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happened.
    “Corin?”
    “The dragons.” His mouth did not want to shape the word.
    “Tell me.”
    It was hard to say. “They were observing.” Faltering sometimes, the words slipping away, he described the constant presence of the dragons. He remembered the way the sun sparked on their wings, the curl of the garrison pennants in their passage. “I don’t know if they were watching that hold alone, or others. There’s not—since—I haven’t seen others. But I can tell you that I was not the only one. To notice. There were plenty of men looking up. No one said anything. I take it there’s been nothing from the spies in Mycene to suggest anything amiss.”
    Aram shook his head. “Nothing.”
    “I don’t like that.” The spies were too good for silence to be convincing. Someone should have known why Hadon sent his dragons north.
    “It may be the least of our worries,” Aram said. “You saw them the entire time you were there?”
    For a moment he was mute. Then he found his voice. “Yes,” he said. “They’d been seen by others before I got there, too.” The words were clear, spoken by someone else. He could not remember if it was true.
    Aram broke a wooden stylus in half with a loud snap. That was something he never did either. He said, “Then whatever plans he’smaking in that tangled mind of his, it’s probably not to do with the Sarians. Set it aside if you can for now.”
    Corin looked sideways at his father. Now it was Aram who wasn’t saying all he thought. He decided not to push it. The king would tell him when he was ready. He said, “Does Hadon know about Tyrekh?”
    Aram said, “God knows what his spies have told him. But I sent to him as soon as I heard, we should have his response in a day or two. We can only hope there’s time.”
    “What have you planned?”
    “Coll’s beginning to organize the troops, and we sent out more scouts. I called a formal war council. Most of the dukes were on their way here anyway for the summer court, so it will take place fairly soon, perhaps even tomorrow. I told the ones who have already arrived, but they’re to keep it quiet. You can tell Bron, but no one else.”
    Summer court, he should have stayed away. He hoped his younger sister Tai was coming too, she would keep him sane with her dry wit and mischievous suggestions. She had married last fall and he was still not used to her absence. He was very glad she had not been made to marry one of Hadon’s sons.
    His gaze went to the dog, who was sleeping on her pillow in the corner. Why had she jumped him? “Tell me what else you know about Tyrekh’s movement.”
    They pulled the chairs closer together and spent some time going over the details of Aram’s reports. It felt like something acted, done over and over. Three years ago Corin had spent many hours staring at maps, discussing numbers and formations and movements of soldiers, planning defenses. There was not much in the way of alternatives, and Tyrekh would deduce the plans accurately. They had little choice in what they did. The land forced them into certain stances.
    A river ran the length of the Caithenian border with Argondy. The northern half, coming down out of the Fells, was steep and rocky. The river was swift and cut into deep gorges with sheer treeless sides or cascaded down falls several hundred feet high. South the land softened to low hills, but the river widened to a lake, eight miles wide and a hundred miles long, with marshes and bogs on either side. Eventually it narrowed back to a river, but it was still as wide as a mile in some places and even boggier. Several crossing points could be made across the lake, butferrying an army was impractical. The only viable entry for a large mass of men into Caithen from Argondy was the main road with its many-arched bridge across the river. It was still hill country there, and an army would be vulnerable to ambushes and attacks from above. That was the sole tactical advantage Caithen