“And you… uh, North?”
“As long as Chytrine is out there, no one is safe. Sooner we kill her, the less time I spend fearing for my family.”
Will thought for a moment, then nodded. “As the princess said, welcome.”
“Obliged, my lord.”
Will reined his horse about and fell in with Princess Sayce as she led the way out of Meredo. Not many folks were out, given the chill. Those few who were stopped and stared as the company rode past. Will couldn’t help but smile, given that the troupe had to be as odd a sight as had been seen since the last time a Harvest Festival had been held there.
Glancing back over his shoulder as a squad of Lancers rode out and along the road as foreguard, Will took a good look at the group. Alexia, Crow, and Resolute came next, followed by Dranae and Kerrigan. Lombo loped through the snow, looking as if he was having fun, and Qwc looped and swirled through the clouds of snowflakes that the Panqui would toss into the air. Bok loped along on impossibly slender stork legs, bearing a big wooden chest strapped to his back.
After him came a series of five wagons the princess had hired in Meredo, which had been fitted with runners for the snow. A big, boxy wagon led them and Peri rode in it. While she could easily fly in the cold, the air did get even colder higher up, and sometimes vicious winds blew. No one wanted her wings to get frostbitten, so they’d fashioned a rather cozy nest for her in the wagon. She had protested, but everyone countered that she was their secret weapon and she let that fiction mollify her.
After the wagons came a squad of the Lancers, all bright in their scarlet riding leathers. The Freemen company, which swelled to just over forty as other riders caught up, came next, and then the rear guard of lancers. The column stretched out over nearly three hundred yards and looked quite formidable.
Princess Sayce caught Will’s eye and smiled as he turned to face forward. “I have to thank you for having your men join us.”
“My men?”
She nodded and frosty breath trailed back as she spoke. “The Freemen.”
“They’re not mine.”
Sayce looked at him hard, then white teeth scraped over a full lower lip. “You have no understanding of what happened at the gate, do you?”
Will frowned. “Princess, I may be the Norrington, but I was raised in the slums of Yslin. I’m a thief. King Scrainwood gave me a mask and a pat on the head and expected me to be his puppet. What happened at the gate was that a bunch of men who have decided they want to die have joined us.”
Her blue eyes glittered for a moment, then she looked ahead. “In Muroso, Oriosa, and Alosa, for a man to bare his face before another is… Well, you only show your face to your family and closest friends. To show it to a stranger and to speak to you as Wheatly did… By removing his mask he was renouncing his former allegiances. He was, in effect, asking you to accept him as a vassal.
“They were, to a man, inspired by your words and your actions. Their masks used to define who they were. Now they want to be identified as your people. When you think they are worthy, they will expect you to mark their masks and let them don them again.“
“Oh.” Will took a deep breath and the cool air burned the back of his throat, making him cough. “Did I do it badly, then?”
She laughed. “No, not at all. That is why I was surprised you didn’t know what you were doing.”
“What about my telling Linchmere and Kenleigh to go home?”
Sayce looked over at him. “You must never call them by those names. Those are the names they had when they wore their masks. It’s the same as it was with Crow. When he had a mask, he was Tarrant Hawkins. He lost his mask, he became Crow. They are now Lindenmere and North.”
“And what did they think when I told them to go home?”
She pursed her lips for a moment. “You told them, in essence, they would have to work hard to prove themselves worthy of your mark on their masks. It wasn’t a bad thing to tell them. North will watch out for Lindenmere, you know.”
“I gathered, yes.”
Will breathed in deeply, but more carefully, then raised his scarf to cover his mouth and nose. So much had changed. He’d gone from being a gutter-skulker to someone Crow and Resolute believed might be the solution to a prophecy. Then portions of the larger world began to see him as the solution to the troubles Chytrine was making. And now people looked at him with hope in their eyes, when a year earlier they’d have looked at him with contempt or fear.
And now I have people who want to fight and die for me. He shifted his shoulders awkwardly. In the time he had come to know Crow, Resolute, and Alexia—and the rest of the company—he had come to trust them. He would fight for them and with them. Their adventures had welded them together.
But the Freemen, they were entirely different. They weren’t there because he was the Norrington. These men had heard his words and had heard of his deeds, and based on that alone had wanted to join with him. He’d have thought that maybe some of them were just out for adventure, but for an Oriosan to remove a mask was not an easy thing. As the princess had said, that was more than a spur of the moment decision.
Will looked over at the flame-haired Murosan. “Highness, I am now responsible for those men?”
She nodded. “Yes, you are. What they do is done in your name. You will pay for them, discipline them, and reward them.”
“Pay for them?” Will looked back. “If I’d stolen the crown jewels, I couldn’t pay for them.”
“Lord Norrington…”
“Will, please.”
“Will, you are required to pay those bills presented to you. Wheatly and Lindenmere, North and some others are not without means. You can tell that by their horses and their clothes. You will find that they will take care of themselves.” She held a hand up to forestall a comment. “And, despite what you said before King Scrainwood, you will find the crown of Muroso will amply reward you for your efforts on our behalf.”
Sayce stripped the mitten off her left hand, then worked a small ring from her index finger. She held it out to Will and he took it. It contained a small cameo mounted on a simple gold band.
He made to hand it back to her, but she shook her head. “You want me to have this?”
“I would be honored.”
“Well, it is beautiful, but I doubt I could get enough for it to feed my men for a night.”
Sayce laughed aloud and Will liked the throaty sound. Her eyes flashed brightly and almost as intensely as they had when she first found him. He remembered that, and her taking his hand. Heat flushed his cheeks.
“Will, that ring was from my father’s mother. It represents an estate in western Muroso, near Lake Eori. The income from it, even in a poor year, will keep a dozen times that number of men.”
“I can’t take this!”
“But you must. You gave your lands away so you could come help my nation.” Sayce smiled at him. “Now it is your nation, too. I don’t expect that will make you fight any harder against Chytrine, just make the results of victory that much sweeter.”
Will smiled, suddenly taken with having a new nation as his home. He removed his right glove. He slipped the ring on his index finger. “Thank you.”
“The right hand. Your sword hand. Good.”
“What?”
“It means you’ll fight.” The princess raised her own scarf to hide the lower part of her face. “Come, Lord Norrington, north to your new home. And death to our enemies.”
36
Had the journey from Meredo to Caledo been made in the summer, there would have been two choices of route. The longer journey would have taken them back to Valsina and then passed them south of Tolsin and northwest to Caledo. The great road there would have made travel quick, and easy accommodations would have been found along the way. The other route would have been to travel to Narriz, the capital of Saporicia, and then north on the road to Caledo. While that was the shorter route, the roads in Saporicia were not terribly well maintained, and much of the trade between Muroso and Saporicia actually traveled by ship around the Loquellyn headland.