The Lady and the Prince
Chapter 23

They camped just a little way off of the road at a site near a creek. It had been used recently, the fire ring still held ashes, and there were logs pulled up to sit on. They had seen a lot of signs that many people had passed this way, from tracks to trash left along the road.

But for the night they were alone. They had fresh bread, fruit, and cold beef for dinner from the Stratton Barony. Tomorrow and all the days after, there would just be hard rolls and dried strips of meat and fish.

Elizabeth noticed that Nick had been very quiet all through the meal. Winkershime had gone off to replace more firewood, although she believed that was just an excuse to leave them alone for a little while.

“Nick, is something bothering you?”

He just shrugged, but from the look on his face, Elizabeth knew something was wrong. She moved around the campfire and shared a log with him, putting her arm around him. “What is it?” she asked very quietly.

A shudder went through him. “It’s just…I always thought I would live to be sixteen.”

“Nick! Of course you’re going to live to be sixteen and far beyond that.”

He looked at her, and she could see the moisture in his eyes. “No, I’m not. I’m not a coward, Elizabeth. I’ll do what I have to. It’s just I’ll miss so much. I’ll never actually get to be an adult or become a knight or get married. I really do regret not getting to marry you.”

“Nick, you will marry me. Everything will turn out all right, you’ll see.”

He looked at the ground and shook his head slowly. “Even if by some miracle I manage to survive fighting two Frankish sorcerers and avoid being killed by the Franckish army, there are still our three traitors and two sorcerers to deal with after that. And I shouldn’t survive that, I really shouldn’t, because if I do, my father is going to have to have me burned at the stake. Better to die in battle, I think.”

“We’ll replace a way. We just have to take one thing at a time. Just focus on tomorrow for now. Do you believe Winkershime wants me to rub ashes on my face as a pretend beard? Imagine how silly I would look, as if a dirty face could hide the fact that I’m a woman. My neck and wrists would surely give me away up close, to say nothing of…well, other parts of me as well.”

Nick looked up at her with a small smile. “Yeah, you’d look like a woman who forgot to wash her face more than a man. Although from a distance, I think you’ll pass all right just by wearing men’s clothing rather than a dress.”

“What, you’re not going to dirty your face?” Winkershime said, coming back into the fire light with an armload of wood. He dumped it on the pile and sat down. “Suit yourself, but tomorrow we all need to be fully dressed for battle. I doubt we’ll run into any Francks that soon, but we will likely start coming on Anglian troops.”

Nick said to Elizabeth, “And that means you’ll have to start wearing chain mail and a helmet so you’ll be less recognizable than you think.”

“I get to wear chain mail? By the way, Winkershime, which sword are you planning on using?”

“I have a guard sword and a blank shield, chain mail and a helmet. I’ll be quite nondescript. You have both your own sword and the sword and shield you got from Sir George. Frankly, chain mail was all I could think of for both of us on short notice. It’s not nearly as effective as plate, but neither of us is strong enough to fight in that stuff without a lot of training and practice. I would suggest you use the larger weapon and keep your short sword as a backup. I’ll help you get rigged out in the morning.”

“You didn’t get any of that metal armor for me, did you?” Nick asked him anxiously.

“Of course not, Your…I have to watch that, don’t I? You have your bow, and I have some boiled leather pieces for you, Nick, just to cover your torso front and back and a helmet. I thought we would leave your arms unencumbered, and you could pass as an archer.”

“Good, at least, I’ll have an excuse for being there. Do you have any idea where our army is, Winker…I guess calling you by your last name wouldn’t be right either. So I’m Nick, you’re Ralph, and Elizabeth is…what do we call Elizabeth?”

They both turned to look at her. “Well, you could call me Tom. That’s Gramp’s name, Thomas. If he was young enough he would be here, so I suppose in a way I’m representing him along with all the Strattons.”

Ralph said, “No, we’ll call you Elias. That’s close enough if one of us makes a mistake and starts to say your real name, the error could be corrected without much notice. So we are Nick, Ralph, and Elias. I certainly hope we have at least one day to practice this.”

