A Match for the el Maiens Ch. 23

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Hanyan clung to Clair's shoulders and sobbed. The bustle of the last few days, the news that his father would be going to war, the dim knowledge that his other father had died in war, had brought back all the anxieties he had suffered from when his mother had left. Clair knelt patiently on the sitting-room floor in full mail with the red silk surcoat, his helmet on the floor beside him, and let Hanyan cling to his shoulders. Arianna stood away from them, holding Arkyllan. She had tried to persuade Hanyan to come to her but as soon as Clair started to leave them, Hanyan ran and clung to him again, gasping with unnameable terror.

Her brother Hanya had come through into the sitting-room in search of her. He came up to her and looked a question. She sighed, turning to try to resolve his difficulty at least but then Hanya went suddenly forward to Clair and Hanyan.

"Ar't Hanya like me," he said. The child turned, startled, and stared at him, catching his red lip up in his teeth and looking through his tears at the scarred golden face close to him. The child's face was like an Angel of the Sorrows, achingly lovely with tears scattered like pearls on the golden fair cheeks. The scarred man said to him, "We have to be brave now, is it not? I too wish I could go to the battlements with your father and uncles but we have our duties here behind the lines. What says't?" Hanyan hiccupped and stared with his beautiful blue eyes into Hanya's summer sky eyes.

"Shall't be a soldier one day?" Hanya enquired. Behind him, Arianna started forward. She hated it if people encouraged the boys to think of going into the army. She was even cross when Tashka gave them toy soldiers and books about uniforms and battle formations. Clair scowled at her to make her let it pass. "The other Commanders are waiting on papa. Shall he go and say, it was little Lieutenant-Sir Hanya, he would not let me go? That would not be right, is it, that a Lieutenant should order a Commander to stay with him."

Hanyan let go of the thin red and gold silk surcoat on Clair's mailed shoulders. He reached out and put one hand on Hanya's scarred right cheek. Hanya knelt patiently on the floor and let him.

"Does it hurt?" Hanyan asked.

"Sometimes it itches," Hanya answered.

"Did it hurt when the dogs bit you?"

Clair saw el Jien's eyes veil over but Hanya replied in a quiet voice: "Of course. It hurt terribly but I was brave and I went to the hospital and as sees't, I am better of it now."

"I will be brave then," Hanyan said. "I will be brave like you, Uncle Hanya."

"There it is then," Hanya said. "Shall't be my brother Lieutenant, is it not? and help me and Aunt Anna roll the bandages."

"Yes," Hanyan said, letting Clair's shoulders go.

Clair leant over to give his son in duty bound a soft kiss. He put his hand on his brother by marriage's shoulder and gripped it in thanks. He went to Arianna and knelt to give his son in blood a hug, stood up and put out a hand to Arianna's head, he tucked a curl behind her ear and she smiled into his eyes then he was gone.

'I did not kiss him,' she thought wistfully. 'I wish I had kissed him. Too late. I stop to think about it so I am always too late.'

She turned with Hanya and the boys to go through to the dining-hall. The dining-hall was filled with servants, the tables pushed back against the walls on one side to make room for rows of spread out mattresses. The children who ordinarily lived in the castle and any servants who could be, had been evacuated to the town but there were a large number who felt it their duty to remain in their Lord and Lady's service. The footman Fiotr and some other servants who had come out of the army had helped Dar and Petra set up a makeshift kitchen army-style in the huge fireplace, Dar was presiding over cauldrons of stew and pots of coffee there. Petra and the five remaining assistant cooks chopped ingredients on a nearby table. Arianna was surprised to see that the filthy pot-boy, whom Clair would always grumble about but in whom he put up with a high degree of slackness, was still with them. She had assumed he would be among the first to run off and idle about the town.

About an hour later there was a most terrible crashing roar. Their heads lifted and some of the servants screamed. Arianna started up to look over to the children but they had fallen asleep in a pile of bedding, cuddled close between Ria and Lisette, even for a noise like this they did not stir.

She walked about the hall saying: "We knew the attack would begin at some time, clearly it has started early. Remember, it is only we who have cannon, not the troops besieging us." Slowly the twittering servants settled back down again, starting up at the second roar and staring about them but not so desperately scared.

