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"It could have been reed Stephen, but since he was accounted a novice, having survived only one major battle, his opinion was passed over in silence

The fire popped Ashy branches settled, glea briefly before Leo set another stick on the fire All around them other ca the cart track that the arht of so many fires did notit would warm the chill that constantly ate away at her heart

Ivar wasarmy and not found a trace of hi him on the day of the battle except the injured prince, Ekkehard, as so vexed at having lost his favorite, Baldwin, that he couldn’t be bothered to recall where and when he’d last seen Ivar

"Only God can know the outcoh "It’s no use worrying over what’s already happened"

"Have you any h, but he sobered, seeing her grief-stricken expression "Here, have more cider You look cold, lass What’s the news from the prince’s ca to Lord Wich from his wounds, and you kno Prince Bayan hu But that Wichman and his lordly friends--" She hesitated, but she could see by their expressions that her comments would shock no one here "Truly, I’d as soon run with a pack of wors Sometimes I think the princess--well, may God bless her and I’ll say noto her poor brother"

"He still can’t use his spear arain use of it, for he was sorely wounded Lord Wichman is insufferable precisely on that account, for he was the one who rescued Prince Ekkehard from the Quman prince as about to cut him down"

"I tell you truly," said Folquin in a low voice, "and notto speak ill of the princess, may God bless her, but I wonder does she knohat Prince Ekkehard does in the evening here in camp?"

"What do you mean?" demanded Hanna

Folquin hesitated

"You’d better show her," said Ingo "There’s been sohts about it already, in the ranks, and an ar itself"

"Come on," said Folquin reluctantly

Hanna drained her o The four Lions had stationed their caons had been lined up in a horseshoe curve to for sentries The wooden cart walls gave soed them persistently as they retreated north just ahead of the ly bad weather There always see at their heels, and as Hanna followed Folquin she could hear it like a storitated the woodland behind theround they walked on surely was churned totheir pursuers so badly that the main mass of the Quman army had never been able to catch up and finish them off

Such was the power of Prince Bayan’s mother, a formidable sorcerer, princess of the dreaded Kerayit people

But even with hertheir defeat by Bulkezu’s ar: a defeated ar petals leave a trail Every dahen they raves of a few more soldiers, dead from wounds suffered at the battle, were left behind to mark their path Only Prince Bayan’s steady leadership had kept them more-or-less in one piece

But even his leadership had not been enough to save Ivar

The Lions forht cavalry left to Bayan, now under the captaincy of Margrave Judith’s second daughter and her adhters Lady Bertha was the only one of Judith’s Austran and Olsatian corave had lost her head on the battlefield A popular and unquenchable ruhout the arrave’s death had ee of her bivouac that Folquin now led Hanna

Six campfires burned merrily to mark out a circle In their center sat Lady Bertha and her favorites, drinking as left of thetwo days before Usually Hanna could hear theuard, for they were a hard drinking, tough crew, but tonight they sat quietly, if restlessly, and Lady Bertha bade them be still as she listened to Prince Ekkehard