Энтони Райан - Queen of Fire

She waited two days for Arentes to return, greeting the old guard commander at the gates with a warm embrace. “Forgiven me yet, my lord?”

“My lady commands and I follow,” he replied, his tone a little stiff though she could detect the vestiges of a smile behind his moustache. “Besides,” he went on, gesturing at the line of shackled men arrayed on the causeway, “securing your enemies is my sacred charge, and not one Iʼll shirk for any glory.”

“There was no glory to earn. Just more blood.” Her eyes tracked over the captives, about twenty emaciated men in varying states of raggedness, some fearful and sagging with exhaustion, others glaring at her in sullen defiance. “The Sons.”

“Plus a few outlaws. Thought it best to hang them in front of the people, make an example.”

“Unless theyʼve raped or murdered Iʼll send them to the queen. Sheʼs keen to make use of all men, even those of meanest worth.”

“Word of the edict flew far and wide. Not all were glad to hear it.”

“They will when theyʼve heard the Fatherʼs word. Iʼm afraid Iʼll need you and your men on the morrow, itʼs time I saw my fief in full.”

He gave a precise bow. “Of course, my lady.” He turned a baleful eye on the prisoners. “What do you want done with the Sons?”

“Lady Veliss will question them. When I return weʼll see justice done.”

Ellese had clung to her and cried again, begging to be allowed to come. Reva had been firm in ordering her to remain with Veliss, firmer than necessary judging by the increased pitch of the girlʼs wails. “Motherhood has a price,” Veliss told her, holding Ellese to her bodice.

Iʼm not her mother, Reva had stopped herself saying, crouching to push the hair back from Elleseʼs eyes. “Mind Lady Veliss well and stay at your lessons. Iʼll be back soon enough.”

She let Arentes choose their route, acceding to his greater knowledge of the fief. “West then south I think, my lady,” he advised. “Westerners are the least godly folk in Cumbrael so we may as well get the hardest task done first.”

There was plenty of evidence of Volarian activity to the west, a procession of ruined villages and the occasional pile of rotting corpses amidst the vineyards. In each instance Reva ordered a halt to have them buried, the words spoken by the only priest to accompany them, a spindly fellow of middling years chosen for his renowned courage during the siege and taciturn nature. She found herself greatly disinclined towards sermons these days. The quiet priest is the good priest, she quipped to herself, wondering if she should write it down.

The devastation abated the farther west they went, disappearing altogether in the hill country on the Nilsaelin border. She knew from Veliss this was one of Cumbraelʼs more prosperous regions, the wine being of the finest quality and the people noted for gay celebrations and lax adherence to the Ten Books. Arentes guided her to the largest town in the region, essentially a sprawling hill-fort ringed by impressive walls that traced the line of the surrounding vine-covered slopes in an uninterrupted ribbon of stone.

“Easy to see why the Volarians left it alone,” Arentes commented as they rode up to the gates.

“Theyʼd have gotten to it in time,” Reva said. She expected some difficulty at the gates — it was quite possible these people had no notion as to who she was after all — however she found the town guard already drawn up in ranks and the gates standing open. A stout man in a long robe was on both knees beneath the gate arch, arms spread in supplication.

“Lord Mentari, the town factor,” Arentes explained. “Owns most of the vineyards for miles around. He had great regard for your grandfather.”

“But not so my uncle?” Reva asked.

“Your uncle was much more punctilious when it came to the collection of taxes, and less inclined to favouring old friends.”

“Lucky it is then, that I only have new friends.”

“Blessed Lady!” Lord Mentari clasped his hands together as she approached, dismounting to cast her gaze around the city, finding it strange to see so many intact buildings after weeks of viewing ruins. “You bring the Fatherʼs word to our unworthy ears.”

Reva frowned down at the manʼs wide-eyed countenance, expecting to see some glimmer of calculation there but instead his awe appeared completely genuine. “All ears are worthy of the Fatherʼs word,” she told him. “But he doesnʼt require you to kneel, and neither do I.”

The stout lord got to his feet, though his back remained at a servile stoop. “The tale of your victory is already legend,” he gushed. “The gratitude of our humble home knows no bounds.”

“Iʼm glad to hear it, my lord.” She hefted the scroll-case containing the queenʼs edict. “For I bring word of how it can be expressed.”

It took two days to gather the people from the surrounding country to hear the Blessed Ladyʼs words, two days suffering through the feast Mentari organised in her honour and a round of petitions, by far her least favourite occupation. She gave judgement in only the most clear-cut cases and had Arentes note the others for dispatch to Veliss. Despite the apparent comfort and security enjoyed by these people the petitions did give an insight into the fact that war didnʼt have to visit your doorstep to cause ill. Complaints abounded of refugees from the east stealing produce and livestock or occupying land they didnʼt own, and whilst Tokrevʼs armies might not have marched here, his slavers certainly had; weeping mothers telling of sons and daughters stolen in raids. For all their sorrow, Reva took a grim comfort from these tales, her task made easier by the Volariansʼ talent for birthing hate in every soul they touched.

She read the edict on the evening of the second day, standing on the porch of Mentariʼs house as people crowded the space below, a broad avenue surrounding an elegant fountain of bronze. This time the murmuring was louder when she finished, and the expressions of the crowd not so rapt. However, despite the evident discomfort, there was no open dissent or shouts of disapproval and plenty of godly souls to voice their approval as the Blessed Lady told her lie.

“An eleventh book,” Lord Mentari breathed as she stepped down, the crowd still cheering. “To think I would live to see such a thing.”

“We live in changing times, my lord.” Reva accepted the book Arentes handed to her and checked the notes Veliss had provided on this region. “My honoured advisor calculates your quota as a minimum of two thousand men of fighting age, accounting for recent troubles and the census compiled five years ago. Iʼm sure the Father will smile upon you should it be exceeded.”

Touring the entire fief took the best part of a month, town after town, village after village, some swollen with refugees, others nearly empty as many of the occupants had fled in advance of the expected Volarian onslaught. She found her lie most readily welcomed in those places rich in the dispossessed, many of whom had firsthand experience of the enemyʼs nature. Even in places where none had been scathed by the war, there were still plenty of willing ears keen to hear the Blessed Ladyʼs words, though not all were so open to the Fatherʼs message.

“Got four sons and the queen wants three of them,” said a burly woman in a village in the south-western riverlands. People here were renowned for their hardiness, scratching a living from the eel-pots with which they harvested the myriad waterways surrounding their homes, settlements often limited to no more than a few houses and rarely accompanied by a church. The woman glared at Reva as the assembled villagers gave a murmur of agreement, though some were clearly intimidated by Arentes and his fifty guardsmen. The glaring woman, however, paid them no heed at all. “Howʼs a family sʼposed to feed itself with no hands to work the boats and haul the pots?”