Nick reiterated, “Nick, Ralph, and Elias. So Ralph, where is our army likely to be?”

“I have no idea. But if I were the Francks, the farthest north I would come on an invasion is the Pyne River. Beyond that, there aren’t any good landing places for a multitude of ships. So we go back to Landsford Castle and see what is happening there first. If all is quiet, we should probably work our way down the coast until we replace the Anglian army.”

“They shouldn’t be too far inland,” Nick agreed.

“But you’re both just guessing, aren’t you?” asked Elizabeth.

“Yes, that’s the way it is in war,” Ralph said morosely. “Everyone stumbles around like they’re in a fog, not knowing who is where or what is going on anywhere else. Sometimes it seems nearly impossible for two armies to actually replace each other and engage in battle.”

Nick muttered, “I wish the Francks would get lost in a real fog and march over a cliff or something.”

Ralph commented, “Well that would be agreeable of them, but I doubt they’re going to cooperate, so we should all get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day, and I don’t mean that in a good sense, I assure you.”

In the morning the load on the pack horses got lighter, and the load on the riding horses got heavier. Ralph had Elizabeth put up her hair securely and then wrap a plain dark scarf around it and tie it.

“Isn’t that going to look rather odd?” she protested.

“Not at all, it’s a common practice. Sometimes a helmet is a little big or rubs in some place, so fellows often wrap something around their heads underneath. Now this padding goes on first and then the chain mail shirt. Over that goes the belt, and I have your short sword sheathed on your left a bit farther back than your big sword, but you should be able to reach either one, Elias. I don’t guarantee that you won’t list to that side when you walk though, especially since you will have your shield on your left arm as well.”

Nick helped adjust her underpadding so it came up above the mail and concealed most of her neck. With the helmet and leather gloves on, Elizabeth looked very much the warrior.

“You know, even without the ashes, I don’t think anyone is going to be able to tell you’re Elizabeth and not Elias,” Nick said, standing back and looking at her critically.

“Until I have to use the latrine or take any of this off,” Elizabeth replied.

Ralph put on his own sword belt, helmet, and gloves and said, “Are we ready?”

Elizabeth eyed her horse doubtfully. “I’m not sure I can get into the saddle like this.”

Nick was already on his horse, mounting easily in his lightweight leather protection. “Hang the shield from the saddle and use both hands to pull yourself up.”

Following his directions, Elizabeth managed to mount and just felt sorry for the horse under her. The three of them started south again, leading the pack horses. They traveled more slowly but began passing groups of men on the road. Elizabeth and Nick rode silently, while Ralph engaged the men in conversation, replaceing out who they were, where they were from, where they were headed, and why in a friendly genial way.

The general consensus on the road was to head to Landsford. The directions the high nobility had passed down were to go to either Landsford or Sothalia, whichever was closer, so that was what everyone was doing. Beyond that, no one had any idea what to do next.

By late afternoon Landsford itself came into view. There was a great encampment around it and guards on the bridge over the Pyne River. The river and the harbor held only a few small boats; all the larger craft were gone.

Nick thought, So Arthur and the king decided to pull all the ships out of the harbor to keep them away from the sorcerers, which means there’s nothing to stop the Francks landing except us.

They wound their way down to the bridge. The guards stopped them and asked them who they were, their occupations, and where they were from. Ralph answered for all three of them. “I’m Ralph, a butler, and this is Elias, he’s a footman, and Nick here is a forester. We’re from the Stratton Barony in Aggradon.”

The soldiers passed them on, and the prince and his fiancée followed Ralph as he zigzagged through the camp slowly until he reached a small group of trees near the edge. “This looks like a good place for us,” he said and dismounted. Nick and Elizabeth did too, and they unpacked the horses and set up small tents for each of them, gathered wood, watered and fed the horses, and got themselves settled.

All three kept on their armor and helmets until it was fully dark, eating their rations around a small fire. Afterward they were glad to shed their heavy armament, Elizabeth staying well back from the fire among the trees until she could just wrap herself in a blanket and crawl into her little shelter.

