So did God remind even the strong that life is short, and grief long-lasting. “I will add his name to my prayers.”
“Thank you, Sister!” For a moment Rosvita thought the Eagle meant actually to clasp her hand as she would a comrade’s, but she hooked her fingers under her belt instead and with her other hand brushed something out of her eyes. “So may he be remembered on earth and sung into the Chamber of Light.”
But the fate of an anonymous Eagle, however tragic, did not lodge for long in Rosvita’s thoughts. She had already begun to rearrange the evidence in her mind. Did it begin to form a new and perhaps more interesting picture? “Wolfhere went to Heart’s Rest to find Liath. He knew her?”
“That I don’t know, Sister.”
“Father Hugh tells me she stole the book from him while she was his slave,” said Rosvita, more irritated than ever. Hugh’s story was easy, and convenient, to believe—and not entirely at odds with what the Eagle had told her—and he was the son of a margrave. But Hathui’s account of events had an Eagle’s eye behind it, and a certain ring of bald truth. “Why should I believe you, a common-born woman, over the son of a margrave?”
Hathui smiled wryly. “God makes the sun to rise on noblewoman and commoner alike. The Lord and Lady love us all equally in Their hearts, my lady.”
“Yet Our Lord and Lady follow Their own will in parceling out to individuals whatever They wish. To some They give more, and to others, less. Could we not also argue that we merit what we each receive? That They confer on the elect these gifts of grace that set them apart from others?”
But the Eagle shrugged, her expression untroubled. “All gifts are given to us by God. Without such gifts, no matter how noble, we are dust. So we are all equal before God—and the honorable word of a common-born woman no different than that of a nobly born man.”
It was startling to hear a commoner speak so bluntly, but Rosvita could not gainsay the truth in her words. “There is wisdom in what you say, Eagle.”
Hathui touched a finger to her lips as though to force words back before she blurted out something unseemly. The wind lifted dust from ground already stirred up by the passage of so many feet and so much activity. Soon, all too soon, the night would be alive with Eika—and many of those who marched in this army would die. Rosvita shuddered, although it wasn’t cold.
“I would say one thing more, if you will, Sister.”
“You have my permission.”
“What benefit to me to lie about this?”
“Your own vows, to protect your sister Eagle.”
“True-spoken. I admit freely to being a woman who holds to her vows. Ask yourself this: What benefit to Father Hugh to lie about the book?”
“That would depend on what is in the book. Do you know?”
“I do not. I cannot read, and Liath never showed the book to anyone, except perhaps to Hanna.”
Hanna. Ivar had nursed at the same breast as Hanna, making him and the young woman milk siblings. To some extent, then, Hanna was kin to Rosvita even if the young Eagle was a common-born woman and Rosvita born out of an old and noble lineage.
Hanna might know. But to speak with the Eagle, Hanna, she would have to pry the young woman out of Princess Sapientia’s tight grasp, for Sapientia held all her creatures close against her as if she feared that, given too much room to run, they would dash for freedom—or for someone more worthy.
But there was no one else—no one else more worthy to become Henry’s heir. Sapientia had steadied in recent months. Perhaps Father Hugh’s counsel was guiding her toward the “wisdom” she was named for. She might yet grow into a queen.
Thoughtful, Rosvita returned to the council in time to hear Henry announce that which they all knew was preordained:
“We will ride on in the morning, battle ready. Should we be set upon as we march, we will take up at once what positions we can along the road. Duchess Liutgard will command the vanguard, which will take up the left flank. Her Highness Princess Sapientia will command that portion of the ranks which will form the right flank. I will ride in the center, commanding the center, and Margrave Villam will command the rear guard, with the reserve.”
So was it decided. There came from the assembled nobles a taut hiss of breath, a gathering of resolve. Soon, and at long last, they would face the Eika.
3
COUNT Lavastine sent a contingent of infantry northeast, ahead of the rest of his army. Commanded by Sergeant Fell and reinforced by a levy of light cavalry from Autun, they guarded four wagons which contained certain pieces from a siege engine as well as sections of a huge chain forged by blacksmiths at Lavas Holding in the spring.