| After a second he added, with what was almost a smile: "He brought you to me
Then he let her go and turned his attention back to the plain belowAnd now he did sit down in the chairWatching, she could literally see him gather himself to renew his assault
She looked over at d'Eymon, then followed the Chancellor's narrowed, speculative gaze south again, across to the cluster of people on that slope half a mile awayThey were near enough that she could see the dark-skinned figure Brandin said wasn't really a KhardhuShe thought she could make out a red-haired woman as well
She had no idea who they wereBut suddenly, for the first time, looking around at their own thinned-out numbers on the hill, she felt afraid
"Here they come," Baerd said, looking north, a hand up to screen his coco chanel hobo bag eyes
They had been waiting for this, and watching for it from the moment the wizards linked, but anticipation was not reality and, at the sight of the picked men of Brandin's Guard moving swiftly down their hill and beginning to cross the ground between, Devin's heart began thumping hardThere had been war all morning in the valley below; now it was coming to them
"How many?" Rovigo asked, and Devin was grateful to hear the tension in the merchant's voice: it meant he was not alone in what he was feeling now
"Forty-nine, if he sent them all, and Alessan thought he would," Baerd replied, not turning around"That is always the number of the King's Guard in YgrathIt is sacred for them
Rovigo said nothingDevin glanced to his right and saw the three wizards standing closely togetherErlein tiffany silver and Sertino had their eyes closed, but Sandre was staring fixedly downwards to where Alberico of Barbadior was at the back of his armyAlessan had been with the wizards but now he came quickly over to join the thirty or so men spread out behind Baerd on the ridge
"Ducas?" he asked quietly
"I can't see any of them," Baerd said, with a quick glance at the PrinceThe last of the Ygrathen Guard had now descended their hillThe vanguard were already moving rapidly over the uneven ground between"I still don't believe it
"Let me take my men to meet them below," Ducas had urged Alessan, the moment the wizards had linked"We know he will be coming after us
"Of course we do," Alessan had said, "but we are poorly armed and trainedWe need the advantage of height up here
"Speak for yourself," fendi big bags Ducas di Tregea had growled
"There isn't any cover down thereWhere could you hide?"
"You are telling me whether there is cover?" Ducas replied, feigning angerHis mouth widened in his wolfish grin"Alessan, go teach your fingers to know your fingernails! I was fighting running battles and ambushes in this kind of terrain while you were still numbering oak trees or some such thing in Quileia
Alessan had not laughedAfter a moment though, he nodded his headNot waiting for more, red-bearded Ducas and his twenty-five men had immediately melted away down the slopes of their ridgeBy the time the Ygrathens sent the Guard, the outlaws were down below, hidden among the gorse and heather, the high grass and the scattered olive and fig trees in the ground between the hills
Squinting, Devin pochette louis vuitton thought he could see one of them, but he wasn't sure
"In Marian's name/" Erlein di Senzio suddenly cried from the east end of the ridge"He is pushing us back again!"
"Then hold!" Sandre snarled"Fight him! Go deeper!"
"I haven't got any deeper to go!" Sertino gasped
Baerd leaped from his crouch staring at the three of themHe hesitated, visibly wracked by doubt for a moment, then he strode swiftly over to the wizards
"Sandre, Erlein? Can you hear me?"
"Yes, of course Sandre's darkened face was streaming with perspirationHe was still staring east, but his gaze was unfocused now, inward
"Then do it! Do what we talked aboutIf he's pushing all of you back we have to try or there is no point to any of this!"
"Baerd, they could be Erlein's words came out one by one as if forced from his white chanel purse li |