In the morning she kept the blanket around her, and they all went in the predawn to the latrine, Nick and Ralph staying on either side of her. There were few others there that early, and no one paid attention to the small group. Elizabeth found it a little embarrassing, but Ralph and Nick focused on what they were themselves doing, and so she did the same and they all managed to get through it without anyone turning bright red. Elizabeth briefly considered peeking at Nick’s “equipment,” but decided it wouldn’t be right. She’d see everything as much as she wanted once they were married—assuming they both survived that long. Maybe she should have peeked when she had the chance. Well, too late now.

After that they dressed quickly, but then had nothing in particular to do. Nick and Elizabeth needed to stay away from everyone else so Nick wouldn’t be recognized and Elizabeth spotted as a woman, so it was up to Ralph to replace out what he could. He wandered off seemingly aimlessly, but Nick knew his path would be anything but.

He came back a couple of hours later and motioned them over. They sat with their heads together, and Ralph said quietly, “We should probably move on. Our Progress guard is here as well as Aggradon and quite a few fellows I recognize from our travels. We won’t be able to remain incognito for very long. I found one of our men—a spy, that is—and he told me the latest word is that the Francks are boarding or have boarded their ships.”

“But what if they do try to land here after we’ve gone?” asked Elizabeth.

“If we keep to the coast, we’ll see them. With a large fleet they won’t be able to stay all that close to their own shoreline. And why should they, if Anglia has withdrawn her ships?” Winkershime replied.

They packed up quickly, mounted, and rode slowly south. On the way out, someone called, “Hey, where are you three going?”

Ralph called back, “The Francks are too slow. We’re going to go replace them,” and got a laugh as he intended. No one else bothered them as they passed the outer sentries. As they plodded south they met others coming up the road to Landsford, but if they questioned the direction of the small party, Ralph just said they were looking for their own lord who hadn’t arrived yet. No one disputed that, men who knew each other usually fought as a group, trusting their friends to protect them far more than strangers.

They camped off the road on a rise near the water where they had a good view of any ships approaching Anglia. With just the three of them they could relax, and Elizabeth could literally let her hair down. It drizzled during the night, and they were glad of their little tents, Nick and Elizabeth having to curl up to keep their feet and heads dry as the wind shifted around.

The morning dawned clear and warm with just a few high clouds moving from the south. When they had eaten and donned their armor and weapons, Elizabeth climbed up on a small rock protruding thigh-high from the ground, shaded her eyes, and looked out over the water. “I think I see something!”

Nick hopped up on the rock with her, holding on to her for support since she stood on the only flat spot. “Sails, lots of sails from the south. This is it, they’re coming.”

They jumped down, and Winkershime took their place and stood watching silently. “Hadn’t we better go?” asked Elizabeth.

“Not until we know which direction. Nick, get back up here. Your eyes are younger than mine. Look far down. Does it appear that ship is turning for the coast?”

Nick balanced next to Ralph for a few moments and said, “Yes, and the one behind it too, but these others are coming on past. Why are they splitting up?”

Ralph pointed down the coast. “There’s a nice fishing village there on that little bay and others up and down the coast. They could be landing some troops at all of them. They wouldn’t be going on to the Pyne River with just those few ships. They would expect Landsford to be there if Denland sent additional birds to Louis.”

Elizabeth could see the advance ships coming closer and more clearly now, even from the ground. “You mean they’re splitting up their army? Why?”

Ralph and Nick got down off of the rock. While they hurried to the horses, Ralph answered, “I don’t know. They might think the Anglian army is still in Londinum, and the coast is deserted. More likely they expect Sothalia and Landsford to be defended but not much in between. If they land all along the coast, they can ravage the fishing villages and destroy our fishing boats and then turn either north or south and gather their army before meeting only part of the Anglian forces. Then they can go anywhere, back to meet the rest of the Anglian forces, inland somewhere, or to Londinum.”

They went back to the road and headed south as fast as they could. Fortunately the horses were fresh, and they made good time, arriving at the village before the Franckish vessels.

The people from the village streamed past them as they went down toward the beach. Some had been able to load a cart with possessions, but more just had full blankets slung over their shoulders. Animals were being led or chivvied along, children were crying, and dogs dashed around barking excitedly.

