Sasha

Sasha did not consider herself comforted.

Tyrun dropped back to talk to his officers, and Sasha allowed Jaryd to ride up alongside. 'Did you hear that?' she asked. A part of her felt uneasy excluding Jaryd from the initial planning-in name at least, he was the Commander of the Falcon Guard. It was impossible to tell if Jaryd felt neglected. Lately, it had been impossible to tell if Jaryd felt anything.

'Princess Sofy and I shall stay with the reserve,' he said grimly. 'I shan't be much use in a charge.'

'When the reserve is committed to the fight, stay with them,' Sasha insisted. 'Holding back on your own will only make you a lonely target.'

'Sasha?' Sofy called from behind, anxiously. 'Sasha, don't hold him back on my account. I'm okay, really… I think I'm getting quite good at riding.'

'Damn it, Sofy,' Sasha called over her shoulder, 'I'm not doing this as a favour! You're far more a princess of Lenayin than I'll ever be, and you're valuable. I'll not risk an important asset of Lenayin if I can help it.'

Sofy stared at her, managing to look both crestfallen and angry at the same time.

As the trail wound though the lower foothills, Sasha found herself alone at the head of the column. She shouted for the vanguard to raise a canter where the trail allowed. They rushed along winding trails, flanked by thick undergrowth, the vanguard lowering their banners to avoid catching them upon low branches. A scout joined them, accelerating to ride at Sasha's side, his little dussieh frothing white with sweat as its little legs pumped to keep pace, the wild-bearded woodsman on its back assuring her that there was open space ahead and no sign of ambush.

The column burst onto open fields, green grass wet upon steep, folded hillsides. Fences crossed the grass and small farmhouses perched beside water catchments. Sasha couldn't see any livestock as they thundered along the ridgeline road. That was a bad sign. Ahead, the Yumynis River glinted dully as it swept about in a giant bend. A glance over her shoulder showed an endless stream of mounted soldiers pouring from the treeline. She held the column to a comfortable canter with little fear of tiring the horses on such an easy downward slope.

The treeline continued downhill on the right, where dark shelves of rock thrust through the green grass. Beyond, the Shudyn Ridge towered like an almighty black wall supporting the grey ceiling of sky. A galloping horseman caught her eye, racing parallel to the treeline. A scout-they often flanked forward from a cavalry thrust, searching the hidden folds of land for ambush. And yet, the horseman swung across and headed for them at speed. Several of the vanguard fell back, riding on Sasha's right as a shield, but the approaching rider bore no visible weapons and held a hand aloft in a sign of recognition.

'M'Lady, I don't recognise him,' said one of the vanguard, squinting as they rode. 'He's not one of our scouts.' The man's dussieh came racing up the slope at an angle toward them… and Sasha could see the man's face.

'That's all right!' she replied, with a leap of high spirits. 'I do!' She stood in her stirrups and waved him in. 'Greetings, Jurellyn! Funny seeing you here!'

'Funny?' yelled the scout as he closed the gap. 'It's hysterical! Where the hells've you been, damn fool of a girl?'

Sasha threw back her head and laughed. Jurellyn leaped the stone wall beside the trail and joined her side with a skidding of hooves. The trail was turning northward, dropping into a shallow fold that blocked all view of the river. Upon the opposing slope, Sasha saw a farmhouse in charcoal ruins, the damage far too old to raise smoke.

She extended a hand and Jurellyn grasped it hard. He looked much the same as she'd last seen him upon the road to Halleryn-ragged and weatherbeaten, a shaven jaw his only visible concession to civilisation. His rumpled clothes bore perhaps several more stains than she recalled, but it appeared as if the intervening weeks since Damon had sent him from the Falcon Guard to spy on Lord Usyn's army had caused him little concern. Certainly his horse seemed none the worse for wear, running gamely at Peg's side with barely a sweat to show.

'I've got good news and bad news!' he said to her above the thunder of hooves.

'Bad news first!'

'The Banneryd Holy Swords hold Ymoth, you're looking at nine hundred horse minimum, maybe two thousand infantry!'

'I already guessed that!' Sasha retorted. 'What's the good news?'

