Valiant (*On Hold*)

12 Assault - Tyne

Her long auburn hair flowed gently in the wind behind her as she rode and, despite how much it annoyed me to admit it, I swore I could smell roses on the breeze as it passed her. We had been traveling for days, making our way with an enormous host of men toward the border. When we had stopped at night, the soldiers had camped in tents outside of the inns which those of importance occupied for the evening. As an invited guest of the royal family, myself and my men were permitted rooms in the inn. Though the only member of the royal family present had hardly spoken a word to us since our journey had begun. Not that that was the reason for the sour mood I found myself in now.

"Did you see him at breakfast this morning?" Hawk asked under his breath as he rode up next to me. I peeled my eyes away from the princess where she rode ahead of us all, laughing at something Sir Ridley had said to her.

"Who?" I snapped, more angrily than I'd intended. It did not phase Hawk who was used to my moods.

"The man from the bar," he told me. "The one who told us about the princess the night we first arrived in Etzera. They say he's a Lord, a close friend of the royal family's."

"So?"

"So he didn't tell us that, did he?" Calder said frankly as his horse flanked my other side.

"Why wouldn't he want us to know who he was?" Hawk asked, still whispering.

"Who is he?" I queried.

"Lord Redford," Wells explained, ever the informed spy, as he rode up on the other side of Calder. "Keyon Redford to be exact. He holds one of the richest lands in the kingdom and rumor has it that the King is quite stricken with his sister, Kyla."

"The King," I repeated, focus drawn back to the laughing princess at the head of the line. "What do you think of him?"

"King Acton?" Hawk inquired, seemingly caught off guard by the sudden change in topic as he met Calder and Wells' eyes on my other side. "Well, he's the strongest hold in the land and our best tactical chance for defeating the seafarers."

"Then why is he sending his sister to the battle instead?"

All three pairs of eyes turned to examine the woman I'd been watching for days. Calder broke the silence first with a shrug and a noncommittal, "I suppose that is odd."

"I don't trust the Etzerans," I told them then, lowering my voice so that only they could hear. "Not yet at least. They have their uses and I won't forget the agreement we've made but they have their own intentions as well and I won't trust either of them until they are made clear."

At that precise moment, our host crested a hill and I looked down to find we had arrived at the border camp we had been sent to join. Tents stretched out as far as the eye could see in the rolling plain below. Horses stood tied to posts or cared for in makeshift stables on the fringes of the camp. The largest tent of all seemed to be smoking from the effect of the cook pots held behind it. Men congregated there, slapped each other on the back and exchanging crude barbs as others ran through the camp about their duties. A warm feeling of familiarity settled itself over me as we rode towards the camp. The court was something I did not understand. Their customs and their rules, the way they dressed and spoke and the way they expected you to do the same. But this was something I knew. This was war.

We rode through the camp on horseback just behind the princess and her guard. I noticed her Captain peering at us over his broad shoulders from time to time, making sure we hadn't abandoned our cause already. I scowled at the insult and he finally turned back to whisper something to his princess.

We didn't stop until we reached the tent at the front. A massive, ornate pavilion with two guards stationed at the entrance and the flap of the door closed soundly to any visitors. However, when we approached and one of the guards recognized the princess, he disappeared within to tell whoever was inside who had arrived.