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"Yes Soht to hear Prince Ekkehard He’ll preach to any person, highborn or low Others say he’s speaking with the Enele?"

"I’ve seen so s--"

The horn call caht Men cried out the alarrabbed their weapons, lying ready at their sides Out beyond the wagon lines, winged riders broke free of the story arrows skittered harent of cavalry chased the arrows

By the tiate, all lay quiet again except for the ever-present wind and the hammer of rain off to the southeast He rode up with a srian horse was streaked with dirt Foot soldiers lit their ith torches Bayan had the knack of re relatively clean even in such circuht Hanna could see the intense blue of his tunic--and the contrast ent man still in his prime whom adversity could not tarnish

"Fewer attacked tonight," said Lady Bertha, handing him an arrow once he had disiven up catching us Or perhaps they row complacent, until they attack in force and take us by surprise"

Prince Bayan turned the arrow over in his hands, studying the sodden fletchings "Perhaps," he echoed skeptically "I like not these attacks which are coht same time"

Lady Bertha had the stocky build and bandy-legged stance of a person who has spent most of her life on a horse, in armor She looked older than her twenty or so years, weathered by a hard apprenticeship fighting in the borderlands "I’ve sent three scouts back to see if Bulkezu’s army still follows us, but none have returned"

Bayan nodded, twisting the ends of his long o We need rest, repair, food, wine With good walls around us, then can ait for--" He turned to his interpreter, Breschius, a ht hand "What is this word? More troops to come"

"Reinforcements, my lord prince"

"Yes! Reinforcerinned at his stu effort

Lady Bertha did not smile She was not in any case a woet word out fro because Bulkezu has used the cover of this storm to move his army so that he surrounds us"

"Not even Quman army can ride all places at one ti in the crohich had gathered to observe the commanders "Snoohtness hides here So dark it has become by my campfire!"

Hanna felt her face flame with embarrassment, but luckily Bayan was distracted by Brother Breschius, who leaned over to speak to the prince in a low voice

"Ekkehard?" exclailanced over at the ring of carabbed Folquin’s sleeve and slipped away, eager to be out of Prince Bayan’s sight She had sustained Sapientia’s angeras she had any choice in theper out news of Ivar, she kept a low profile in the last days of the march until they ca From the eastern slopes, as they rode down into the valley of the Vitadi River, she could see the walled town, situated on three islands linked by bridges across the channels of the river West lay the march of the Villams, which stretched all the way to the Oder River To the east beyond sparsely inhabited borderlands spread the loose confederation of half-civilized tribes known as the kingdo flew froh tower to show that she had reer froates stood closed, and the few hovels resting along the banks of the river, homes for fisherfolk and poor laborers, sat e Even crude furniture could be used for firewood in a besieged city Fields had been harvested and the riverbanks stripped of fodder or bedding: reeds, straw, grass, all shorn in preparation for a Qu looked as though a swarm of locusts had descended, eaten their fill, and flown on, leaving not even the bones