Nick stopped his horse, and Ralph and Elizabeth pulled up too and looked at him questioningly. “I don’t want to be down here. I should be up there,” he said, pointing to a rocky hill crowned with trees off to the side.

They rode back and around toward the hill. Ralph stopped them at a place with a steep path going up and said, “Go on, you two. I’ll put the horses somewhere where whatever you’re about to do won’t terrify them.”

Nick and Elizabeth dismounted. Nick sprinted up, while Elizabeth climbed more slowly in her armor behind him. She followed him to the eastern edge of the hill overlooking the water but found him standing under the last couple of trees just watching the ships.

“They’re still too far out,” he said as she panted up beside him. They watched as three large warships and a half a dozen smaller merchant vessels slowly turned west and approached the bay. The decks of all the vessels were crowded with men. Ralph came up too and said, “Do you see either of the sorcerer’s pennants? Strelliere has a long white flag with three stars, a black one in the middle flanked by two red ones, quite distinctive. Frais has a red strawberry on a square green field.”

Both Nick and Elizabeth turned to look at him in disbelief. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t come up with that. Frais started out as a commoner, and he has a sense of humor, at least so I’ve been told.”

They scanned the ships coming toward them, but saw nothing that looked like either sorcerer’s pennant. The first large ship that led the group started reefing sails and dropped anchor. Ralph said a little nervously, “Any time now, my boy.”

Nick said, “I want as many in as close as possible before I start. I don’t have the range to hit all the ships from here.” They waited silently until the first vessel swung a long boat over the side and started lowering it. Then Nick walked forward out of the trees as far as he could and raised both hands with eight fingers spread and his thumbs tucked underneath. A sheet of fire appeared over the water and whooshed into the ship’s rigging.

The figures on the deck started moving around much faster, trying to lower boats. Nick raised his hands again and fire swept across the deck, burning through the ropes holding the boat and dropping it into the water sideways where it sank. No one remained standing on the deck, and burning rigging started falling on heads trying to emerge from below. Nick swallowed and looked a little pale at the screams.

A fat merchant ship had reefed its sails but was frantically trying to let them out again. A few arrows flew from it toward Nick. Ralph moved forward with his shield and Elizabeth followed a moment later, but the arrows plunked harmlessly into the hill below them. Nick raised his hands and another inferno raced across its deck and into the rigging. A few figures managed to leap into the water before it hit. Men scrambled up from below decks, some of them making it into the water, but others were already on fire when they jumped.

Heads bobbed in the water toward the beach from both vessels, but many of them were struggling without any action from Nick. He let them be for the moment and turned to the remaining ships.

He flamed another small ship that was turning just beyond the burning merchant vessel in front of it. A second large warship dropped a sea anchor out farther in the bay, apparently thinking they were out of range. Nick raised just one hand and pointed a finger at it; nothing happened for a moment. Then a line of concentrated fire appeared heading toward it. The stream of fire started to weaken and widen as it approached, but the flames reached the rigging. Nick dragged it across the ship, down to the deck, and back across before he finished.

Nick shook his hand. He’d held the concentrated fire a little too long, and his ejector in that finger felt painfully raw. Well, he had seven more fingers he could use if he had to. He hit two more merchant ships with it before they could escape, one going up quickly, but the farthest ship smoldered a few seconds before the sails and rigging caught. It looked like most of the men from that ship escaped into the water to be picked up by one of the remaining three vessels. Two had already turned back toward the south.

Nick turned his attention to the men in the water. One or two had crawled out onto the beach, and more were approaching. He hesitated. The men below him looked helpless, but he knew they wouldn’t be for long, especially when a few turned into tens, or even hundreds.

Elizabeth turned and looked back up the road. “Do you hear something?”

“Horses,” Ralph said. “Quite a few.”

A couple dozen men rode into view with the flag of a local baronet waving above them. Nick faded back into the trees, and Elizabeth moved back with him. Ralph stepped forward and hailed them. “My lord, pull up! We’ve managed to burn some Franckish ships, but there are survivors coming ashore. Can you handle them, Your Lordship?”

