“…as many as three thousand Hasians dead,” Mazel said grimly.
“Good,” Julia said. “Kumar’s warriors did well in their first battle.”
Mathius winced at the satisfaction he heard in her voice and glanced at Lucius.
Julia ignored him. Lucius was using his magic to talk silently with Kerrion and Shelim. Both remained grimly silent to one side of the tent. Julia knew what their problem was. They hadn’t agreed with sending Kumar on the raid in the first place. Kumar was the new Clan Chief of Bear Clan and had insisted upon leading the raid himself for his Clan’s honour. Bear Clan had lost thousands of warriors and their previous chief at the battle in which Julia lost Keverin. Kumar had been a little-known chief of a small tribe back then. He needed a victory to cement his people’s trust in him.
“What was Navarien’s response to losing so many men?” Lucius asked.
Shelim shrugged. “He stopped trying to flank us and called his chiefs back to him for a conference.”
Lucius frowned worriedly. “That’s not good.”
“Why?” Julia asked. “It means we surprised him. It means he doesn’t know what to do.”
“No it doesn’t,” Lucius said, grimly. “It means he’s going to change his strategy.”
Julia cocked her head. “How do you figure that?”
“I know him, Julia. If he were going to continue as planned, he would simply inform his captains using a mirror, but he hasn’t done that. If he had a plan to overcome us, he would have sent couriers with the details, but he didn’t do that either. Navarien would only recall his captains if he wanted their input in devising new strategy.”
“That’s… not good,” Mathius said.
“Why?” Julia’s lips thinned in irritation. “We’ve done all right so far.”
Mathius shook his head. “We are holding out. That’s not the same as winning.”
Mazel agreed with a sharp nod. “We are losing too many warriors. For every one of Navarien’s that fall, two and sometimes three of mine fall.”
“People die in war,” Julia said, fast losing patience. This was the same argument they always ended up having and she was sick of it. “There’s a saying on my world: death and taxes, neither can be avoided. Everyone dies, we just have to make good use of the time we have.”
“If Navarien has a new strategy it won’t be good for us, you can be certain of that,” Lucius said. “More to the point, we won’t know what it is until we are attacked.”
Lucius’ words came to haunt Julia later that day. A few candlemarks after their meeting in Mazel’s tent, there was a commotion to the north of the camp. Cries of woe and lamentation were raised as a party of warriors rode in. Julia was in her tent experimenting with a spell she hoped might end the war. It was a simple spell, designed to do one thing—shatter the bonds that made matter solid. Everything contained energy; rocks, trees, soil, even people. If she found the trick of sustaining the chain reaction, she planned to use it to liberate all the energy contained in an area of ground—an area directly beneath General bloody Navarien’s boots.
Darnath scratched at the tent flap and stuck his head inside the tent. “You better come, Julia. Kumar is back but most of his warriors are missing. He brought back less than a quarter.”
Julia paled. Less than a quarter meant he had lost the greater part of four thousand warriors. She scrambled to her feet and followed Darnath through the crowds of hurrying people. Mazel and the other chiefs were already talking with a weary Kumar. He had dried blood on his clothes and a nasty looking cut over one eye. Julia pushed through the encircling crowd in time to hear the last of Kumar’s report.
“… straight through us,” Kumar said.
“He’s coming here?” Mazel asked. “Straight here and you didn’t try to stop him?”
Kumar looked guiltily away. “We couldn’t stop him. Nothing can. His entire force was with him and they aren’t stopping for anything.”
“Where are your shamen?” Kerrion said, just then arriving. “I need to talk to them.”
Kumar shook his head. “Dead. They stayed behind to give us time to escape. They were very brave, Kerrion. They knew they would die, but they stayed anyway. I regret what I said before. They had the hearts of warriors.”
Kerrion nodded sadly. “They died for their people. No one can ask more.”
“We have to get ready,” Lucius said. “Navarien won’t stop now that he has the advantage. All your warriors are here, Mazel. There’s nothing between him and the camps.”
Kumar shook his head wearily. “I’m sick of these hills. I’m sick of seeing my friends die. I’ve seen enough blood to last me two life times. Let us go home, Mazel.”
“Coward!” Julia hissed and voices around her fell silent. “You run at the first sign of danger!”
Kumar’s eyes blazed in anger. “I should kill you for that!”
