Chapter 22
I spent the rest of the day at my town house in Vo Wacune. My champion’s remark about cooling one’s blood made a lot of sense just then. We did have this incidental little war to get out of the way before we got down to serious business.
The temperature of my blood didn’t noticeably go down, however, and by the next morning, I was about to start climbing the walls. I gave up at that point and flew on north to check the positions of our two armies.
Lathan’s Wacite army was crossing the River Camaar, and he and I spoke briefly on the north bank while we watched small boats and rafts ferrying his troops across. ‘All doth proceed as we have planned, your Grace,’ he assured me in that strangely empty voice I’d noticed when he’d first told Andrion and me of the Asturian plan.
‘What’s the matter, Lathan?’ I asked him very directly. ‘You seem somehow sad.’
He sighed. ‘It is of no moment, your Grace,’ he said. ‘All will be made right again soon. The end of my discontent is now clearly in sight. I will be most glad when it is behind me.’
‘I certainly hope so, dear Lathan,’ I told him. ‘You’re as gloomy as a rainy day. Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’d better go see where General Halbren is.’
General Halbren had reached the northern end of Lake Sulturn by now. He advised me that he’d received word that an incoming Tolnedran merchantman had seen the Asturian fleet about eight miles off-shore near Camaar about three days ago, and that was a sure indication that everything was proceeding according to schedule. I rode along beside my solid general for the rest of that day, putting off my next meeting with Ontrose. I still wasn’t entirely positive that I wouldn’t do something wildly inappropriate the moment I laid eyes on him. Just the thought of my beautiful champion made my heart start to flutter.
It could very well have been that fluttering that decided my course of action the next morning. Clearly, I wasn’t ready to meet Ontrose just yet, so I decided to fly out over the Great Western Sea to pinpoint the location of the Asturian fleet. If there’d been a favoring wind from the south, we might have to re-think our schedule.
I crossed the coastline at about the site of the present-day city of Sendar and then spiraled upward until I’d reached a height of several thousand feet. From up there, I could see for ten leagues in any direction. If General Halbren’s information had been correct, the enemy fleet should be somewhere near where I’d flown out over open water. They weren’t anywhere in sight, though, and that made me very nervous. Perhaps I’d underestimated their speed, so I veered off and flew north along the coast, watching the seaward side. Still nothing. By mid-afternoon I’d rounded the tip of that out-thrust peninsula, and I knew that it was impossible for them to have come this far in six days, but Garteon probably did have access to a Grolim and all that implies. I grimly pressed on, and just as evening was turning the sky above me a deep purple, I reached the mouth of the Seline River. There weren’t any ships of any kind there. I was nearing exhaustion, so I spiraled down and roosted in an oak tree near the beach. Maybe Garteon’s ships were slower than I’d estimated instead of faster. That meant that I’d have to back-track and cover the sea-lanes to the south instead of up this way. I was going to find that fleet.
I roused myself just as dawn was tinging the eastern sky and flew south, darting my eyes in every direction as I went.
It was an hour or so past noon when I finally found them. They were no more than ten leagues north of Camaar, and would you believe that they were at anchor? What was going on here? I veered off, crossed the coastline and came to rest on a dead snag in the marshes that lie to the north of Camaar.
This didn’t make any sense! If you’re planning an invasion, you don’t stop to take a vacation along the way. Something very peculiar was happening. One thing was absolutely certain, though. I had to get this information to Ontrose. This turn of events had cured my fluttering, at least, so I launched myself into the air and flew north over the marshes until I reached solid ground. Then I settled to earth, resumed my own form, and used translocation instead of feathers. In effect, I hopped from hilltop to hilltop. It may sound a bit like a jerky way to travel, but if the hilltops are three or four leagues apart, it does enable you to cover a lot of ground in a hurry.
It was almost sunset when I reached Seline, and then I went looking for Ontrose.
I found that he was quartered in the house of the chief magistrate of Seline, an old friend of mine, actually, and I had little trouble getting in to see my beloved.
He rose to his feet and bowed as I entered. ‘Your Grace,’ he greeted me formally. ‘Art thou still vexed with me?’
I winced, remembering the shriek I’d hurled after him when he’d left my manor house. ‘No, dear Ontrose,’ I assured him. ‘I broke a few dishes after you left, and that made me feel better.’
He gave me a baffled look.
‘It’s a womanly sort of thing, Ontrose. You wouldn’t understand. Now then, I’ve come across a mystery, and I think I’m going to need your help in finding a solution.’
‘If it is within my power,’ he said modestly.
‘I certainly hope it is, because it has me baffled. After you ran away from me, I went on down to Vo Wacune to advise Andrion of our progress, and then I came back north again. Baron Lathan was ferrying his army across the River Camaar, and General Halbren had just marched north out of Sulturn, so everything’s going according to our plans.’
“That is most comforting,’ he said.
‘Enjoy it while you can, Ontrose, because the next part has worms crawling out of it.’
‘Oh?’
‘I flew on out over the Great Western Sea to find out just exactly where Garteon’s ships were located. It took me quite a while, but I finally found them. They’re standing at anchor ten leagues to the north of Camaar.’
‘What?’
‘Garteon’s fleet’s not moving, Ontrose. The mystery I mentioned has to do with “why”? I can’t even begin to imagine what he’s up to.’
‘Art thou certain?’
‘Oh, yes, Ontrose, absolutely certain. I didn’t think it’d be a good idea to fly down and ask them, so I came here instead. Is there any reason at all for a seaborne army to just stop like that?’
‘None that I can fathom, your Grace.’
‘Polgara,’ I corrected him. ‘We got past the “your Grace” business some days back, as I recall.’