Hal knew going in that persuading his father to make peace with King Jarat in order to unite against a common enemy would be a hard sell. He hadn’t expected it to be impossible.
He booked a room at the inn where his father and Robert were staying. It seemed like his little brother had aged a year and grown an inch in three months. He kept staring at Hal as if he might disappear. Apparently, he’d blamed himself for being elsewhere when the city fell.
Over dinner, Hal relayed what had happened since the fall of Delphi. Well, not everything. Traitorous or not, he did not choose to share Captain Gray’s true identity, or dwell on the bond that had grown between them during his time in the north. That would make his motivations even more suspect than they already were.
His father asked few questions until Hal described his meeting with the wolf queen, and her hope that the death of King Gerard might signal a new opportunity to end the war between the Realms.
“If she wants peace, she should be sending word to the fledgling hawk in Ardenscourt,” his father said. “That’s how this whole thing started. After the fall of Delphi, I informed Gerard that I would not be spending more men and money to further his grudge match with the witch in the north. That’s when he took our families hostage.”
“Queen Raisa is not just asking for a truce, Father,” Hal said. “She wants an alliance against an enemy who threatens us both.”
“Who? Jarat?” His father snorted. “Isn’t it enough that we’re no longer supporting the war? She cannot expect us to turn traitor against our homeland.” His eyes narrowed. “Why are we even talking about this? Are you here as her emissary or what?”
“I’m not her emissary, and I’m not talking about Jarat. I’m talking about the empress in the east. Celestine.”
His father frowned. “Celestine. Isn’t she the Carthian pirate that promised Gerard an army of mages? I was never sure she really existed except in the king’s imagination. I haven’t heard another word about her since he died.”
“She’s real,” Hal said. “She’s taken Chalk Cliffs. It looks like she’s here to stay.”
His father stared at him. “Where did you hear that? It’s news to me.”
“I was there,” Hal said. “Being held prisoner in the keep there. I saw it happen.”
“Did she bring an army of mages, as promised?”
“If her soldiers are mages, they’re not the kind we’re used to.”
“What do you mean?” Robert stuffed an end of bread in his mouth and chased it with a swallow of ale. “What are they like?”
“They’re nearly impossible to kill. They don’t have amulets, and I don’t think they use magic in the way our mages do.”
“Really,” his father said. “Do you know that from personal experience? Were you in on the fighting?”
“Yes,” Hal said. Then thought a moment. “Well, actually, no. One of them . . . ah . . . dropped out of the sky when I was up on the battlements.”
“Dropped out of the sky?” Matelon reared back in his chair, as if Hal might have something catching. “They can fly?”
Hal realized how implausible that sounded. “Well, no, I don’t think so. There was a beast, or a bird, that dropped him.”
“A beast or bird. Dropped a soldier on you.” From the skepticism in his father’s face, Hal knew he was losing ground. There wasn’t even a question there.
Robert was instantly on board, of course. “What did it look like? Did it have scales or feathers? Was it a gryphon or a dragon or—?”
“Robert.” Their father shook his head as if saying, Don’t encourage him. “So you didn’t actually see the battle,” he said to Hal.
Hal shook his head. “I was locked in the keep during the fighting, but I could hear it well enough.”
“How did you escape?”
“We . . . we left through the water gate during the battle.”
“We?” His father raised an eyebrow.
“Me and another prisoner,” Hal said. He saw no reason to get into the details and thereby raise more questions than he already had.
Matelon sighed heavily. He drummed his fingers on the table, looking at him from under his bushy brows. “I’m sorry, Son. It sounds to me like the witch queen fed you a story and let you go.”
“She didn’t let me go,” Hal said.
Or had she?
I’m no good at this, he thought. Words are not my weapons of choice. Nobody in her right mind would choose me as an emissary.
“If this was staged for my benefit, the queen went to a lot of trouble,” Hal said. “After the battle, the entire harbor was crowded with ships flying the empress’s siren banner. They were offloading soldiers and weapons and supplies. A huge army. I saw that with my own eyes.”
