“Look who decided to join us.” Cinar exclaimed when he saw Braydon approaching. A number of lords preferred to ride together, and the natural gathering place for them in a moving army was with the King. They did not disappoint. Other than those close to the king, or even his faction, a number of lords from the northeast were also nearby. Although, since they had been on the road for a couple of days, they were already talking amongst themselves rather than as one big group. And that was exactly what Braydon had been waiting for. He would much rather not deal with most of them.
“You say that as if I was not marching with the army.” Braydon responded in good humour. He knew that Cinar was taking pot shots after the comments that had been made about his own tardiness a few days before.
“For all I know you may not have. Though I am sure that Sir Rhydian would have had something to say about it if you had.” Cinar tried to pull Rhydian into the conversation in an unfruitful attempt. Rhydian may have done it if there were no observers but he was not about to make jokes at his lords expense with outsiders present, even if he found it somewhat funny.
“Well since nobody has come to bother me, I presume that nothing much has happened these past few days then?” Braydon asked to make sure but he knew that nothing had happened. He knew full well that Rhydian would not have held back on telling him about important affairs.
“Indeed, everything looks like it is going how we predicted.” Rhydian replied, using the more appropriate timing to enter the conversation. Though, his wording caused some caution in Braydon.
“Looks like?” He knew that Rhydian was very precise in his speech when he wanted to be. If he said it like that, then it meant that he at least suspected that something was amiss even if he had no evidence of it.
“Yes. It seems as if Duke Ryder has put up exactly zero precautions against us even though we are quite obviously following him. We are only keeping our distance, not hiding our army. There is no way that he does not know about our position.” To Rhydian, this was very odd behaviour. While he knew that Duke Ryder was not averse to taking risks to gain an advantage, this was not something that would lead to an advantage. It was simply careless.
“Then do you have any ideas what he is up to?” Braydon asked. Since it was known about, it had definitely been discussed. And he refused to believe that Duke Ryder was that careless. Nobody who had gotten to a position like his was careless. They would already be dead.
“Our scouts have not confirmed anything out of place, but I feel like he is trying to set up some kind of trick to set us up.” Rhydian stated. Given the Duke’s past record it was likely that he would try to do something like that. But even so, Braydon felt it was something else.
“Are you sure that he is not just given confidence by something else?” He had to ask. Braydon had enough faith in the royal scouts that they would be able to detect some kind of trap, but if it were something else that was giving the Duke confidence then it made sense why everything seemed to be proceeding as normal.
“What are you thinking of?” The King asked. While he had remained silent until then, it did not mean that he had not been listening. And Braydon’s thought had caught his attention. Of anyone, the King was the most aware of how skilled his scouts were. He found it even less likely than Braydon that they would have missed something so potent that it could be considered a trap for an army over 10,000 strong.
“Well, he already managed to convince one man to stand by his side, what makes us so sure than he does not have more that he has brought over to his side?” Braydon doubted that there was just one Viscount Sharpe. He didn’t think that they were all as stupid as the late Viscount, but there was no lack of lords who were not above changing sides if it benefitted them.
“You are saying that there are more traitors among us?” The King asked. Even if Braydon was not pointing fingers at anyone it was still not something to be taken lightly. While many lords were not above such actions, that did not mean that they did not value their honour.
“I am saying that it is a possibility. And Duke Ryder has used this strategy before.” Braydon did not doubt that Duke Ryder had at least some lords in the other factions in his back pocket. Being the head of the richest and most powerful faction, it was not hard for Duke to convince at least a few people to act as moles.
“It is a possibility but would he really put his faith in such people after the example set by Viscount Sharpe?” Cinar asked. If anything, the failure of Viscount Sharpe to achieve anything noteworthy was a good reason not to be confident because of moles. It was hardly something that should inspire confidence.
“If I were him I would not be confident if I had only convinced a Viscount either. If he really does have traitors on his side, they would have to be much stronger than Viscount Sharpe, or in greater numbers.” Braydon added. Though he doubted that the Duke had managed to convince many lords. His actions thus far had not exactly made him the most popular.
“You think that he may have convinced an earl?” Rhydian asked. None of them took seriously the proposition that a large number of lords had been convinced to switch sides. They would already have made themselves known if it were the case. But that did not mean that it would be much easier to convince an earl. Earls were generally the members of the nobility that started mattering at court, and there were nowhere near as many of them as there were barons and viscounts.
“It is worthy of consideration. Especially if we plan to get any closer to his army. The last thing we want is for them to turn around and have our formations disrupted from within.” Braydon did not want to lose to something stupid like that. It was one thing to lose because your opponent had a larger army, it was another thing to lose before the battle even began.