A young man in armor rode forward and removed his helmet. “Sure,” he called up. “We saw the ships coming, and my foot soldiers are double-timing behind us. How did you…?”

But he was talking to empty space. Ralph had bowed and gone back into the trees as soon as he was sure the men below understood the situation. He, Nick, and Elizabeth stayed out of sight and got to their horses, mounting and riding out through the trees rather than on the road. It was slower, but they didn’t want the oncoming Anglian troops to get a good look at them.

They stopped before they reached the main road, and Nick got his gray hooded cloak out of his pack and put it on, removing his helmet and pulling up the hood to shield his face. Elizabeth reluctantly dismounted and smeared a little dirt on hers where it could be seen outside her helmet. She looked expectantly at Ralph, but he just sat on his horse and watched.

“Aren’t you going to disguise yourself?” she asked.

Ralph gave her a superior smile. “I am in disguise. There are advantages to being nondescript. Besides, no one looks at servants except other servants, and if we run into any, all I have to do is fail to recognize them and they would just assume I’m someone that just happens to look a bit like a valet they know.”

Elizabeth climbed back on her horse and said, “Lucky. Are we going to go down the coast and fight some more Francks?”

“Down the coast, yes,” replied Ralph as they started forward. “But we need to replace the sorcerers, one at a time if possible. We can’t risk our only magician on masses of troops. Our own troops can handle that.”

Nick came up beside him. “I’m sorry about back there. I hesitated. I should have attacked those men in the water, but it’s just…”

“Yes, you should have. You were lucky, Nick. In war, hesitation can get you killed. We three had no way to take all those men prisoner, and if you let them go they would have just rejoined the Franckish army and gone on to kill Anglians.”

Elizabeth said, “I know Ralph is right, but in a way I’m glad you weren’t quick to attack helpless people, Nick.”

Ralph said roughly, “They are not people, not right now. They are invaders, the enemy. If you see them as people, Elias, you may get us all killed.”

They rode in silence for quite a while after that. They rejoined the road and met more refugees from the coast going north and inland. The Francks had landed in every accessible inlet from the stories the fishermen and their families told.

Ralph gave one family their tents, saying they weren’t needed and that the weight would only slow them down. The remaining blankets, water, and food they moved to their riding horses in case they lost or needed to abandon the extra mounts. At midday they changed horses so they could continue moving quickly, but left the road when they approached the turnoff to the next village.

They rode across a field and into some trees and made it down close to the beach and camped without a fire. When they walked out on the beach, they could see a dozen ships down the coast ahead of them offloading troops.

They drew back under cover. Nick said, “There are a lot of them already on shore and setting up camp. I could attack the ships, but…”

“No,” Ralph said quickly. “It would be suicide, they would overwhelm us quickly. I couldn’t make out anything that looked like one of the sorcerers’ pennants, but the wind is light and there are a lot of ships. Did either of you spot anything?”

Nick and Elizabeth shook their heads. Neither knew much about ships, and the array of masts, lines, flags, and signal flags was just a confusing jumble to them both.

“I wish I had packed a spyglass. But we don’t have one, so we’ll have to do this the hard way. All of us speak Franckish, and our armor doesn’t look any different than a lot of theirs. Elias, your accent is good, but your language skills are the weakest, so you stay here with the horses while Nick and I take an amble down the beach.”

Elizabeth didn’t want to be left out, but this wasn’t about her sex. Ralph was right about her ability to speak Franckish, so she accepted it. Nick got his bow and arrows and slung them over his back. Elizabeth asked, “Are you planning on shooting them?”

Nick just said, “I’m a Franck, and I’m in hostile territory. I wouldn’t go to the latrine without a weapon, much less a walk on the beach, at least not on my first day.”

He and Ralph set out moving through the trees until they were closer to the Francks’ camp and then emerged onto the beach and ambled slowly into camp. There were no sentries posted along the waterline; with the large number of men milling about and disembarking, they apparently felt safe from that direction.

