“Let me hold this for you, Your Majesty,” said the man. “I beg you.”
“Where did you get this arrow?” asked the king as he pressed on the finger with his thumb to stop the bleeding.
“At a village called Felsig,” continued the Eagle. “We arrived hours after dawn, when they had repulsed an attack of Quman raiders. We helped fight off the last of them, some of their foot soldiers who I swear to you are so unsightly that they could be born of no human mother, though they are nothing like the Eika. Our comrade Artur died of wounds taken there. We brought with us a lad, named Stephen, who fought bravely in that skirmish. He wishes to swear himself to the service of the Lions.”
“And I, as senior among us, deemed him fit to serve,” added Ingo.
“Do as you see fit,” said Henry. “Such a brave fighter is welcome in my Lions.”
“Whom will you nominate as margrave of Eastfall?” asked Lady Brigida from the crowd. As niece of Duke Burchard and Duchess Ida, she might expect to be named.
Several voices spoke. “Princess Theophanu. Prince Ekkehard.”
Henry raised a hand for silence. “I will think on it. It is not a decision to be made rashly. Duke Burchard.” He turned to the old duke. “Can you send a force into the marchlands from Avaria?”
The duke coughed before he spoke, and his voice was weak. “I have no sons of an age to lead such an expedition,” he said slowly and pointedly—thus reminding all listeners that his second son Frederic had died fighting in the marchlands and his eldest son, Agius, just last spring, had sacrificed himself to save the king from the dreadful guivre. “It is my experience that the Quman riders must be met by cavalry. Foot soldiers cannot defeat them. You must reform the Dragons, Your Majesty.”
“I have no sons of such an age either,” said Henry harshly, not even looking toward poor Ekkehard who sat unnoticed in the corner behind Helmut Villam. “Not anymore. Nor any soldiers as brave as those who died at Gent.”
No one spoke or ventured an opinion, for Duke Burchard had thrown the meat among the dogs and everyone waited to see how ugly the fight would be for the spoils. But no one dared contradict the king, not even Burchard.
“What other news do you bring for me, Eagle?” Henry demanded, turning his attention back to the young woman kneeling before him. “There has been enough of bad news. Pray you, tell me nothing more that I do not want to hear.”