Idra had not missed the implication. 'But not a man, eh? Peculiar, but -- well, I'm no mage, can't fathom your ways. About half my force is female, so that would come in pretty useful regardless. But White Winds -- that's no Healing school.'
'No, it's not,' Kethry agreed, 'I haven't the greater Healing magics, just a few of the lesser. But I've got the battle-magics, and the defensive magics. I'm not one to stand in the back of a fight, shriek, and look appalled -- '
For the first time Idra smiled. 'No, I would guess not, for all that you look better suited to a bower than a battlefield. About the kyree -- we're talking Pelagir Hills changeling, here? Standard wolf-shape?'
'Hai -- overall he's built like a predator cat, but he's got the coat and head of a wolf. Shoulder comes to about my waist, he runs like a Plains grasscat; no stamina for a long march, but he's used to riding pillion with me.' Tarma's description made Idra nod, eyes narrowed in definite satisfaction. 'He's got a certain ability at smelling out magic, and a certain immunity to it; given he's from the Pelagirs he might have other tricks, but he hasn't used them around me yet. Mindspeaks, too, mostly to me, but he could probably make himself heard to anyone with a touch of the Gift. Useful scout, even more useful as an infiltrator. But be aware that he eats a lot, and if he can't hunt, he'll be wanting fresh meat daily. That'll have to be part of any contract we sign.'
'Well, from what my boys say, what I knew by reputation, and what you've told me, I don't think I need any more information. Only one thing I don't reckon -- ' Idra had said, broad brow creased with honest puzzlement. 'If you don't mind my asking what's none of my business even if I do sign you, why's the kyree mindmate to the fighter and not the mage's familiar?'
Tarma groaned, then, and Kethry laughed. 'Oh, Warrl has a mind of his own,' the mage had answered, 'I had been the one doing the calling, but he made the decision. He decided that I didn't need him, and Tarma did.'
'So besides your formidable talents, I get three recruits, not two; three used to teamworking. No commander in her right mind would argue with that.' Idra then stood up, and pushed papers across her desk to them. 'Sign those, my friends, if you're still so minded, and you'll be Sunhawks before the ink dries.'
So it had been. Now Tarma was subcommander of the scouts, and Keth was in charge of the motley crew concerned with Healing and magery -- two hedge-mages, a field-surgeon and herbalist and his two apprentices, and a Healing Priest of Shayana. 'Priestess' would have been a more accurate title, but the Shayana's devotees did not make any gender differences in their rankings, which ofttimes confused someone who expected one sex and got the opposite. Tresti was handfasted to Sewen, Idra's Second, a weathered, big-boned, former trooper; that sometimes caused Keth sleepless nights. She wondered what would happen if it was ever Sewen carried in through the door flap of the infirmary, but the possibility never seemed to bother Tresti.
Tarma and Kethry had fought in two intense campaigns, each lasting barely a season; this was their third, and it had been brutal from the start. But then, that was often the case with civil war and rebellion.
Ten moons ago, the King of Jkatha had died, declaring his Queen, Sursha, to be his successor and Regent for their three children. Eight moons ago Sursha's brother-in-law, Declin Lord Kelcrag, had made a bid for the throne with his own armed might.
Lord Kelcrag was initially successful in his attempt, actually driving Sursha and her allies out of the Throne City and into the provinces. But he could not eliminate them, and he had made the mistake of assuming that defeat meant that they would vanish.
Queen Sursha had talent and wisdom -- the talent to attract both loyal and capable people to her cause, and the wisdom to know when to stand back and let them do what was needful, however distasteful that might be to her gentle sensibilities. That talent won half the kingdom to her side; that wisdom allowed her to pick an otherwise rough-hewn provincial noble, Havak Lord Leamount, as her General-in-Chief and led her to give him her full and open support even when his decisions were personally repugnant to her.
General Lord Leamount levied or begged troops from every source he could -- and then hired specialists to till in the skill gaps his levies didn't have.
And one of the first mercenary Captains he had approached was Idra. His troops were mostly foot, with a generous leavening of heavy horse -- no skirmishers, no scouts, no light horse at all, other than his own personal levy of hill-clansmen. The hillmen were mounted on rugged little ponies; good in rough country but slow in open areas, and useless as strike-and-run skirmishers.
And by now Idra's troops were second to none, thanks in no small part to Tarma. The Shin'a'in had seen no reason why she could not benefit her presumptive clan's coffers, and her new comrades as well; she'd arranged for the Sunhawks to get first pick of the sale-horses of Tale'sedrin. These weren't battlesteeds, which were never let out of Shin'a'in hands, but they weren't culls either, which was what the Sunhawks had been seeing. And when the Hawks had snapped up every beast she offered, she arranged for four more clans to bring in their first-pick horses as well.
So now the Hawks were better mounted than most nobles, on horses that could be counted as extra weapons in a close-in fight.
That fact was not lost on Lord Leamount, nor was he blind to Idra's canny grasp of strategy. Idra was made part of the High Command, and pretty much allowed to dictate how her Hawks were used.
As a result, although the fighting had been vicious, the Hawks were still at something like four-fifths strength; their ranks were nowhere near as decimated as they might have been under a commander who threw them recklessly at the enemy, rather than using them to their best advantage.
