Bernsek whistles and the yard mostly quiets. The Casmenoc reinforcements don’t recognize the signal, but that’s to be expected. Bernsek stands up on the bench. “Attention! The margravine has returned!”

The knightage all sheathe their weapons and line up for inspection. Cinmahr puts Irenis directly between himself and Bernsek, and Jacryn abandons Gurstel immediately to stand at her back.

Bealuen Verith is a tall, strong woman with tanned skin, amethyst hair, and truly golden eyes. She rides up, smiling with sharp white teeth. Good, nothing has gone terribly wrong during her annual inspection of the ramparts. As the emperor goes on progress to inspect his empire every other year, so too do the margrave and margravine inspect the ramparts every year, to attempt to solve problems before they happen. “I hope you’re all ready for me to join in training!”

The Verith knights boo good-naturedly. Bealuen is a nightmare on the battlefield, and even though she tries to slow down for the mere humans around her, training with her is still quite the trial by fire. She’s such a good leader in other respects that it’s become a joke.

For most people, anyway.

Bealuen glances over the crowd and frowns. “At ease!”

Bernsek has a Suspicion. He glances down and yes, Irenis is one of the people snapping her hand down to her side. She’s so pale he’s genuinely worried she’s going to fall over. Jacryn, out of the corner of his eye, is less alarmed but his eyebrows are all the way up.

This, at least, isn’t concerning. The Verith margravate is possibly the least courtly and formal peerage house in the empire. Almost all their reinforcements get culture shock in the few days they spend here before being assigned out.

Bernsek steps out and forward. “My lady, the Casmenoc margravate has seen fit to send reinforcements.”

“I see.” Bealuen dismounts and stands with her hands behind her back. “Please introduce them to me.”

The Verith knights all pull away from the visitors. Cinmahr runs up to give his aunt a hug. “Hello, Aunt Bay!”

Bealuen grins and kneels to hug him. “Hello there. Have you been good?”

“Yes!”

Bernsek clears his throat. “He’s been given a total of twenty-three laps for hitting his classmates with his sword outside of sparring.”

“Cinmahr.”

“They started it! They just keep being awful to our commoner classmates!”

Bealuen covers her mouth with her hand. “We’ll talk about that later. For now, go wash up for lunch.”

The Casmenoc knights have all gathered in front of them while Bealuen was speaking with her nephew. Jacryn is between Gurstel and Irenis, which is trouble brewing if Bernsek has ever seen it. Meitha and Asnathe, with their incompatible opinions on femininity, being next to each other is also trouble brewing. Bernsek had better get through these introductions quick. “My lady, the Casmenoc knights—”

Gurstel scoffs. “Are waiting for an introduction! In what etiquette does a child rank over a knight?!” His hangers-on all jeer and laugh.

Jacryn opens his mouth, visibly considers Gurstel’s proximity to his charge, and closes his mouth again.

Bealuen stands up as Cinmahr goes inside, all her good humor gone. “That was my nephew, who resides here half the year. You are a guest, I presume?”

Bernsek nods slightly. She’s spot-on.

“I would suggest you hold your tongue until you’ve learned your manners.”

Bernsek decides to take hold of the situation. He steps forward. “As I was saying, the Casmenoc knights are here.” He introduces them from left to right, mostly because that means Gurstel will be third-to-last. “This is Sir Gurstel Dhorak, of the barony of Dhorak in the east; Sir Jacryn, no surname, sworn to the house of Casmenoc—”

“For now, your ladyship.” Jacryn bows slightly.

“—and his charge, Irenis formerly of Casmenoc.”

Bealuen makes the delighted kitten-in-the-stables face and kneels slightly to get down to Irenis’s level. “Hello there! Were you sent to be trained?”

Irenis very clearly wants to hide, but clenches her fist and holds firm. “No, your ladyship. I disobeyed my margrave and tried to steal the honor that belongs to Aulan, so I’ve been sent here to be useful. If I want to fight so badly, then I can do it here.”

UM. Bernsek shares a horrified look with Jacryn, mouthing “what the fuck??” at him. Jacryn makes a gesture like a shrug with extra horror.

