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Law of the Broken Earth(114)



He said, “Your feelings have been remarkable of late, have they not, Lady Mienthe? Both in their strength and then in their direction. We are assured that you are not a mage. However, even so, I think it very likely that you perceive the turn and tilt of the world.” He paused.

Mienthe stared at him blankly. She clearly had no idea what it would be like to perceive forces, balances and events pivoting, and just as clearly doubted that she felt any such thing.

But Beguchren was confident of it.

He turned gravely toward the Arobern. “Lord King,” he said formally, “I must advise against your suggestion, reasonable and wise as it seems. I believe the honored Lady Mienthe should return to Tiefenauer with the honored Tan, with all reasonable alacrity.”

“Huh. I thought only to keep you safe—” the Arobern said to Mienthe. He glanced at Beguchren and shrugged. “But very well! You will assuredly go west, honored lady.”

Beguchren said to his king, “I will speak for you to Iaor Safiad. I swear to you, I will not permit any harm to come to your son.”

“I depend upon it,” the Arobern growled. “I cannot give you many men, nor can I give you Gereint Enseichen. I will leave you—hah!—I will leave you Lady Tehre. She will make the Safiad listen to your voice. You must make him understand he must not press carelessly forward, that I have not set myself against him, that he must not interfere with me.” The king paused.

“I understand you very well,” Lord Beguchren said gently.

“Of course you do,” agreed the Arobern, and swung around, waving for his officers to come hear his commands.

* * *

Iaor Safiad, if he left Lord Bertaud in Tihannad to find such accommodation with the griffins as he might—and Beguchren wished the Feierabianden lord joy of the effort—would very likely race south to meet the Linularinan offense. Beguchren remained convinced that the Safiad would come down the Nejeied. From Minas Ford, he could angle west toward Kames and from there strike directly toward Tiefenauer, exactly the route the Arobern had taken. True, there were poor roads and farmer’s tracks all the way. But going that way, whatever Linularinan troops one might meet would lack support from across the river. This was what Beguchren thought the Safiad would do, thus driving straight against the rear of the Casmantian army, quite possibly leading to a very unfortunate outcome. Thus the urgent necessity of preventing him from pursuing any such course.

But if Iaor Safiad chose to ride south along the Nejeied at all, he would certainly have in mind the broad, open countryside west of Minas Spring, where the little Sepes divided from the larger Nejeied. This was the ideal place to rest his men and the fine Feierabianden horses.

Thus, this was where Beguchren set his own men, just past dawn on the day following their arrival in Feierabiand. He arranged them right across the middle of the open land, where the last of the precipitous hills leveled out to gentle pasturelands before reaching the river. It was a stupid position if he had meant to offer serious battle, especially with so few men. If he had actually intended to fight the Safiad, he would have wanted to arrange his men a fraction more northerly, where the narrow road lay between woodlands on the east and the river on the west. He would have set archers in the woods, so that Iaor Safiad would have been forced to bring his men through withering fire in order to come at his lines of spearmen. So his officers—two captains, each with a half-strength company—earnestly told him, unnecessarily. They and Lady Tehre had joined Beguchren under the awning of his tent, to look over the lines once more and review the plan.

“The point is not to fight,” Beguchren said gently, “but to hold Iaor Safiad from pursuing the Arobern in error. Or committing other acts in error.” Lady Tehre looked blank, which probably indicated that she was considering something entirely unrelated to what Beguchren had just said. But both the captains nodded, even more earnestly than they had explained how their men should be arranged. They were not stupid men. They knew very well the possible error to which Beguchren referred.

“But how are we to hold the Safiad if we cannot fight him?” the senior captain asked. “And should we not prepare to fight wholeheartedly, in case all else fails? Or, if all else fails, are we to prepare to yield this ground and our men and allow the Safiad through?” He plainly did not much care for this idea.

“We would much prefer not to yield,” Beguchren conceded. “One fears that events in the Delta may become altogether too delicate to allow even the best-intentioned interference from without. Possibly Iaor Safiad will give me his word to allow our king a free hand, but I think that unlikely.”