Dethor made a sound like a groan, and Talamir nodded. “Just what I thought, and I told Sendar as much,” the King’s Own replied bitterly. “But trying to keep either of them out of the fight at this point is impossible. Stopping the Tedrels now is going to take everything we have, and Sendar believes that if he and Selenay stay safe in Haven, we will lose the fight before it even begins. If they take the field, there isn’t a man or a woman who won’t fight better for their presence. And much as I hate to say this, I have to concur.”

With a sense of sick agreement, Alberich nodded. The warning had been delivered and heeded, but it clearly would make no difference to the King and Heir. So—

The warning was given to me: Therefore, it is I who must act on it.

“Then this, I can do,” Alberich said firmly. “Heralds there will be, and Guards, to shield them in a battle guard. So, to me, bring them for training. To make the shield-wall for a King, a special skill is, and each man, his place must know, and know that the right- and left-hand comrade will firmly stand.”

“And he has to know how to fill in when the man to his side falls,” Dethor seconded grimly. “Alberich’s right, Talamir. We haven’t had a King go into combat in—glory!—over a century. More, I think; I never was much good at history. We haven’t had a battle guard in all that time. I don’t know the strategy except from books.”

“But trained the Sunsguard is, for such a thing,” Alberich told them. “Sunpriests, Red Robes, and Archpriests and Hierophants we must guard, if not the Son of the Sun—for into the vanguard they will go. When know you Sendar’s battle guard, to me send them. Selenay’s battle guard, I will choose. And Selenay’s battle guard and bodyguard, I will lead. Remain here, I will not.” He was slightly appalled to feel his spirits rising a little at the prospect of a fight at last, and something he could do. Action, rather than sitting.

But that was just it, really; it was a fight at last. No one could deny him his right to be in the thick of it now. He would be the leader of Selenay’s battle guard; no one could stop him now.

“So far as the Palace Guard members are concerned, I would just as soon that you chose for both Sendar and Selenay,” Talamir said thoughtfully. “You are the best judge of them, since you work with them all the time.”