The Burning Stone

“My lord count,” said their spokeswoman, chatelaine of this holding, Mistress Dhuoda.



For an instant he did not reply, waiting for another to answer. But that voice never came.



“Come forward,” said the count of Lavas, “and I will honor your oaths, and make my own to you in turn.”



IX



A NEST OF MATHEMATICI



1



THEOPHANU made cunning use of the information they had gained from Wolfhere: She used the lay of the hills around Vennaci to conceal the numbers of her troops and in this way pretended to lay in a countersiege with a large force that, so it appeared, surrounded the force mustered by John Ironhead.



He quickly called for a parley. Theophanu went in state with twenty attendants; Rosvita served as interpreter, since the language spoken in Aosta was intelligible to any person who understood Dariyan.



Ironhead was blunt and impatient. He no sooner had his servants bring round a chair and wine than he started in. “King Henry wants to marry Queen Adelheid himself.”



Theophanu eyed him over her wine, which she sipped at her leisure under the shelter of a fine canopy woven of scarlet cloth. “God be with you, Lord John,” she replied finally. “The weather is very fine here in the autumn in Aosta, is it not?”



Once out of the mountains, the rain had stopped and the skies were cleared. The light was so bright that at midday every person and thing, the tents, the banners fixed to spears, the rank of guards, the distant line of tethered horses, seemed sharpened in outline.



“I see no point in pleasantries, Princess Theophanu. I have reinforcements coming. The lords of Aosta support me. They do not want a foreigner to rule over them.”



“Yet you are not the only prince of Aosta who wishes to marry Adelheid. It is obvious. Lord John, that the man who marries Queen Adelheid can lay claim to the vacant kingship.”



Ironhead had a face as blunt as his tongue, undistinguished except for the scar on his cheek, and his prominent Dariyan nose. The depth and brightness of his dark eyes saved him from being ugly; certainly he looked determined, and he stuck stubbornly to the topic that interested him most. “Henry wants to marry Adelheid himself,” he repeated.



Theophanu replied before Rosvita translated, since she could understand somewhat of his words. “No, indeed, that is not the intent of King Henry.”



“Then why are you here?”



“Merely to pay my respects to Queen Adelheid. If you will give me an escort through your lines, I will enter the city and leave you alone.”



“Impossible. I cannot allow it.”



“Then we are at an impasse, Lord John.”



“So we are, Princess Theophanu.” A servant refilled his cup as he waved forward a captain who had come up at the head of a group of soldiers chained together as prisoners. Most of the prisoners were short of stature, broad through the shoulders, and even darker in hair and face than the Aostans.



“These are the ones?” Ironhead asked of his captain.



“Yes, my lord, the very ones captured yesterday when they attacked out the eastern gate.”



Ironhead looked them over contemptuously. His own soldiers, rough-looking men who wore a ragtag assemblage of tabards and armor that they had probably scrounged off many battlefields, spat at the prisoners.



“Well, then, take care of them, but be sure it is within sight of the walls, as usual.”



“What will be done with these prisoners, Lord John?” asked Theophanu. “Surely they have served their mistress faithfully. That is no crime, not in Wendar, at any rate.”



He snorted and called for more wine. They had not, pointedly, been offered food, but it was possible that the siege weighed as heavily on John’s supplies as it must on those besieged within the city’s walls. “These are mercenaries from Arethousa, not faithful retainers. We all know what a bloody-minded, vicious people the Arethousans are, as well as untrustworthy.” He smiled without taking the sting from the words. Did he know Theophanu’s mother was an Arethousan? Was the bait meant for her? Theophanu merely regarded him with a cool stare. “There are a fair number of these Arethousan flies buzzing ’round Adelheid’s honey, and I see no reason to encourage them to stay. Take them off!” he shouted to the captain. “Use your knives wisely. Don’t cut too deep.”



The soldiers in attendance all laughed heartily, not kindly.



“You’re going to execute them?” Theophanu demanded, startled. “I will certainly pay the ransom price to free each man among them.”



“And enter them into your army? I think not, Princess Theophanu. Everyone knows the Arethousan emperor desires eunuchs, so I have been sending him many more with my respects, and today he’ll receive another twenty or more for his pleasure.”