08 A Little Hatred: Book One (The Age of Madness)

‘Bloody hell,’ whispered Sarlby again.

None of the other Breakers said a word. Vick stood staring. Broad stood staring. High ideals, like the ones that’d led him to Styria. They surely can take you to some dark places.

‘There’s a few haven’t been tried yet, down in the cells.’ The warden sniffed and adjusted his dirty sock. ‘Guess you can have them, too.’

Young Men’s Folly

‘Prince Orso isn’t coming,’ said Leo, stomping up the crumbling stairway after his mother with the Dogman behind him. ‘We have to fight.’

Her only reply was a frustrated sigh as she stepped onto the moss-speckled roof of the tower. From the top there was a fine view of the valley below the ruined holdfast, the road threading along its bottom and the high fell on the far side, crowned by red bracken. Off to the west, the road met a fast-flowing stream and crossed it by an ancient-looking bridge. There must’ve been a village beyond, the houses out of sight but the smoke from their chimneys faintly smudging the sky.

Cries drifted over as the wind picked up. Thousands of men, hundreds of horses, dozens of wagons trickling down the road between the two hills and over the bridge in a glittering ribbon. The army of Angland pulling back steadily to the south and west. Just as it had been for weeks.

‘Mustred and Clensher brought two thousand men from Angland. We won’t get any more.’ Leo stepped up next to his mother, planting his fists on the crumbling parapet. ‘Hold off now … we’ll look like cowards.’

His mother gave a dry little laugh. ‘The one advantage of being a woman in command of an army is that you don’t have to worry about looking cowardly. Everyone expects it.’

‘We’ll bloody be cowards!’

The Dogman snorted. ‘Your mother was a prisoner of Black Dow, and faced him down, and didn’t only talk her own way free but saved sixty men besides. I’ll hear her given no lessons in courage, boy. There’s a world o’ difference between being scared to fight and waiting till you can win.’

‘As long as you stop waiting!’ Leo waved off in a direction he hoped was south-west, past the bridge towards Angland. The direction the Union men were retreating. Always retreating. ‘We’re no more than eighty miles from the border, and if we’re pushed all the way to the Whiteflow we’ll never push back. The Protectorate will be finished.’

He might’ve hoped for some support from the Dogman. His bloody Protectorate, wasn’t it? And he’d stood beside the Bloody-Nine, the greatest champion the world ever saw, who won eleven duels and claimed the crown of the North in the Circle!

But the old Northman only frowned into the valley, and thoughtfully rubbed at his pointed jaw, and quietly said, ‘Well, you have to be realistic. Naught lasts for ever.’

‘I understand the stakes,’ said Leo’s mother, turning from the road to frown at the dark woods to the north, fussing absently at that bald patch she had under her hair. You could see the footprint of the fortress on the hilltop below them, the walls little more than heaps of rubble, loose stones scattered down the hillside, the forest pressing in at the base. ‘If you think all we do is run away, our enemies might, too.’

Creases spread around the corners of the Dogman’s eyes as he grinned. ‘You’re going to fight ’em here.’

‘You approve?’

‘Ground’s good.’ He considered the steep-sided trough of a valley with its grey thread of a river, its brown thread of a road, the rocky hills to either side. ‘Could be very good, if luck’s with us.’

‘You’re going to fight them here?’ asked Leo, eyes wide.

‘This is a war, isn’t it? Stour Nightfall has moved ahead of his father and his uncle. Perhaps as much as a day ahead. His men are scattered, tired, undersupplied and exposed.’

The Dogman grinned. ‘Touch reckless of him.’

‘A mistake I hope we can make fatal.’

‘If we put a fat enough worm on the hook.’

‘You know how warriors are about their flags.’ Leo’s mother turned to look at him. ‘Your standard should be the very bait he needs. Especially after you stung his pride by stealing one of his. We’ll make it look as though our rearguard is caught in a tangle on the bridge. Hopefully, it’ll be a temptation he can’t resist.’

‘You want me here in the ruin?’ asked the Dogman.

‘Hidden and waiting for my signal. Angland’s forces will be concentrated behind that hill to the south. Once Nightfall is committed, we fall upon him from both sides and catch him against the river. If we manage it well, we might destroy him in one throw.’

‘That’d do a lot to even the odds.’

‘And make me feel a great deal better about all this retreating. Believe it or not, Leo, I enjoy it no more than you do.’

Leo couldn’t stop the smile spreading across his face. ‘We’re going to fight them here.’

‘The day after tomorrow, I hope. Do either of you have an opinion on the plan?’