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blankets. She lost her sword as she struggled to free herself of the bedding
and the cot that had come down on top of everything. She could feel the
thing's huge body moving half beneath her separated from her by the bedding;
could smell its oddly familiar muskiness. With a tremendous heave the creature
came free of Aejys and the blankets. It rose on all fours and shook itself,
then turned glowing green eyes on the lapsed paladin. It shoved a wiry muzzle
into her face; its rough wet tongue covering her mouth, nose and cheeks with
slobber. "Hey!" she shouted and the next lick caught her inside the mouth.
Aejys spit, her eyes snapped open and she stared into the grizzled face of the
shadow hound.
"Damn it, Brundarad!" Aejys cursed. "We're not that close!" With an effort
she shoved free of the huge beast and sat up. She wiped the slobbery wetness
from her face with a corner of the nearest blanket.
Brundarad settled on his haunches, head tilted, regarding her with knit brows
and an expression that Aejys swore had to be offended puzzlement.
A small laugh from the door turned Aejys' attention. Hanadi stood there,
framed by firelight that touched the edges of her dark hair with the orange of
flame, the faintest of smiles on her lips, which quickly disappeared behind
her usual polite mask.
"What has happened?" Aejys asked, a tremor of concern touched her for
although her forces were, in their own ways, experienced, she could not yet
gauge how well they would meet the kinds of threats she only now began to
suspect, much less realize, Margren could throw at them. A commander always
planned for contingencies; but Aejys knew too well that many times the
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situations that developed where not those expected or planned for. Survival
was more often nothing more than a throw of the dice no matter how capable the
commander or how strong the units. There was no such thing as an invincible
army: some fell harder and others easier, nothing more. Each time myn died in
her command, Aejys cared. She remembered her newest dead slain by the
manticores the week past. She had not known them personally, but she cared.
And in the seconds between her question and Hanadi's answer her mind raced
through all of that.
"Brundarad, he has scented the monastery's guardians," Hanadi said. "They
have been observing us since moonrise." She knelt beside the shadow hound,
draping her arm around his neck and holding him close. "All your myn must be
alerted to show no fear of them. They will scent that and possibly be provoked
by it. Also they must harm no animals, no matter how small or how large and
frightening. And the deer must not be hunted."
Aejys nodded as she righted the cot and shoved the bedding into a rumpled
heap atop it. "I have been here before. As you have?"
Hanadi's polite inclining of her head was all the answer Aejys got.
"I will have Tag alert them, Hanadi. You speak to your own people?"
"Of course."
Aejys shoved the tumbled bedding back some more, then sat down on a clear
spot and pulled on her boots. "Fetch Johannes. I want to brief him myself on
what to expect and the code of behavior our situation demands. I don't need
any loose bravos causing trouble. On second thought, wake the camp. Quietly.
I'll address them all before we ride."
The Euzadi favored her with another of her rare small smiles and withdrew,
the shadow hound following her out.
* * * *
Hanadi woke Tagalong, the Odarens, and Johannes. They in turn roused the
camp. Each lieutenant made it clear to their units that nothing was wrong,
they were entering a new territory, and Aejys wanted to speak to them all as a
group. Eliahu got breakfast started immediately and then stood by his huge
heating kettles to listen. He leaned upon his staff, his eyes soft and
distant, seeming lost in his own thoughts. He noted that Aejys limped slightly
as if her side were hurting her again as he had no doubt it probably was.
Because of its location, the long hours on horseback and her mail must keep it
sore and aching. There were many things he could have done to help if he had
dared reveal himself yet, but he held back. Once Aejys and her lieutenants
knew his true nature, he felt certain that Margren would know also. Then she
would add him into her calculations. Eliahu had no idea how much or how little
she might know concerning the powers of the Winter Mages of the Iron Glacier
and did not want to take any chances. Even a mage did not survive long on the
Iron Glacier if he took too many unconsidered chances. Patience and restraint
were the first survival skills their children learned. And Eliahu had learned
them well from the claws of a wolverine when he was but ten.
The fact that Aejys did not spare herself on this march impressed him. She
moved with the confidence of one accustomed to command, but without arrogance
or excessive pride, through the ranks of the gathered myn who gave way to her
with small words of respect on the lips of many. Her lieutenants walked at her
back. She halted in the center beside the fire, her chain mail catching the
light which gilded it with orange along one side while the first golden light
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of dawn which could not yet reach them, left the other a dull shadowed gray.
Her gloved hand rested casually on the pommel of her sword. The black band
showed on her right arm while the gray scarf of penitence on her left was
almost invisible in the half-light. Her expression was grave, but not worried.
The matter she would speak of was serious, but not yet a danger. And Eliahu
knew what she would say before she spoke, for he had already sensed the
watchers. He respected her straightforward way of handling things that
concerned her myn.
"We are entering the Valley of Saint Tarmus," said Aejys. "We camped at their
pass two days ago. We are being watched by the monastery's guardians. The
Blood Bears of Willodarus. There is a truce here with all the wild creatures.
Whatever creatures you see here ... whatever natural creatures, and I stress
natural. Willodarus has no more use for the twisted creatures of darkness than
you do. Less, because they prey upon his own. There are no manticores to be
found here. The bears and lions take them down when they do.
"Do not assume that any bears or lions are going to attack just because they
approach. Don't strike or harm anything that has not left a claw mark on you
first. There is no hunting in this valley. If a rat tries to take your food,
let it. If a chipmunk or squirrel investigates your pack, let it. If you hurt
the smallest creature, especially the smallest creatures, the bears will treat
you in kind."
A man sniggered and another elbowed him in the ribs. But Aejys had seen him
and moved through the crowd toward him. The others stepped away from him.
Aejys skewered him with a glance. "Have you seen what a grizzled bear can do
to a mon?"
The soldier, a red ribbon, glanced briefly for support, found none, then
nodded.
"Now multiply that by ten. A dozen blood bears can pull down a dragon. You
want to argue with them? If I throw you out of camp, they'll come down and
investigate you. Tempt me and I'll do it."
The soldier paled. Aejys moved back into the center. Most of Johannes'
mercenaries were gradually accepting the hands-on leadership of the Sharani
mon who had hired them, but there were a still a few troublemakers and
doubters who were not comfortable with a woman in command. They needed to
learn that Aejys would be as quick to punish as Johannes. She wished she had
had time to weed them out before starting.
"Now then. There are enough blood bears and mountain cats around here to take
us all out. Every last one of us. We enter their valley on their forbearance
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