And then, as the sun hovered in golden clouds just above the western horizon, the little queen moved into the climactic crescendo of her oration. The words "pride," ??onor,????ourage,??and ??uty??sang in the blood of her rapt listeners. Her final question, "Who will follow me?" was delivered just as the setting sun bathed the field with flaming light and was answered with an ear-splitting roar as the Mimbrate knights drew their swords in salute.
Perspiring heavily in her sun-heated armor, Ce'Nedra, as was her custom, drew her own sword in reply, leaped to her horse and led her now enormous army from the field.
"Stupendousl" she heard King Korodullin marvel as he rode behind her.
"Now you see why we follow her," King Anheg told him.
"She's magnificent!" King Korodullin declared. "Truly, my Lords, such eloquence can only be a gift from the Gods. I had viewed our enterprise with some trepidation - I confess it - but gladly would I challenge all the hosts of Angarak now. Heaven itself is with this marvellous child, and we cannot fail."
"I'll feel better after I see how the legions respond to her," King Rhodar observed. "They're a pretty hard-bitten lot, and I think it might take a bit more than a speech about patriotism to move them."
Ce'Nedra, however, had already begun to work on that. She considered the problem from every angle as she sat alone in her tent that evening, brushing her hair. She needed something to stir her countrymen and she instinctively knew what it must be.
Quite suddenly the silver amulet at her throat gave a strange little quiver, something it had never done before. Ce'Nedra laid down her brush and touched her fingertips to the talisman.
"I know you can hear me, father," she heard Polgara say. A sudden image rose in Ce'Nedra's mind of Polgara, wrapped in her blue cloak, standing atop a hill with the night breeze stirring her hair.
"Have you regained your temper yet?" Belgarath's voice sounded wary.
"We'll talk about that some other time. What are you up to?"
"At the moment, I'm up to my ears in drunk Nadraks. We're in a tavern in Yar Nadrak."
"I might have guessed. Is Garion all right?"
"Of course he is. I'm not going to let anything happen to him, Pol. Where are you?"
"At Vo Mimbre. We've raised the Arends, and we're going on to Tolnedra in the morning."
"Ran Borune won't like that much."
"We have a certain advantage. Ce'Nedra's leading the army."
"Ce'Nedra?" Belgarath sounded startled.
"It seems that was what the passage in the Codex meant. She's been preaching the Arends out of the trees as if she owned them."
"What an amazing thing."
"Did you know that the southern Murgos are already gathered at Rak Goska?"
"I've heard some rumors."
"It changes things, you know."
"Perhaps. Who's in charge of the army?"
"Rhodar."
"Good. Tell him to avoid anything major as long as possible, Pol, but keep the Angaraks off my back."
"We'll do what we can." She seemed to hesitate for a moment. "Are you all right, father?" she asked carefully. The question seemed important for some reason.
"Do you mean am I still in full possession of my faculties?" He sounded amused. "Garion told me that you were worned about that."
"I told him not to say anything."
"By the time he got around to it, the whole question was pretty much academic."
"Are you-? I mean can you still?"
"Everything seems to work the same as always, Pol," he assured her.
"Give my love to Garion."
"Of course. Don't make a habit of this, but keep in touch with me."
"Very well, father."
The amulet under Ce'Nedra's fingers quivered again. Then Polgara's voice spoke quite firmly. "All right, Ce'Nedra," the sorceress said, "you can stop eavesdropping now."
Guiltily, Ce'Nedra jerked her fingers from the amulet.
The next morning, even before the sun came up, she sent for Barak and Durnik.
"I'm going to need every scrap of Angarak gold in the entire army," she announced to them. "Every single coin. Buy it from the men if you have to, but get me all the red gold you can lay your hands on."
"I don't suppose you'd care to tell us why," Barak said sourly. The big man was surly about being pulled from his bed before daylight.
"I'm a Tolnedran," she informed him, "and I know my countrymen. I think I'm going to need some bait."
Chapter Twenty-seven
RAN BORUNE XXIII, Emperor of Tolnedra, was livid with rage. Ce'Nedra noticed with a certain pang that her father had aged considerably in the year that she had been absent and she wished that their meeting might be more cordial than this one promised to be.The Emperor had drawn up his legions on the plains of northern Tolnedra, and they faced Ce'Nedra's army as it emerged from the forest of Vordue. The sun was warm, and the crimson standards of the legions, rising from what seemed a vast sea of brightly burnished steel, waved imposingly in the summer breeze. The massed legions had taken up positions along the crest of a line of low hills and they looked down at Ce'Nedra's sprawling army with the tactical advantage of terrain in their favor.
King Rhodar quietly pointed this out to the young queen as they dismounted to meet the Emperor. "We definitely don't want to provoke anything here," he advised her. "Try your best to be polite at least."
"I know what I'm doing, your Majesty," she replied airily, removing her helmet and carefully smoothing her hair.
"Ce'Nedra," Rhodar said bluntly, taking her arm in a firm grasp, "you've been playing this on your veins since the first day we landed on the hook of Arendia. You don't know from one minute to the next what you're going to do. I most definitely do not propose to attack the Tolnedran legions uphill, so be civil to your father or I'll take you over my knee and spank you. Do you understand me?"
"Rhodar!" Ce'Nedra gasped. "What a terrible thing to say!"
"I mean every word," he told her. "You mind your manners, young lady."
"Of course I will," she promised. She gave him a shy, little-girl look through fluttering eyelashes. "Do you still love me, Rhodar?" she asked in a tiny voice.
He gave her a helpless look, and then she patted his broad cheek. "Everything will be just fine, then," she assured him. "Here comes my father."
"Ce'Nedra," Ran Borune demanded angrily, striding to meet them, "just exactly what do you think you're doing?" The Emperor was dressed in gold-embossed armor, and Ce'Nedra thought he looked rather silly in it.