"What about us?"
"Have the scouts returned?" Miro asked.
"Yes. There's a place between here and Ralanast. It's high, and well-protected. The enemy know we're here, so there's little risk in being so visible."
"Good," Miro said.
"Lord Marshal?" a courier said, coming up the hill with a piece of paper in his hand. "A message from Ralanast."
Miro swiftly broke the seal and read the note. "It's from Rogan," he said. "The signal is a plume of green smoke."
Miro looked at Beorn, who nodded his understanding. Miro then turned his attention back to the distant spires of the Terra Cathedral, and the one hope he had never dared to mention, not even to himself.
The thoughts came to him then, however, now that he was so close. He tried to quell the stirring in his breast, but her face was there in his mind. He'd known her since she was a girl, and deep inside he'd always known she loved him, but she was his sister's friend, and he'd thought it the puppy-love of a child.
When he'd finally seen her as a woman, it was too late, and then it wasn't just her marriage to Igor Samson that drove them apart, it was the war, and finally she was taken from him, perhaps a prisoner somewhere, but most likely dead.
Amber.
"Miro, are you all right?" Marshal Beorn asked.
Miro realised he held his fists clenched at his sides. He forced himself to relax. "Yes, I'm fine," he said. "Pass the word. We advance."
36
"WOMAN, you're staying here," Rogan said, putting all of the force that could command an army behind his voice.
"May the Lord of the Earth scratch me if I am," Amelia said, her brown eyes blazing.
"The fight is going to be dangerous, and if I'm worried about you, I'll be distracted," Rogan said, changing tactic.
"Then I'll have to stay right by your side, won't I?"
"You'll stay put here with Tapel," Rogan said. "I command it."
"You command it, do you? Listen to me, Rogan Jarvish, you don't command me. I'll do nothing of the sort."
"Please, Amelia," Rogan said. "The coming fight will be no place for a woman. I intend to be at the heart of it."
"No," Amelia said. "That armoursilk doesn't fit you anymore."
"What do you mean? Of course it does!"
"No, it doesn't," Amelia's voice softened. "You aren't a young man, Rogan. Yes, the armoursilk fits, but it is no longer right for you. You were badly wounded in that battle — you're a warrior, and you know it as well as I do. Bladesingers always go where the battle is thickest, isn't that what they say? Well, not you. Without you, the spirit will go out of your men. They need you, Rogan."
Rogan spluttered for a moment. "Don't change the subject, Amelia. We're talking about you, here, not me."
"We're talking about us," Amelia whispered.
Rogan suddenly couldn't speak. He was as speechless as he had been while recovering from his wounds. He simply gaped, staring at Amelia, looking into her eyes. Lord of the Sky, she was a beautiful woman. He stood silent and mesmerised by her. He realised he loved her smile, and her golden hair, the colour of wheat. What was she doing here, arguing with him?
"I'm not staying home either," Tapel said, his piping voice rising up over the silence.
Rogan and Amelia both rounded on the boy. "Yes, you are," Rogan and Amelia said in unison.
"You can't make me," Tapel said.
Rogan loomed over the boy, who suddenly cowered under him. He spoke slowly, in the voice that had handled countless boys a lot tougher than this one. "Yes," Rogan said. "I can."
"Will you come for me after?" Tapel said in a small voice.
"Boy," Rogan said, "I'll come for you after. I'll come for you after the battle, and I'll come for you the next day. Now, get gone with you." He cuffed the air, and Tapel ran away.
"Do you mean that?" Amelia asked.
"I do," Rogan said. He hesitantly reached forward and took her hand.
Amelia closed her eyes and breathed deeply, a sigh of mixed pain and pleasure, and when she opened her eyes Rogan was surprised to see moisture glistening there. "I'm coming with you," she said, "and I won't hear another word on it. You can wear your armoursilk and carry your zenblade, but I don't want you doing anything foolish, do you hear me?"
"I hear you," Rogan said.
He leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips. He knew she was a good woman, and Tapel would be the son he had never had. "I'm going to say this now before I lose my nerve. I love you," Rogan said.
"I love you too," Amelia said, and then she was crying.
"And I'm not saying this for your benefit. I'll be a father to the boy too if he'll have me."
"He doesn't like it when you call him that," Amelia said, laughing through her tears.
"When he learns some respect, then I'll call him a man."