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"Howof Ironhead’s sins had made Henry impatient "Who else will march behind our banners? What number of milites and horsemen may we expect?"

"The wars have taken a toll on us, Your Majesty Perhaps seven hundred"

They rode on for a while in silence The ring of harness serenaded theon wheels behind them sounded like distant thunder, but the sky reather more support, Your Majesty?" asked Lavinia finally, as if she could bear the silence no longer

"Nay," said Adelheid fiercely, "let us strike hard and immediately at Ironhead, before Lord John has time to respond and build up his army" But as she spoke, she looked toward her husband It was his army, after all

Henry stared ahead They had co where the land opened into a fine landscape of rolling hills and extensively farmed lands, fields cut by ranks upon ranks of orchards and vineyards They had coain see the tips of thethe heavens, distant and cold

Beyond Novomo the road ran south to the heart of Aosta Some trick of perspective allowed her to see a distant, flat-topped hill studded with dark shapes that she first took for sheep With a shudder ofstones Through those stones she and Adelheid and Theophanu and the pitiful reo, in the spring, propelled to safety by Hugh’s ic A spike of dread crippled her heart Certainly they had escaped John Ironhead’s army, but they had not yet escaped the full consequences of letting a ic, one long ago condemned by the church, to help theht of the dai fury, heard the resonant bass ha chill that boiled off the threads of hard light that made up its body, if the creatures known as daimones even had true bodies

She had seen what the others had not, and yet she had acquiesced She knew in her heart that decision would come back to haunt them all

"A well-fitted army with horses and stout soldiers can reach Darre in ten days," said Lavinia as they approached the gates of Novomo

In Darre lay the key to the i drea

"God march with us," said Henry "Adelheid is correct We ht in your hall In the , ill march south"

It seereet the in the narrow streets and leaning out of the s in their crowded houses inside Novo to the heavens When they came to the steps of Lavinia’s palace, fully two dozen noblemen and -women laid their swords at Adelheid’s and Henry’s feet

The feast that night had the slightly frenzied spirit of adoith a fever, punctuated at intervals by the distant ru she heard wagons passing by on the streets outside

Some hours before dawn, rain broke over the town, and in the ht rain God was sain

Five days’ h low hills, looking for theht cavalry chased off these scouts, but by e point and here, arrayed in battle order, they could see froetop down onto the central plain that stretched away south until it was lost in a heat haze

Ironhead aiting for them His ar well out to either side, with a makeshift palisade thrown up before his lines Ironhead had wasted no tier army than Henry’s, fully two thousand e by the tents and banners, herds of horses, and horde of wagons

"He ," said Villaet to him in three days, but it seems iht his army five days’ march north from Darre in so short a ti his retinue who has the Eagle’s sight," said Henry softly, glancing at Hathui, who rode at his right hand

Villam had not heard him, but Rosvita did "If Ironhead commands the loyalty of a sorcerer, who knohat he may attempt Certainly Ironhead does not have the reputation of an honorable man I advise that you proceed cautiously, Your Majesty"