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"And ride into the battle, Your Highness?"
"If need be You will ride along the Hellweg and gain herald’s entry into Conrad’s camp where they’ve set a barrier across the road, at the top of the ramp If you cannot reach Conrad or Sabella, then ride to Kassel’s gates I will rally ates of the town if they refuse to listen to reason"
Hanna could scarcely breathe, thinking of the Eika scout she had seen in the forest Why had he let her pass? Would the Varren troops recognize and respect her Eagle’s badge and cloak? But she nodded, shucking her doubts and fears aside because that hat an Eagle had to do "I aiven to her She , and the descent of the road along a shallower rise briefly gave her a clear view back the way she had come
Fro air, the truan Lines of infantry descended the hillsides, breaking and re-for around trees and outcrops of rock Most of the cavalry led their horses down the slope, though Theophanu and her co above the rest
Hanna heard, fro shout of horns, followed by the blare and call out of the Varren camp She pressed her mount--a calm mare, thank God--and raced down the road and into the forest with braids flying and her heart galloping in time to the staccato of hooves: A bronze face stared at her from the trees, but she did not look closely into the dense foliage Better not to know At any instant she expected a cold arrow to pierce her flesh, but none ca that swelled in his heart was the one that huathered his forces, forged alliances, destroyed his enemies the tree priests, and studied the ways of the enemies of the Eika? Never had it occurred to him that they would be so dedicated to their own destruction, their own petty quest for power, that they would burn their own great hall even as he battered upon their door Their scouts knew of his arainst clan brother
His troops hadand beside the road called by its builders the Clear Way, for its width and straightness He had learned that it was built upon an ancient road engineered by the Dariyans, and it was therefore the quickest and easiest route fro the start of the battle, he had backed his forces into the trees Cavalry was always at a disadvantage within the forest
"Last Son," he called "We will advance to the rise where the road ees out of the forest There, it ramps down into the valley In that place they have set a barrier across the road We’ll take that ground, and froht atch Do not thron the banner that flies in that entrenchment Let them believe their own people still control the barricade"
"Lord Stronghand! A rider approaches along the road, out of the camp of the Wendish army!"
He saw her, and he knew her, because he had dreamed her once--the only person in all of humankind whose dreaers called Eagles, but in all other ways a ht have belonged on any good Eika brother
"Let her pass," he said
He se that had propelled her onto a road she alloped past The sound of her passage faded He lifted his banner and tapped it three tih to alert his brothers, whose rock-born heritage gave them a keen sensitivity to any whisper in the earth
His force was roups of human allies, most of them former slaves and poor folk out of Alba and the coastal reaches of Salia Well trained and finely honed, eager for glory and the fruits of victory, they es to report that there was minimal defense at the barricade because the soldiers stationed there were peeling back to ed attack of the Wendish host
He looked back to see the wagon of the sha the stone of a road meant for foot and horse traffic, not for wheels The horses were skittish The one-handed servant had dis to the driver’s seat Strange that it should all fall into his hands so easily
As this wing of his arave the standard into his keeping Together, they advanced
The barricade had been thrown across the road where it caeline sloped sharply down, and here the famous Dariyan ramp descended into the valley