Mathius stepped between them. “I wouldn’t like killing you, Kumar, so please don’t make me.”
“Enough!” Mazel roared. “We don’t have time for this nonsense. We have to decide what to do.”
“What’s to decide?” Julia snarled. “We have to fight!” Mazel looked away and Julia clenched a fist. “You too?” She looked around at the other chiefs and saw varying reactions to Kumar’s news. “What about you Petya?”
Petya shrugged. “It’s not my decision. Ask Allard, he’s my Clan Chief.”
Julia turned impatiently to Allard of Eagle Clan. “Well?”
Allard looked nervously at Mazel. “I… well, I think we should split up.”
Julia scowled. “Oh that’s a fine strategy. We can’t beat him with thousands of warriors, so you propose to beat him using a few hundred. Very good!”
“That’s not what I said! I meant we should disperse our people, give Navarien nothing to aim for, nothing to attack, and then hit him from all sides.”
There were murmurs of surprise from the crowd. Such a tactic sounded feasible at first glance. Julia looked around uneasily and realised they were really considering Allard’s plan. Julia found another well known face in the crowd.
“What about you, Cadell?”
Cadell was chief of Cricket Clan, the smallest clan on the plain. Conversely, he was one of their best warriors. Julia was sure she could count on him to do the right thing. She was wrong.
“We should break camp and head west. Now, immediately,” Cadell said. “We need to get out of these cursed hills to somewhere we can see them coming.”
There was a great deal of agreement with that, but it was the wrong thing to do. Jihan had been coaching Julia in what to advise the clans. Fighting in the open where sorcerers could see you was not a good idea.
Julia turned in place to survey the chiefs. “Kadar?”
Kadar glanced at Shelim. “I know what shaman can and cannot do. They can’t fight what they can’t see. If we leave these hills, Navarien’s shamen will slaughter us.”
Julia sighed in relief and nodded.
“We cannot leave the hills,” Evan of the Falcons said. “Kadar is right about that. I too have seen what the outclanner shaman can do. We cannot leave and we cannot sit and wait. Let us cross the river to the east.”
East? Julia frowned and glanced at all the puzzled faces. The river was wide—a half mile across at least. There was no crossing it, not to the east or anywhere along its course for many miles north or south. What was Evan thinking? Julia gathered from the puzzled murmuring of the chiefs that no one else knew either.
“…no one can cross that! It’s not possible,” Allard was saying. “Speak plainly, Evan. Say what you mean.”
“I mean what I have said. The river is wide and deep. Navarien would not follow easily. I doubt he would even try if we gave him a way south to Deva.”
Julia glared. The traitor was going to give Navarien a way into Deva in exchange for his safety. Julia was about to shout him down, but Lucius made her lose the opportunity when he grabbed her arm and shook his head. Kadar stepped in to question Evan.
“If the river cannot be crossed, how do you expect to do it?”
“I've learned much that I once thought impossible,” Evan said blandly. “My shaman tell me that the river can be bridged.”
“Bridged?” Mazel said faintly. “A half mile across and it can be bridged? With what? We have nothing to make such a thing and no time!”
Evan turned to Kerrion. “Tell them, Kerrion. Tell them what you told me.”
“Tell us what?” Mazel glared at Kerrion and then at Julia, but Julia was in the dark too. She looked to Kerrion for his explanation.
Kerrion sighed and shook his head at Evan. “I told you not to tell them, Evan. You have done an ill thing here today.” He turned to Kadar. “I had good reason not to tell you. I have seen the outcome of this, and yes, many other things besides. I cannot advise you to take this course. We cannot survive by running away.”
Kadar frowned. The thought of running was not a comfortable one. “You still should have told me,” he said and turned to glare at Shelim. “I asked you about crossing the river. I specifically asked you if it could be done and you said no. You lied to me!”
“I didn’t lie,” Shelim said hastily. “You asked if there was a way across, and I showed you the river in my mirror.”
Kadar waved that away angrily. “Lying by saying nothing is still lying!”
Julia shook her head as the argument escalated. “Wait!” she yelled. “I want to know more of this. If the river can be bridged, how does that help us? If we can do it, Navarien can.”
There were murmurs of agreement from all sides.
Kerrion sighed and muttered something under his breath. “There is a way, Julia, more than one in fact. Using the linking magic you taught us, we could make a bridge out of nothing but air if we wanted to. We have more than enough power when linked to do it that way, but I have seen another way it can be done.”
