Stand and fight, or pack and run

"It was Laman?" Raina asked, clutching the chancellor's letter. She still didn't want to believe it. She was in the large first-floor solar at Glory Point, with her mother and aunt. Candles bathed the room in a soft yellow glow while crickets chirped outside.

"Of course, it was Laman," Lady Carla said. "It's always been Laman. He should have been our first suspect."

"But kinslaying…" Raina whispered. "It's a horrible sin."

"I don't think Laman is very pious, my dear," Lady Carla told her.

"Still," Raina insisted. "Why would he do that?"

"What do you think, Raina?" Carla Lamanbhurg asked.

"But kinslaying?" Raina asked. "And allying with the Reendeni? That's high treason. He betrayed his kin. He betrayed his people."

"He didn't have many options," Aunt Mariana chimed in. "If your father had named you heir, he could challenge you on the grounds of you being a woman and count on support from a couple of the bannermen at least. But he can't challenge Willy. The men wouldn't follow him. He needed an army and the Reendeni gave him one."

"But the Reendeni are the enemy," Raina argued. "They're invaders on our land. Heathens from across the sea. How can he expect anybody to support him if he allies with them?"

"Nobody was supporting him, Raina," Aunt Mariana told her. "You can't lose what you never had."

"Even if he wins… The other lords... They would never accept him," Raina argued.

Her aunt Mariana just laughed. "You're very naive. Noblemen in this kingdom ally with Reendeni and Vaechians and Mekhrosi and all sorts of foreigners whenever it suits them. Nobody cares as long as you practice Aeduianism and profess allegiance to the king. If Laman wins, kills you, and pledges fealty to the king, the chancellor has two options: accept Laman as a vassal of the crown or wage a war against him. Do you think Yohram Luchebhurg would refuse taxes and fealty from Laman in favor of waging a war to avenge you? A war he could possibly lose?"

Raina knew the answer to that. Rhexian lords largely did as they pleased with their domains. They all professed allegiance to the crown but were so independently powerful in their own right that they could disobey the crown at will as long as they formed a strong enough alliance with other lords.

Kings knew this and never interfered too much with their vassals. Kings who overreached had a nasty habit of ending up dethroned. Or worse.

It wasn't unheard of for a cabal of powerful lords to take the king captive, appoint one of their number as chancellor, and rule in that king's name.

There had been entire centuries where kings had been mere figureheads, imprisoned in towers while their captors exercised supreme authority in their names. That would be the fate of young Caedmyr XIII if Yohram Luchebhurg lost a war.

Raina had no illusions of Yohram Luchebhurg going to war on her behalf. The man's letter professed his clear disdain for her father. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that the other lords wouldn't care either unless their lands were directly threatened.

If Laman offered a peaceful resolution and pledged his continued allegiance to the crown, the chancellor would accept it. There was just one lingering concern. "But the kinslaying?" Raina asked.

Her mother gave her a painful smile. "We're lords, my dear. Laws don't apply to us in the same way they do to peasants. Laman will deny that he killed your father and as long he has an army behind him, anyone who wants to avoid a war with him will believe it. It has happened many times before."

Raina remembered a similar rumor concerning her father. It was false but… "What do we do now?" she asked.

"Stand and fight, or pack and run," Lady Carla said flatly. "You can run but my knees have grown stiff. I intend to die here."

"Our army isn't large enough," Raina said. "We don't have 10,000 men. We would have to conscript farmhands and goatherds to match Reendeni numbers."

"Peasant conscripts make for poor fighters," Lady Carla said with a shake of her head. "We need proper warriors. Men with combat experience. Men who will not break and run when they see an army charging at them. We need Willy. And his father."

"Mother—"

"This is the reason your father married you to him. He knew this day would come. A day when we would need an army. Do you think we can win without him?"

Raina knew they couldn't. Willy had 50 of his father's knights and 500 men at arms. Over the last year, an additional one thousand warriors had sworn their swords to him personally.

