“But what if he should be killed?” Aedan had asked.
His father shrugged slightly. “That is the risk that every true leader must take. If he wants his men to be willing to diefor him, then he must also be willing to die with them. A ruler who simply sends his troops out while he remains behind in the safety of his castle will never command the same loyalty and respect as one who leads his armies into battle. More than anything else right now, Michael must gain the respect and loyalty of the troops and of his vassals.
And respect and loyalty are never freely given. They must be earned.”
So at the age of thirteen, Michael had led the Imperial Army of Anuire into the field, which sounded much more impressive than it was in fact, since a great deal of the army’s strength at any given time depended on troops sent from the empire’s provinces.
And in the beginning, all they had were the troops quartered in the capital and those sent by Kier of Avanil. Messengers had been dispatched to all the other provinces with an imperial command for a troop levy, but while no one had refused outright, neither had anyone except the Duke of Avanil hastened to comply. They all waited to see in which direction the wind would start to blow.
And, at least in the beginning, it had blown against Emperor Michael.
When word had been sent out that Prince Michael was alive and well and had returned to Anuire to claim his birthright, Arwyn had responded by accusing Lord Tieran of trying to palm off a pretender on the people of the empire. An entire year had passed, he said, in which there had been no word from the missing emperor and now he had returned? From where?
If it were truly the prince, what had he been doing all this time? How had he escaped his goblin abductors? And why had the elves, the old enemies of humankind, chosen to help him? What did Prince Fhileraene have to gain?
What Lord Tieran had to gain was obvious, Arwyn had maintained. He was after power and sought the regency for himself. What other possible reason could there have been for his cowardly flight from Seaharrow with the empress at a time when not only the prince’s fate but that of his own son was uncertain? Arwyn even went so far as to suggest that the high chamberlain had taken the empress from Seaharrow against her will-for what mother would leave when her son was missing? and was now holding her at the Imperial Cairn in Anuire as hostage for his claim to regency. Arwyn manifested considerable outrage over this, despite the fact that it was probably exactly what he had planned himself.
It was a believable claim to many and not really an unexpected move.
The Archduke of Boeruine had, after all, declared that Prince Michael was dead.
When Michael had returned, Arwyn really had only two choices-back down from his claim to regency, swear fealty to Michael, and hope the new emperor would not hold a grudge, or else declare him an imposter foisted off upon the people by Lord Tieran, aided by the elven magic of Prince Fhileraene.
Aedan was not at all surprised when Arwyn chose the latter option.
Since then, it had been one campaign after another, and not always against the forces of Boeruine, which had become considerable. Lord Arwyn had recruited mercenaries and bandits from the Five Peaks region to join his army and he had even gone so far as to openly ally himself with the goblins of Thurazor. His rationale for doing so was astonishingly bold. Lord Tieran, he claimed, had betrayed the empire by allying himself with the elves. And rather than face the possibility of their old enemies overcoming them with the aid of the Anuirean troops, the goblins had decided to throw in their lot with the forces of Boeruine, the rightful regent, in exchange for Arwyn’s support against the elves. What was more, in his dispatches from Seaharrow to the other provinces of the empire, Arwyn had actually bragged of this alliance, invoking the memory of Mount Deismaar and comparing himself to Haelyn, who had made an alliance with the elves against the dark forces of Azrai for the common good. And incredibly, there were many who took him at his word.
As soon as it became evident that Arwyn would not recognize the emperor, insisting he was an imposter, and would not give up his claim to regency, a number of other provinces also rebelled. At first, it was not open rebellion; they simply failed to respond to Michael’s call to arms. Coeranys sent no reply to Lord Tieran’s dispatches. Suiriene, far to the east on the shores of the Sea of the Golden Sun, likewise failed to respond, as did the province of Alamie in the Heartlands. The Baron of Ghieste, whose walled city was located in the Heartlands to the north of Anuire, sent regrets and claimed that all his troops were needed at home to secure his borders against gnoll raiders from the Spiderfell.
The implications of this were all too clear. A good number of the late emperor’s vassals were sitting on the fence, unwilling to declare for Michael and against Boeruine because they were afraid to choose the losing side. Arwyn’s strength and prowess as a warlord were well known throughout the empire, while Michael was just a boy and had yet to prove himself. The Viscount of Osoerde had even gone