“In dreams?” Julia asked. “You said nothing of this dream to me.”
“Not all my visions are happy ones. Most are not. My dreams are terrible things… terrible things,” Kerrion said wearily. His face looked haunted as he remembered them. “I have never seen victory for us except here in the hills or…” he broke off with a frown of worry.
“Go on, old man,” Mazel said. “Here or?”
“Very far south, in Deva itself.”
Mazel drew a sharp breath. They were barely in Camorin as it was. To abandon it altogether was anathema to all clansmen. “We cannot go further south!”
“And if we stay here we will be overrun!” Kumar shouted angrily, glaring at his fellow chiefs. “We have the women and children to think of! I… I will lead my Clan home this night under cover of darkness.”
Pandemonium!
Julia staggered as everyone surged forward. Everyone shouted at once. Julia saw swords bared and fights began to break out. Kerrion shouted something to Mazel who nodded.
“Silence!” Mazel bellowed. His voice, enhanced by Kerrion’s magic, thundered out over the crowds and stunned them to stillness. “Stop acting like fools and listen to me! Let us go to the council tent! We need to discuss this, not fight among ourselves!”
The chiefs started pushing their way through the crowd leaving Julia and her friends standing alone. She watched them troop inside the tent and debated gate crashing the meeting. She decided against it for now. They would be in there all day and probably all night as well. She would get her chance to talk to them, but first she wanted to know what to tell them.
“I’m going back to my tent. I need to talk to Jihan.”
* * *
A woman’s screams were a terrible thing, Jihan thought yet again. There was nothing like it in the world to make a man feel more useless. He wished he dared enter Ahnao’s bedchamber to see for himself what was happening, but he had been forced out by her ladies just moments ago. He tried not to read anything into his forced departure from the room. It didn’t have to mean there was anything wrong. Women had been giving birth to babies since… well since forever obviously. They knew what to do. He tried to remember what he had heard just before they forced him out. Something about Ahnao being too small? What in the God’s good name did that mean? Ahnao was a strong woman. She was as strong in her way as Julia was in hers. It was just a different kind of strength that’s all. Being small didn’t mean anything.
“AEiii!” Ahnao screamed almost stopping Jihan’s heart.
He spun on his heel and hit the door running. It smashed open and rebounded from the wall, but he didn’t notice. He was by Ahnao’s side stroking her hair away from her sweaty brow before it closed.
“I’m here,” Jihan said. “I won’t let them shut me out again.”
Ahnao grunted and squeezed her eyes shut against the pain. She fumbled to take his hand and squeezed it hard as she bore down. “Ahhhh… God it hurts!”
Jihan bit his lip and tasted blood. “I know, but it will be over soon.”
Ahnao eased her grip as the contraction passed. “Don’t ye be so sure. A first babe can take all day.”
Jihan looked worriedly at the healer and midwife where they hovered at the other end of the bed doing things to Ahnao. The healer smiled at him, but the midwife frowned just as Ahnao’s ladies were doing where they clustered on the far side of the room to watch. They didn’t like it that he was here in attendance like this. Not traditional at all, they thought, but they thought wrong. It was a tradition in Jihan’s family, one only his hated father had broken, for the Lord of Malcor to attend the birth of his heir. In the past, so many of Malcor’s lords had died childless that any birth within the fortress was considered important. The birth of the ruling lord’s firstborn child, however, was a very important event for everyone, not just for the lord and his lady. Jihan’s heir represented his people’s future as much as their own children did.
“…must cut her,” the midwife was saying. “It’s the only way.”
The healer nodded. “Do it then, I’ll be ready after.”
The midwife stepped up beside Jihan. “The babe is coming, but it’s too big, lady. I must cut you to let it pass. It will hurt, but you will feel better once it’s done.”
Ahnao looked worriedly from the midwife back to Jihan. “Maybe you should wait outside, Jihan. I don’t want you fainting like you nearly did that time on the road.”
Jihan grinned weakly at her jest. “I’ll be all right,” he said and held her hand tight.
Ahnao looked up at the midwife. “Be quick.”
“I shall,” the midwife said nodding in approval at Ahnao’s courage.