“Could it have been conjury of some kind?”
“It was not conjury. I spoke afterwards to some who were in the battle, and interrogated one of the Carthian fighters.”
“How did you come to interrogate—?”
“I took a mount from the Carthian horse-line,” Hal said. “I questioned one of their sentries before I killed him.”
“So they are killable?”
Hal nodded. “They are. But it’s not easy. I ran one of them through and he kept right on fighting. The only thing that brought him down was cutting off his head.”
His father studied him. “You’re a good soldier, Son, and a savvy officer, possibly the best in the empire, but you are no politician. Apparently I did not pass on the gene for connivery and subterfuge. Always look for the simplest explanation. If what you’re saying is true, that the Fells is under attack by a Carthian army—”
“Why would Hal lie about that?” Robert put in, then subsided under his father’s withering gaze.
“—the most likely explanation is that either Gerard or Jarat struck a deal with this Celestine,” Matelon went on. “While she sends her armies into the north, it frees Jarat to come after us. Even if there is no collusion between them, he will move against us when word reaches him that the wolf queen is otherwise occupied. So. It behooves us to march on the capital sooner rather than later.”
“That’s just what we shouldn’t do,” Hal said. “While we’re fighting among ourselves, Celestine will be winning territory in the north. Sooner or later she will turn south.”
“And by the time she does, we’ll have united the empire and can contend with her.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, looked at Hal, then away. “Has it occurred to you that the witch in the north has—” He paused, as if reluctant to speak the words. “—has bewitched you?”
“No!” Hal said, his cheeks heating with embarrassment. “I am not bewitched. I know what I saw.”
“Look, I don’t know what was done to you while you were held captive in the north,” his father said. “I have no knowledge or understanding of sorcery. I leave those matters to the church.” He brightened. “It might do you good to speak with the chaplain. Father Menard is with us, and he might have some insights as to—”
“No,” Hal said. “I don’t want to talk to Menard. I don’t need an exorcism. I need an army.” He tried to quash the doubt that welled up from deep inside him. Could it have been an elaborate ruse, put on for his benefit? Had he been played?
If it had been a ruse, it was a drama worthy of any stage in Tamron, complete with a cast of thousands.
“I can’t give you an army, Hal,” his father said. “I will need every sword I have.”
“Are you really going to march on the capital when the king is holding your wife and daughter hostage?” Without meaning to, Hal had raised his voice.
“Is that what this is about?” Matelon drained his cup and slammed it down. “You know I do not negotiate with hostage-takers. We did send a message to Ardenscourt after Gerard died, demanding that Jarat release the hostages straightaway as a gesture of good faith. He countered with a demand that we surrender to the king’s justice.”
If he offered justice, that would be a first in that family, Hal thought. “Has there been any word about the whereabouts of those he’s holding?”
“They are somewhere in the capital, I presume,” his father said sourly. “The king would want to keep them close. He assumes that we won’t attack as long as he holds that card. And that means he has no incentive to make concessions.” Matelon gave Hal a long, measured look. “Frankly, we are not interested in a peace that maintains the status quo. Why should we reward the son for his father’s bad behavior? There is not a thane in the empire who hasn’t suffered massive losses of land, men, and money under Gerard. If we submit to Jarat, he comes away with everything Gerard has stolen from us, and we’ll go to the block. The thanes don’t agree on much, but we are in agreement on this point—we must negotiate from strength, not as supplicants. So. As things stand, there is no avoiding a fight. If we are going to make our move, this is the time to do it, when he is at his weakest. Why wait until he’s found his footing? As for our families, any harm that comes to them will be repaid in kind.”
“But . . . that won’t bring Harper or Mother back,” Robert said.
Their father squeezed Robert’s shoulder. “We are men, Robert,” he said. “Sometimes men have to make hard decisions.”
Robert twisted away from Matelon’s hand. “If the hostages were freed, wouldn’t King Jarat be more likely to negotiate?”
