And despite Michael’s coronation in the capital, the empire was plunged into an interregnum. Thus Michael had been forced to begin his reign by fighting for what was rightfully his. And unless he moved decisively, the empire was in danger of disintegrating.
Aedan’s father and Lord Korven had concurred that given their present strength-or rather, lack of it-they could not hope to successfully mount a campaign against Lord Arwyn, who’d had a year of preparation to solidify his position. Consequently, they had been forced to mount campaigns against those provinces that had not responded to the call to arms. They had marched on Ghieste first, since it was the closest capital, with its borders adjacent to Avanil.
Lord Korven led his troops on a forced march to Ghieste, with Michael riding at his side and Aedan bearing the Roele standard of a red dragon rampant on a field of white. Lord Richard, Baron of Ghieste, was taken completely unawares. He awoke one morning to find the Royal House Guard and the Army of Anuire, augmented with the troops of Avanil, encamped before his castle, prepared to conduct a siege. It was the last thing he expected. Nor was he given time to think. No sooner had he realized that there was an army camped just beyond his walls than an envoy was dispatched to him with an imperial summons to come out and meet with the emperor in his tent. A refusal would have been tantamount to open rebellion, and he could not have withstood a siege.
Lord Richard had no choice but to comply.
He had ridden from his castle to Michael’s tent with only a token escort, and it was at that meeting that Michael began to prove himself worthy of his birthright. Lord Tieran had advised him beforehand, but Michael had conducted the meeting all by himself, which had taken Lord Richard by surprise. He had expected to deal with the high chamberlain, but instead found himself facing a very self-assured boy of thirteen, who comported himself with a confidence well beyond his years.
He had greeted Lord Richard warmly and expressed sympathy for his problems with the raiders.
He had assured him of his support, promising that the next time there was a raid upon his city, he would send a force on a punitive expedition against the gnolls to show them that the emperor would not countenance incursions into his lands. He further
reassured him that he would not dream of leaving the Barony of Ghieste unprotected by taking all its troops away on a campaign, so he would only take a third of them. And to demonstrate the high esteem in which he held Lord Richard, he would grant his eldest son the singular honor of a knighthood, so that he could lead Ghieste’s troops in the campaign under Lord Richard’s standard.
Lord Richard knew he had been adroitly outmaneuvered. He was in no position to refuse, with Lord Korven and his troops on the scene, and once they had departed, he could not once more become recalcitrant, because the emperor would have his eldest son with him as a hostage.
By knighting young Viscount Ghieste, Michael would also be able to keep the viscount with him at court, which would please young Ghieste, for life at the Anuirean court was much more stimulating and vastly preferable to an unattached young man than the quiet, rural life in an outlying province. At the same time, it would ensure Baron Ghieste’s loyalty, and by having a third of Ghieste’s troops with him, even if it wasn’t a significant addition to his forces, their marching with the emperor under Ghieste’s standard amounted to a formal recognition of Michael’s birthright. And so the city had been “retaken” without a single blow being struck. It had been a masterful piece of armed diplomacy for which Lord Tieran was responsible, but Michael had done his part and handled himself flawlessly, leaving Lord Richard very much impressed.
Unfortunately, things had not gone quite so easily with some of the other provinces. Coeranys was over three hundred miles from Anuire, and there was no way of surprising the Duchess Sariele with a forced march across the Heartlands. Eugenie Sariele had ruled the province since her husband had become crippled by disease, and for years, she had done so more or less independently of Anuire. The lands of Coeranys, out in the Eastern Marches, were sparsely populated, and their inhabitants subsisted primarily on guild trading and raising livestock. The landrunners, nomadic herdsmen of Coeranys, were fiercely independent, ranging far and wide across the grassy plains, and many of them had gone tribal, setting up their own nomadic governments without feeling the need to answer to the duchess, who left them pretty much alone.
Much of the terrain was swampy, particularly the southern region of the province, where waters from the gulf made considerable inroads through the bayous, streams, and marshes of the lowlands. The storms that swept down regularly from the rocky highlands of Baruk-Azhik kept the land inundated with almost constant rain and much of the central lowlands of the province were peat bogs that were not easily traversed by an armed force. Unless one really knew the territory, it was easy to get lost in the swamps or stumble into a soft, deep bog and get sucked down.
The capital of Coeranys was the city of Ruorvan, built upon the banks of the River Saemil, which flowed into the swampy marshes from the foothills of the Sielwode. To the south and east and west of the city, the land was all bogs and bayous, which rendered it practically unapproachable from those directions. The only reasonable overland approach to Ruorvan was from the north, through the province of Elinie, across a narrow