The midwife was as good as her word. Ahnao cried out when the woman wielded the knife and nearly crushed Jihan’s hand, but the more natural pain of childbirth quickly took her attention. Ahnao bore down and panted with exertion. Jihan muttered encouragement and cooled her cheeks and brow.
Ahnao’s prediction of a day-long labour proved false in the end. It was less than a half candlemark later, still mid-afternoon, when the lusty cries of a baby sounded throughout the women’s quarter of the fortress. The midwife performed her duties as she had hundreds of times before, and then laid the swaddled child in Jihan’s arms.
“You have a fine son, m’lord,” the midwife said beaming happily.
Jihan stared at the tiny bundle in his arms. “He’s beautiful,” he said staring at his son. His son! “Look what you did, Ahnao,” he said turning to show her.
Ahnao smiled tiredly and reached up for her son. Jihan knelt and handed the tiny bundle to her.
Ahnao pulled the blanket away so she might see better. “He has your hair, like straw at harvest time. He will be the golden lord of Malcor, just like his father. He has your nose too.”
Jihan grinned at the squashed little nose. “My nose doesn’t look like that. He has your eyes though.”
Ahnao smiled and leaned forward to kiss her son’s cheek. She looked up at Jihan. “Connor?”
Jihan smiled. “If you’re sure?”
Ahnao nodded. “I always wanted my father to be called Connor, maybe he was. Who knows?”
Jihan’s grandfather on his mother’s side had been named Connor. Ahnao was a foundling and didn’t know any of her family. The woman who Ahnao called mother had been a peasant woman in the village of Bri. No one knew who her real mother or father had been, and Jihan would never afflict his traitorous father’s name on any of his children. That’s why they had looked to his mother’s line.
“It’s a good strong name, Ahnao.” Jihan stroked his son’s cheek with the back of one finger and smiled. “Welcome to the world, my son. Connor you are, beloved son of Ahnao and Jihan, heir to Malcor, and future Lord Protector of the North. You are welcome indeed.”
Those words seem to break some kind of spell, for no sooner were they spoken than the room became a whirlwind of activity. The healer and midwife finished their work and made certain Ahnao was comfortable before leaving. Jihan gave them the customary gift of a small purse of coin each, but purposely forgot to tell them that both contained gold royals not silver crowns. Ahnao’s ladies hurried forward to coo over Connor and congratulate Jihan and Ahnao.
Jihan spent the next few candlemarks watching Ahnao feeding Connor and chatting with her ladies. His world suddenly seemed focused purely upon this room and the two most important people in his life. Nothing of the outside world mattered. He did nothing for a long time but contented himself with watching Connor sleeping. Ahnao quickly tired of conversation and took a nap. Her ladies left the room then, all except Ahnao’s best friend. Ellyn indicated she would remain behind in case Ahnao woke and needed anything. Ellyn settled herself in a chair near the window to make good use of the light and took up her sewing. Jihan remained completely absorbed in watching his son breathe. He needed nothing outside this room, he thought.
Of course the outside world moved on; it could not be kept out forever. There came a tentative knock on the door. Jihan glanced up with a frown, but Connor and Ahnao didn’t stir. The door eased open and Vadin, Jihan’s seneschal, peered nervously round the door’s edge. Vadin didn’t speak after realising that Ahnao was sleeping, instead he beckoned to Jihan with a pleading look upon his face. Jihan sighed. He took one last lingering look at his son, and went to join Vadin in the outer room.
“What is it?”
“I’m sorry to disturb you my lord, but the mirror has awoken again.”
Jihan nodded. “Tell Julia that I’ll be with her in a moment.”
“Me? Talk to the sorceress my lord?” Vadin squeaked.
“She won’t bite, man.”
“But… yes my lord,” Vadin bowed hastily and fled.
Jihan stepped back into Ahnao’s bed chamber and went to speak with Ellyn. “If Ahnao awakes, tell her I had to go and speak with Lady Julia. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“I’ll tell her, my lord.”
Jihan inclined his head politely and hurried out.
As Jihan made his way through the fortress towards his study, he tried to concentrate upon the war in the north and not on Ahnao and Connor. Julia had surprised him with her successful use of their strategy sessions. He had warned her right at the beginning that she would need a miracle to win with such tactics against the Hasians, but she had proven him wrong many times since then. The clans had held out against the Hasians longer by far than Jihan had thought possible. They had given Navarien a bloody nose and no mistake.
