“Captain Helias, I must see General Esladas at once.”
“Did you not arrive with your cousin, my lord? We just received a messenger from Prince General Nikonos that he and you have made a forced march from Saryenia with new troops and arms with which to defeat our enemy.”
It’s no victory to know I was right about Nikonos’s plan. What if we’re too late? As impatient as I am, I have to remain silent as Kal speaks.
“Captain! This is an ambush, not an alliance. Nikonos has murdered his brother and nephew and proclaimed himself king beside Queen Serenissima. He has done so with the assistance of our enemies from East Saro. Do you understand what I’ve just said?”
The captain’s eyes widen, but he immediately salutes with a tap to his shoulder. “What is your command, my lord?”
“Send messengers to every unit. We must be ready to fight because we are out of room to run on either side. Hand out weapons to all Efean drivers, grooms, and laborers.”
“To Efeans? Only the general can give such a command.”
“I am a royal prince, Captain. Do it.”
“Yes, my lord.” But he frowns and glances at me.
I ignore him. I’ve already looked ahead to a group of horsemen with a familiar figure among them, not in the general’s carriage as we thought he would be. My father has a stiff seat on his horse, nothing like Kal’s effortless grace or the easy seats of the officers accompanying him, highborn men who grew up learning how to ride.
“Father!” I shout, because I can’t restrain my fear any longer, spurring my horse to reach him.
Father’s expression becomes a mask made cold and grim by our arrival.
“My lord, this is an unexpected meeting,” he says to Kalliarkos. His gaze flicks to me and he gives a dip of his chin to show he will speak to me later. “I just received word from one of the crow priests that a man fitting your description was sighted moving this way. Given that the message we just received from Prince Nikonos claims you are with him, your presence here cannot signal good news.”
“You are riding into an ambush,” I blurt out.
“Explain.”
Kal describes the situation in crisp strokes. All emotion vanishes from Father’s face except an uncanny twist of brightness I can’t explain, like a banked fire compressed until its glow becomes the fiercest light of all. He’s absorbing, he’s thinking, he’s calculating.
Yet we keep riding forward toward disaster.
We reach the very front of the army, the vanguard with its proud sea-phoenix banner parting the night like a ship’s prow. Here march Father’s most decorated veterans, the men he brought with him from his old command, the only soldiers allowed to wear a firebird badge. Spider scouts stump along, split into a squad on either side of the infantry. By their markings, I recognize them as the company Kal commanded in the desert.
Flashes of light reveal lanterns in the distance, a large group approaching from the west.
“Nikonos is almost on us,” I whisper harshly. “Father, we have to turn back.”
“No. We are now caught between two enemy forces that are working together.” Father lays open the problem in the same analytical manner that I chart a path through Rings in my head before I throw myself into the obstacle. He speaks loud enough so all can hear. “Nikonos will come himself out of fear I won’t believe a surrogate. He knows it’s possible Lord Gargaron will have sent someone to warn me, so he’ll have tried to move quickly without a full army. I’m going to gamble that Nikonos has a smaller force than ours. That makes him weaker than the army behind us.”
His pause falls like the silence after a bolt of lightning, waiting for the thunder to crash. Every man there hangs on his next utterance, as if he is the only lamp in a room where darkness kills. They all know that without Father’s brilliance the Royal Army would already have been destroyed.
“So we will punch.”
“Punch?” I mutter.
A few of the captains exchange surprised glances, but no one interrupts as he goes on.
“I am the bait. I will meet Prince Nikonos in the formal way, with only four adjutants, as if I did not suspect.”
“Father, he’ll kill you!”
He gives no sign he’s heard me. “My presence will lull him into a false sense of security. A squad of spider scouts will accompany me, which is my privilege as general. Meanwhile, Lord Captain Kalliarkos will command a troop of cavalry to swing around and attack their force from the rear. My lord, if you can capture or kill Nikonos, all the better.”
“What about me?” I demand.
“Jessamy, you will stay with the command unit under the supervision of Steward Haredas.”
No! I want to shout as Father continues to give orders. All I can see in my mind’s eye is Prince Temnos awash in his own blood, dead on the floor by Nikonos’s sword because I ignorantly led him to his death. I will not stand aside while my beloved father walks into range of the man who slaughtered a child with as little emotion as that with which he might have swatted a fly.
So I make my own plan.
8
My plan is simplicity itself: as Haredas escorts me toward the command company, I allow a column of advancing cavalry to split me away from him.
“I will meet you there!” I shout as the inexorable flow separates us.
My mind teases apart noises and sights and smells to pinpoint the information I need: the location of the nearest spider scouts. At the edge of the road I dismount and shove the reins into the hands of a surprised infantryman. Then, with Inarsis’s long knife bumping against my thigh, I set off at a run.
The last scout in line is always the lowest in rank. I cut in front of its heavy legs. With a thunk, the scout slams the spider to a halt and tilts the carapace forward. He’s shielded front and back, only his eyes and nose visible, making him seem like a monstrous blend of spider and man, a creature out of legend.
“Get out of my way!” he shouts.
“By order of General Esladas and Lord Captain Kalliarkos, I order you to relinquish your spider to me. You’re to report to Steward Haredas in the command unit for a new assignment.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m the general’s valiant daughter. Spider. I’m part of the plan.”
Names and reputation work a potent magic. He doesn’t dare risk defying the connections I have invoked, so he obeys.
I climb into the straps and tighten my hands on the levers that control the huge brass creature. Energy buzzes against my palms, the presence of the spark that gives the spider a kind of life.
“Walk with me, comrade,” I whisper to the dead man whose essence powers this spider. Acknowledging him matters, even though he is long past being able to hear me.