“Then I suppose it’s a good thing a champion of Tomanak is on the spot, isn’t it, Milady? Even the most prejudiced person would have to take your word for it that Trisu or someone working for him is the forger.”
“Yes, Lanitha,” Kaeritha said grimly. “They certainly would.”
The sentry’s report had assured that Tellian Bowmaster was waiting in the courtyard of Hill Guard Castle when Bahzell rode in on Walsharno. He didn’t look as if he believed what he was seeing.
Bahzell smiled grimly at the baron’s expression as he listened to the sound of heavy hooves on the courtyard’s stone paving. The sound of came not simply from Walsharno but from the hooves of no less than twenty-one other coursers … only ten of them with riders.
“Welcome back, Milord Champion,” Tellian said with an odd note of formality as Walsharno halted beside the wind rider’s mounting block.
“Thank you.” Bahzell swung out of the saddle and stepped down onto the mounting block. He reached out to clasp Tellian’s forearm firmly, and the baron’s eyes searched his face intently, with more than a hint of anxiety.
“Brandark?” he asked quietly, and Bahzell gave him a small, quick smile.
“The little man’s after being well enough,” he said. “He was a mite nibbled upon about the edges, but hradani are tough, and there was naught wrong with him that couldn’t be healed. But however well, or willing, he might be, there was no way at all, at all, as how his warhorse could be after keeping up on the ride here.”
“Is that why Gharnal and Hurthang aren’t with you?” Tellian asked, and Bahzell’s smile vanished.
“No,” he said quietly. “Hurthang will be after arriving in a week or so, but not Gharnal. And not Farchach, nor Yourmak, nor Tharchanal or Shulharch.”
“Dead, all of them?” Tellian asked softly, and Bahzell nodded.
“Aye,” he said, his voice flat with pain. “We were after being the head of the spear. Not one of the Order’s lads but Hurthang survived, and him half-dead before I was after reaching him. They’re every one of them gone, Tellian … and five wind riders and eight more coursers, with them.”
“Tomanak.” Tellian’s right hand moved in the sign of Tomanak’s Sword. “May Isvaria keep them as her own,” he added.
“She will that,” Bahzell said, and drew a deep breath. “If there’s ever a soul she’ll be keeping, it’s theirs. It was Krahana’s get that was after attacking the coursers. And but for the lads as died watching my back, I’m thinking as how she’d have had us all.”
“But she didn’t,” Tellian said firmly, reaching out to lay his hand on Bahzell’s forearm. “And you wouldn’t be back here if you hadn’t dealt with the situation.”
“No, that I wouldn’t,” he agreed, and produced a crooked smile. “I’m not after being quite as certain positive of that as I might be wishful, so I left Hurthang and Brandark to keep an eye on things. Still and all, I’d not be here without I felt confident as I’d finished pissing on that particular grass fire. Not but what I’ve not got enough other problems to be going on with.”
“Well, in that case, I suppose you’d best come inside and tell me how I can help.”
“ … so by the time we got to Glanharrow, Trianal, Yarran, and Lord Festian had already dealt with matters,” Tellian said, leaning back in his chair and quaffed deeply from his tankard of dark beer. His voice was light, but his eyes were intent as he watched Bahzell’s weary face. Hanatha sat with them, sipping more moderately from a delicate, silver-chased tankard of her own, and her eyes, too, were on Bahzell.
“I suspect the matter is going to turn even uglier in the next few months,”Tellian continued, “but not because the raiding’s going to continue. We took enough prisoners to prove the entire force that attacked Trianal was in Saratic’s service, although by the strangest turn of fate, his field commander wound up dead with what appears to be a Horse Stealer quarrel in his back … fired from a Dwarvenhame arbalest we found lying about out there.”
His acid smile could have been used to etch steel.
“Still and all, we have enough other prisoners—with enough incentive to talk to us to avoid the rope or the block—that we should be able to prove whose colors they should have been wearing. And I think it’s only a matter of time before we demonstrate that Erathian was up to his eyebrows in it, as well. Once we do, I’ll take care of Erathian myself, and I take a certain amount of pleasure in contemplating what’s going through his head while he waits for the axe to fall.”
He smiled again, even more nastily.
“In the meantime, I’ve already dispatched a messenger to the King to petition for an investigation under Crown authority. Under the circumstances, I would’ve been justified in moving against Saratic myself, immediately, but I chose instead to appeal to the Crown, and I was very patient about it all in the petition, too. King Markhos and Prince Yurokhas should be very impressed by my forbearance—they’ll certainly play it up for all it’s worth when they have to deal with Cassan, at any rate. Whatever the King may think of my efforts to improve relations with your father, Prince Bahzell, he is not going to be amused by the discovery that one of his barons has been instigating open warfare against another one. We had enough of that during the Troubles, thank you. And however well Cassan may have covered his tracks, I don’t think there’s going to be any question in His Majesty’s mind that that’s exactly what’s happened here. So I expect Cassan is going to discover that he’s just incurred a certain degree of royal disfavor which is going to cost him dearly in the long run. Meanwhile, Trianal is doing just fine sitting there in Glanharrow as a pointed suggestion to Erathian and Saratic that this would be a very bad time to push the matter any further.”
Bahzell nodded slowly, his eyes thoughtful, and took a long pull from the tankard in his own fist. Tellian drank a little more beer himself, then leaned forward and set his tankard down on the table.
“And that’s enough about Festian and Trianal, Milord Champion,” he said firmly. Bahzell arched an eyebrow, and his ears cocked. Tellian saw it and snorted. “It was as plain as the nose on Brandark’s face when I clapped eyes on you that you were worn to the bone, hradani or not, Bahzell. And, if you’ll pardon my saying so, that more even than grief for the people you lost is weighing on you. So Hanatha and I have chattered away for the last half-hour, bringing you up-to-date on everything from Leeana to Trianal and the King’s approval of our petition to adopt him as our heir. Now that you’ve had a chance to settle down a bit, suppose you tell us what it is that brings the first hradani wind rider in history, ten other wind riders and their coursers, and eleven coursers with no riders at all here to Balthar.”
“Well,” Bahzell said after a moment, “I’m thinking as how it’s going to take longer than we’re like to have if I’m to explain all that was after happening in Warm Springs. For now, let’s just be saying that Walsharno’s after having peculiar taste in riders. Oh, and while I’m speaking of Walsharno, that big filly out in your stable’s guest quarters is after being his sister and a special friend of mine, as you might be saying.”
Tellian blinked, then looked at his wife before returning his attention to their guest.
“I trust that you realize that all you’ve done is to suggest still more questions to us,” he observed.
“Aye.” Bahzell smiled wearily. “But truth be told, I’ve no business at all, at all, sitting on my backside drinking your beer. Mind you, even a hradani can be getting just a mite tuckered, and I’ll not deny that all of us—riders and coursers alike—are after needing a breather. But I’ve no time to waste.”
“That much we’d already guessed,” Tellian said with a slight edge of patience. “It’s obvious that you’ve ridden from Warm Springs as if Fiendark’s Furies were on your heels. Why?” he finished bluntly.