The Lamanbhurgs could manage an army of two thousand if they fielded every spearman they had. Their vassals could raise another four or five thousand, depending on whether or not Varamyr Malbhurg and his bannermen backed them or switched sides as the chancellor feared.

While this was still fewer men than the Reendeni, Willy's reputation as a warrior was such that they could reasonably expect to fill out their ranks with freeriders, sellswords, and even the hosts of unaffiliated lords seeking glory. If Willy's father reinforced them, they would outnumber the Reendeni and win easily. But that depended on Willy. Raina had never felt so cold, so stupid, or so angry at herself. "I stabbed Willy," she whispered.

"Too bad you can't unstab him," Lady Carla opined. "He's at the inn."

"The inn?" Raina asked.

Her mother nodded. "Yes. He went there after the doctor sewed his belly shut. A message from the innkeeper says he's wounded but well. A woman named Theara arrived this morning and rented out the entire inn. She has been tending to him. Do you know her?"

"She's the woman Willy has been seeing."

Aunt Mariana and Lady Carla whistled. "I do not envy you, my dear," Carla Lamanbhurg said. "That's going to be one tough conversation."

"What do I do?" Raina asked.

"I could tell you to use your feminine wiles but he will see right through that. And this woman Theara is said to be exceptionally attractive. Half the innkeeper's note was just him rambling about her. Men!" Lady Carla sighed. "I wish I could tell you what to do, Raina. But I cannot teach you what I don't know. I have never stabbed my husband. Or anybody else for that matter. Do you have any advice, Mariana?"

Aunt Mariana shook her head. "You are on your own, my girl," Lady Carla said. "Convince your husband to fight on our side. He goaded you into stabbing him. I don't know why, but he didn't kill you afterward so there's still hope there."

"How do I convince him?" Raina asked.

"You will find the right words," her mother told her. "You have to. Go now."

"Now?" Raina asked.

"You can sleep on it but this is not the kind of thing you can postpone for long. And take him Yohram's letter. It might help."

"But you opened it, mother."

"Find a way to apologize for that too. And don't dare mention my name," Lady Carla warned.

Raina left, holding the chancellor's letter and trying to think of what to tell Willy. She climbed the tallest tower at Glory Point and looked at the market town outside the castle's walls.

It was actually a couple of hundred yards south of the walls but from atop the tower, the tiny town looked so much closer. She could see the unmistakable dome of the temple even in the dark and a few flickering lights on windows.

The inn wasn't far from the temple but Raina couldn't pick it out in the dark. The triangular and flat shapes of all the roofs blended into an amorphous blob. Only the temple's circular dome stood out. Somewhere out there, Raina's husband lay wounded in the arms of another woman, thanks to her.

Just thinking about it hurt but Raina kept watching the market town. It was her fault and she needed to torture herself by thinking about it and watching the lights of the town. She watched until all the lights flickered out before going to bed.

Raina had trouble sleeping in her marital bedchamber— the same one she had stabbed Willy in— so she returned to her girlhood room. Sleep wasn't anymore forthcoming there. She tossed and turned all night, worrying.

She thought of the curious situation of her house and Willy's. Like Lamanbhurgs, the Karkbhurgs were border lords. Their lands were in eastern Rhexia, bordering Vaechia. Centuries of fighting Vaechians had given House Karkbhurg the best army in the kingdom.

The Lamanbhurgs lived on the southwestern border, but unlike the Karkbhurgs, fighting Reendeni had only made Raina's house weaker. Raina found this situation strange considering the Reendeni were nowhere near as aggressive a people as Vaechians.

The Karkbhurgs had transformed themselves from petty lords into great lords. The Lamanbhurgs had started as great lords and were presently in danger of becoming middling lords, or worse: petty lords.

Think as she might, Raina couldn't come up with any reason why adversity had strengthened the Karkbhurgs while weakening Lamanbhurgs.

Once she was done worrying about this, Raina worried about Willy. How he would react, what she would tell him if he agreed to see her, and what she would even say to him if he did. This worrying resulted in no solutions either. It was dawn before Raina finally fell asleep.

