through his spectoculums, unable to believe what he saw. Hastily he rubbed the small lenses of glass on his sleeve and looked again.
Oskan’s hands lay folded on his chest, the bones gleaming through a thin covering of flesh, and his lips shone moistly in the light of the torch. Maggiore dropped to his knees and started to weep. He was now certain. He knew he was witnessing a miracle. When the boy had been brought into the cave, his hands had been burned completely away and his face had been a mask of black skin without lips, nose, or any other feature.
The old scholar placed his hands on the mud and tried to find the words he wanted. It had been many years since he had prayed, but at last he found them.
“Thank you, Goddess,” he said simply, and bowed his forehead to the floor until he felt the cold, wet mud cooling his flesh.
31
Out on the plain, General Scipio Bellorum rode at the head of his cavalry. In Frostmarris the alarms were sounding as the vast hordes of more than one hundred thousand Polypontian horsemen walked slowly out over the grasslands. From the walls of the city they looked like a dark stain creeping across the once pristine green of a beautifully dyed but now battle-ragged cloth. Bugles sounded again and again through the streets, and any troops that were not already on the defenses were hurrying down to take up their positions. There wasn’t exactly a panic, but there was a tautness of atmosphere and a below-surface hysteria that affected everyone.
The general had taken to the field!
General Scipio Bellorum himself had come out to fight!
On the defenses, Thirrin stood with Tharaman-Thar and Taradan watching the slow advance of the enemy cavalry. “He wants me, Tharaman. He wants me to meet him on the battlefield.”
“I do believe you’re right, my dear. You must have made him very angry indeed!” the beautifully clipped tones of the Leopard King answered. “But you don’t have to take up the challenge. Let him wait as long as he likes, or better still, let him come within range of the ballistas and archers, and then let’s see then how long he’ll sit on his tall horse with his hand so elegantly on hip.”
“No, I must go out, Tharaman. I must accept his invitation to battle. He wants to end it now. We’ve stretched his famous army to the breaking point, and he wants us defeated and swept away. And what better way of doing that than killing me in combat?” Her voice remained even and calm, but a burning hatred blazed within her. “That man alone is responsible for this war. Every dead soldier, every dead civilian, every burned city is his responsibility, and I want to make him pay.”
Tharaman’s deep golden eyes regarded her for a few moments. He knew she was thinking of her father and Oskan. “But your people must have a reason to continue the struggle. If you die now, the war will be lost and the Icemark will become just another province in the Empire.”
“I could have died in any one of the battles I’ve fought, Tharaman. That is the fate of the House of Lindenshield, that is the fate of any warrior-monarch, as well you know. But if I don’t accept Bellorum’s challenge, then my authority and standing will be lost, as well he knows. I must go.”
Tharaman bowed his head, accepting her words. “Then the cavalry will ride! Taradan, send orders to the lines!”
But before the Thar’s second in command could move, Thirrin raised her hand. “Wait.” She paused, gathering her thoughts. “I can’t ask you to join me in this battle.You’ve done enough in this war and now I must accept that no other help is coming from either Vampire or Wolffolk. Whether I fall today or next week makes little difference.” She drew herself up, and with tears in her eyes she said, “I release you from the alliance, you’re free to go home to the Icesheets. Go with my thanks and friendship.”
Tharaman-Thar gazed at her for a moment before suddenly rearing up on his hind legs, becoming a tower of brilliance and ferocity. He roared a huge challenge into the sky that echoed over the plain, and immediately three thousand Snow Leopards answered him.
Dropping back to all fours he said, “Let me remind you, Queen Thirrin of the Icemark, that I am your equal as Thar of the Icesheets and you have neither the