It was so terrible, staying there in the hall in dreadful ignorance of what was happening. Occasionally some one of the Guard would come and say something incomprehensible, like: Fifth Sietter sent a scouting unit out behind Tenth and found they were withdrawing. Therefore the battle was engaged early. We are using a version of the Palair net and trident strategy. She would nod and say: "Tell my Lord that we are ready to receive the wounded." Then she would turn to Hanya and he would explain: Tenth were withdrawing to leave the field free for Ninth Vail to come in with Clathan's cannon. "But why are Tenth not fighting? I thought they had joined our side?" No, Anna, we cannot ask them to fight with those they have been living with, side by side. It would soil Tashka's honour to ask that of them, he has only asked them to withdraw and not take part. They will fight for us later in the war, when their intentions have been formally declared. But it is a matter of concern that Fifth have realised early that Tenth Sietter are withdrawing, it is a question whether Ninth Vail and the cannon are in place yet.

One of the cannon on the battlements burst during the night and they brought the wounded down the corridors to put them in the family quarters around the courtyard. Hanya stood up to go and assist but Arianna put her hand on his arm and said firmly: "There are enough people there, people who have medical skills." He sat back down by her side restlessly twisting his long pale fingers together.

Shortly afterwards Clair came striding through the dining hall. She was so glad to see him, she stood up and went straight to him. Heedless of the servants all about them, she walked into his embrace. The rings of his mailcoat were hard and pinching under his thin silk surcoat to her soft plump flesh. Her soft breasts pressed into the military mail, he gripped her arms with tight fingers and stared into her eyes, his grey eyes fierce and angry under the ridge of his shining helmet. Her heart bumped uncomfortably in her chest in the fear that he had come to tell her they had lost already.

"We have the advantage," he said in a clipped tone of voice. "I came to tell it you myself and to ask about the wounded from that cannon exploding."

"The report is here," she answered, "Hanya is just finishing it. Wills't sit a moment and cans't take it back with you."

"Good man!" Clair said, walking over to Hanya. "I will take your report back for the Guard Captain." He sat in her chair, his arm hooked about her hips, he drew her to him. She came close to him in a hesitant uncertainty, feeling aroused at the hard pressure of his mailed arm, feeling guilty at her enjoyment of it considering her pacifist principles and that here they were at war with many already wounded and dying about them. "You have made preparations for the wounded," he said, just for something to say, he knew she would have done a thorough job of it.

"Yes," she answered, taking up the topic of discussion gratefully. "Any Castle Guard will be brought through to spare rooms here in the family quarters. Tenth Athagine and Ninth Vail soldiers are to be put in the armoury and castle offices. Sietter soldiers are to be put in the reception rooms."

"Tenth Sietter soldiers?" he asked, turning his head up to her. Hanya el Jien lifted his head and looked at Clair with a twist of his mouth in his scarred face. "There will not be enough wounded in Tenth to take up all the reception rooms, if there are any at all."

"No, the other Sietter soldiers," she answered.

"Oh no, Anna!" he exclaimed. "They will send back for their wounded, you cannot take them into the castle!"

Hanya started to speak but Arianna cut across him, "Hanya has explained to me it is not the custom," she said coolly, "but since I realise it may take two or three days for the Sietter troops to send back, I have decided we must take them in."

"They will think they are being taken prisoner!"

"We will explain that it is not so."

"What?! You are going to patch them up and send them back out to fight us again!"

"Clair!" she said, "tolds't it me we could take care of the wounded. Musts't let us do it in our own way."

"Angels, Anna! I never imagined," he swung his head round on Hanya. "How in Hell did you come to let her make such a damned stupid plan as this?! Do you not know what a problem it will be? It is completely contrary to the code of honour!"

"If cares't to try to stop her when she has decided, go to it," Hanya answered with a shrug and a grin. "I have explained the matter to her but she is decided."

