SEVENTEEN

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“Tell me, Edmond, what was the most curious thing about Bergen?”

“Bergen?” The question was so sudden, so random, that I missed a stride, peering at Helen in some confusion for a moment before hustling back into place. “Why Bergen?”

“Because you’re the sole one of us who’s been there, and the villages of Wafret are well known for being a trifle quirky,” she replied. “Also, because you’ve been much too quiet this afternoon.”

I suppose I couldn’t deny that. I wasn’t still feeling so bleak as the day before, but I was rather overwhelmed by the scope of our task. “Bergen, then. I suppose… I suppose the strangest thing was that the road guard had an actual pike.”

“There’s a lesson there,” Elizabeth cut in. “Frederic Darcy, Duke Wafret, is as traditional as they come. His mother didn’t get rid of the pikes, so he’s certainly not about to either. He’s issued his guards firearms, of course, but those on the roads still keep up their old forms.”

“I’ve not been in enough places to tell anything more than that,” I admitted. “It was so very spread out, but the only other place I have to compare is Nordport.”

“Where any building with more than an armspan on all sides is luxury,” Helen said with a nod. “There is that about – wait.”

I followed her gaze forward, stopping in my tracks one stride after she did. Travis had raised his arm, also stopping short, looking off to our right. At first I saw nothing but a few snowflakes whirling in mid-air. Then I realized that it wasn’t a sight that had caught his attention, but a sound, hooves pounding the hard soil, coming closer.

Before we could make any plan to seek cover on the barren moor, the riders were upon us – they wore no lord’s insignia, at least, and no lord’s colours that I knew; certainly not the brown and green of Wafret. The lead rider hailed us in a clear, feminine voice, and the quartet came up toward us, bringing their mounts to a halt some twenty feet off.

“It’s a hard time to be walking these lands,” she said to Travis. “Haven’t you heard? The Dukes are arming.”

“What?” Elizabeth blurted, coming up by the marksman’s side. “Why? What in the world is going on now?”

“The Queen, rest her soul, left no clear heir that isn’t dead with her, m’lady,” the rider answered. “Now the Dukes are all pointing fingers at one another, each one saying the next must have made some crooked deal with Asterie to empty the throne for himself.”

That part of me which could still manage to stand away from the horror of that news noted that at the least, they’d not fallen for the notion that Asterie itself was at fault.

“Duchess Dentry, she’s got the backing of the Royals – if she can survive til the new year, it’s likely she’ll gain the throne. The others aren’t happy, though, that she’s got the Army running at her beck and call when she’s no Queen yet. Wafret and Halston are the loudest about it, and they’re running as much together as any of the duchies are right now.”

“Halston’s got a good name,” Elizabeth mused. “She’s a smart woman, that one, and she’s always done things right and proper.”

“Oh, sure, so far as anyone knows outside the Lords,” the rider muttered darkly, full of undisguised contempt for the machinations of the upper House. “She says, though, Dentry’s pulling soldiers and ships away from the capital for her own crusade, and that’ll bring us trouble before spring. It may be she’s right, even, though maybe not for the reasons she’s hinting. Anyway, Halston, Wafret, and three others have declared the Army not welcome in their borders ’til Dentry stops ordering them about, and by the time we left Nordport that wasn’t about to happen. You just be on your toes out here, good folk – if the Duke’s guard catch you in the wild and think you’re with the Greencloaks, they just might shoot first and not bother to search for confirmation.”

That sent a dire mood through all of my companions.

“Many thanks,” Elizabeth said, stiff and wooden. “It’s good to know what we’ve missed in the past while. Where are you bound?”

“Taking the latest news to Wafret and points beyond, and we’d best be about it,” the woman replied. “We’ve let our horses get enough of a rest. I don’t mind giving good folk like yourselves the word, but we’ve papers to deliver.”

“Speed and strength with you, then,” Elizabeth prayed, stepping back from the road, “and a warm bed and hot meal at the end of your journeys.”

“I’ll drink to that,” the courier agreed, and with a flick of her reins, started off along the road again, her fellows following close behind.

Nancy was the first to reach under her cloak and check her pistol, but soon the rest of the soldiers were following suit, and giving a quick look over their rifles as well. Rebecca simply shook her head. “There aren’t words enough for how dire these tidings are. Asterie may not have been looking to stir us up for an invasion, but if we get drawn into a civil war right under their nose, they might look to take a few pieces anyway. And if that happens, and Vard responds… the bloodshed from this infighting will just be a light taste.”

As I’d been shown, I gave my pistol a quick inspection; then, with a heavy heart, I pulled back on the slide and drew a round into the breech. The hammer drawn back but the safety still on, I slid it back into its holster. “So whatever luxury of time we might have had…”

“We can’t wait for the new year to find the root of this,” she confirmed. “I still think Wafret has something to do with this – at the very least, he’s covering for Captain Trellig. That he’s drawn Halston in with him is puzzling – and a bit worrying. She’s a harsh mistress, but she’s always been above board.”