The village had been thoroughly looted, and some Francks were eating the fish they had captured. A couple of the small homes had been burned, but most had been taken over by mid-ranking officers and minor nobility. Three large tents had been erected that were each bigger than the fishermen’s huts, and Nick was sure better furnished as well. A fourth was being erected, and two slightly smaller ones were laid out on the ground.

Ralph wandered over to one with Nick right beside him. In perfect Franckish he asked if the men getting ready to raise the tent could use some help, and they eagerly accepted his offer. He and Nick followed the directions they were given and helped to put up the tent.

Nick casually asked if there were more they could help with, but they were told that was the last of the larger tents; all the others would be easy to do. He and Ralph wandered back past all of the big tents, checking out the standards that had been erected or were waiting to be erected in front of each. None of them belonged to a sorcerer, so they headed back to the beach.

But there they ran into a snag. When they started down the beach, an authoritative voice called, “You two! Where do you think you’re going?”

They turned back, and Ralph said, “It’s a nice evening, a little walk…”

A large man with officer’s insignia came up to them and said, “No wandering off. Get back with your unit and stay there,” pointing back at the camp.

Nick and Ralph looked at each other, and Ralph shrugged and trudged back into the Francks’ camp with Nick behind him. Ralph said quietly, still in Franckish, “Don’t worry, it will be dark soon, and we can slip away. Meanwhile, let’s just replace a campfire and insinuate ourselves.”

They found a young man no older than Nick struggling to get a fire going and helped him, afterward just sitting down and talking with him. Three older men joined them, giving them not too friendly looks, but since the youngster accepted them they grudgingly did too.

Crew from the ships came around with baskets and passed out flat bread, cheese, and wine, which they ate with their new “friends.” As the camp started to settle down to sleep, Ralph got up and said, “I’d better hit the latrine, or I’ll be getting up before dawn.” Nick just said, “Me too,” and they went off in the dark. There were latrine pits dug on both sides of the camp, so they just went to the one on the north side and used it, dawdling and waiting for a couple of other customers to finish. When they were momentarily out of sight of any Francks, they went beyond the latrine and slipped into the woods.

They moved slowly until they were far enough away to be unseen from the camp, then Nick made a small light and they hurried back to their own camp and Elizabeth. She had both heard them and seen the light approaching and met them sword in hand, but she quickly sheathed it and hugged them both, although Nick quite a bit longer than Ralph.

“I thought something had happened to you. What did you replace out?”

Elizabeth had rations out for them. Ralph repacked his, but Nick sat down and had a second dinner. “Not much,” he said between bites. “No sorcerers here.”

Ralph sat down with them while they ate. “We need to continue south. It would be easier if we got past this group tonight rather than wait until they start moving in the morning.”

Nick wrinkled his nose at the suggestion; he was tired and had been looking forward to his blankets. But after he and Elizabeth finished eating, they packed up and moved out. Nick went first with his light, or they would have had a difficult time in the trees.

Before they reached the road, they heard voices ahead. The prince put out his light, and they moved forward slowly, but there was no way to sneak past with six horses. After a short whispered conference, Nick took the lead again. He made a very bright light suddenly appear on the road ahead of them and then snuffed it out as they charged across. There was some shouting behind them, but the sentries were confused, frightened, and night-blind from the bright light.

He made another small light as he led them into the trees on the other side of the road. They turned south and rode for a full hour before replaceing a grassy place circled by a group of trees where they finally camped for the night.

Morning came too early for them all. As they packed up and prepared to mount, Elizabeth asked, “Where exactly are we going?”

Ralph answered, “In search of a sorcerer, but exactly where, I have no idea other than generally south. Nick, do you have any thoughts on how we might replace your Franckish counterparts?”

“No, not a clue, except perhaps by the damage done. Only I don’t know what spells the Francks use, so I’m not even sure what to look for.”

They headed back toward the road but turned south before they reached it. They came to a side road and saw a small group of Anglians coming toward them. Some were injured and being helped by others, and several wore makeshift bandages. Two were elderly men, and the rest were women and children.

When the group reached them, Ralph said, “Greetings, what happened to you?”

