Halveric ticked them off on his fingers. “Our forest rangers, to the number of perhaps a thousand. Not many, to cover the entire realm, but the greatest number are deployed along the western border. They operate in small groups—mostly a hand or so, rarely more than three hands unless one calls for help—”

“What are their arms?” Kieri said.

“Blackwood bows,” Halveric said. “And swords, of course.”

“Training?”

“Woodscraft, primarily, and archery and fencing.” Halveric made a face. “Aliam’s pointed out to me before that they are not trained as a regular fighting force, the kind he uses. Archers, he says, are an adjunct to soldiers in formation, soldiers armed with polearms or sword and shield, like his company. Then he goes off into a spiel about mixed-arms tactics and I get lost. But I do understand that we have nothing that counts as an actual army, unless you count the Royal Archers.”

“And what are they?” Kieri asked.

“A longbow archery company, two hundred strong. You’ll see them at the coronation. They march and drill just like other foot soldiers.”

Kieri thought back to Aarenis. No one there used longbows; he’d had one of his cohorts trained in crossbows and had hired or allied with specialist crossbow units as well … but two hundred longbows …

“I suppose longbows haven’t the range of crossbows,” he said. “Or do they? They must be more awkward to carry and handle.” In his mind, he saw archers struggling through the woods, the longer bows catching on every vine and twig.

“Hardly,” Halveric said with a smile. “Didn’t Aliam talk about them? And doesn’t your paladin have a blackwood bow she got from our rangers? Talk to her, and find out why we never export bow-length blackwood.”

“But two hundred archers … against the Pargunese—” The Pargunese, he knew from paid spies and his own observations, could put two thousand troops in the field.

Halveric raised an eyebrow. “Do you know what happened during the Girdish wars?”

“No.” And what could that matter, as long ago as those wars had been.

“Quite a few Tsaian magelords thought it would be a good idea to shift into Lyonya, and drive us out. They knew we had no standing army, and even though they had been held back when the magelords first came over the mountain, they thought they had the resources to succeed.”

“But they were already fighting the Girdsmen,” Kieri said. “Why would they start another war?”

“They didn’t think they were starting another war,” Halveric said. “They thought they were invading a helpless neighbor who didn’t have the population or will to stand up to them. They knew that the humans in Lyonya were the same stock as those they’d conquered. And they knew somehow—how, I don’t know—that the Ladysforest elves were away, involved in something else.” He paused, and picked up a pastry from the tray. “They expected us to break as easily as this—” He broke the pastry. “And to be as soft inside. But they failed.”