She woke up sometime around mid-morning and after a little more dilly-dallying, set off for the inn in the early afternoon. She decided to go alone. The inn was close enough that she didn't need a horse or an escort. She also wanted to be alone with her thoughts. She had prepared a short speech but kept scrapping and revising it as she walked.

Raina arrived at the inn before she knew it. The innkeeper was turning away a pair of travelers. "There's no room, my friends. Fully booked," he said solemnly.

"It doesn't seem full to me," one of the travelers observed.

"I really wish I could help you, my friends. But I can't," the innkeeper said apologetically. He brightened up when he saw Raina. "My lady!"

"Good afternoon, Symor," Raina greeted.

Symor bowed. "Good afternoon, my lady."

"I believe my husband is here. If you could point me in the right direction."

"Yes, yes, of course," Symor said enthusiastically. Then he frowned suddenly. His expression grew grave. "I am sorry, my lady. I cannot help you. His Lordship does not wish to be disturbed."

Raina looked at the man with a mixture of anger and confusion. Symor had been running the inn since Raina was a girl. He had always notified the Lamanbhurgs whenever anyone interesting stayed on his premises. They were his landlords. Keeping his eyes and ears open was an unspoken but well-understood part of his tenancy agreement.

"You just—" Raina started then stopped when she saw the cause of Symor's sudden discomfort.

Markhor and Rolyrn, two of Willy's men, had just entered the inn. They carried a wooden chest between them and took it up the stairs. Neither of them noticed Raina. "They'll rip out my tongue, my lady," Symor whispered as soon as they were out of sight.

Raina ignored him and followed the two men. They stopped when they realized she was following them. "Where is Willy?" she asked.

"His Lordship does not wish to be disturbed, my lady," Markhor said.

"He is my husband. I want to see him."

"His Lordship said no exceptions, even you," Markhor told her.

Raina ignored him and tried to walk past him but the man-at-arms took a step to the side and blocked her path. His colleague did the same. "Get out of my way!" Raina commanded.

Both men stood firm. "We cannot do that, my lady," Markhor said with an apologetic shake of his head.

"If I choose to barrel through the two of you right now, what would you do? Lay your hands on me?" Raina asked, knowing very well that they couldn't.

"We have our orders, my lady," the stubborn Markhor insisted. "We know what you did."

That knocked the wind out of Raina's sails. She had to change tactics. She couldn't barrel through the men as she had hoped. Like all of Willy's warriors, they were strong men. Tall, imposing, and unyielding. Even Markhor, on the skinnier side, looked like he was made out of chiseled mahogany instead of flesh and bone. Status was the only thing Raina had on them. And that was proving increasingly useless.

"Could you tell Willy I'm here to see him?" she asked. "Please."

After glaring at her for a long time, Markhor nodded at Rolyrn. The silent man-at-arms bounded up the stairs while Raina stayed behind with haughty Markhor, engaging in a staring contest. Neither of them wanted to back down.

Raina found it strange that the wiry youth disliked her so much considering that Markhor was from Lamanbhurg lands. His was a family of horse breeders living only a day's ride east of Glory Point. He joined their host on the march to First Fork as a freerider and swore his sword to Willy soon after the siege.

Markhor had risen quickly in his master's estimation, to the chagrin of the Karkbhurg men Willy had brought with him.

Raina had never really noticed Markhor's disdain for her. Until now. She had known the youth for a long time. Her first pony had come from his grandfather's stud farm.

Raina had never paid much attention to Markhor. He was one of those people she knew but never quite noticed or cared about. She hadn't even bothered to learn his name until Willy picked him as one of their ten escorts when they rode north after receiving news that her father was on his deathbed.

Is that why he hates me? she worried. Footsteps on the wooden stairs announced Rolyrn's return before Raina could ask the question out loud.

"His Lordship will see you, my lady," Rolyrn announced.

Markhor stepped aside for Raina. She was both relieved and apprehensive. Willy will see me. And then what? Raina didn't have long to dwell on these thoughts. Rolyrn stopped at a wooden door, knocked once, and pushed it open. Raina felt her heart rate spike as she took the first step inside.