itself and Kleve marveled that the other four could not hear it. She then disciplined herself to calm, but the colors of fury seething in her made Kleve wince.
Goddess blessing, Sunrunner. Send Walvis to Tiglath with news of the Merida. In my name he will summon the north for battle there. Accompany him, and send to me at noontimes when the sun is strongest. I will gather up the southern armies and—and by the Goddess, I will raze Feruche to the dead sands!
And then the sun left the high ridges in darkness, and Kleve gathered himself back into himself. He took several deep breaths to calm his racing heart, for it had been a near thing. Another few moments and the dusk would have claimed him, shadow-lost.
When he could speak, he detailed the princess’ orders. As might be expected of so young a knight, Walvis was torn between the intense desire to battle his prince’s enemies and the equally deep need to rescue him from Princess Ianthe.
“Lord Eltanin can lead the north,” he said at last. “My duty lies with my lord.”
Feylin glared at him and snapped, “We argued this all the way from Skybowl! It was not your fault that the prince was taken! How could you have known? How could anyone? Your duty is to obey the princess and lead the north to victory against the Merida!”
Kleve bit back an untimely smile as the pair faced off. Both of them just under twenty winters, by his estimate, full of prickly pride and youthful impatience. He caught Lhoys’ eye and saw the same amusement there before the older man’s expression smoothed and he spoke.
“Go,” he told Walvis. “She orders it. Tilal will return to Skybowl with us. He’ll be needed to tell her about Feruche.”
Walvis cast a stern glance at the squire, who had jerked upright in outraged protest. “Be silent,” he commanded. “You’ll go back with them. But I should be there, too.”
“Goddess above in glory!” Feylin exclaimed. “Why are men so stupid? Princess Sioned ordered you to go. So go!” She turned to the boy. “There are pens and parchment in my workroom. Lhoys can show you. Draw as much as you can remember of the castle and the cliffs around it, and write down all that goes on inside, how many troops you saw, everything. Goddess keep you, and give my respect to the princess.” She looked a challenge at Walvis. “Are you coming, or are you going to waste more time debating pretty points of duty when the Merida are poised for attack?”
She spared him the necessity of an answer by kicking her horse into a gallop—in the direction of Tiglath. Only then did the others realize she meant to accompany Walvis and Kleve to the city. The young knight swore; Tilal and Kleve simply stared. But Lhoys slapped his thigh and let out a roar of laughter.
“Northern women! Speak the name Merida and they go for the nearest sword! Best catch up with her, lad, or she’ll take command of the troops herself!”
Personal command of troops was precisely what Sioned was thinking about taking unto herself when she recovered from Kleve’s message. Lord Baisal, whose petition for a new stone keep had included a sunset walk over its proposed site, had gibbered with astonishment when Sioned broke off what she was saying and acquired the distant expression of Sunrunner conversing on the light. He had witnessed her performance six years ago in the Great Hall of Stronghold, of course, when she had used the moonlight to grasp at Roelstra’s renegade Sunrunner, but to stand within touching distance of a faradhi at work who was also one’s liege lady was something else again.
His spluttering silenced with her first words to him. Baisal, most placid and easy going of men, drew back from the grim-faced fury who ordered him to call up his levies for her inspection on the morrow and to send riders to nearby manors and keeps for the same purpose. The impossibility of these things robbed him of speech for a few moments. By the time he was coherent again, she was striding long-legged back to the holding’s walls, and he ran hard to catch up with her.
“But—my lady—provisions, horses, arms!” he puffed. “They cannot be readied in a single day!”
“You’ll be repaid for any provisions beyond those you usually supply in times of war. I am not a thief. Horses graze your fields. Catch them tonight and have them saddled and ready