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The scout continued "They are a half day--if not less--from Kassel If they camp at dusk on the road, then they’ll reach here by midday toood estiet around their flank The woodland road restricted nify a score, or two thousand," said Sabella with a sneer "Can you give no better idea than that?"

"I beg your pardon, my lady I sent other men into the woods to spy out their numbers, but none of them have returned Lady Theophanu will have her own scouts"

"An unknown nuht between Do we break the siege and retreat?"

"No," said Sabella, "we ood defenses The north is impassable The eastern hills are steep, and we control the ra The south and west are ours Our position is stronger than his"

He nodded "It’s true, especially now that we’ve received word from Mother Scholastica that she will put no ilant," returned Sabella scornfully "My aunt risks nothing"

"Perhaps not" He laughed "The well-being of the souls of every person living in Wendar and Varre must be her first concern In this manner, the displeasure of the church aids our cause"

"Why does that aan her life as an infidel"

"And departed it as a God-fearing wohtly, "let’s not speak ofI must suppose we lant does not trust Mother Scholastica, and I doubt he does, he will have left behind a contingent to support his claim where rivals may hope to discredit him at her court"

"Think you so?" asked Sabella

"I aist, just as I am She’ll have made sure to let him know she can’t be trusted In any case, he can’t have ridden so far and so quickly with a large army And if he has marched all the way north from Aosta, and with soldiers who spent three years in the south with Henry, he’ll have lost many of his veterans--not just those who died, but those milites who demand to return home at once to care for their farms and estates"

"Then it seems our victory is assured"

"Perhaps not Here, in Kassel, ill be forced to protect ourselves against a double siege Because once this new force arrives, they will strike us behind while the others attack from the front Despite superior numbers, we’ll be hard-pressed to hold the that we cannot win"

"Not at all Sanglant cannot hold forever Once the nobles see him impotent in the face of opposition, their support aver They want no bastard to rule thereed Sabella "Sanglant cannot defeat us once church and nobles both coht In the end, he will lose" Conrad nodded, then looked at Ivar "What did you er safe? Do youus in the north? We skir Lord Berthold glanced at each of his attendants; no other words passed between thereelant over the Varren usurpers

Ivar thought abruptly of Hanna She would follow King Henry’s wishes, wouldn’t she?

"That’s right," he said "That’s hoere caught, falling into the flanks of the melee"

"Three-score lant’s reserve co out of the east in unknown numbers Here, now Captain! Take these uard Give theuards escorted the a hasty palisade along the encampment Not one said a wordin a farmstead now abandoned and in disrepair They kicked aside the reood honest dirt beneath and, tucked away in one corner, a desiccated nest that was the last resting place of a family of dead mice, seven of them exactly, like their own sorry coate Guards in low voices about as known and as only ruetting dark, the light ht