Music drifted out from Solinghi's into the...
Music drifted out from Solinghi's into the scented summer night, spilling along the lanes, rising toward the stars
Just after dawn, word cameAlberico of Barbadior had crossed the border the afternoon before and was advancing north with his three armies, burning villages and fields as he wentBefore noon they heard from the north as well: Brandin's fleet had lifted anchor in Farsaro Bay and was sailing south with a favorable wind
All through Senzio town people left their homes, left the taverns and the streets and began thronging, belatedly, to the temples of the Triad
In the almost deserted front room of Solinghi's that afternoon one man continued to play the Tregean pipes, faster and faster and higher and higher, in a wild, almost forgotten tune

Chapter 20

THE SEA WAS AT THEIR BACK, AT THE END OF A LONG goatherds' track that wound down the slope to the sands just south of where they'd beached the ships and come ashoreAbout two miles north of them the walls of Senzio rose up, see by chloe bags and from this height Dianora could see the gleaming of the temple domes and the ramparts of the castleThe sun, rising over the pine forests to the east, was bronze in a close, deep blue skyIt was warm already this early in the day; it would be very hot by mid-morning
By which time the fighting would have begun
Brandin was conferring with d'Eymon and Rhamanus and his captains, three of them newly appointed from the provincesFrom Corte and Asoli and Chiara itselfNot from Lower Corte, of course, though there were a number of men from her province in the army below them in the valleyShe had wondered briefly, lying awake one night in the flagship off Farsaro, if Baerd was one of themShe knew he wouldn't be thoughJust as Brandin could not change in this, neither could her brotherHowever much might alter, this single thing would go on until the last generation that knew Tigana died
And she? Since the Dive, since rising from the sea, she had been trying hard not to think at allSimply to move necklace pearl chanel with the events she had set in motionTo accept the shining fact of Brandin's love for her and the terrible uncertainties of this warShe no longer saw the riselka's path in her mind's eyeShe had some sense of what that meant, but she made an effort not to dwell upon it during the dayNights were different; dreams were always differentShe was owner and captive, both, of a bitterly divided heart
With her two guards just behind her she moved forward on the crown of the hill and looked out over the wide east-west running valleyThe dense green pine woods were beyond, with olive trees growing on steeper ridges to the south and a plateau north leading to Senzio town
Down below the two armies were just stirring, men emerging from their tents and sleeping-rolls, horses being saddled and harnessed, swords cleaned, bowstrings fitted and readiedMetal glinted in the young sun all along the valleyThe sound of voices carried easily up to her in the clear bright airThere was just enough breeze to cc chanel logo earrings take the banners and lift them to be seenTheir own device was new: a golden image of the Palm itself, picked out against a background of deep blue for the seaThe meaning of Brandin's chosen image was as clear as he could make it, they were fighting in the name of the Western Palm, but the truer claim was to everythingTo a united peninsula with Barbadior driven awayIt was a good symbol, Dianora knewIt was also the proper, the necessary step for this peninsulaBut it was being taken by the man who had been King of Ygrath
There were even Senzians in Brandin's army, besides the men of the four western provincesSeveral hundred had joined them from the city in the two days since they'd landed in the southern part of the bayWith the Governor dead and a squabble for meaningless power going on in the castle, the official policy of Senzian neutrality was in tattersHelped, no one doubted, by Alberico's decision to torch the lands through which he had come, in retaliation for Barbadian deaths in chanel jumbo flap the cityHad the Barbadians moved faster Rhamanus might have had trouble landing the fleet in the face of opposition, but the winds had been with them, and they reached the city a full day before AlbericoWhich let Brandin choose the obvious hill from which to overlook the valley, and to align his men where he wanted themIt was an advantage, they all knew it
It had seemed less of one the next morning when the three armies of Barbadior arrived emerging out of the smoke of burning to the southThey had two banners, not one: the Empire's red mountain and golden tiara against their white background, and Alberico's own crimson boar on a yellow fieldThe red in both banners seemed to dot the plain like stains of blood, while horsemen and foot-soldiers arrayed themselves in crisp, precisely drilled ranks along the eastern side of the valleyThe soldiers of the Barbadian Empire had conquered most of the known world to the east
Dianora had stood on the hill watching them comeIt seemed to take miu miu clutch forev