Clair looked up at his wife's obstinate pale face. Suddenly, in the midst of the bitterness of battle, of standing on the battlements watching his friends and brother officers tearing each other to pieces and dying in front of his eyes when he had hoped never to suffer such sights again, he laughed. Her simplistic humanitarian philosophy; he should never have trusted her. "My Lady wife," he said, squeezing her big round hips with his arm. "It shall be as you have decided. You will reap a storm in doing this but you know that already. There is no purpose to arguing with you. You are an obstinate boot when once you have made up your mind that you have found the right road to go down. You give me hope for my region and my people and my country." He stood up and turned, took her by the shoulders and pressed his mouth on her warm wide red mouth, sweet as a bowl of cherries. She had set her mouth in a hard line ready to argue with him, she was totally unprepared for his kiss, it came bearing down on her hard mouth in a sudden fierce pressure then he had taken the papers from Hanya's hand with the ink still wet and was gone.

She stood in the middle of the hall, her hands pressed to her breast, staring at the ceiling, hearing the cannons roaring about the castle. She had been so glad to see him alive! oh why had she immediately started fighting with him. She remembered him saying that love was not just white doves cooing to each other in a soppy painting by Velor and she smiled.

It was not clear when victory happened. Only, not long after dawn, their lovely laughing gentle-hearted cousin Pava came through the dining hall to find them, his face haggard with fear.

"H-have we lost?" Arianna could not forbear asking fearfully. He looked so wretched, so distraught, she thought it must mean defeat.

"No, cousin," he answered, staring desolately into her eyes. "Victory is ours."

In his eyes she saw how empty victory could be.

She turned to Hanya, he was already collecting together the lists of surgeons' names from the town. Tarra Larian was to ride with him and they would bring any medical assistance they could back to the castle.

"I am going to N-Ninth," Pava said. "W-will you make ready? Cousin, I am afraid there will be very many ... There will be very many."

She pressed his arm. "I will ride with you," she said, as warmly as if they were going out in the morning for a trip to a country inn where they would have lunch and then come home.

"Oh no!" he said.

"Let us go," she answered, taking up the cloak which she had already laid out ready.

Outside it was a dull cool autumn day with a grey sky although no rain. The castle gates were already open. Arianna was surprised to see one of the Guard horses saddled for her, although Pava's own Star was there. The grooms lifted rueful faces to her and hurried to excuse themselves, many of the horses were unrideable this morning after a night plunging in the stables terrified by the cannonade. One of my Lord's racehorses had injured herself so badly that they had had to destroy her, the grooms' eyes turned desolately aside as they blurted this out, they had not been able to tell Clair as yet.

Arianna and Pava rode through the gates and Arianna gave a sudden cry which she immediately stifled.

The hillside down which they had galloped for their hunt not two weeks before was torn and blasted in the frail wreaths of the morning mist which mixed with remnants of cannon smoke. Campfires still burned here and there among the torn and trampled tents, the rags of bedding and clothing. Bodies lay about the wet grass, there was a dull faint persistent moaning borne up to them on the light breeze. Arianna twisted back in her saddle to look into the gates, she saw that servants were starting to come out with table-tops and chairs to collect and carry the wounded as she had ordered. She set her face and turned back in the saddle to go with Pava.

Down the hill they went towards the little wood where she had sat and her husband had opened up his heart for her to explore. There was an officer in Vail green and gold riding out of the trees to meet them. As he came closer to them, she saw that his head was bleeding and his silk surcoat over his mail torn and bloody. He was weeping. While he spoke to them, while he rode with them, the whole time, the tears rolled down his craggy face.

"Commander!" he cried as he approached them. "Hear me!"

"Captain Baraie, I will hear you," Pava leant over as he said it and gripped the man's shoulder. His Captain looked blankly into his face and the tears continued to slide down the furrows of his weathered cheeks.

"We were discovered by a scouting unit early," he said dully. "When we deployed the cannon, some of us were among them fighting in the trees - we could not but deploy the cannon early, sir!"

"I know it! tell me of it later. What of the wounded?" Pava's voice wavered high up with fear.

"T-two hundred dead," the Captain sobbed. Pava flinched.

"Marin?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Wounded to the arm. S-s-sir. Loisir ..."

"No!"

"Loisir is ..."

"Not now!" Pava hissed savagely through his gritted teeth. "Baraie," he said in a trembling pleading voice. "I cannot hear it now. Oh my Captain! Tell me the rest of it." He had gone paper white and his green eyes glared into the wood as they rode up to the blasted trees. The trees were blackened, their trunks split and shattered. As they rode, Pava's Captain was reeling off a great list of names: dead, wounded, wounded, wounded, dead. Pava clenched his long pale fingers on his reins and gritted his teeth.

