running through the marshlands into the open plains to the north of the city. There was, consequently, no way that an army could approach the capital of Coeranys by stealth-unless it came through the world between the worlds.
Lord Korven had tried twice to lead his force into Coeranys to bring the Duchess Sariele to heel. Both times, he had failed. Aedan and Michael had been with him each time, and both expeditions had proved disastrous.
The first one had floundered in the marshes to the northwest of Ruorvan as they tried to cross the River Saemil. Heavy rains had raised the floodwaters and reduced the roads to a sea of mud in which horses sank almost to their withers and foot soldiers bogged down to their knees.
After weeks of battling such impossible conditions, the army had been forced to turn back.
The second expedition fared no better. While the weather had not been nearly so severe, by the time the second campaign had been mounted, the duchess had been warned by the failure of the first one and had mustered not only her troops, but the nomadic landrunners as well to repel the emperor’s forces.
The narrow strip of high ground between the swamps and marshes on the eastern borders of Elinie, the only practicable overland route into Coeranys across the River Saemil, was only about twenty miles wide, and much of that territory was taken up by soft and grassy peat bogs across which an army could not march. There were only a few miles of passable ground, and this narrow strip could be easily defended by a much smaller force against a larger one, especially when the defenders were intimately familiar with the terrain. Faced not only with the knights and men-at-arms of the Duchess Sariele, but with the fierce and savage landrunners as well, the emperor’s forces found themselves fighting for every inch of ground as they attempted their approach.
Lord Korven’s fighting tactics had been seriously hampered by the fact that he was not only forced to wage conventional warfare against the troops of Coeranys, but also fight constant defensive actions against the landrunners, who pursued hit-and-run guerilla warfare against the advancing army. They would strike at night or during a heavy rainstorm, inflict heavy casualties with their powerful longbows, then retreat into the swamps, where every effort to pursue them had only resulted in the loss of more men. And once again, the emperor’s army had been forced to turn back in defeat.
Meanwhile, Lord Arwyn had not remained idle.
With his army considerably strengthened by troops from Taeghas, Talinie, and Brosengae, he had attacked Avanil. He had waited until his spies informed him that the Army of Anuire was marching on Coeranys and after calculating how long it would take the emperor and Lord Korven to reach the River Saemil, he launched a devastating two-pronged attack on Avanil. He had split his army, sending part of his forces through the forest east from Seaharrow and across the border into western Alamie, then south to Avanil, while the rest of his troops marched east from Brosengae, crossed the border into Avanil, and attacked the capital city of Dalton, where Lord Kier of Avan had his stronghold.
With a good part of his forces on the march with PO]
the Army of Anuire, Lord Kier was left with only half his normal complement of troops. He had anticipated the possibility of an attack from across the border of Brosengae and had concentrated most of his defensive garrisons along the twenty-mile stretch of open plain between the southern tip of the Seamist Mountains and the coast. What he had not expected was an attack through western Alamie, which was not only a lengthy route, but also entailed marching an army around the outer borders of the territory claimed by Rhuobhe Manslayer.
The temptation for the Manslayer to conduct hitand-run tactics against the rear guard of an army marching around his territory would have been irresistible, or at least so Lord Kier had thought. Besides, an army on the march from Seaharrow through western Alamie would have had to cover some four hundred miles to reach Dalton, with at least one hundred and fifty of those miles through thick, oldgrowth forest that would leave them likewise vulnerable to guerilla tactics. What the Duke of Avanil failed to take into account was the possibility that Rhuobhe Manslayer might be perfectly content to let such an army pass around the borders of his territory unmolested, if he knew they were enroute to attack other human forces. If such an advancing army was defeated and found itself forced to retreat, he could then attack it on its return march, when the troops were weakened. On the other hand, if they were successful, he could wait until they had departed and attack the losers.
And that was precisely what he had done, though there had been no way for Arwyn to know that for sure in advance. As Aedan’s father had told him so many times before, considering the possibilities was everything in life. Arwyn had simply assessed the possibilities and gambled on the odds. Successfully, as it turned out. While half of Arwyn’s army moved against the garrisons protecting the border between Brosengae and Avanil, the other half had marched through the forests of Boeruine, around the northern tip of the Seamist Mountain range and Rhuobhe’s territory, then crossed the border into western Alamie to slash and burn their way south toward Da ton. It was his way of making Duke Flaertes pay the price for sitting on the fence and failing to declare for him.
Michael’s third expedition against Coeranys was delayed by the necessity of having to conduct forced marches all the way across the Heartlands to come to Lord Kier’s rescue. En route, they passed through the Duchy of Alamie, marching through the
