A Magic of Twilight

denial, but his words crashed and thundered inside her. Not true, not true. . The denial shattered and re-formed.

“Ana?”

She could barely breathe. The atmosphere seemed thick and heavy.

“I have to leave,” she said. “I have to go now.”

His lips tightened. His face was grim. “Your promise, Ana?”

“I gave you my word, Envoy. I won’t break it,” she told him. “Now, please, I want to leave.”

He nodded. “I’ll escort you back to Oldtown Center,” he said.

Endings

Jan ca’Vorl

“Allesandra,” Jan called. “Come here to your vatarh.”

The girl pulled away from the servant holding her hand and the knot of women around the Hirzgin as they emerged from the Hirzg’s tent-palace. Her feet raised pouts of dust from the torn ground as she came up to Jan. Starkkapitan ca’Staunton, U’Teni cu’Kohnle, and Jan’s aide Markell were standing with Jan in the slanted, foggy rays of early morning. They all smiled politely as the girl hugged him around the waist. “Good morning, Vatarh,” she said. “It’s a good day to move the army, I think.”

Jan grinned and embraced his daughter tightly, allowing himself an additional taste of satisfaction at the sour look on his wife’s face. He had told Greta the night before that they would not be going to Nessantico for the Jubilee, and her howls of outrage had kept many of the courtiers awake. Markell and cu’Kohnle nodded in satisfaction at seeing daughter and vatarh embrace, but Starkkapitan ca’Staunton’s face mirrored that of the Hirzgin. “You see,” he told ca’Staunton, “my daughter has a fine military mind. All I get from you, Starkkapitan, are excuses. She, at least, isn’t afraid to advance.”

“My Hirzg,” ca’Staunton said, a trace of careful arrogance in his voice, “it’s not fear. Any of the chevarittai, the offiziers, or our soldiers would lay down their lives for you-and many have, for you or for Hirzg Karin before you. But to move toward Nessantico’s borders during the Kraljica’s Jubilee, even as an exercise. .” Shoulders lifted under the sash of his rank. Medals clashed. “We risk misinterpretation. As I’ve said, if we marched instead toward Tennshah, the Kraljica could protest not at all, and the longer march would provide ample opportunities for formation exercises, especially once we reached the eastern plains.”

Jan glanced at the Hirzgin again, who had paused with her entourage carefully out of earshot. He watched her face as she chatted with her attendants, though his attention now drifted toward Mara, standing beside the Hirzgin. He’d spent most of the night with her after the Hirzgin’s outburst had finally faded. Mara’s face was turned slightly toward the Hirzg rather than to the Hirzgin, and she nodded to him.

“Have we not always been the mighty sword in the hand of Nessantico, the spear that the Kralji send against their enemies?” Markell was asking Starkkapitan ca’Staunton. “Don’t we have the need-nay, the obligation-to exercise that arm, lest it become weak and slow? U’Teni cu’Kohnle-” Markell pointed to the war-teni. “-he was instrumental in the success of A’Teni ca’Cellibrecca against the Numetodo in Brezno. He understands what is at stake. I begin to wonder who you serve first, Starkkapitan: the Kraljica or our Hirzg.”

Starkkapitan ca’Staunton glared at Markell. “I serve the Hirzg, of course,” he snapped. “But I still say that moving the army so close to Nessantico’s border is an unnecessary provocation when we could as easily turn east.”

“Starkkapitan,” Allesandra said, “aren’t you the Hirzg’s strong right arm?”

Ca’Staunton appeared startled, though whether it was at the question itself or from being addressed so presumptuously by an adolescent, Jan could not tell. “Indeed, I suppose that is what I-and our army- represent, A’Hirzg Allesandra,” the starkkapitan replied, a bit stiffly and with a glance at Jan, as if looking for his approval.

“If my right arm refused to obey me, I would chop it off myself,”

Allesandra told him. She smiled innocently as she said it. “What good is an arm that thinks it owns the body?”

Jan broke into laughter at that, with Markell and cu’Kohnle following a moment later. The starkkapitan’s face flushed, and his mouth opened silently. “There, you see, Starkkapitan?” Jan said. “We have wisdom from the young A’Hirzg. Maybe I will make her Starkkapitan- what do you think?”

The man’s cheeks were as ruddy as if the winter wind had scrubbed them raw, and his mouth had tightened into a thin line. He bowed his head to Jan. “The Hirzg may certainly do as he wishes,” ca’Staunton answered. His hands were clenched at his sides, and his medals rang with his movement. “I have served you, the late A’Hirzg Ludwig, and your vatarh all my life. If that no longer means anything to you, my Hirzg. .”

“Look at me, Starkkapitan,” Jan interrupted, and ca’Staunton’s eyes came up. “I am grateful for your long service, and you have proven your worth a dozen times over during your career. That is why I have listened to you at all this morning, and that is why I tell you now that we will take the army west.”

“Then I will inform the a’offiziers,” ca’Staunton said. There was still fury in his gaze, but it was banked now. He bowed again, to Jan, to Markell, and to Allesandra, then turned to leave.

“Starkkapitan,” Jan called to him, and ca’Staunton turned back.

“Prepare them as if we were truly going into battle. I want them as ready as they were when we fought in Tennshah.”

The man’s eyes widened then, and Jan saw the realization there.

“Yes, my Hirzg. They’ll be ready.”

“Good. Then go, and make preparations. I expect us to be on the move by Second Call.”

Another bow, and ca’Staunton strode quickly away. “And I will inform the war-teni,” cu’Kohnle said. His eyes narrowed. “If I may say, my Hirzg, I look forward to this. Cenzi will bless you.” He made his bow and followed ca’Staunton.

“Can I ride with you, too, Vatarh?” Allesandra asked, tugging at his bashta. “I can ride very well now.”

“I’m afraid not,” he told her. “You’ll be going back to Brezno with the Hirzgin.”

“Vatarh!” Allesandra stamped her foot, though the grass rendered the protest silent. “If I’m going to lead the army one day, I need to learn.”

“And you will,” Jan told her, tousling her hair affectionately. “But not today. Not yet. I want you in Brezno, and I want you to write to me every day. Tell me what the Hirzgin is doing and who’s she talking to.

That’s your job.”

“Isn’t that what Mara does for you?” Allesandra asked, and Jan laughed again as Markell grinned.

“I need your eyes there,” he told her, not answering her question.

“Remember, I want to hear from you each and every day. Markell will tell you how to send me private messages before you leave today. Now-

what I need you to do is go back to your matarh. Don’t tell her anything we’ve talked about. Not yet; I will tell her myself in a few minutes, after I finish talking with Markell. Go on now.”

“I don’t want to,” she said. “I want to stay here with you. I want to listen.”

“Allesandra, you are my heart,” Jan said to her. “Just like Stark-kapitan ca’Staunton is my right arm. And I don’t want to have to rip out my own heart because it won’t obey me.”

“That’s not fair, Vatarh.” She pouted dramatically “No, it’s not,” he said, smiling. “But it’s still necessary. Go on, now.

Be the A’Hirzg, not my daughter.”

Allesandra sighed loudly, then finally stood on her toes as Jan bent down to give her a kiss. “I’ll write every day,” she whispered to him, hugging him with her arms around his neck. “And I’ll tell you everything.” With that, she released him and ran back to the knot of women near the tents.

“My Hirzg?” Markell said. “Should I send a message to A’Teni ca’Cellibrecca, to make him aware of your intentions?”

Jan watched Mara bend down to take Allesandra in her arms; she smiled over the little girl’s shoulder to Jan.