'Bless him. I got him a young pig -- I figured he'd earned it, and I figured he'd like to get the taste of man out of his mouth.'
Tarma grinned. 'Sounds like he's been hitching at you. Captain, for a pig, he'd stand sentry all bloody night!'
'Have him see the cook when he's hungry.' Idra took the remaining stool, lowering herself to it with a grimace of pain. Her horse had been shot out from under her, and she'd taken a fall that left her bruised from breast to ankle.
'Well.' She surveyed them all, her most trusted assistants, wearing a troubled look. 'I've -- well, I've had some unsettling news. It's nothing to do with the campaign -- ' She cut short the obvious question hurriedly. ' -- no, in fact Geoffrey is sitting on our mustering-out pay. Leamount's been damned generous, above what he contracted for. No, this is personal. I'm going to have to part company with you for a while.'
Tarma felt her jaw go slack; the others stared at their Captain with varying expressions of stunned amazement.
Sewen was the first to recover. 'Idra -- what's the hell is that supposed t'mean? Part company? Why?'
Idra sighed, and rubbed her neck with one sun-browned hand. 'It's duty, of a sort. You all know where I'm from -- well, my father just died, gods take his soul. He and I never did agree on much, but he had the grace to let me go my own way when it was obvious he'd never keep me hobbled at home except by force. Mother's been dead, oh, twenty-odd years. That means I've got two brothers in line for the throne, since I renounced any claim I had.'
'Two?' Kethry was looking a bit more alert now, Tarma noticed. 'I thought the law in Rethwellan was primogeniture.'
'Sort of. sort of. That's where the problem is. Father favored my younger brother. So do the priests and about half the nobles. The merchants and the rest of the nobles favor following the law. My older brother -- well, he may have the law behind him, but he was a wencher and a ne'er-do-well when I left, and I haven't heard he's improved. That sums up the problem. The Noble Houses are split right down the middle and there's only one way to break the deadlock.'
'You?' Geoffrey asked.
She grimaced. 'Aye. It's a duty I can't renounce -- and damned if I like it. I thought I'd left politics behind the day I formed the Sunhawks. I'd have avoided it if I could, but the ministers' envoys went straight to Leamount; now there's no getting out of it. And in all honesty, there's a kind of duty to your people that goes with being born into a royal house; I pretty much owe it to them to see that they get the best leader, if I can. So I'm going back to look the both of my brothers over and cast my vote; I'll be leaving within the hour.'
'But- ' The panic on Sewen's face was almost funny.
'Sewen, you're in charge,' she continued impla-cably. 'I expect this won't take long; I'll meet you all in winter quarters. As I said, we've been paid; we only need to wait until our wounded are mobile before you head back there. Any questions?'
The weary resignation on her face told them all that she wasn't looking forward to this -- and that she wouldn't welcome protests. What Idra wanted from her commanders was the assurance that they would take care of things for her in her absence as they had always done in her presence; with efficiency and dispatch.
It was the least they could give her.
They stood nearly as one, and gave her drillfield-perfect salutes.
'No questions. Captain,' Sewen said for all of them. 'We'll await you at Hawksnest, as ordered.'
Four
Kethry was in trouble.
A glittering ball of blinding white hurtled straight for her eyes. Kethry ducked behind the ice-covered wall of the fortifications, then launched a missile of her own at the enemy, who was even now charging her fortress.
The leading Warrior took her return volley squarely on the chest, and went down with a blood-freezing shriek of anguish.
'Tarma!' squealed the second of the enemy war-riors, skidding to a stop in the snow beside the fallen Shm'a'in.
'No -- onward, my brave ones!' Tarma declaimed. 'I am done for -- but you must regain our ancient homeland! You must fight on, and you must avenge me!' Then she writhed into a sitting position, clutched her