'Usyn ain't here!' With a gleam in his eyes. 'I know the Banneryd got wind of you coming, they've been scrambling about the place all morning setting up defences… but Usyn's still in the valley!'

'I could kiss you!' Sasha yelled back.

'Promises, promises! This road's fine-they'll see you maybe three folds from Ymoth so they won't have much time to prepare! There's open ground from there, you can form up okay-make it fast past the town, there's archers on the walls! And watch the damn bridge! I haven't been able to get across for two days, but there's Hadryn towns not too far east and my men saw riders heading across the bridge at speed this morning!'

Sasha nodded… from those villages would come the same men who ravaged Perys.

'Do the Udalyn still stand?' she asked Jurellyn, as they rose over the depression.

'No way to tell! Usyn's still in there…' Jurellyn shrugged. 'I see you brought the kids with you!'

Sasha blinked at him. He'd sent them, she recalled. 'If you thought perhaps the king still had a heart, it didn't work!'

Jurellyn shook his head. 'Brother Damon's idea! I never had much faith in it!' They cleared the rise and could see the river once more. The lower fields were close, but Ymoth remained hidden behind a ridge. 'I'll scout forward, maybe try and cross the bridge when you go! Luck!'

He waved and spurred his wiry horse to a gallop, raising clods of earth in his wake as he raced down the trail, then leaped a wall to ride toward the further treeline.

The formation seemed to take forever to arrive. Men poured down from the last rise of the foothills, officers on horseback yelling and pointing grandly with their swords, directing each group to their position. Sasha simply held Peg to his place behind the vanguard before the bank of a stream that cut through the paddocks into the Yumynis. The ruins of a farmhouse lay nearby, its charred timbers wet with recent rain. The senseless destruction sickened her and awoke her fury. It must have been such a beautiful residence, by a stream near a wide river, nestled amid green pastures and flanked by mountains.

Across the pastures behind, a great mass of men on horse now gathered. Sasha stared across their ranks in utter disbelief. Thousands of horses. They snorted, stamped, tossed heads and whinnied. Their lines were ragged, their size, colour and breeding uneven, and the men on their backs ranged from armoured cavalrymen to wild- haired, tattooed villagers to a smattering of clean-cut and shaven Verenthane townsmen. A rabble, Tyrun had rightly said. But a very angry, very determined rabble. A very large rabble. Sasha had never seen such mustered soldiery before in her life. The very ground seemed to sag beneath their accumulated weight.

Tyrun came galloping along the front line, raising a cheer as he went. He peeled off and stopped at Sasha's side. 'They know what they're doing,' he said, eyes squinted within his silver helm. 'We've got them in teams of roughly ten, we try to keep the villages together where possible. This lot's yours…' pointing across the vast swathe of men directly before her, 'the bunch behind them will be mine…' pointing over their heads to an even larger mass gathered there, 'and Captain Akryd has that lot over there…' pointing furthest from the river, where at least two thousand horse were gathered in rough, shifting ranks.

'Your Baerlyners are with Captain Akryd,' Tyrun continued, answering her unasked question. 'I'm sorry they can't ride with you, but our organisation isn't quite that good, and contingents end up wherever they end up.'

Sasha waved a hand. 'That's okay. No favouritism.' And it was better, perhaps, that their fates were entirely out of her hands. It would stop her from being distracted. Teriyan. Jaegar. Andreyis. Fear clutched her heart at the thought of her young friend. 'Dear spirits look after him,' she thought. 'Help him remember what he was taught.'

Some horses were grazing and some men had briefly dismounted to relieve themselves on the grass before the charge. Sasha herself had already done so, within the ruined farmhouse for privacy. The whole thing was surreal. Behind the great mass, Sasha could see some smaller ranks holding reluctantly back. Sofy would be there, with Jaryd at her side. Pray that they were not needed.

'What's the count now?' she asked, trying to keep her voice level. Her heart was starting to race, like a startled horse that wished to rip clear of her chest and go galloping off across the fields.

'Five thousand two hundred and change,' Tyrun replied. 'There's more behind, scattered in groups all across