Jihan entered his study to find Vadin chatting with Julia. Vadin seemed more at ease now than he had, Julia had a way of putting people at their ease whether high born or low. When Jihan crossed into view of the mirror, Julia broke off what she was saying and smiled at him.
“Congratulations, Jihan!”
Vadin stepped aside.
Jihan smiled proudly. “Thank you. Connor is a fine boy.”
“Connor?” Julia said. “A good name. I like it. How is Ahnao?”
“Tired, but she’s well. She’s sleeping now or she would have made me carry her in here.”
Julia grinned, but then she sobered and glanced aside. “Mathius and Lucius are with me, Jihan. We have a serious problem here.”
Jihan dragged a chair before the mirror and sat. “Tell me.”
Julia quickly reported the facts and then detailed the argument between the chiefs. Jihan frowned when Julia told him about Evan’s idea of bridging the River Anselm. How such a thing might be possible even with magic was beyond him, but he trusted that if Kerrion said it could be done, then it could be done. Mathius took over from Julia for a short time, and then Lucius.
“I’ve no doubt of it, my lord,” Lucius said. “I know Navarien well. Kumar assured us that Navarien did call all his captains back to him for a conference. Navarien would never do that unless he wished their input in a new strategy.”
Jihan nodded. “Sounds sensible.”
Lucius grinned. “It does, does it not? The question becomes what Navarien plans to do.”
Jihan shook his head. “Not so, my friend. The question should be what the clans plan to do. What the General plans is obvious.”
“Oh?” Julia said. “You think Kumar is right then?”
“I do,” Jihan said grimly and wondered how long it would take him to evacuate Malcor. He dare not allow a siege. “Navarien will punch straight through with the aim of hitting me here. If he can mop up the clan encampments at the same time, I’m sure he’ll do that, but Malcor is his goal now.”
“You sound sure,” Julia said. “Can you be?”
Jihan shrugged. “It’s what I would do in his position. The clans are bleeding him and slowing his advance. He cannot allow that to continue for long; hunting them down will take too long. Navarien is no man’s fool, Julia. He must know Gylaren has called the lords to raise their levies. He can’t wait any longer.
“Whether Navarien has Mortain’s sanction for this, I don’t know, but we all know the likely outcome should he give the clans a way out of this war. They’ll take it. You know it and I know it. And who can blame them? Protecting Deva is my job not there’s. I told you what would happen when you started this. I have to admit you held out longer than I thought you would, but this outcome was inevitable. Navarien will punch straight through to Malcor and either take it or destroy it. From there, if the clans continue to harry him, which I doubt they will, he will turn on them. From what you’ve told me, half the chiefs already plan to let him through.”
“Not that many!” Julia protested. “I’ll take care of Kumar.”
“It’s not just Kumar, Julia,” Mathius said in exasperation. “Haven’t you been listening? Evan wants to bridge the river and escape to the east. Cadell wants to pull out and go west. Kumar wants to go west then north. Most of the others would go with him if they could do it without looking like cowards. None of them want to stay here on the border. They hate it here.”
“And you think I like it?” Julia snarled. “I know they don’t like it!”
“It’s more than simple dislike,” Mathius protested. “It stems from the very concept of what it means to be clan—their honour. Ask Shelim if you don’t believe me. The clans were forced to flee their ancestral ranges and now they live here, on an outclanner’s lands. As far as the clans are concerned, these hills belong to Jihan, Julia, not them. What does a clansman want with hills? They feel indebted to him for allowing them to stay… not that he could stop them mind you, but that’s not the point. They owe him, don’t you see? They are indebted to an outclanner. An outclanner! Think what that must feel like to them. While their families are here, they will defend Jihan’s land as well as their family’s lives, but that doesn’t mean they like it. If they can get their families away and follow them to safety, they can conveniently forget the debt.”
Jihan’s eyes narrowed. He knew the clans felt they owed him for allowing them to use land nominally held by Malcor, but he hadn’t thought through what that meant to them. They had been friendly when he resided with them, but in no way did that make him one of them. He was an outclanner and would always be an outclanner. It must be galling for them to owe him anything. If asked before this, he would have thought the entire idea of such a debt preposterous. He would have waved it without a second thought, but now… now there might be a use for it.
“I think I might have an idea…” Jihan began.
* * *