Chapter Seven
HER MAJESTY AT COUNCIL
All praise to Lord Ostendil, wisest soldier of his age, for the trap he had planned and for the faultless execution of his plan. As soon as Megiluin’s movement from the Ford was known to the Queen – which was more or less at once, thanks to the Tirissar – she ordered the Barons to muster their full strength of knights and men-at-arms, and raised levies from among the Foro, multitudes of whom were still encamped around Ruminas. Two weeks had sufficed to gather her legions and to give the new formations some training; and the Dwarves were busy in the city armouries. When it became clear that the invaders were advancing first to Thaliondas, Ostendil put his plan into effect. On the seventeenth of September the captains and commanders led their companies forth, each leader being supplied with good maps and the new small compass-loadstones. Spreading eastwards to the North and South of the City, in two great arc-shaped wings, they all arrived at their prescribed positions. On the morning of the nineteenth, after Melohtar had seen Swin leave the castle, Ostendil sent out swift messengers, ordering the troops to advance and to form their wide circle; at midday on the twenty-first, fifteen miles to Swin’s rear, the regiments at the end of the long lines – the two tips of the incurving wings – had met. The great operation had been carried out, and it would now make little difference how soon Swin’s scouts became aware of the Queen’s forces.
Thoughtful heads have posed the question: why was this hugely elaborate operation considered necessary in the first place? Why might not the Queen’s forces simply encounter Swin’s army as one, and smash it with ease and overwhelming strength? The answer, as should be more widely known, is that Gauriel and Ostendil had been disturbed by the anguished messages which were coming in from northern Undor and the regions around Tregg. Dreng, in the end, did more than succeed in tying down Megiluin’s army: he wrought such havoc that the thinking of the Thandorian leaders was changed. Gauriel now insisted, and the Barons agreed, that Swin’s army must be trapped in its entirety. The escape of another segment of his forces, and a repetition of this new and horrifying ‘petty warfare’, whether along the west bank of the Malog, say, or to the North and the East of Ruminas, was too bad to think of. The rebels must be fully contained before being defeated and wiped out. To this end Ostendil devised his plan.
By now Megiluin had succeeded in evicting Dreng from the neighbourhood of Tregg. The latter was retreating northward, still very much an active force, while the shocked Tregglanders were contemplating the terrible damage he had done. Megiluin himself, leaving the task of chasing and catching Dreng to his own second-in-command, had ridden back to the City with a strong escort. He was anxious and angry, for his own designs were going awry; and in doing this he was disobeying a command of Gauriel, who, as we know, had her own reasons for wanting him out of the way. ‘My lord Megiluin,’ said she: ‘you are welcome to us. Undor and the West are free, then, of enemies?’
He stooped from his great height to kiss her hand. ‘Indeed, Your Majesty,’ he answered ponderously. ‘Undor is clear of the rebels: Tregg and the villages round it are also free. Dreng, the rebel commander, has retreated into the inhospitable desert; his horses are starving and his men at the end of their strength. He can do no more annoyance to Your Majesty’s subjects.’
‘That is good news,’ said the Queen. She was seated in the large chair of the council chamber. The time was about half an hour after the meeting between Swin and Melda; the red light had faded from the sky and the chamber was lit by candles. There was no rock-blood left in the City. The following persons were also present in the council chamber: Ostendil, Hriveor, Crabanir, an older lord named Gorin, and Quendil the Lord Secretary. (He, and the Queen herself, are Aldred’s sources for this account of the meeting.)
‘If he remains where he is,’ said Ostendil, resuming the discourse that had been interrupted by Megiluin’s arrival, ‘we shall catch up with him by tomorrow noon. If he advances, the encircling will take a little longer. If he retreats, we shall catch him all the sooner.’
‘You are quite sure that the City is safe?’ asked the pale-faced Queen. She wore a silken patch over her left eye, for it had become sore and inflamed; but the grey silk matched the gleaming grey of her heavy, full-skirted gown, and her composure was perfect.
‘Madam, have no fear,’ said Ostendil. His eyes were clear and cold. ‘The City has more than ample defence. Shall I remind you? The eighteen thousand we have here, who are to defend us and bar his way, are also the hard place into which we are driving him, the rock on which he is to be broken.’
‘Who’s to command this army?’ asked Megiluin.
‘My lord Ostendil,’ said the Queen. Melohtar and Crabanir, his captains, will command the left and right wings of the host.’
‘The wings, eh? Are Your Majesty’s own guards not to fight in the battle?’
‘The Arostiri are assigned to an honourable and important position on the right wing,’ answered Ostendil.
‘Why not the centre?’ insisted Megiluin. ‘Aren’t they the best of all our troops, by blood and prowess, with Crabanir their captain? Why deny their right to the midmost place, the place of trust and honour? Why this disrespect to my son?’
The Queen and Lord Ostendil exchanged a glance. ‘Very well, my lord,’ she said: ‘Let Captain Crabanir command the centre under Ostendil. The tall ensigns of my Guards shall encourage the whole host.’
Continue to Part Nine, Chapter Eight