Law of the Broken Earth(113)
“Yes?” Lady Mienthe said uncertainly.
The Arobern glanced sidelong at Beguchren and said, “If the Wall is broken, then Iaor Safiad will stay in the north. But if it still holds, then he may come south. If he comes, what will be his road? Will he ride down along the Sierhanan, straight for the Delta but always risking that he may find Linularinan soldiers have crossed the river and gotten in front of him? Or that he may find an attack coming from any direction, if Linularinum has crossed in force and laid a trap for him?”
“No,” said Beguchren, as the Arobern clearly wished to have all these tactical considerations laid out for the lady. “If the Safiad moves south, he will come down along the Nejeied this far. His options are wide, once he is here. He could cross west toward the Delta if he finds the Linularinan assault his greatest concern, as I imagine he hopes; or continue down the Nejeied toward Terabiand if for some reason he thought that wise; or if his hopes fail him and he suddenly discovers Linularinum to be the least of his concerns, he might go south along the Sepes River to Talend and have the forest at his back when he faces the griffins. He might even, in extremity, retreat with his men into the pass. I imagine that the griffins would care for that even less than they would like the forest.”
“That is also what I think,” said the Arobern, and paused. From the king’s grim expression, and from the way his gaze rested for a long moment on Lady Mienthe’s face, he was probably trying to imagine what he might say to King Iaor, if they happened to find him on the road down there, on the other side of the bridge.
“We will go down to the bridge,” the Arobern decided. “Lady Mienthe—” He frowned at her, though not unkindly. “You must speak to the people there and bid them to be calm.”
“They will know they cannot fight us,” Lord Beguchren said, watching her face. The lady was clearly thinking of how frightened her folk would be when they saw thousands of Casmantian spears flashing through the dust raised by thousands of Casmantian boots. He said, “They may scatter up- and downriver, however, with the most disturbing tales of Casmantian invasion. You might persuade them to send a second lot of messengers after the first, in the hope that we may not encounter too much difficulty as we move farther into Feierabiand.”
“We will move too swiftly to encounter difficulty,” the Arobern declared. “If Iaor Safiad comes upon us, we will hope he will listen to us with both his ears. I will send that little courier north today, this very hour, explaining what we are about and asking his pardon for our boldness. Lord Beguchren, I will ask you to stay here, athwart the likely road, so that if the honored courier does not reach the Safiad, you may meet him here.”
Lord Beguchren, unsurprised, inclined his head in acceptance of this command. “I am honored by your trust,” he said quietly, and to Lady Mienthe, who was looking openly surprised, “It is a mage you will need with you in the west.”
“And it’s a smooth tongue the lord king will need here in the east,” said Tan, unexpectedly, for he had rarely spoken to any of them on this ride, and had assiduously avoided both Beguchren and Gereint. His tone now was stiff. But he went on, glancing from one of them to the next and ending with an earnest nod toward the Arobern, “King Iaor may even believe that you deliberately act together with Mariddeier Kohorrian, and that you have some plan for dealing with the griffins after you’ve finished partitioning Feierabiand between you.”
Beguchren gave the legist a considering nod and agreed, “Indeed. I shall hope that in such exigency, I will be able to clarify matters.”
The Arobern grimaced and then looked keenly at Mienthe. “The Safiad knows you well, hah? Your cousin is his friend as well as his adviser and a lord of his court. Maybe I should leave you here also. Then you would be safe and also you could speak for me to your king. Maybe that would be clever, yes?”
“No—no, it wouldn’t!” said Mienthe, plainly horrified. “I have to go west! I need to be in Tiefenauer! Or,” she amended, “at least, I need to be with Tan.” She said this as she might have said The sky is blue or Water runs downhill. As though it were a flat statement of such obvious truth that no one could possibly dispute it.
Tan said, a snap of temper in his voice, “I should hate to go west without Mienthe. It isn’t your mage who’s so far turned away three Linularinan attacks against me.”
Lady Mienthe looked at Tan with surprise and pleasure, as though she hadn’t expected his support. But, when the Arobern began stubbornly to speak again of her safety, it was to Beguchren she turned for help. Though Beguchren had to acknowledge, without modesty, that if the young woman was not confident of her ability to carry her own point, she could not have chosen better in looking for one who both could and would argue for her.