“No doubt,” their father said, with a hoarse laugh. “Jarat has an army, but armies need feeding whether they are fighting or not. He has no money and no territory north of the capital. If the savages in Bruinswallow and We’enhaven sense weakness on his part, they’ll be pressing in at the borders. Right now, I’d rather be us than him.”
“Well, I don’t want to be us!” Robert shouted. “I don’t want to be us at all. If the king won’t let our families go, we need to free them ourselves.” And he stomped up the stairs, leaving Hal and his father staring at each other across the table.
“It’s hard to be young,” Matelon said, shaking his head.
“It’s hard, period,” Hal said, pushing his last bite of meat around on his plate. He considered asking for permission to go to the capital to see if he could find out where the hostages were being kept. He still had friends in the Ardenine army that he would trust with his life. But he suspected that Matelon would be reluctant to approve any enterprise that might result in putting one more hostage in Jarat’s keep.
If he asked permission and his father said no, then he definitely couldn’t go.
Better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission, Hal thought.
Matelon cocked his head. “Robert has always been headstrong, but you’ve always been the steady one,” he said. “Enchanted or not, your time in the north has changed you.”
Hal nodded. That, at least, was something they could agree on.
“I know that you’re disappointed that we can’t open another front right now, but we have to choose our battles. As you’ve seen, it’s hard enough to persuade the thanes to finish the war we’re in. I’ll tell you right now, there will be no support for coming to the aid of the witch queen.”
Hal pushed his plate away and drained his cup, knowing there was no point in continuing to argue. “I understand, sir.”
In the past, that would have ended it, but his father continued to study Hal, as if seeing something he hadn’t seen before. “I have agents in the north. I promise I’ll get in touch with them and see what we can find out. In the meantime, we need to take advantage of this opportunity to end the civil war. That will make us strong enough to resist outside forces.”
Lord Matelon paused, and when Hal said nothing, continued. “We’ve been able to persuade a number of soldiers from the regular army to come over to our side. Once word gets out that you’re with us, more will come. I would like to consolidate all of our soldiers under your command. I’ll make that case when we meet with the others tomorrow.”
Hal nodded. “What about mages? Have any of them come over?”
Matelon rubbed his chin. “Not many, and most of those are collared, so it’s hard to predict what they might do in a battle situation. It’s hard to argue with a collar.”
“How are we doing for ordnance?”
“I’ve been building a stockpile, but our allies have not been particularly forthcoming.” Matelon grimaced. “Each man wants to hold on to what’s his. It’s not just the war with Jarat that they’re concerned about, it’s after. But there’s someone I want you to meet. She’s been sourcing weapons for the crown for a year or two, and she thinks she can help us with magical ordnance.”
“She’s been working for the crown?” Hal raised an eyebrow. “Do you trust her?”
His father laughed hoarsely. “She’s a practical sort,” he said. “Our money spends as well as any, and right now we’re the ones who are buying.” He looked toward the door. “There she is now.”
The girl who’d just entered shook rainwater from her dark curls and looked around the room. When she spotted them at their corner table, she shed her cloak and draped it over her arm, signaled to the barkeep, then crossed the room to them. “Lord Matelon,” she said. “Good to see you.”
“Barrowhill,” Hal’s father said. “We were just talking about you. Please join us.”
Years of his mother’s training kicked in. Hal stood, bowed, and pulled out a chair for her. Barrowhill slowly turned her head and looked him up and down as if he were a creature she’d not seen before. Then plucked at her skirts as if they were the fanciest of ball gowns and lowered herself into the chair, ruining the effect by squirming a bit to get settled. The server plunked a pint of bingo down in front of her.
A pint? Hal thought. That would put any teamster on his back in short order.
She raised her glass in a toast. “I see that the rumors are true, Captain. Welcome back from the dead. Tell me what it’s like on the other side.”
Hours later, when Hal went upstairs, he knocked at Robert’s door, hoping to settle him a little. There was no answer. He knocked again. His brother was usually a light sleeper. Finally, he pushed the door open.
The bed was empty. Robert was gone.