“Francks,” a young woman with a bandaged arm said disgustedly. “They brought an evil witch with them. She burned our fishing boats and our homes. We ran away. My sister and her husband weren’t ten steps behind me, but she burned them! The witch burned good, innocent people. It’s not right! Where is the Warleader? Where is our army?”

“They’re coming,” Nick said quietly. “Where was the witch when you last saw her?”

“I told you, in our village—Waverly, down there,” the woman said, pointing southeast. One of the men said, “Can you spare any food or blankets? How about those extra horses? We left with nothing.”

“We can’t spare the horses, but…” Elizabeth handed down a blanket and some food, as did Nick and Ralph, albeit reluctantly. The small group thanked them and began plodding and limping down the road again.

The three turned the other way back toward the coast road. Ralph said, “I know you felt you had to help them, Eliza…Elias, but we can’t spare supplies for every needy person we see. No more handouts, agreed? Now let’s go replace the witch, Lady Strelliere I presume.”

When they reached the main road, it seemed empty, but there was a large cloud of dust far to the south. They turned after it, picking up their pace. They had to be careful not to actually catch up with the Francks, but they wanted to get close enough to flank the force and get a look at it.

They managed by early afternoon, going off the road just before a bend and pounding across an open field and up a small rise. They left the horses below the crest tied to trees and snuck to the top and lay peering over.

It wasn’t all that large a group, five hundred men perhaps, but they were all uniformed Francks and mercenaries, no haphazardly dressed conscripts. Lady Strelliere stood out like a beacon with her pennant carried before her as she rode a large white horse with a black saddle and bridle. She was dressed in black leather and had two young people dressed in black riding directly behind her, one male and one female.

“Who are those two behind her?” whispered Nick to Ralph.

“I’m not sure,” he whispered back. “Servants, perhaps. I’m not aware that she has apprentices, but I can’t say for sure.”

“Great. What are we going to do? I can’t just attack her from here. All those guards would be on us in a flash.”

“Follow and watch and wait for an opportunity.” They backed away from the top of the hill and returned to their horses. When the last of the Francks had passed around the curve, they crossed the road and paralleled it. There were fewer trees and more open fields beyond, so they were going to need to be careful not to be seen by the rearguard.

But at midafternoon the Francks stopped for a consultation, and then the troop split into two groups, one continuing down the road and the other with the sorceress turning aside and heading over the fields.

“What are they doing?” Ralph asked no one in particular.

Elizabeth said, “Nick, remember when we came through here on our Progress? There’s a town just over that rise ahead, isn’t there?”

“Maybe, it looks different coming from this direction. But if there is, the Francks are going to attack it. We need to get closer. Come on.”

Nick urged his horse forward, following the sorceress. The Francks arrived on an east-west road and turned back toward the town now clearly visible. Nick started to pull up, but Ralph hissed, “Not here, we don’t want to be between the two groups. We have to cross the road behind them.”

They turned farther out and went quickly across the road with the Franckish troops visible in the distance The Francks were focused on marching toward the town, and if they were seen, it made no difference.

The three approached the town from the southwest and could hear fighting as they got near. The part of town they entered was nearly empty, with just a few people running past them away from the battle. Nick climbed off his horse onto the roof of a shed and then up on the roof of the building it abutted. Elizabeth followed him, a little clumsy in her heavier armor. Winkershime got their horses and moved all six to the far side of the building next door and then trotted back and got himself up on the roof as well.

Nick strode to the far edge, flicking up his hood to cover his face. Elizabeth scrunched down her helmet as she came up next to him, and Winkershime soon stood on his other side.

A band of about thirty Anglian fighters retreated down the road toward them. A half dozen Anglian archers stood on a rooftop a street away and fired down from the far side of the building until there was a great flare of fire and most dropped, just charred corpses. Two staggered back on fire, screaming, and then fell and lay still.

Nick shifted angrily, but he didn’t have a target yet. Ralph called down to the retreating Anglians, “Hold here!” and they obeyed him, stepping behind building corners and peering out. Another twenty Anglians came running down the street and joined them and after them came the Francks—or rather a group of mercenaries dressed in green uniforms. They weren’t running, just stalking after the Anglians with the knowledge that if they didn’t kill them in this street, they would in the next.