Pava assisted Arianna to dismount, she tied the reins of her horse to a broken tree. Her face was blank of expression as she moved between the corpses flung among the fallen leaves. The golden and brown leaves were stained with clotting red and black blood and there was a stench of smoke and raw flesh about her. Arianna went to see what wagons were still in fit shape to take the wounded back to the castle, she knew they had brought the cannons here in wagons.

Her clear firm decisive tones came cutting through the misty woodland, telling the soldiers staggering with fatigue and loss of blood to bring the still jostling terrified horses under control and lead them round in a line in front of the woodland. She went to assist a young officer in the red Sietter uniform with a petrified face who was trying to stand then she realised that his foot was shattered and bleeding and gently she eased him back onto the leaves, saying: Wait here, sweetheart. Let me just see to this cut. She started to try to ease his boot off, he gave a terrible scream. One of the castle servants came to help her, saying they had better get the young officer into the wagons and look at his leg back at the castle.

As she walked among the trees, sometimes she met her cousin. He was helping to carry his men to the wagons, his voice murmuring to them, gentle soothing warm. He sounded just as he used to when he was wooing her for her kisses back in sunny gardens in Iarve. He looked at her when they met as if she were a complete stranger, passing on to assist his men without a word to her.

She came upon Commander-Sir Flada Clathan with a terrible wound to his head. She had to fight down a sudden impulse to call for a special carriage for him. There were no special carriages here. She knelt by his side, taking his loose hand, searching desperately for a pulse and for the first time tears came to her eyes when she found it. She blinked them fiercely back, tears were only a hindrance now. "Ar't an old fool!" she whispered. "What for has't come out again, at your age, does't think Clair and Tashka would ask this of you? I know how it is. Has't done it for love of them."

Some people were coming to carry Flada to the wagons. They were moving out, she stood up and looked about her. Servants from the castle had come down, there were many figures now moving through the woodland to check if there might be some still living among the torn young bodies in red and in green and gold uniforms lying among the yellow and brown leaves and the shattered trees.

She went to find Pava, to see if he wanted her to ride back with him.

He was kneeling in the fallen leaves, his fair head stooped over a body in his arms. When he lifted his head to her, she saw that he was holding a boy of about seventeen. The boy's face was still downy, frozen in its youth with a broken arrow that stuck out of his throat. She knew he had died a terrible, painful death.

"Loi-sir!" Pava sobbed.

She knelt beside her lovely courtly laughing cousin, stroked his head with trembling long fingers. His green eyes, staring wildly at her, were flashing with tears.

"M-my youngest Lieutenant!" Pava moaned. "What will I tell Tashka? He said to me, send an order expressed ... in writing ... to leave him behind! I did, I did it! Why would he come? O Loi-oisir!"

~#~*~#~

Arianna walked through the castle hallway, where the servants were running to and fro again, carrying medical supplies and trays of food, directing the surgeons who had started to arrive to the rooms where their skills were needed. Distantly she could hear the screaming of the wounded but she knew that they were being attended to as best they could be. It was of no use to go and torture her nerves and irritate those in charge of them by just checking everything was in order. She walked through to the kitchens. Dar and Petra were back at their range, some of the servants who had children and had evacuated had returned, leaving their children with relatives and friends. Everyone was active and busy - even the slatternly pot-boy hurried to and fro, not carrying anything but looking busy.

Arianna went back to the castle offices where Laran and Tarra were putting the papers back in the safe and the strong-room. Finally she felt she could go and see her children.

When she got to the sitting-room, she was shaking. She walked in on unsteady legs. Luckily the children were not there. She went straight to the drinks cupboard and poured herself something, she had no idea what it might be, it went into one of the little bowls and she tipped it into her mouth and gasped as the spirits hit her throat. She coughed and gasped again and blinked the tears back in her eyes then wiped her mouth with the back of one hand. She saw blood on her hand, looked down and there was blood all over her skirt and her cloak. She turned to the stairs to go and change; she could not allow the children to see her like this. As she moved to the door, it opened. Clair came in, no longer in his mailcoat, he was wearing a blue felt suit.