The Burning Stone
“A miracle of healing—” Then he caught sight of the ring, and his expression changed again. “But what’s this? Has some great lord seduced you with the wealth of worldly goods?”
“The king gave me this as a reward for my service!” she retorted, furious. “How dare you accuse me—”
“It’s what Liath did!” he cried. Then, perhaps hearing that name, Margrave Judith’s pretty husband called to him, and Ivar hesitated only a moment before walking away with a curt farewell. Had they grown so far apart? Was their old closeness so quickly ripped into nothing? She walked away, agitated and disturbed, nor did the warm night promise anything better. No matter where she lay down her blanket, dampness seeped through as soon as she settled her weight onto it. She didn’t sleep well, and when she lay awake, she twisted the emerald ring round and round on her finger.
The deal was done, and certain objects changed hands: the young man came to stand nervously beside Hanna’s horse, and Captain Thiadbold saw fit to reward the old Salavii man for these services with a good wool tunic, linen leggings, and a pair of boots—they had belonged to the Lion who died of dysentery, and no one wanted to wear them because of the agony in which he’d died.
At the confluence of stream and river, where the river itself curled around a small hill, Bayan had set up camp with his usual keen eye and cunning. To the north lay denser forest, mostly oak and pine, and to the west and south scattered woodland and grass. To the east, hills rose in a steep escarpment, and the rise which Bayan had chosen seemed like the last straggler, or first scout, of that army of hills. Some ancient people had built a structure on this hill, worn now into low earthen ramparts that crowned the height. It reminded her of a fort gone to ruin, the kind of place where people and livestock could defend themselves against an enemy. There might have been some tumbled stones there as well, but from this distance, and angle, it was hard to make out. Bayan—for she’d no doubt that Bayan had overseen the placement of the encampment—had pitched the royal pavilion on the hill itself where one rampart, like a curling finger, gave it shelter. The wagon in which his mother traveled rested about ten strides away, hard up against a curve in the rampart. Was the Kerayit princess still with the old woman? Or were Hanna’s dreams true dreams?
Now she would find out.
Half the camp came out to welcome them. Hanna wasn’t sure she’d ever seen so many soldiers assembled in one place before, except at the battle of the Elmark Valley, near the town of Kassel, when Henry had defeated Sabella. Princess Sapientia’s banner stirred in the breeze. There were other banners as well at tents and pavilions only somewhat less grand than that of the princess, but she only recognized one of them: the leaping panther of Margrave Judith.