The King of Deltopolis is with them

Raina shivered atop the tower but she liked the cold. It made her feel alive. She looked at the town and the black husk that had once been the inn.

She shivered with memories of dragging half-dead Willy and Markhor down the inn's stairs as smoke threatened to suffocate her. But she dismissed those memories and forced her mind to go blank again.

Hugging the castle walls was a second town. A tent town. Within it was her army. It wouldn't be marching for another two months but Willy had already given the order to muster and men had been trickling in for a month now. He wanted to march as soon as the snows melted.

It was a larger force than Raina had thought they could raise. Lamanbhurg and Karkbhurg forces hadn't even arrived in strength and yet they had already mustered as men as her father usually did.

Most of the men encamped outside the walls of Glory Point owed their swords to no one. They fought for whomever they pleased.

There were sellswords, gloryhounds, landless knights, and even religious fanatics talking of converting the Reendeni to Aeduianism at swordpoint. Their numbers were swelling every passing day.

At this rate, we'll outnumber Laman and his Reendeni two to one, Raina thought as she watched another group of new arrivals present themselves to one of her clerks.

Raina spent most of her days worrying about feeding these men but she would rather worry about that than death. Willy had delegated to her what he called the most important part of maintaining an army: provisioning. Willy palmed the task off to her because he considered it boring but Raina found it anything but. She was doing something that mattered.

She had spent most of her winters sewing, reciting ancient poetry, and playing the harp like a proper little highborn girl. She was spending this one seeing to grain and fodder supplies so her husband's growing army wouldn't starve before the war even began.

Raina had seen to it that every Lamanbhurg castle and watchtower had overflowing granaries. She also had arrows fletched, bowstrings stocked, barges and wagons built, spears and shields made, helmets forged, shirts of mail repaired, and uniforms sewed. She had thousands of people working on these tasks over an area a hundred miles wide. There was always a hiccup or another somewhere and she spent most of her time dealing with these.

Willy said that this was no challenge. It was merely a matter of will and gold. The real challenge would begin in spring when the army marched and Raina would have to keep 10,000 men and their horses provisioned while deep in enemy territory. As the numbers stood, Raina knew they would have at least 15,000 men come spring.

But today Raina was taking a break from work. She watched men train in the camp below. Willy had them on a strict routine to make sure they were in fighting shape once the time came. While a decent number had combat experience, some were just overeager boys. They reminded Raina of Robyr.

Arrow fodder, her father used to call them. Raina had tried to send some of these home but they were just as stubborn as they were naive.

Willy said training and battle would stiffen most of them. What he left unsaid was that death would stiffen the unlucky. But even then, he was better than her father. Nylarn Lamanbhurg's recruits got at best two weeks of training.

Little wonder they lost so many battles, Raina thought. She watched them drilling until she couldn't bear the cold anymore. Then she descended the steps and went to find a fire. And a physician.

Willy was in the yard, training with the intensity of a thunderstorm. While Raina shivered beneath her furs, he was sweating in a shirt and woolen trousers.

The old Raina would have thought it unfair that her husband, who had been much closer to death than her, had recovered sooner. But the new one was just glad to see him up and about.

It had been a month and a half since the assassination attempt and she still couldn't eat solid food. Raina's tongue, as it was wont to do, wiggled around the two holes in her mouth where her back teeth used to be. Her mother told her she was lucky the assassin hadn't knocked out her front teeth.

Raina did indeed feel lucky. She was alive, unlike Theara. Or Symor the innkeeper. Or Willy's men. Only Markhor had survived. He didn't hate Raina as much now. She had pulled him out of the burning inn and his father had returned from 25 years of hiding. Raina took in a deep breath of the cold air and regretted it almost instantly.

It wasn't all doom and gloom, however. Today she was going to get her jaw brace removed. Raina looked forward to the occasion far more than she had any right to but 45 days of eating nothing but soup and porridge was fraying her nerves. She wanted to bite into something solid for once.

Raina waved at Willy as she passed by. He returned the wave but that momentary distraction got him pounded into the ground by one of his knights. Willy swept the man off his feet and Raina left the two grown men wrestling and shrieking like little boys.

Raina made for the infirmary right away. It was brightly lit and warm, the air filled with the smell of herbs and ointments.

"My lady," Lornell, the physician, greeted her warmly. "What can I do for you?"

Raina pointed at her jaw. She could speak but her voice was low, barely above a whisper, and strange. She hated it.

"It may not be time yet, my lady," Lornell said.

"You said forty-five to sixty days," Raina mumbled. She wanted to speak in a higher register but a mumble was the best she could manage with her jaw wired shut and teeth clenched. "It's been forty-five days."

"It's better to wait, my lady," Lornell suggested.

Raina shook her head and sat down. Lornell got his implements and gave Raina some poppy sap through a straw. Raina drank the anesthetic and drifted off, her head filled with dreams of all the things she would do once she rid herself of her jaw brace. Talk properly for once. Bite into some cake and meat, and…

"Are you awake, my lady?"

Raina shook her head and opened her eyes. She was still in the infirmary. First, her hand went to her jaw. The brace was no more. She flexed her jaw. It felt fine. Then she yawned. Oh! Raina had never dreamed that yawning could feel so good.

"Do you feel any pain?"

Raina yawned some more and flexed her jaw. "No."

"I will still need to test you," he said, then waved at his apprentice.

The youth left and returned a while later with Melilla, carrying a platter with various foods. Solid foods. Raina felt her mouth water.

First, Melilla handed her a piece of cake. Raina ate it with no problem. She wanted more, she craved more but then moved on to the next. She tried some rice, then bread, then a piece of boiled meat. All perfect. All delectable. Raina had no issues chewing them. Then Melilla handed her a carrot. Raina bit down and chewed.

