herbs. It will ease the pain and toughen up your skin.'
'You are most kind, Highness.' Owen sighed. 'I lost the calluses on the crossing.'
'Not the first.' The Prince doled out plates, then poured three cups of wine. Kamiskwa took the fourth cup and poured water from a canteen into it.
'Are the Altashee not allowed to drink?'
Kamiskwa smiled. 'I simply choose not to.'
Owen's mouth hung open. 'You speak our language?'
The native nodded.
'But you didn't say anything…'
'You two used up all the words.' Kamiskwa's smile broadened.
Kamiskwa and Woods burst into laughter.
Owen's face burned.
The Prince patted his forearm. 'At least with you it was only the morning. On my first journey with them, we were four days out before I knew Prince Kamiskwa could speak our tongue.'
' Prince Kamiskwa?'
'My, you have kept him in the dark, haven't you?'
Woods curbed his mirth and cleared his throat. 'No harm done, Highness. We was taking his measure.'
'Really, Nathaniel.' The Prince arched an eyebrow. 'I should have thought you had that the night he flattened those Branches.'
'Well, this is true, Highness.'
'And the fact that Caleb Frost, despite his best intentions, can only criticize Captain Strake by saying he has a lot to learn about Mystria.'
'Yes, Highness.'
The Prince held up a hand. 'I am serious, Nathaniel. You have to understand that this man is unlike the others sent out here. He is a serious soldier. His reports will shape policy for dealing with the Tharyngians. Mystria's future will depend upon his success or failure.'
Woods' expression sobered. 'I understand, Highness. Captain, please accept my apologies for any behavior you found offensive.'
'No need for apologies.' Owen looked at the Prince. 'There is something else, isn't there, Highness?'
The Prince sighed. 'There might be. A fast packet-boat came into Temperance the day after the incident with Colonel Langford. A messenger brought me some coded messages. Do you know the name Guy du Malphias?'
Owen's stomach knotted instantly. 'Yes, Highness.'
Nathaniel frowned. 'Who would that be now?'
'He led the Platine Guards at Artennes Forest.' Owen shook his head. 'He's the devil incarnate.'
'He's worse.' Prince Vlad's eyes tightened. 'Two months ago a small Ryngian flotilla slipped past the Channel fleet during a gale. They were bound for Mystria and had du Malphias aboard. He's been in New Tharyngia for at least two weeks. Whatever you find out there, he'll be up to his elbows in it.'
Chapter Fifteen
May 2, 1763
Prince Haven
Temperance Bay, Mystria
O wen's appetite completely vanished. He'd seen du Malphias only once, and that through a telescope during a driving rain. The Tharyngian had been more of a silhouette, really, high on a ridgeline, astride a horse. In profile his aquiline nose stood out and his goatee added a sharp point to his chin. Then he turned to look toward Owen, and the Norillian had had the unmistakable feeling the man saw him and saw through him.
It felt as if the light breeze now came out of the arctic, and even Nathaniel noticed the change. He set a half- gnawed chicken leg on his plate and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. 'The Devil is he?'
Prince Vlad nodded. 'A brilliant man, really. A polymath-he has many interests and excels in all of them. He was the youngest man ever made a Laureate. I've read a number of his papers. I have many of them in my library. He was a very hopeful young man, but with the war, that changed.'
Owen swirled the wine in his cup, studying it. 'We took a few towns that his Guards had abandoned. They'd thoroughly looted them, even down to the point of breaking into mausoleums and digging up graves. In war you see bodies, but that was different. People just torn from their rest, parts hacked off. Lots of missing skulls.'
Kamiskwa's dour comment needed no translation.
The Prince made a half-hearted attempt to muster a smile. 'It is worse than that, I fear. His transportation here suggests a shift in Tharyngian political power. Du Malphias has been associated with the hardline lions. The sheep have lost their hold. Du Malphias will move to consolidate holdings before we can react.'
'Did your dispatches say anything about the Queen's response? Are troops on the way?'
'No, Captain. I gather that prudence and intelligence held sway. The flotilla was not large, so it is believed there can be little military threat in this season. Horse Guards believes that du Malphias will be creating a series of fortifications from which attacks can be launched. He was the architect of the defenses at Villerupt, after all. They will not be easy nuts to crack. Next year, they believe, is when he would move to the offensive, but only if he is substantially reinforced. To prevent that, we will attack into Tharyngia again this year. We'll either inflict the defeat that will make his efforts moot, or tax Ryngian resources such that he will never get the troops he needs to invade.'
Nathaniel leaned back on his hands. 'I'm thinking that's a powerful lot of iffin' and supposin'. Cold comfort.'
'Agreed.' The Prince drank some wine. 'This is why your mission is even more important than before. We have to know where du Malphias is, how much he has in the way of resources, and what his most likely route of attack will be. I will be frank, gentlemen. If he were to pull together all the regular troops and militia in New Tharyngia and couple them with warriors from the Seven Nations, he would have a large enough force to overwhelm any single colony's defenses.'
The Prince came up on his knees and shifted his blanket around. He tugged it up toward the center, then twisted the edges, very quickly constructing a crude topographical map of north Mystria. He broke bread into crumbs, which he placed in strategic points, then plucked blades of grass and laid them out to represent rivers.
'The Ryngians claim everything west of the mountains, including the Four Brothers Lakes, the land of two rivers, and Misaawa River. Up here in the north, Black Lake feeds into the Argent River, so they claim Black Lake as part of the Argent River watershed. But to the south, Black Lake also feeds into the Cool River, which is ours. The river flows south to Hattersburg where it joins the Tillie River. To date neither nation has acknowledged the other's claims. Further west, Lac Verleau has remained neutral, but the Governors of Queensland and Lindenvale have sold deeds to land on its south side. We have settlers moving into that area, creating tension with Ryngian trappers and settlers.'
Owen nodded. 'If du Malphias brought troops down the Cool River, he'd go to the heart of Lindenvale, capture Hattersburg, then move east along the Tillie River to threaten Margaret Town. That would cut off Queensland, Summerland, and Lindenvale.'
Kamiskwa pointed at the crumb marking Hattersburg. 'Many rivers meet to form the Tillie before it flows to the big water. He could come down from Anvil Lake in the west to loot and fight a retreat that would draw militia far from home. If he looses his Daskashii allies to raid…'
Vlad pushed his glasses back up on his nose. 'A sound point. Thank you, Prince Kamiskwa. You see, Captain, this is why your mission is so very important. We know these rivers exist, and we assume they will be the means du Malphias would use to transport troops, but we do not know how many of the rivers are navigable. A raiding party of two hundred men can move quickly, but an army of four thousand with cannon has an entirely different set of needs.'
Owen scrubbed his hands over his face. 'You realize this mission is impossible, yes? To survey all of the rivers
