Elsewhere

All eyes turned to him, but for a moment the room was quiet.

“The Deutzani army he destroyed was seasoned and outnumbered the Massi by more than two to one,” Brude continued.

The High King smiled and nodded at the Deutzani advisor. “We will not allow the Massi brat to become comfortable in his hole at Manse. We’ll draw him out, even if the feint on Lynndon does not do the trick. Weldon will attack the Gap with several thousand men, but move the bulk of his force up to the Aleria Pass. He will threaten the Plateau from the south. With the Deutzani threatening Lynndon to the east, and the Palmerrio the Plateau from the south, Gwaynn will be forced to make a choice. If he goes for Lynndon, the Knights will be waiting on the plains to pounce, and if he chooses the Aleria Pass, I’ve full confidence in the Palmerrio to crush him on the open flats of the Massi Plateau. And while the Massi are engaged on the Plateau, the Knights will move against Manse and eliminate their sanctuary. Prince Gwaynn will not be able to just sit and hide in his new fortress city; if he does we will hit him from three sides. The young prince is trapped already, though he does not yet know it. Whatever decision he makes it will be the wrong one, and lead to the destruction of the Massi people.”

Arden smiled, as did Ja Brude. It was a thoughtful plan, designed to put pressure on the Massi from all sides, unlike the lumbering attack of Arsinol’s method of warfare. It could work. Ja’s disquiet eased some, but he still remembered the tenacity of the Massi fighters. Even in victory he felt sure the High King and his allies would pay dearly for the land of Massi.

III

              The Executioner Lacombe left the home of Paulo Carnetti eager to be on his way. In his breast pocket he had a letter of recommendation signed by Paulo himself. It only took two days to convince the man of his Massi heritage and his good name.

              ‘Fools,’ Lacombe thought, but he could not truly blame them. The Massi army would need every strong-armed young man on their side if they were to face the Temple Knights, even then most would be slaughtered. Lacombe felt no sorrow or disappointment at the thought of so many Massi dead. He’d never been loyal to this country or its people, still for some odd reason he hoped the young ‘Prince’ gave the High King a challenge. If the Temple Knights were severely weakened it would put the Executioners of Sinis in a much greater position of power. After the naval engagement at Eno, the High King should realize what a powerful force the Executioners could be in battle, on land or at sea. The Tars of Sinis were a huge asset to the Palmerrio and Rhondono fleets. It would be good for Sinis if the High King grew ever more reliant on the special skills of the Executioners.

              Paulo tried to persuade Lacombe to wait a bit longer before moving on to Manse. For some reason the merchant wanted to send large groups of men to the new city all at once, rather than have them trickle in one at a time. The merchant claimed to have nearly a dozen men waiting and the number should climb to about twenty if a few days time, but Lacombe would not be delayed and begged out, eager to get to Manse and kill the traitor. de Baard was giving Executioners a bad name and that was something he could not abide, after all it would only be a few short years before he was the High Tar of Sinis Island. He would challenge Nacht soon…perhaps when he was finished with this beautiful turncoat.

              Though it was still hours before midday, Lacombe was already twenty miles down the finger of Massi and traveling at an easy but steady pace. He was happy with his choice of Sunwind, she might not be much to look at, but she was strong and had great stamina. If the weather held, he was positive he could make Manse in perhaps three more days, four at the most and five if he ran into trouble and was forced to kill someone slowly. Lacombe smiled at the thought, killing was always such a pleasant diversion.

              ‘Yes,’ he thought as Sunwind followed along the road on her own accord, ‘once de Baard is dead at my feet, I’ll have free reign over the country. Maybe I’ll take some time and see a bit of the countryside. Let King Mastoc have his war, I’ll enjoy the rest of the Massi country folk…country lasses. Yes, there were always plenty of lonely, unprotected women in times of war.’

Lacombe laughed aloud, startling Sunwind who jumped forward, causing the Executioner to struggle to retain his seat. His temper flared and Lacombe spurred the mare to greater speed and then forced her to hold to it as punishment.

              ‘Three days,’ he thought to himself.

?

              “How long will you be gone?” Samantha asked sleepily, unconsciously rubbing her stomach as she watched Gwaynn dress. The bulge of pregnancy was just becoming noticeable, but so far only to herself and Gwaynn. She vowed it wouldn’t stop her from fighting and continued to work with Captain Hahn and Olney Hawser training both new archers and the seasoned veterans. They all split the training time between archery practice and working with developing new spear formations. Currently everyone was excited about a large formation Olney had come up with which contained more than three hundred men.  It was a simple diamond formation and around the perimeter were a full two hundred and fifty men presenting a line of bristling spear points. Some of the men were kneeling and some standing in order to present a solid wall of sharp metal. Inside the formation were another fifty men, all archers, and they would attack any threat with arrow fire. Olney’s plan called for a great number of multiple formations placed at wide intervals and separated by open ground. In practice they found that the separate formations gave the men a surprisingly large amount of protection against cavalry.

The design was very radical and went against all military tactics of the day. Conventional wisdom held that infantry should mass in a solid line, forming a shield wall against attacking cavalry. But Olney Hawser knew horses, and realized that most animals, even those trained in battle, would not charge into a formation of spear points no matter how hard their deranged riders tried to coax them. This was especially true when the horses had a clear avenue around the obstacle. Olney believed the horses would instinctively veer around the immediate danger and become targets for the bowmen within. So far in practice, his ideas were being proven correct.

              Of course the formation would be less effective against a charge of heavy infantry and might completely fall apart if faced with another strong force of archers…but they were working on that little problem. Olney was turning into quite a tactician and he was an excellent bowman, but Samantha was afraid she would soon lose him to the cavalry. He was becoming fascinated with the art of mounted warfare and hung about Jeffery Gaston during most of his spare time, which was precious little for any of them.

              Gwaynn glanced at Samantha as she rubbed on her midsection, and smiled. He did not want to leave her…did not want her here in the midst of war, but she refused to leave and as yet her pregnancy did little to hamper her ability to lead and train men.

“No more than a week,” Gwaynn answered. He’d wanted to take her with him, to show her off to Tar Nev and perhaps Kostek, maybe even cajole her into staying on Noble for safety, but she refused, knowing that her time with her archers was running out.

“Zarina Monde believes she’ll be strong enough to return in only a day, but I doubt Nev will be that easy to convince.”

              “You really think you can convince him?” She asked and moved to Gwaynn. She put her arms around his neck while he reached down and took over the duty of stroking her growing belly.

              “He’s growing bigger,” Gwaynn said as Samantha moved away to put on her own clothes. Gwaynn stood attentive as she did so.

              “She,” Samantha insisted.

              “Nev likes his solitude, but he did tell me to call if ever I needed his help,” Gwaynn added, returning to the subject at hand. He chaffed at the thought of leaving Samantha, and worried about his growing cowardice. Over the past month his fear was growing steadily and there were times, in the darkest hours of the night that he would come awake with a jolt, his heart pounding to the rhythm of some unremembered terror. It mattered little to him that his fear was for someone other than himself. It was still cowardice; still weakness, and it worried him. He could feel it growing inside like a poison, mirroring the bulge in Samantha’s midsection. The very thought of the newborn baby terrified him in many different ways.

              “I’ll be fine,” Samantha whispered coming closer and nuzzling his neck. “You go get some Tars to