“She’s also got some of the richest lands in Vard. She can’t afford to be without allies,” Travis added.

“That’s a good point. She might not have anything to do with any machinations of Wafret’s. At the least, she’s got enough distance from them that short of a written communique, we’re not likely to find anything to tie her to it,” Elizabeth sighed.

“We’re only two days more from Wafret,” Travis said, “or I’d say maybe we should look into some horses for ourselves.”

“Perhaps we still should, but we can’t afford them on the resources we have now.”

Despite my feeling of sudden apprehension, nobody looked my way.

We couldn’t get mounts, especially not out this far from any town – and I’d likely have been useless upon one anyway – but nobody complained when we picked up the pace. The land was getting too poor, and too much snow was starting to fall, for reliable hunting; pack rations weren’t comfortable fare, but they were nourishing, and let us press on a little longer each day without taking the time to hunt.

The rest of that afternoon, and all of the next day, were somber affairs indeed. We kept to the road – the risk of being seen there by the Duke’s patrols was greater, of course, but the courier’s chilling warning of what might happen if they caught us off the roads and thought we were skulking was too dire to ignore. Three more times, we did encounter the Duke’s patrols, but so long as we kept our heads down and let Helen and Nancy do the talking, they seemed content to leave us alone.

The fourth group was not so forgiving.

“You look awfully well-prepared for wandering rabble,” their lieutenant sneered, looking us over from atop her grey mare. “I think maybe you should make a contribution to the Duke’s armoury, yeah? We’ve got to keep you safe on these roads, after all. Come on, then – hey…” Her gaze fell on Rebecca and I; she wheeled her horse and urged it closer to us. “What’s a hoblet like you doing with a gun way out here, anyway? And you – that face, haven’t I seen it before?”

“Lieutenant!” one of the men under her command spoke up. “Those rifles are Army issue!”

Elizabeth cursed under her breath. The lieutenant’s head whipped around. “What? Oh, that tears it – c’mon, then, I’m sure the Captain will pay a good bounty for spies!”

The crack of gunfire split the air – I had no idea who fired the first shot, but suddenly everyone was running about. More gunshots sounded, and one body in green and brown fell to the heather. Shouts rose, too strained for me to make out, the thoughts underneath them too jumbled for me to sort through.

Then I saw the lieutenant drawing her pistol. I saw her eyes, fixed on Rebecca’s back as the princess darted toward the cover of the Army soldiers. I saw her arm rise.

I didn’t remember drawing my own weapon, but there it was, the sights lined up on the brooch of her cloak, just like I’d been taught. My thumb slid over the safety, the lever shifting under my touch. The gun kicked against my palm, the flash of the barrel stinging my eyes; my hand convulsed of its own will, and twice more the pistol spoke before the woman tumbled from the saddle, her own weapon falling harmlessly to the ground, unfired.

As suddenly as it had began, the cacophony ceased. The lieutenant’s mare made an upset noise, staggering about, before Jacob dashed forward to seize the reins and calm her; then it was all settling. A half-dozen bodies in green and brown lay on the heather, and no others. The mare uttered one more protest, then fell silent.

“Come on, move,” Elizabeth hissed. “We’re not so far from Wafret now to be sure that nobody heard this – sooner or later, this patrol will be missed.”

“If we’re going to get into the city, we’d better do it before then,” Jacob pointed out.

“Right. Jacob, you’ve a way with that beast. Take Rebecca, find a place in the forest to lay low. Leave the usual markers – better to risk them being found than us not being able to find you. Everyone else, rifles on the harness – there’s no way we’ll get them into the city, and they’ve brought trouble upon us once too often already.”

“What will we do there?” Travis asked, unslinging his rifle.

“We’ll have to decide that when we get there. We need to get into the city before the bodies set them on alert.”

I was hustled along so swiftly, I scarcely knew what was going on. Once our burdens had been lightened somewhat, we tore over the heather at a dead run, putting some distance between us and the fight. We got about a quarter of the way there before a stitch in my side forced me to call for a slower pace; we walked some minutes to work it off, then jogged, then walked again, hustling toward the city by the direct route, up and down hills and over a small stream, cutting across the curve of the road.

We were almost there when Helen gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Are you all right, Edmond? You’re looking rather… out of it.”

“I think so,” I made myself say, trying to shake off the strange, dream-like sensation that had come over me. “It’s just so…”

“Once we’ve a safe place in the city, we can talk through it. Just hold on for a little bit more,” Elizabeth urged, dropping back to my other side to pat my other shoulder. “You did well in a tight spot, Edmond. I’m glad your eyes were pointed the right way.”

As she’d implied, that would have to do for now. We were too close, and our situation still too precarious, to risk ruining everything by freezing up now.

Besides, even if doing so had involved an unpleasant act that still felt oddly surreal, being praised for coming to Rebecca’s defence was actually rather encouraging.

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