Gurstel, so very helpfully, explains, “The brat tried to claim she was a sword master in front of all the vassals. Doubtless hoping she’d get noble honors she doesn’t deserve.”

Bealuen stands up. “All right then. You’ll be staying here for a week while we look for places you’re needed and determine your suitability to those places. In that time, you will be treated as any other knight. Captain Bernsek is your superior.”

Most of the Casmenoc knights and Irenis bow in acknowledgment. Gurstel doesn’t, and one of the annoying twins doesn’t, and Asnathe just snorts and looks away. Bernsek sighs. Great. Troublemakers.

Bealuen goes off to untack her horse and rendezvous with her husband.

—

Bealuen was a knight before she became the margravine. She cared for every one of her horses herself back when she was on the battlefield. So the grooms know that she knows what she’s doing when she leads Night Sparks in and takes off his saddle. They leave her be while she goes after the dirt with a currycomb and rubs Night Sparks down to get most of the sweat off.

The new horses in the stables catch her eye. She flags down Merloc, one of the grooms. “Are these the Casmenoc knights’ horses?”

“Yes, my lady. The white charger here is Sir Gurstel’s, the brown one is Meitha’s, the giant palomino belongs to the twins—”

“They ride a single horse together?”

“Yes, we’re not happy about that either.”

Bealuen makes a note to tell Maedis to split those two up. Put them in adjacent but different units, perhaps. This reeks of codependence.

“This gray charger belongs to Jacryn, and I have to say he’s probably the best about caring for his horse among them.”

That speaks well of him.

“And the little palfrey belongs to Irenis. She tries her best, but she’s not very tall, so we had to brush more dirt out of the top of the mane.”

That poor little girl. Bealuen stretches and puts away the comb.

Horse taken care of! She pats Night Sparks and goes to soak in the baths. She passes Sir Jacryn leaned up against a wall on the way there, but he appears to be taking a nap standing up. What day did the knights get here? Shouldn’t he have gotten a little rest?

The baths are loud for the five minutes that Bealuen’s bathtime overlaps with the lady knights’. But they’re just finishing up, so by the time Bealuen has set her armor on the dedicated “take this to the armory” bench and undressed, Irenis is scuttling out past her. She’s tiny. Bealuen frowns after her, and then goes to take her bath.

After her bath, she feels much better. She gets out, wrings out her hair, and dries off. Then she finds the set of clothes laid out for her already and gets dressed. Finally she sets off to find her husband.

Maedis is in their bedroom and the lotions are already laid out on the side table. He’s so wonderful. Bealuen smiles and crosses the room to kiss him. “Hello, beloved.”

“Welcome home, darling.” Maedis puts his arms around her waist and leans his head on her shoulder. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” Bealuen has been gone for a month. If it weren’t so important, it would be an intolerable time to be away from her husband. “How’s the margravate?”

Maedis says immediately, “The good news is that it’s still standing.”

Bealuen pokes him in the side.

“Eek.” He kisses her ear. “Shall we debrief?”

Bealuen strips down to her leggings and lies down on her stomach on the bed. Maedis grabs the lotion and starts rubbing it into her back. Bealuen sighs happily as all the stress melts out of her. “The generals noticed no problems they couldn’t solve. The pigeon plague crisis from last year is mostly mitigated, so our emergency communication network won’t break down.”

“Excellent to hear. How did it get solved?”

“Mage tower on the Third North invented a spell that inoculates pigeons against the plague. They’re preparing a human-safe version in case the plague makes the jump to humans.”

“Good. I’ll funnel some resources their way.” Maedis digs his thumb into a knot.

“When did the Casmenoc knights get here?”

“Yesterday afternoon, and I already can’t wait until they’re gone.” Maedis hums. “Well, Jacryn appears to have some honor, and of course little Irenis…”

“Yes. That worries me.” Bealuen grunts as Maedis finds a knot at the end of her spine. “She blames herself for getting sent here.”

“I’d noticed. We’ll have to keep an eye on her.”

“Of course.”