Stone of Tears

Brin pointed at the chain. “You said we were going to leave the wagons, and we surely didn’t want to leave Daisy and Pip behind. Them’s our horses—Daisy and Pip. We’re drivers. We wanted to help, and make a good use of Daisy and Pip, so we took some of the biggest trace chains and asked Morvan, he’s the blacksmith, we asked Morvan to weld a couple of “em together for us.” He nodded expectantly, as if that should explain it.

Kahlan dipped her head toward him a little. “And now that he has?”

Brin held his hands open in excitement. “You said we needed to take out their horses.” He couldn’t help giggling. That’s what this is for! You said we’re going to attack at night. Their horses will be tethered to picket lines. We gallop Daisy and Pip down the picket line, one on each side, and the chain’ll break their legs out from under “em! We’ll take out the whole line in one sweep!”

Kahlan leaned back and folded her arms. She looked to Peter. He nodded, keen on the idea, too. “Brin, having horses chained together like that, at a gallop, and dragging a chain that will be catching things, heavy things, sounds to me very dangerous.”

He wilted only a little. “But it could take out their horses! We can do it! We can get them for you!”

“They have close to two thousand horses.”

Peter wilted more. Brin scrunched up his face as he looked at the ground for the first time. He scratched his shoulder. Two thousand,” he finally whispered in disappointment.

Kahlan glanced to Captain Ryan. He shrugged as if to say he didn’t know if it would work or not. The other men standing about rubbed their chins and shuffled their feet as they pondered the rig.

“It will never do,” Kahlan said at last. Brin’s shoulders slumped more. There are too many of them for you. You will need more horses set up like this.” Brin and Peter’s faces came up, their eyes widening. “since you two know how to do it, I want you to get all the draft horses and their drivers together. This will be the best use of their skill.

“Use all the equipment off the wagons or breeching you need. We’ll not be taking them anyway. Have the chains made up at once, and then I want you all to practice the rest of the day. I want you to set up things to drag the chains through. Heavy thing, so the horses will be used to what you’re going to do. You need to practice so each team of men and horses can work together.”

Peter came forward and stood next to a beaming Brin. “We will, Mother Confessor! You’ll see! We can do it! You can count on us!”

She gave them each a sobering look. “What you want to do is dangerous. But if you can do it, it will be a great benefit to us. It could save many of our lives. Their cavalry is deadly.

Take your gear and your practice seriously. Men will be trying to kill you when you do it for real.”

They put their fists to their hearts, this time holding their chins up. “We’ll see to it, Mother Confessor. You can count on the drivers. We won’t let you down. We’ll get their horses.”

After receiving her nod, they turned to their horses. Heads together, whispering in excitement, they went to their task. Kahlan watched a lone rider, in the distance, galloping through the camp. He stopped to ask a group of men something. They pointed in her direction.

They’ve only been with us a couple months,” Captain Ryan said. They’re just boys.”

Kahlan raised an eyebrow to him. They are men, fighting for the Midlands. When I first saw you, I thought of you in much the same way you see them. Now I think you look a little older to me.”

He sighed. “I guess you’re right. If they really can do the job, it will be a brilliant achievement.”

The galloping rider approached and leapt from his horse before it came fully to a stop. He gave a perfunctory salute. “Mother Confessor.” He gulped some air. “I’m Cynric, with the sentries.”

“What is it, Cynric?”

“You said you wanted to know about everything, so I thought I better report. We were just setting up the sentries about an hour out, between here and the army of the Order, near a road that crosses Jara Pass, and a coach came up the crossroad, from the direction of Kelton. We knew you didn’t want anything unusual going on, so we stopped the coach. I thought I better find out what you wanted us to do.”

“Who’s in the coach?”

“An old couple. Wealthy merchants of some sort, or so they claim. Something about orchards.”

“What did you tell them? You didn’t tell them about us, did you? You didn’t tell them that we have an army out here, did you?”

He shook his head vehemently. “No, Mother Confessor. We told them that there were outlaws in the neighborhood, and that we were a small patrol out looking for them. We told them they weren’t allowed to pass until I checked with my commander. I said they had to wait until I returned.”

Kahlan nodded. That’s quick thinking, Cynric.”