Melcorka looked around the hall with its scattered tables and the remnants of festivities, the trampled food and broken hopes. There was one corpse under the table, a child who could not have been more than eighteen months old. "I will remember."
"Best get back to Bearnas," Baetan said. "I hope she knows what to do next."
* * *
Bearnas listened to their account. "They sacked Dun Edin but have left the plain of Lodainn untouched so far. They captured the king and his court and landed an army in the north." She sighed. "This was a well-planned operation. Capture the king and all the leading nobles while the main army ravages its way south."
"But why leave the Plain of Lodainn untouched?"
"It is one of the most fertile and docile parts of Alba," Bearnas said. "Why despoil an area that yo
