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'About twenty days' ride to the border hills.'
'Will the Protector have to go himself?'
'I really couldn't say.'
'DeWar,' she said softly, with what sounded like disappointment.
He sighed and looked around again. 'I shouldn't think so,' he said. 'He has
much to do here, and there are more than enough generals for the job. It . . .
it shouldn't take too long.'
'You sound unconvinced.'
'Do I?' They stopped at a side street to let a small herd of hauls pass,
heading for the auction grounds. 'I seem to be in a minority of one in
thinking the war . . . suspicious.'
'Suspicious?' Perrund sounded amused.
'The barons' complaints and their stubbornness, their refusal to negotiate,
seem disproportionate.'
'You think they're inviting war for its own sake?'
'Yes. Well, not just for its own sake. Only a madman would do that. But for
some further reason than the desire to assert their independence from
Tassasen.'
'But what else could their motive be?'
'It is not their motive that troubles me.'
'Then whose?'
'Someone behind them.'
'They are being encouraged to make war?'
'It feels so to me, but I am just a bodyguard. The Protector is cloistered
with his generals now and believes he needs neither my presence nor my
opinion.'
'And I am grateful for your company. But I had formed the impression the
Protector valued your counsel.'
'It is most valued when it most closely accords with his own view.'
'DeWar, you are not jealous, are you?' She stopped and turned to him. He
looked into her face, shaded and half hidden by the hood of the cloak and the
thin veil. Her skin seemed to glow in that darkness like a hoard of gold at
the back of a cave.
'Maybe I am,' he admitted, with a bashful grin. 'Or perhaps I am once again
exercising my duties in areas which are inappropriate.'
'As in our game.'
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'As in our game.'
They turned together and walked on. She took his arm again. 'Well then, who do
you think might be behind the vexatious barons?'
'Kizitz, Breistler, Velfasse. Any one or combination of our three claimant
Emperors.
Kizitz will make mischief wherever he can. Breistler has a claim to part of
Ladenscion itself and might seek to offer his forces as compromise occupants
to keep the barons' and our armies apart. Velfasse has his eye on our eastern
provinces. Drawing our forces to the west might be a feint. Faross would like
the Thrown Isles back, and may have a similar strategy. Then there's
Haspidus.'
'Haspidus?' she said. 'I thought King Quience supported UrLeyn.'
'It may suit him to be seen to support UrLeyn for now. But Haspidus lies
behind 
beyond  Ladenscion. It would be easier for Quience to provide the barons with
materiel than anybody else.'
'And you think Quience opposes the Protector out of Regal principle? Because
UrLeyn dared to kill a king?'
'Quience knew the old king. He and Beddun were as close to being friends as
two kings can be, so there might be something of the personal in his
animosity. But even without that, Quience is no fool, and he has no pressing
problems to occupy him at the moment.
He has the luxury of time to think long, and the brains to know that UrLeyn's
example cannot go unopposed for ever if he wishes to pass on the crown to his
heirs.'
'But Quience has no children yet, does he?'
'None that are regarded as mattering, and he has yet to decide who to marry,
but even if he was concerned only for his own reign, he might still want to
see the Protectorate fail.'
'Dear me. I had no idea we were quite so surrounded by enemies.'
'I'm afraid we are, my lady.'
'Ah. Here we are.'
The old stone-built building across the crowded street from them was the
paupers'
hospital. It was here Perrund had wanted to come with her basket of foods and
medicines.
'My old home,' she said, staring over the heads of the people. A small troop
of colourfully dressed soldiers appeared round a corner and came marching down
the street, attended by a boy drummer at their head, tearful women to each
side and capering children behind.
Everybody turned to look except Perrund. Her gaze remained fixed on the worn,
stained stones of the old hospital across the street.
DeWar looked this way and that. 'Have you been back since?' he asked.
'No. But I have kept in touch. I have sent them some little things in the
past. I thought it would be amusing to deliver them myself this time. Oh. What
are those?' The troop of soldiers was passing in front of them. The soldiers
wore bright red and yellow uniforms and polished metal hats. Each carried a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]