Haven: A Trial of Blood and Steel Book Four by Joel Shepherd Page B

won their major battle, they wonder if they need us anymore. Already they bicker over how they will divide these lands amongst themselves, and we are not party to any of that. We become a distraction, brother…and so the Regent sends Sofy to Tracato, to get her out of the way. And he'd love to have me out of the way too, no doubt.”
    “So important you've become in your own mind,” Koenyg sighed, with faint disbelief.
    Sasha did not bother replying. She had a following in the Army of Lenayin—she was Nasi-Keth, and some men's sympathies lay with the serrin. She did not wish to state so boldly what the leaders of the Army of the Bacosh feared from her, not here. No doubt they felt the Army of Lenayin would be a far more predictable ally beneath Koenyg's sole control, with Sashandra Lenayin elsewhere.
    “I could order you to go,” Koenyg suggested.
    “You could order pigs to fly,” Sasha said flatly. “Sofy is under more threat with me than without me; she doesn't need all my enemies coming after her as well. My place is here, with the Army of Lenayin.”
    “Fine,” said Koenyg, dismissing her with a word. “Sofy will go to Tracato. I would send someone with her, though. I will think on it.”
    He walked off, and the small gathering dispersed.
    Jaryd approached her and Damon, and beckoned them aside to the lake. “There is some word of resistance ahead,” he said. “The Army of the Bacosh is beset by skirmishers; it seems their forward light cavalry suffer defeats.”
    “That will be Kessligh,” Sasha said quietly.
    Damon nodded. “Men of this army will not be happy to hear it.”
    “Some say Kessligh has betrayed Lenayin,” said Jaryd.
    “Others say Koenyg leads us on a fool's errand,” Damon countered. “I do not like this mood the men are in. We are not only defeated, we doubt ourselves.”
    “Kessligh can't slow the entire Bacosh Army for long,” said Sasha. “He's being a nuisance, buying time for the Rhodaani Steel to get back to Enora. But if he keeps it up, we'll be gaining on the Bacosh Army in a few days.”
    A silence followed. Gaining on the Army of the Bacosh would put the Army of Lenayin into direct conflict for the first time since the Battle of Shero Valley. Against forces led by Kessligh. Sasha looked at the ground. She wished she did not feel anything, that she could make herself like stone.
    Damon left to attend to other matters. Jaryd remained with Sasha. Sasha guessed his thoughts.
    “Sofy will be fine,” she said quietly.
    “You know I don't believe that,” said Jaryd. Sasha gazed at him. There were four rings in his right ear now. His light brown hair was approaching collar length, haphazard about his face. In past weeks, he'd grown to become Damon's most trusted advisor, a young man who shared Damon's distaste for lordly pretension, and favoured the most direct solution to every problem.
    “Yes,” said Sasha, “but unlike you, I have concern only for her safety, not her chastity.” Jaryd's look was reproachful. Sasha sighed. “I'm sorry. Jaryd, Koenyg must send a party of Lenays with Sofy to Tracato. It's the proper form, for an alliance between armies—Tracato is important, Lenayin should have representation. Would you like to go?”
    “Is that wise?” Jaryd asked.
    “Most people would think that a fine joke,” Sasha said wryly. “You, asking that question of me.”
    Jaryd snorted. Then laughed, humourlessly. “I'll go if you tell me to,” he said.
    “Jaryd.” Sasha stood close to him, and stared him in the eyes. “Do you love her?”
    Jaryd looked away, across the lake, and sighed. “Woe befall me if I do.”
    A landless ex-lord could have no hope of consummating such a love, he meant. Such a man could throw his life away in pursuit of dangerous things that were beyond him by the gods' own law.
    “Jaryd, Koenyg's right. Sofy would be safer with some protection, at least. Just not mine. And if not you, then who? Who would do it better?”
    “When I was a