Western Watch (3rd Draft)

Chapter 15

Six hundred mounts of the Domina's column canter down the road under a hot morning sun, swords and lances clanking to the steady beat of hooves on the packed earth. Samretta smells oiled steel and leather, hears the snap of Watch banners in the breeze, and her heart cannot help but be moved. The Watch is going to war.

And I'm going to help them lose. She shakes her head. I'm saving the Watch, and by extension, the entire Matriarchy. But at such a price!

Domina Charadell eases her mount closer. "Something wrong, Lady Samretta? Something I should know about?"

"No, Domina. I'm just thinking of the cost."

Charadell's expression clouds. "There is always a cost, Samretta. Our task is to make certain those vermin pay the bulk of it."

A blonde noble, of no more than sixteen summers, her face flush with excitement, rides up beside them. "Domina! The constables can't keep up. They're a good twenty minutes march farther back."

Samretta twists in her saddle. Behind her the column's rear fades into a dusty haze kicked up by hundreds of hooves.

"Lady Samretta, you're certain of the numbers we will face?" asks Charadell.

Samretta studies the Domina's hard brown eyes. You've grown more cautious, more cunning in the last two years. We should slow down and let the constables catch up. But fury drives you now, and you're looking for a reason to press on, to take chances you otherwise wouldn't. "As sure as I can be, Domina," she says. "No more than two hundred."

"Excellent!" Charadell addresses the messenger. "Tell the constables to make the best speed they can without wearing themselves out. They know where we're going."

The messenger spurs away and the two women ride on, flanked on either side by the Domina's banner party.

"When we get back," says Charadell, "I want you to investigate the attack on Lady Merreth."

Samretta frowns. "Me? Of course, Domina. Why, though? You ordered the constable sergeant, Arric to do so."

"Arric is competent, but he's also a commoner." The Domina pauses and glances around before lowering her voice. "Some questions may require a noble presence if they are to be asked, and answered."

Dear Goddess! She must be alluding to Tiandraa, thinks Samretta. Does she want me to corner a Red Hand noble and ask her if she arranged the attempted murder of a lady of Sable House? Tiandraa would not be so foolish as to plan such a thing, nor admit to it if she had. Samretta's eyes narrow. "Why me, Domina?"

"You're my best scout. You see what others don't, and you're better at observing things and drawing the right conclusions, no matter how unpleasant. And you don't dabble in politics. That may be important."

Samretta's mouth goes dry. You are so right, and so very wrong. She takes a pull from her water skin before replying: "May I inquire what you think of Lady Merreth?"

Charadell doesn't hesitate. "Dangerous." Her hand tightens around her saddle pommel. "Dangerous, and a lost opportunity. I was furious after that bit of theatre she put on in front of Totlenn's crew."

Samretta nods. "It came very close to blood. Not what we need."

"That's not what I mean. I was furious at myself. Totlenn needed to be taken down a notch." She frowns. "Still needs to be, but the whole affair left a bad taste in my mouth. I forced the issue. The pretext was flimsy at best. Last time I listen to Lady Tiandraa about matters of discipline. How do you think the commoners regard Lady Merreth?"