terrible mistake?'

'I remember having this conversation with Kayakun, your spy in the Strangers' Sooq,' he said.

'What did you say to him?'

'That Lynan will make the Chetts the equal of any other people on the continent of Theare.'

Korigan snorted. 'We already knew that.'

'No. We believed it. We told ourselves that. But we knew we had never been tested. During the Slaver War it was the east and its armies that saved us from the mercenaries. Well, now we will know if we were right to believe it. We have defeated the mercenaries sent against us, in Haxus we have defeated Grenda Lear's oldest and most determined foe, and now we test ourselves against the Kingdom itself.'

'For the second time,' she reminded him. 'We lost to them the first time, remember?'

'Did we?'

'We retreated from the field. We lost Kumul Alarn.'

'And the enemy retreated to its burrow which we now encircle. We hurt them more than we knew, and we recovered the quickest.'

'We still haven't met the full force of the Kingdom,' she said grimly. 'They can raise an army so big it would take a week for it to pass through the Algonka Pass. My father told me of such an army.'

'I know; it was created by Usharna and led by General Elynd Chisal. With it the General finally smashed Haxus and the mercenaries. Don't forget, Korigan, that Lynan is Elynd Chisal's son.'

'How could I forget? He is the White Wolf, isn't he?'

'Who needs to know?' Gudon asked gently. 'Queen Korigan of all the Chetts, or Korigan, Lynan's lover?'

She looked at him sharply. 'Who else knows?'

'Everyone, of course.'

Korigan blushed. 'What do… what do my people say?'

'About time.'

They both grinned then.

'Do you love him?' he asked.

Korigan nodded. 'Yes. I have for many months, but was afraid to do anything about it. I had to make sure.'

'That it was the right thing to do for your people?'

'Yes.'

'Then trust your judgement now. Lynan is the king we have been waiting for.'

Korigan laughed. 'It's strange, isn't it? I am his consort. I have placed in his hands the fate of my people. I love him. And yet I must be the only one among us who doubts him.'

Gudon frowned. 'You are not the only one. Ager has his doubts, as does Jenrosa.'

'His own companions? How can they doubt him after all they have been through together?'

'They have seen him change. They believe he is not the old Lynan they knew, and they are unsure of what he has become.'

'And you, cousin? You have no doubts?'

Gudon shook his head. 'Not since that night we almost died at the hands of Rendle's mercenaries. He returned to fight to the end with me and Ager and Kumul. He loved us more than he loved his own life.'

'But that was before Jenrosa gave him the blood of Silona. He is not the same now as he was then.'

'His heart is the same and his soul is still his own. What else matters?'

Jenrosa was pacing up and down outside her tent, Ager watching her anxiously. 'I don't know what he has become, but I don't recognise him any more.'

Ager caught the eye of Lasthear, who had brought him to Jenrosa, and indicated she should leave. She bowed and departed, leaving no one else within earshot.

'Jenrosa, calm down,' he said patiently.

'Calm down?' she cried, stopping to face him. 'God, Ager! Do you know what he is planning to do?'

'I assume by "he" you mean Lynan—'

'Who else?'

'—and what in particular has he done that has you so excited?'

She beat her hands in the air as if she was trying to beat some invisible enemy. 'He's convinced Eynon to assault Daavis so he can try some deception or ploy against one of the city walls!'

Ager breathed heavily through his nose. So Lynan had gone ahead and done that. But he has his reasons. He must have his reasons. 'Someone has to create a diversion for the main attack, Jenrosa,' he said reasonably, trying to convince himself as much as her.

'But why the Horse Clan?'

'Why not the Horse Clan?'

'You mean Lynan didn't tell you?'

Ager looked at her blankly. 'What are you talking about?'

She held her head between her hands. 'I… I can't tell you. You should ask Lynan…'

Ager went to Jenrosa and took her hands in his own. He caught her gaze and held it. 'What is it, Jenrosa? What has driven you to this state? Why are you so afraid of Lynan all of a sudden?'

She pulled herself out of his grip. 'It isn't sudden, Ager. And it's what he's doing that scares me. The old Lynan, the Lynan we knew before we met Silona, would never have done the things he's contemplating doing now.'

'Like what?'

'The blood,' she said hoarsely. 'All the blood. I see it every time I do magik. I see it on my hands, I see it in my dreams. And I see her, I see her together with Lynan.'

Ager let her go, suddenly afraid, and retreated a step. 'But you are unsure about the magik. You've said so yourself—'

'Call Lasthear back! She'll tell you. I'm their fucking Truespeaker! Did you know that? They all think I'm like Gudon's mother. I'm the prize that only comes once every second generation! I can do things no one has been able to do for twenty years. I can make the water tell stories, I can conjure vampires in fire, I can make the earth run red with blood—'

'Stop it!' Ager shouted.

Jenrosa shut up and stared at Ager in shock. Her body started shaking like a leaf in a storm.

Pity overwhelmed Ager and he took her in his arras. At first she resisted, continued to shake, but he held her tighter and she broke down, crying in great wracking sobs that were like cries of pain. Ager said nothing, and when the sobbing started to ease he led her inside her tent and laid her down on her cot.

She did not stop crying for a long time, and then only because she eased into a deep sleep. Ager pulled a blanket over her and stood up. He studied her face for a long time, trying—almost hoping—to find some sign of madness there. He could deal with that, he thought. He knew he could not deal with the other possibility: that Lynan had become something less than human.

Lynan told Ager the new trench work was to cover the west wall as well as the north. Ager made sure most of the visible activity was being spent on the extension in the hope it would convince those inside the city that the west wall was Lynan's principal objective. In four days the trenches were finished. As well, Captain Waylong informed Ager that two of the old Haxan tunnel entrances had not been found by the enemy and they could dig a mine under the north wall in four days. When Ager told Lynan the news he knew what would happen next.