Soon preparations for war began in earnest. And this was like nothing in Sarazin's experience. For it was not a matter of sending away one or two thousand men to fight some- where beyond the horizon. This was the mobilisation of an entire nation for a war to the death.
Morgan Hearst was unlike Thodric Jarl in many ways. For a start, Hearst was very tense – as if he were on the edge of a nervous breakdown. He was labouring under an immense mental burden, and he was very, very bitter. That Sarazin saw easily, though he could not decipher the source of the bitterness.
But, in some ways, Hearst was exactly like Jarl. He had the same habit of command, the same ruthless style, and gave the same impression of being extremely danger- ous. What's more, when Hearst commanded, men obeyed.
Sarazin, knowing he could never hope to command the same obedience himself, was intensely jealous. This was the day of Selzirk's greatest danger. And Sean Sarazin was doing nothing for the city: instead, this foreign adventurer was winning all the glory.
After a lot of hard thought, Sarazin came up with a little scheme which he personally thought brilliant. He proposed that Drake Douay be brought from his dungeon and sent to 'Marphos to offer Alish safe conduct and a massive bribe if he surrendered. This might just work. And, even if it didn't – Sarazin would feel safer with a potential assassin out of the city.
To Sarazin's surprise, Plovey supported this scheme, and it was eventually put into practice. But Alish made no reply to this overture, and Douay did not return to Selzirk. Meanwhile, Hearst carried on organising for war. His performance was impressive indeed.
Until the day when he made a reconnaissance of the plain to the north of Androlmarphos, where he planned to fight Elkor Alish. Despite Jarl's predictions, Farfalla had proved ready to have the death-stone used against Androlmarphos. But Hearst, for inscrutable reasons of his own, had refused to employ that devastating magic. So the two armies would meet without the benefit of magic.
This was ideal cavalry country, and Alish was known to have plenty of horses. But, to Sarazin's dismay, Hearst had no grasp of cavalry tactics whatsoever. Sarazin tried to help the Rovac warrior, but Hearst declined the enlightenment so readily offered, refusing to admit his own ignorance.
Thus, as the day for battle approached, things looked to be shaping up for a regular disaster.
All too soon, the battle-day arrived. Elkor Alish marched forth with his troops. Army engaged army. And, to Sarazin's bewilderment, Hearst smashed the enemy, winning a victory on a field of blood and gore.
A little later, Hearst used just enough of the death-stone's magic to breach the walls of 'Marphos, and drove Alish from the city.
The Rovac warrior had won a great victory for the Harvest Plains, and had made himself a hero. Selzirk rejoiced. And Sarazin, with shock and horror, shortly learnt that his mother planned to make Morgan Hearst ruler of the Harvest Plains in his own right.