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tame them to his cause. Ullsaard had managed to cajole, threaten and basically bludgeon the governors into lending him their support, and several of them were still sore from the experience and no doubt looking for a little payback. Asuhas was one of those who had come quite willingly, and that in itself made Ullsaard suspicious. Asuhas had changed master once without too many qualms, he could do it easily again for Urikh.
      All of which pondering did not help Ullsaard reach a decision. He had dashed back, filled with a deep fury at his son's treachery, but a long march had tempered his anger with patience.
      Menesun, Ullsaard thought suddenly.
      In hotwards Ersua, barely fifty miles from the scrub of NearMekha, Ullsaard had a villa and estates from his time as a general. Like his lands in Apili, he had not thought about them since he had set out for Askh, but now they might have a use.
      Menesun was about six days' march to hotwards from the Magilnada gap. From there he could find out more concerning the state of play in the empire. Those garrisons and companies he had questioned in Salphoria had known nothing was amiss at home, but if Urikh wanted to exercise power as king the knowledge had to become public. A few days within the borders would tell Ullsaard a lot more about the situation than he knew now.
      He passed the word for his bodyguard to turn hotwards across the plains, feeling more confident about the next few days than he had been when he had woken up. With a bit of luck and some hard work, it would be possible to curtail Urikh's rule before it had even begun.
      With his immediate plans settled, Ullsaard allowed his mind to wander a bit further ahead as he contemplated the punishments he could mete out on his wayward son.

GENLADEN, ERSUA
    Autumn, 213th Year of Askh
     

I
    Built out of timbers taken from the woods in the Ersuan Highlands, the houses and stores of Genladen seemed rustic and peaceful, set against the foothills of the mountains. Smoke drifted lazily from the chimney holes in the roofs and the streets were home to goats, chickens and other small livestock, which roamed freely between the two dozen or so buildings that made up the village. A narrow stream cut through the centre of the hamlet, crossed by a wooden bridge wide enough for two carts to pass abreast. There was one stone building at the heart of the Genladen, which from a distance seemed to be both a tavern and some kind of official residence.
      From the road overlooking the valley in which Genladen nestled, Ullsaard and his men watched the village. It had been more than fifty days since they had left Carantathi and in that time they had barely seen a night under a roof. Ullsaard could feel the anticipation of the soldiers as they looked down at the alehouse, with its brightly painted red benches in the main square.
      "I want good behaviour from all of you," Ullsaard warned them. "We are entering my lands now. I will pay for lodgings and legion ration, anything else comes out of your own pockets. And you will pay for everything. There will be no foraging here. Am I understood?"
      There was a chorus of "ayes" from the fifty soldiers.
      "Right, let's get on then."
      It was early in Low watch, mid-morning, and the only inhabitants to be seen were women and children attending to the chores of the day. They stopped to gawp at the soldiers and their leader, the peasants' attention fixated by the ailur of the king. Smaller infants raced off with terrified yelps and screams, while the older children shied away or grinned moronically.
      "Shouldn't they be paying homage or something?" asked Sergeant Muuril, marching not far behind Ullsaard. "This ain't no way to welcome a king."
      "I'll not be causing a fuss, sergeant," replied Ullsaard. "These people don't know me from their cousins, much less know I'm the king."
      "They know you're important, right enough," added Gelthius. "Ailur and a bodyguard makes you