“Hmm,” Orval didn’t say anything else, he didn’t have to.Ussin doubted that he’d been forgiven for dumping Orval and his family here, but he wasn’t looking for forgiveness.
He’d had his orders.
“The King asked me to inquire,” Ussin rumbled.“If he sent to you for men, how many troops could you muster?”
“Troops?”Orval shook his head.“Doubtful I could send more than a quarter of the normal allotment.It would take skilled laborers from the quarries and the fields.”Orval gave him a sharp look.“What need is there for men?I thought Edenrich secure.”
“It is,” Ussin said stoutly.“It’s the other baronies that might be…difficult.”
“Hmmm,” Orval said.Ussin could almost hear his brain churning.“Swift’s Port?Summerfall?I can’t imagine a lot of opposition from Athelbryght, what with the birth of a Chosen.”
That started the questions coming, fast and furious and direct, and Ussin answered as best he could, mostly with grunts and shrugs.It was uncomfortable; Orval’s questions about the murky dealings of the nobles showed Ussin his own ignorance.He preferred to have clear orders that he could obey, not having to go around trying to figure out what people wanted him to do.He also had a bad feeling that Orval learned more than Ussin himself did.
“The manor’s just ahead,” Orval finally announced.Ussin sighed with relief as the goats seemed to pick up the pace.
Except…the road opened up on clearly a farm house, with a wide courtyard and outbuildings.Two stories, and large, but this was no ‘manor’ to his way of thinking.No walls, no guards, no defenses that he could see.He heard the muttering from his men as they took it all in.
The Lord High Baron was guiding his cart over toward a barn where a young lad stood.Ussin recognized Yfin.The lad had filled out since last Ussin had dragged him from hiding along the way to the Black Hills, and he’d daggers at his side.
Ussin stopped his company behind the cart and gestured for them to dismount.There was an ever-so-slight hesitation before they obeyed.It made him grit his teeth.
Three people emerged from a doorway.Captain Roth, armed to the teeth, and Mistress Rosalind, looking grim.There was a younger girl behind her.Ussin gave her a long look as he dismounted.Sure as sunlight, that was Tarwain’s girl.
The girl’s gaze flickered back to the door they’d stepped from.More in the house, then.
Perhaps his King had been right.Perhaps the mage was here.
“Captain Ussin,” Rosalind’s voice was cold and hard and there was no real welcome in her eyes.“The Lady High Baroness Amari wishes me to welcome you to her hearth.We’ve bean soup with bacon, bread, and ale for you and your men.”
“Our thanks, Mistress Rosalind,” Ussin said.“It is good to see you well.”
“Is it,” Rosalind said flatly, her gaze flicking to his wyvern tabard.Roth, standing beside her, snorted.
Ussin gave an apologetic shrug and turned his horse to follow the goat cart closer to the stable.
There was the usual confusion as the horses were seen to.Yfin held the goats’ halters as Orval climbed down from the cart.The lad was wary and sharp-eyed but Ussin caught a flicker of a glance to the woods.
So there were watchers.Reasonable enough.Roth was no fool.
Orval was waiting.“No need to do more than loosen girths, and water them,” he told Yfin.“Captain Ussin and his men will not stay much past the nooning.”
Another, older man came out of the stable, a farmer type, sickle at his belt and a quarterstaff in his hands.Ussin eyed him as he leaned the staff against the stable wall but there was nothing hostile in his face.
“Four of you, help with the horses,” barked Wesnon, the one Tarwain had deemed Ussin’s second.Nothing out of the normal there, but Ussin’s neck prickled.
Orval started to limp toward the manor, Jerrold at his side.Ussin summoned his second with a jerk of his head, and Wesnon stepped to Ussin’s shoulder.Five more of Ussin’s men trailed behind, spreading out as if to cover the courtyard.As if to cover the two warriors in view, Roth and Jerrold.They started to advance past Ussin, pulling their weapons.
Ussin stopped.“What are you—”
“Queen’s command,” Wesnon shouted, pulling his sword.He lunged past Ussin, toward Orval’s back.
“No!” Ussin bellowed, clamping his hand hard on the man’s shoulder and throwing him back, away from his target.Ussin stepped in front of Orval, mace and shield at the ready.“What is this?”he bellowed again as combat erupted around him.
Two on Roth, two on Jerrold, the women pressing back toward the wall, sounds of fighting from the stable, the horses moving restlessly.
Two of his own men faced him as well.Wesnon grinned at Ussin over his shield, eyes gleaming with battle-lust.“The Lord High Baron and all in his line are to die,” he said, lifting his sword and shield.“Queen’s command.”
Ussin snarled.“Not the King’s command,” he lunged, striking hard at Wesnon, who danced back, Ussin followed up—
