“My lady, we have more on our side than he can guess at. We have a thousand trained fighters besides our own that he knows nothing about. We have the choice of battleground. And we have the Heralds to ensure that there are no botched orders or misheard messages, or commands that come too late to be effective. The only thing I fear are his mages.” Now doubt did shadow the Lord Marshal’s eyes, and creep into his voice. “We have no way of knowing what they can do, how many he has, or if we can counteract them. And they may turn the day for him.”

“And Heraldic Gifts for the most part are not much use offensively,” Selenay added, sobered by the thought of the mages. “If only we had one of the Herald-mages alive today.”

“Lady-Queen, will I do?”

Selenay whirled, startled. As she and Randon had been absorbed in watching the Border and in their conversation, two Heralds had climbed the hill behind them. One was Dirk, pale, but looking better than he had in days.

The other, so begrimed with dust that his Whites were gray, his face lined with exhaustion, but sporting a self-conscious grin despite his weariness, was Griffon.

“I brought him right here as soon as we’d pried him off his saddle, Majesty,” Dirk said. “This lout just may be our answer to the mages—remember his Gift? He’s a Firestarter, Majesty.”

“Just point out what you want to go up in flames—or who,” Griffon added. “I guarantee it’ll go. Kyril hasn’t found anything that’ll block me yet.”

“That’s no boast, Majesty; I trained him, I know what he can do. He’s limited to line-of-sight, but that should be good enough.”

“But—you were riding circuit up North,” Selenay said, dazed with the sudden turn in their fortunes that brought Griffon there when he was most needed. “How did you even find out we were under threat, much less get here in time?”

“Pure, dumb, Herald’s luck,” Griffon replied. “I ran into a Herald Courier whose Gift just happens to be Foresight; her message was delivered and we were—ah—passing an evening together. That night she got a really strong vision; all but dragged me out of bed and threw me into the saddle stark naked. She took over my circuit, I rode for the Border as fast as Harevis could carry me. And here I am. I just hope I can do you some good.”

The setting sun was turning the clouds bloody when one of the lookouts reported the first long-awaited sign of Ancar’s army. Selenay prayed that the blood-red of the sunset was not an ill omen for her forces, even while she and the Lord Marshal issued the first of the orders for the battle to come.