"Use the right side of your mouth, my lady," Lornell said.

"I have missing teeth there," Raina told him.

"It's not the teeth," Lornell explained. "It's the jaw. I want to know if it's fully healed."

Raina duly shifted the carrot to the right side of her mouth. The side where Sherhor the Sour had punched her and broken her jaw. She chewed the carrot just fine although pieces kept getting into the gaps left behind by her missing teeth. "Any pain?" Lornell asked.

"None."

Next, Melilla handed Raina a chicken drumstick. "This is softer than the carrot," Raina said even though she wanted to eat it.

"I want you to eat the meat and crack the bone within," Lornell told her.

Raina enjoyed the meat. It was a heavenly feeling. But she couldn't crack the bone. When she forced her jaw shut, she felt a dull pain. She tried not to wince but sharp-eyed Lornell had already noticed. "It's not properly healed yet, my lady."

"But it's mostly fine, no?" Raina asked "I can eat meat and carrots and everything else. I just have to avoid cracking bones, something I've never done before anyway."

"It's still a risk, my lady. Your jaw needs more time to properly set. If it doesn't set properly, it could be easily dislocated again. It could be a tough piece of meat, a pebble in your bread, or any manner of things."

"I don't want to put on the brace again," Raina nearly begged. "I will eat soft meals only. I promise."

"It's not that," Lornell explained. "Without the brace, your jaw may not set properly. Over time, it will become harder to chew. You could become disfigured and have to eat through a straw for the rest of your life. Are fifteen more days so horrible compared to that?"

"But Willy healed so quickly."

"His lordship only had stab wounds. Once the bleeding was staunched, half the work was done. You have a broken jaw. Bone doesn't heal as fast as flesh. It's for the best, my lady."

"There's a war coming," Raina grumbled.

"And you won't be of any use if you have to deal with jaw pain all the time."

So Raina had the jaw brace affixed again and for fifteen days maintained a strict diet of bone broth and milk, sucked through a wooden straw. Lornell said this was the best diet for bone repair.

When Raina finally had her jaw brace removed, she passed her chew test with flying colors, cracking chicken bones better than the strongest of Hyrman's mastiffs.

When she went to the great hall for lunch, she found a roast boar. "Speared in your honor, my lady," Willy said with an exaggerated bow, carved off the first piece, and handed it to her.

Raina had never enjoyed a meal as much as she did that one. It wasn't even the flavor of the food or the conversation that she enjoyed the most. It was the chewing.

"You can talk properly now," Willy teased. Then he made an impression of her. "Ave aalwais tot tat you lala… ne… ne… nefer sssspik koot akain."

Raina waved her fork in his face. "I will kill you."

"Please use a proper sword," Willy begged. "I don't want to be known as the lord who was killed by a fork."

Raina glared at him but she couldn't restrain her smile. It had been so long since she had smiled. They weren't husband and wife yet. Not in the proper sense. But their interactions were so much warmer now.

But she knew that behind that smile, Willy hid an ocean of boiling rage. It was only unleashed in the training yard. He fought like an avalanche. Implacable and unstoppable.

Laman had tried to kill him. He had failed but he had come very close. The assassins had killed Theara and three of his men, in addition to the poor innkeeper and two innocent travelers. Willy himself had been unconscious for five days, feverish and delirious. When he finally woke, he declared war.

From the day he managed to stand up from his sickbed, he had been training for that war, from sunrise to sunset. He didn't drink at all and only hunted infrequently. All he did was train. Train himself, train his men.

He had hunted down and hanged every Lamanbhurg bannerman who had welched out of renewing his oath to him. Only Varamyr Malbhurg had escaped his rage.

But this was only a matter of time. Lord Varamyr was hiding in Lamania with Laman and that would Willy's first destination as soon as the snows melted.

In the waning days of winter, even before spring proper, Willy set out with 10,000 men. Several more contingents joined the host on the road and swelled the numbers even more. Raina insisted on going against Willy's wishes and after nagging him for days, he relented.

Their first victory came at Stormhold, the principal fortress of the Malbhurgs. Little Varamyr, Robyr's elder brother, surrendered the castle without a fight when he saw the massive army outside his walls. Willy dispatched him to Glory Point in chains and conscripted his garrison.

This gave Raina some hope. Just days before, Willy had sworn to kill every Malbhurg he could get his hands on. They were traitors who had chosen to side with Laman but Raina didn't want to massacre Robyr's family.

After the fall of Stormhold, the other Malbhurg fortresses folded quicker than a scrap of paper in a hailstorm. Willy had secured his rear.

Their march next brought them to First Fork, which was being besieged by a Reendeni army. The besiegers withdrew on news of Willy's advance.

The army rested at First Fork for half a month, celebrating the first day of spring and the new year. Willy was also waiting for his brother Ronnar, who arrived four days into spring with an all-cavalry force of 3,000, bringing their numbers to 18,000.

Raina was glad to be at First Fork again, reunited with Aidan Sritanbhurg, her right-hand man. Her quartermaster's duties were getting more challenging by the day. She was relieved to share the burden with someone that wasn't a simpering clerk or a highborn fool.

But at First Fork, they encountered a dilemma. Willy could march on Lamania or Cardinum but not on both. If he took his army to Lamania, the Cardinese would be free to ravage his lands and vice versa.

He also couldn't split his army and risk being outnumbered. Laman solved the problem for him. Instead of hiding behind the walls of their cities, Laman and his Reendeni allies united their forces and marched north.

Then Willy's scouts returned. "The King of Deltopolis is with them, my lord," a scout announced. "They have 30,000 men."

They were outnumbered. Two to one or close enough that it didn't matter. They could raise more men but they would need time. Time they didn't have. The enemy was only three days away.