Vedasia was committing its knights to war.
Stories were passed from mouth to ear along the Traders' Route. The Sorceress of the East had made an unholy pact with the Sunderer himself, who had promised to make her his Queen in exchange for the head of Malthus the Counselor. She had sent her dragon to abduct the Lady of the Rivenlost and offered a dreadful bargain.
Haomane's Allies had chosen war instead.
Not all of them, no, but already a mighty force was on the march, moving from Seahold to Harrington Bay, where the Free Fishers had agreed to carry them to Port Calibus. There, a fleet of Vedasian ships would ferry them around the lower tip of Dwarfhorn and on to Port Eurus to unite with a Vedasian company under the command of Duke Quentin, the King's nephew. Two of the Five Regents of Pelmar had given pledges of war, and the another was expected to agree soon. It was a force the likes of which had not been seen since the Fourth Age of the Sundered World. The Sorceress of the East, all agreed, had overreached.
These were the stories heard along the Traders' Route, until they turned south onto a lesser road that led unto the heart of the Dwarf-horn.
"Why do you smile?"
It was Blaise of the Borderguard who asked the question one evening, pausing in the process of skinning a rabbit the archer Fianna had shot for the supper-pot. She was some distance away, motionless in the uncultivated field, bow drawn, tracking some unseen movement. Malthus had vanished; communing with Haomane, perhaps. Hobard was gathering firewood, while Peldras knelt in serene concentration, stacking kindling in an intricate structure. Nothing burned hotter and cleaner than an Ellylon-laid campfire, constructed in tiers which collapsed in on themselves with a delicate shower of sparks, laying a bed of immaculate embers. At his side, Dani squatted and watched in fascination, while his fat uncle Thulu went in search of running water.
On alert, Carfax regarded the Borderguardsman in wary silence.
"You smile." Blaise's hands resumed their movement, parting the rabbit's skin from its flesh. His gaze remained fixed on Carfax. In the deepening twilight he looked much akin to General Tanaros, with the same unthinking competence. "Watching the knights pass. I've seen it. Why?"
A thrill of fear shot through him. Had he smiled? Yes, probably. It was the one bitter pleasure left to him, watching Haomane's Allies dance unwitting to a tune of Lord Satoris' piping, marshaling their forces eastward.
"You're afraid," Blaise said softly, plying his knife.
To speak or not to speak? There was no safety in silence, if his face betrayed him. Carfax met the Borderguardsman's gaze. "Afraid, aye." His voice was rusty with disuse. "You want me dead."
"Aye." A brusque nod, brows rising a fraction to hear him speak. "You're a liability, I reckon. You'd do the same if it was your command. But I swore to obey the Counselor's wisdom, and he wants you alive. So why do you smile?"
"Why does Malthus hide from Haomane's Allies?" Carfax asked instead of answering. "Why have we turned south, when the war lies north? What does the boy Dani carry in that flask about his neck?"
"You're stubborn, I'll give you that much." The Borderguardsman set aside the skinned carcass with a speculative look in his eye. "What's your name, Staccian?"
Carfax shook his head.
Blaise wiped his skinning-knife on a tuft of grass. "You know mine."
"Yes." He swallowed.
"Do you serve under his command?" Dark eyes, steady and calm. "You know of whom I speak. He who caused my family name to live in infamy."
Carfax looked away. "General Tanaros Blacksword."
"The Kingslayer." Blaise's voice was flat. "You do, don't you?" He waited, but Carfax kept his silence. "He strangled his wife, Staccian. He put his hands around her neck and he throttled her dead. He walked up to his sovereign lord, a man who was nearly a brother to him, and plunged his sword into his guts. And then he rode to Darkhaven and pledged his life to the Sunderer in exchange for immortality. Are you proud to serve under his command?"
"Who should I serve, then?" He dared a glance. "You?"
"You could do worse."
Carfax laughed in despair.
"What manner of man do you wish to be?" The Borderguardsman watched him keenly. "You have a choice, Staccian. I've heard it said your folk made allegiance with Satoris Banewreaker to preserve peace and prosperity in your country. No one in Urulat would condemn you for deciding the cost was too high."
Peace and prosperity, Carfax thought. Yes. Those were not small things to a people who dwelled in a stony land, to a people whose nation bordered on the territory of the Fjel, who made for ungentle neighbors were there enmity between them. Whatever was said of him, Lord Satoris kept his bargains. And whatever General Tanaros had done a thousand years ago, he treated his Men with honor. Carfax had sworn an oath of loyalty, and they had given him no cause to break it.