The prince waited until they were close. He raised his hands, pulled power, and raked fire across their first row. He then lifted his hands and drove it back rank after rank. The mercenaries screamed and fell, only a few in the back having the opportunity to turn and run.

“Good,” said Nick coldly. “They can fetch Strelliere for me.” Elizabeth glanced at him, but she couldn’t see his face with his hood up.

The sorceress came with her two servants behind her. She stopped on her white horse beyond the burned bodies and just looked at him. She called out in Anglian, “I was led to believe the Anglians had no sorcerers. Who are you?”

Nick didn’t answer. He said very quietly, “She thinks she’s out of my range.” He lifted one hand and pointed at her. His thin beam of fire lanced out, but she threw up her arms, and it hit a shield of some sort and deflected. Nick moved it to her servant and drilled him with it and then did the same to the other one.

Strelliere screamed in rage and threw a brilliant white ball of something at him, but Nick met it with his own power and grounded it. The sorceress wheeled her horse and galloped back round the corner out of sight.

“We should move,” said Nick. He ran back to the shed and hopped down on it and then to the ground and ran across the street. Ralph was a little behind him, and Elizabeth just managed to keep up with the valet, the Anglian fighters following them. The prince went down an alley, across another street, and into another alley. He found the building where the archers had been and got up on a wall and then up on the roof with Ralph and Elizabeth following. Nick slowed as he approached the front of the building where the bodies lay.

The smell was horrible, but he only stepped carefully past the corpses and looked over the front of the building, with Ralph and Elizabeth copying him. The building fronted on a square, and the main body of the Francks was there. The most high-ranking officers and Strelliere were together talking; Nick didn’t give them a chance to notice him.

He tossed fire into the unsuspecting group, killing most of them but not the sorceress. She sensed something and threw herself from the saddle at the last moment and protected herself on the ground. She rose and returned fire up at her magical opponent, but it was weak stuff that he grounded easily.

The other Francks had scattered for shelter behind buildings. Nick tossed lightning down a couple of narrow alleys after them and was rewarded with more screams.

Elizabeth became aware of the sound of fighting behind them. Some of the Francks were behind their building, and the Anglians had engaged them. She moved toward the back of the building and could see the Anglians were outnumbered and not going to be able to hold them long.

Nick threw a lightning bolt at Strelliere. She staggered back and moved sideways, trying to shield herself, and let the bolt slide off her shield. She avoided most of it, but the effort had drained much of her available energy.

Nick immediately let loose with fire again before she could recover. He poured it on her, and she held it away from herself, grounding it as quickly as she could, but it crept closer and closer until her defenses collapsed and she was consumed.

Ralph said, “That’s enough now, Nick. You’re starting to smoke, boy.” Wisps of smoke were coming off of Nick’s arms and shoulders.

The prince turned to his valet, his eyes blazing. Then his eyes went almost blank. He swayed and blinked a couple of times and said, “Yeah, I…uh…”

Ralph guided him toward the back of the roof, but Francks were climbing onto it. Elizabeth strode forward and attacked them, and Ralph stepped up next to her. They fought furiously for a few moments, Elizabeth replaceing more strength than she knew she had.

She simply broke through the guard of the first Franck and slashed his throat open. Before he fell, she had turned to a second, feinted, and jammed her sword into his chest. She kicked him off her blade and turned to a third, who was a better swordsman. Elizabeth blocked a couple of attacks then went under his guard and slashed open his thigh. The Franck staggered back, and she used her shield and pushed him off the roof.

There was a flare of fire, and she saw Nick had moved to the side past her and was burning the Francks trying to climb up. The rest of them on the ground fled, leaving the alley in the possession of a few remaining Anglian fighters. The Anglians gaped at the charred Franckish corpses and then up at Nick, and hastily retreated too.

Ralph finished off his last opponent with a belly thrust, and the three of them stood there a moment looking at each other. Then Ralph said, “We really should get out of here,” and they began to move again, off the roof, down the alley, and back to where their horses waited. None of them were moving all that quickly, but they got there without seeing any more enemies, mounted, and rode out of town.