She sat down, but the rock cut into her buttocks, so she stood up again, wishing for sturdier shoes. The captain fingered his sword’s hilt. Certain of the soldiers soothed the more restive horses. Hugh climbed up beside scarred John to a ledge that allowed them a view over the landscape. He bent his head as if praying.
They waited. After a while, the pair of soldiers returned and squatted down with the rest, wiping sweat from their foreheads. A spiderweb trembled between two spines of rock. In a shadowed crevice, moss flourished where moist, hot air steamed up from a crack in the ground, stinking of rotten eggs.
The wind caught up puffs of dust at intervals but died as quickly. A brown seam appeared in the eastward sky above the rocks. Hugh’s shoulders grew taut; he bent forward and pointed at a sight Anna could not see. Other men stationed in clefts and crevices within the fountain of rock saw it as well, and made gestures each to the other. Theodore set an arrow to his string.
Frigo handed Blessing’s leash to Liudbold and climbed up to crouch beside Lord Hugh. Anna edged forward to listen.
“That’s a general’s banner,” muttered scarred John. “What’s such a lord doing with a century of men riding into Aosta?”
“So it’s true,” said Hugh. “Adelheid hopes to make an Arethousan marriage for Princess Mathilda. Why else would an Arethousan lord general ride into his enemy’s lands in times such as these and with no greater force than that, if not to negotiate an alliance?”
“Hand her own daughter over to them?” Captain Frigo spat. “Their mothers are sows and their fathers asses.”
“So it is said. But alliance with the north is closed to her, or so she believes. Her country is devastated. I know not how Arethousa fares. It would be a pragmatic decision.”
“But Arethousans, my lord!” continued Frigo.
“Do not despair, Captain. Perhaps they mean to hand over a young princeling to Adelheid who can then be Mathilda’s consort. Who is bold, and who is desperate?”
“They can’t be trusted. They don’t even believe in the true faith!” He hesitated. “But perhaps you know otherwise. Are these the ones we have ridden here to meet?”
Anna yawned, stretching her face, trying to ease the cloth jammed into her mouth. Frigo hadn’t hobbled her. If she ran, would the lord general’s party give her shelter? Or would Theodore plant an arrow in her back before she could reach them?
Did she want to return to Queen Adelheid? And how did they know Lord Hugh was right? The Arethousans might be going anywhere or just on a scouting expedition. They might be riding west to kill any foreigner they stumbled across.
“Look,” said scarred John with a grunted laugh. “The one in the gold tabard. He’s got but the one eye. Can you see it? Bet some Aostan captain got a taste of him!”
His companions sniggered.
“How can you tell, John?” demanded Theodore. “He’s too far to see his eyes.”
“Just ’cause I’m not blind like you! And you, the archer!”
“Quiet, now.” Hugh lifted a hand as a signal to the men behind him. “Let them pass.”
“What do you make of it, my lord?” asked Frigo. “What if they see our tracks?”
Hugh gave no reply. He was murmuring under his breath. A strange, sharp scent soaked the air, making Anna want to sneeze. A wind came up out of nowhere, blowing dust across the plain, obscuring the view. Hugh’s men covered their faces with cloth. Grit stung Anna’s skin, but all she could do was turn her face away and shut her eyes.
At length, the wind died as suddenly as it had come. They rose and shook dust out of the creases and crevices of their clothing, unbound their captives, and moved on. The rest of the troop set their faces forward, but Lord Hugh continually looked back, watching and listening, as if he expected a storm to sweep down on them out of the west.
5
IN the days before, less than four generations ago according to the estimate of the exiles but over two thousand seven hundred turnings of the year measured by the calendar of Earth, the first city built by those who sailed out of the west rested atop the Heart-of-the-World’s-Beginning. This was a vast and sacred cavern whose mysteries could not be plumbed except by the gods’ acolytes, the sky counters, who were also known as the blood knives. In the earliest times, so legend said, a plaza adorned with serpent-masked sculpted heads marked this holy chamber. Later a pyramid rose in a series of incarnations on the central plaza, dedicated to She-Who-Creates, who alone understands the secret heart of the universe.
