“Only if you promise to give me one as well.”
Her cousin finally smiled and it was as blinding as the sun. “No blood oaths needed.”
Nora laughed softly as she got back to her feet, pulling Elea with her. “I’m pretty sure that we already did that part.”
45
MATTEO
It felt surreal to sit at the same oval table as the morning before. Only this time, there were several chairs empty. The people who sat there were dead and buried under a city of rubble. Nora could have easily been one of those nameless, forgotten bodies. His heart pinched as she squeezed his hand tighter. They were both still here and he never wanted her out of his sight again.
Laird Donnelly cleared his throat. “Laird Lochdon’s armies have fled back toward the capital. The queen is safe.”
“No,” Elea said, sitting at the head of the table. She raised her damaged right hand. “We must give them chase. We cannot allow Laird Lochdon or his soldiers to reach Bhailmore. If they entrench themselves behind the city walls, we could be in for a long siege. And we do not have enough volunteers or ammunition for such an endeavor.”
“But they’ve already gone.”
“They’ll be slow,” Nora said. “They’ll have their wounded in wagons as well as their cannons and supplies.”
“If we travel lightly and quickly, we could catch up to them before they reach the capital,” Matteo said.
A man with a black beard and a scar across his forehead hit the table with his thick fist. “We are outnumbered four to one. Laird Lochdon still has over two thousand men. We would be foolish to go on the offensive. To leave the safety of these walls.”
“You are right,” Matteo said, “but you cannot win on the defensive.”
Elea stood up. “I appreciate all of your comments; however, as your queen, I have decided that we are going to fight Laird Lochdon and his armies before they reach the capital. I want all of our women and men fed, armed, and ready to march by noon. If we’re lucky, we’ll catch up to them while it’s still light. You may go.”
Matteo and Nora watched person after person leave the room. Nora’s grandmother was the last one and she closed the door behind her, as if she knew that they were going to continue their council without anyone else.
Matteo smiled at her approvingly. “I liked your firmness and decisiveness. Very queenly.”
Elea huffed, shaking her head. “You’re the only one who did. They follow me reluctantly. They think I am foolish.”
“Just because you are young and a woman,” Nora said, “does not mean that you are inexperienced. Or that your plans are not wise. They need to have faith in you, Màthair, the Trigon Prophecy, and your plan.”
One side of Elea’s mouth quirked up into a half smile. “I don’t have a plan yet. I am waiting for you two to come up with one.”
“Màthair help us!” Matteo said, throwing up his hands in mock dismay.
Both cousins laughed.
46
NORA
Their plan was a simple one. The men and women who had horses were going to form a makeshift cavalry. They would run through Laird Lochdon’s forces and break them apart. Companies of gunners would make defensive squares. They would shoot their guns and then attack with their swords and bayonets. A small group of archers would shoot arrows on fire at the wagons with the cannons, hopefully blowing them up or, at the least, disabling them. Meanwhile, their volunteers on foot would shift their position and cut off Laird Lochdon’s armies from the capital. They would back them up into the river like her father’s men had backed her and Matteo up to the castle’s moat.
She looked to her right and saw Elea riding a horse beside her. Their pace was slow so that the foot soldiers could keep up and that their horses would not be too tired when they reached Laird Lochdon’s men. Her cousin had a bow draped across her chest and a quiverful of arrows. Elea was determined to take part in this battle.
“Are you scared?” Elea asked, pointing ahead.
Nora got her first glimpse of her father’s army. It loomed ahead of them, large and ponderous. They were a little over two miles from the rock walls of Bhailmore. She could see Bhailmore Castle in the distance. The home where she grew up. She glanced at Matteo and then back at her cousin. Her queen.
“I am prepared to do all that I must.”
“I am terrified.”
“What?!” Nora said in mock surprise. “Queen Elea, the destroyer of cities and burier of armies, is frightened of a small battle?”