A Time of Omens

Since Caradoc wanted to keep the plan as secret as possible, he and Maddyn told the other silver daggers that they were going to ride a raid on the Eldidd border to provide a distraction when the Marked Prince left for Cerrmor with his escort. No one thought to question the plan, which was a decent one in its way. In a chilly dawn Maryn and Nevyn made a great show of riding out with a hundred members of the king’s own guard and a wagon train filled with supplies and gifts for the Cerrmor lords. Ahead of them rode a herald holding the banner of Pyrdon. With them on the road went the king with an honour guard of his own – to escort them to the border, or so it was said. The queen wept openly; silver horns blared; the assembled populace cheered the young prince and his splendid Wyrd. Only Maddyn and Caradoc knew that hidden among the silver daggers’ supplies were shabby clothes and armour for Maryn, and that those coffers of gifts were empty.

When the silver daggers assembled in the ward later that morning only their own women came to watch. As he kissed Clwna good-bye Maddyn felt a pang of guilt; she was expecting them all home in a week or two, while he knew that it would be months before they could send for the women, if indeed they even lived long enough to do so. From his manner she seemed to pick up that something was wrong, because she kissed him repeatedly and clung to him.

‘Here, here, my sweet, what’s so wrong?’

‘I worry, that’s all. I do every time you ride to war, or haven’t you even noticed?’ Her eyes filled with tears. ‘Oh Maddo, it’s worse this time. Somewhat’s going to happen. I just know it.’

‘Whist, whist, little one. If it does, then it’ll be my Wyrd, and what can either of us do about that?’

Although she tried to force out a smile, her lips were trembling. She gave his hand one last squeeze, then ran for the barracks. She would be crying her heart out, he knew, and the guilt stabbed again, worse than a sword.

‘Ah come on, Maddo!’ It was Aethan, striding over with his horse in tow. ‘We’ll be back soon enough. Those Eldidd dogs can’t fight worth a pig’s fart.’

‘So they can’t, true enough.’ He forced out a smile of his own. The captain had insisted that he keep the truth to himself until they were miles from the dun. ‘Where’s young Branoic?’

‘Here, sir.’ Branoic came up, leading his horse into line. The lad was grinning as broadly as if they were going to some royal entertainment. ‘Let’s hope our enemies can fight well enough to give us some sport, huh? Ye gods, I thought I’d go mad this winter, shut up in the dun with naught to do but loll around and dice.’

‘Listen to him!’ Aethan rolled his eyes heavenward. ‘I’ll wager we get our fill of blood soon enough.’

The words stabbed Maddyn like an omen, but he kept smiling.

‘Aethan, do me somewhat of a favour, will you? Ride with our young Branno here, and keep an eye on him.’

Although the lad bristled as if to say he didn’t need such help, Aethan forestalled him with a friendly punch on the arm.

‘I will at that, at least until the fighting starts. Then he can keep an eye on me.’

They laughed, both as excited as young horses turned into pasture after a winter in the stables. The sight of them together wrung Maddyn’s heart for reasons that he hated to put into words, the one dark and grizzled, his oldest friend, the other blond and young, so new to his life that winter, and yet it seemed that he’d known Branoic for a hundred years. When the captain started yelling orders, the moment passed, but still, as they rode south, laying their false trail, Maddyn found himself brooding over it. It was a dangerous thing for a fighting man to care so deeply for his friends, especially when they were starting out on the bloodiest road they’d ever ridden.

‘What’s so wrong with you?’ Caradoc said abruptly. ‘Your bowels stopped or suchlike?’

‘Oh hold your tongue!’

‘Listen to him! Feisty today, aren’t we?’

‘My apologies, Carro. I hate lying at the best of times, and these are the worst. Saying farewell to Clwna, and her and the other women thinking we’ll be back in an eightnight or so – it ached my heart.’

‘They’ll have to live with the truth just like the lads will. Listen to me, Maddo. Today we start a ride ordained by the gods themselves. Our petty little troubles are of no moment. None. Do you understand me?’

‘I do, at that.’ He shivered suddenly, just from the quiet way that Caradoc spoke of such grave things. ‘Well and good, then. A man’s Wyrd comes when it comes.’

‘So it does, and ours is upon us now.’

Maddyn turned in the saddle to look at him and wonder all over again just who Caradoc had been, back in his other life before dishonour sent him down the long road. It occurred to him that at last he was going to find out – if, of course, they all lived long enough to ride through the gates of Dun Cerrmor.

Branoic was surprised at how little ground the silver daggers covered that afternoon. Even though the spring days were short they could have made some twelve miles before sunset, but instead they stopped for their night’s camp on the banks of the Elaver just some five miles from the dun. Branoic tethered out his horse and Aethan’s while the elder man carried their gear to a campsite and drew them provisions from the pack train. As glad as he was to be out of the dun and riding, Branoic’s mood was dark that evening, and he swore at the horses for ducking their heads and grabbing grass while he was trying to change bridle for halter. He was disappointed, that was all, heartsick that he was stuck in Pyrdon instead of riding behind the True King on his journey to Cerrmor – or so he told himself. Since he’d never been an introspective man, the excuse rang true enough.

When he went back to the camp he found the troop settling in. Some men were spreading out their bedrolls; others were cursing flint and tinder as they struggled to light a fire. He found Maddyn and Aethan by a fire that was already blazing; although no one was sure why, it was common knowledge that fires always lit easily for the bard. As he walked up, he felt his heart pounding in the strange way it did lately, a fearful sort of wondering as he looked over the campsite until he saw that Aethan had indeed dumped his gear there along with his own and Maddyn’s. That he would be allowed to camp with them was so welcome, such a relief, really, from his fear that he’d be put somewhere else, that he briefly thought of going elsewhere just to pretend that he didn’t care. Maddyn looked up with an easy smile, and he broke into a jog, drawn by that smile like a thirsty man to water.

‘Does your horse need tethering, Maddo? I’ll do it for you.’

‘Oh, I’ve already got him out. Are you lads hungry? We’d best eat now, because there might be a bit of a surprise later.’

‘A what?’ Aethan looked vaguely annoyed. ‘Talking in riddles again, are you?’

‘It’s good for you, makes you exercise your wits. Well, what few wits you have, anyway.’

Aethan threw a fake punch his way and grinned. They had known each other so long that at moments like these Branoic’s heart ached from feeling that he was an outsider, some foreigner who would never know their private language.

‘But I’m hungry, sure enough,’ Aethan went on. ‘What about you, Branno? Care to gnaw on some of the king’s stale hardtack?’

‘It’ll do, truly. Maybe when we’re raiding we can snag us a barrel of ale to wash this foul stuff down with.’

At that perfectly ordinary remark Maddyn looked sly, but Branoic let it pass. The bard would tell him his secret when he wanted to and not a minute before.

As it turned out, they didn’t have long to wait. Just as the sun was setting, they heard a guard shout from the outer limits of the camp and rose to see what the trouble was. Two men came riding toward them from the east, and as the setting sun washed them with gold, Branoic realized that it was the Marked Prince and the councillor. Beside him Aethan laughed, a crow of triumph.

‘So we’re going to Cerrmor after all, are we? Well played, Maddo! They took us in good and proper with that fanfare and pomp in the ward this morning.’

Cheering, laughing, the entire troop left the camp and jogged down the road to meet their liege. Since he was acutely aware of his place as the newest man in the troop, Branoic lingered off to one side rather than shove his way forward to get near to the prince. Muttering under his breath, Nevyn made his way free of the mob and came over, leading his horse.

‘Ye gods!’ the old man snapped. ‘They’ll be able to hear all this shouting back in Dun Drwloc if it keeps up.’

‘Well sir, we were all cursed disappointed when we thought we wouldn’t be riding with the prince.’

‘Were you now? An honourable sentiment, that. Now listen, lad. From now on Maryn is a silver dagger and naught else. No doubt Caradoc will impress that upon you all, but it won’t hurt to say it more than once.’

‘Of course, good sir. I take it he’ll have a new name and suchlike?’

‘He won’t.’ Nevyn gave him a sly smile. ‘I decided that if our enemies saw through this ruse at all, they’d be expecting a false name, so he’ll just be Maryn. It’s a very common name in this part of the world.’

‘Well, so it is, but –’

‘Trust me, lad. There are times when the safest place to hide something is out in plain sight.’ The smile faded, and he looked suddenly very weary. ‘I’ll pray that this is one of those times.’

‘Well and good, then, sir. So will I.’

‘My thanks. Oh, by the way, lad, I have a favour to ask of you and Maddo – and Aethan too, of course. Can Maryn share your fire and generally camp with you?’

‘Of course! Ye gods, we’ll all be honoured beyond dreaming, good councillor.’

‘No doubt, but please, do your best to treat him the way you’d treat any other man. He won’t take offence – he knows that his life depends on it.’

Branoic nodded his agreement, but mentally he was half-giddy with pride – not because the True King of all Deverry would be dining with him that night, but because Nevyn had somehow assumed that Maddyn and he formed a unit, a pair you could take for granted. Me and Maddyn, he thought, it sounds right. Then he blushed, wondering why his heart was pounding so hard, the same way it did when he saw some pretty lass he fancied.

Although he of course never explained them to Branoic or indeed any of the silver daggers, Nevyn had several tricks at his disposal to hide the prince. For one thing, he simply withdrew all the glamours that the elemental spirits had been casting over the boy, so that when he changed into the scruffy brigga and much-mended shirt that Caradoc had ready for him, all his supernatural air of power and magnetism vanished along with the fine clothes. For another, with Maryn’s complete cooperation he ensorcelled the prince and suggested to his subconscious mind that he had difficulty in speaking – though in nothing else. He also suggested that on a simple cue the difficulty would vanish. Once he removed the ensorcelment, the suggestion took effect, and the prince who’d always held forth like the hero of an ancient epic now stammered as he struggled to find the right words to express a simple, routine thought. All of the silver daggers swore in amazement and said that they wouldn’t recognize him themselves if they didn’t know better, but they, of course, thought that the prince was merely acting a part.

Which in a way he always was, or, what was perhaps worse, the prince always lived his part in the strange epic that they were composing not with their words, but with their lives. At times, when he remembered the happy, charming little lad that Maryn once had been, Nevyn felt like a murderer. Over the years he had trained the prince so well that he’d stripped away all trace of the lad’s individuality, pruned and sheared him as ruthlessly as a gardener in the king’s palace shapes an ornamental hedge or splays a climbing rose over its trellis in order to torture it into an unnatural form. It was hard to tell at times whether Maryn was larger than life or smaller, a grand hero out of the Dawntime or a picture of a hero such as a Bardek illuminator would draw, all ink lines and thin colours.