"Forget it. You have the makings of a good commander but you don't have the experience. Use your larger force as I direct and we will be fine."

"I'll argue if I think you are wrong."

"I expect it, but not on the battlefield itself, understood?" I knew he was right, so nodded.

"Good."

"You will help me feed my men." It wasn't a question.

"I'll do that but the money I use is a loan with interest."

"Greedy, cousin."

"Aren't we all, cousin. Agreed?"

"Okay, sir. When do we formalize this?"

"Now. I ordered a full a.s.sembly, best you get your men to do the same."

"Oh, and I want Yebratt Shaheel, one of your knights, red hair and a beard."

"I know him. Why?"

"I know him and I don't want an unknown in command of my horse."

He nodded. "Good enough reason. I'll issue the order."

I left. I had things to do.

It was four days before Sapphire threw down his practice sword and said, "Practice with your own men from now on. I've taught you all I can in the time," and walked away without another word.

I swore at him under my breath.

Pakat didn't say anything but I could see he didn't approve.

I was hurting too much to care. I thought I had been busy before but that was nothing, I now realized. I worked with Sapphire for an hour each night, or rather he worked me over. I was up before dawn, planning the day and giving orders. Latrines. My army literally couldn't take a dump without me giving an order. Then I went and trained with the men till noon. Every single problem came to my tent. I didn't have the experience to deal with it but I did have knowledge.

Unknowingly I gained a reputation as being thoughtful commander, because I paused every time I was asked anything to think and remember. I was glad I had the natural arrogance of my cla.s.s or I never would have had the guts for it. Still, I couldn't cope alone and I learned to delegate. First had been the chain of command: Tulian above me, and no one else. Then myself commanding one cohort and Kerral the other. I'd left Quail in charge of the half cohort. Sheo to command the equestes and Yebratt Shaheel as captain, the equivalent of first centurion; he had been delighted and grateful for the promotion. For each cohort I had a.s.signed Pakat and Luk as first centurions, and Geheran and Gobin as seconds. Tul had let me keep them. I had managed to hire two healers, Libby and Westel, from the nearest town, called Undralt, where they had lived and worked. They cost a fortune and I was already in debt after day two. But in debt to a surprise creditor.

Sapphire had come to my tent early the morning after we had arrived. He'd dumped a satchel on my desk without a word of preamble and handed me a letter.

This scrip is a loan.

That was all. Not a word of praise. Still, I was relieved to have the scrip with his seal on it. I had played with the idea of using my own but every single transaction would have been an argument out here where I was not known; my family name might have cut it sometimes but I didn't have time to argue with everyone I wanted to hire or buy from. My father's name was much better known and trusted, and natives could ask a man of the city and be a.s.sured the scrip was good. I was relieved of one more problem but couldn't quite manage grat.i.tude.

As I watched Sapphire walk away now, having just been worked over by him, I wondered why I had never seen him before. He was my father's agent after all, and clearly very well trusted. Why had I never seen him? All of my father's Clients came to his door every day throughout my childhood. I dismissed the thought, but it would come back to me later, just one more thing nagging for my attention.

"What do you think?"

Pakat was also looking into the night after Sapphire. "Dangerous."

"That's what Kerral said."

"He was righter than he knew."

"Could you take him?"

Pakat wondered over and idly picked up the discarded practice blade. "Nope. Maybe. There's always a chance. Always luck, good or bad. Wouldn't like to know for sure."

h.e.l.l. I'd seen Kerral take down three men with his bare hands in that alley the day he had saved my life. And Pakat was better. So Sapphire was what? He'd killed me fifty times tonight so I didn't even pretend to have a chance against him. Kerral, less chance that Pakat.

"Don't fret. He's on your side. He was teaching you."

"Any man can turn into an enemy."

"True," Pakat mused. "Too true."

Food. Sleep. Then an hour before dawn Meran woke me. I don't know who woke him. Of course, the trumpet sounded the hour every hour, and brought me close to wakefulness for a moment, so I do know.

Things had changed a little. I didn't need to go as far. My tent was now in the center of things; then a big gap, of which the equestes took a small slice; the healers and battle mages were also here but no longer my responsibility, other than the two healers who were mine. After that came the tents of the men, then a gap, then the wall. The wagons were tucked in at the corners, still away from the wall so that missile fire couldn't hit them. It was nice to be in the center of things. My men came to me, I didn't need to go to them. I looked in on Tul but that was different, he dropped what he was doing, walked around the table and we conferred for a short time before I left. Much better all round. Apart from the endless stream of questions coming through the chain of command.

I delegated as much as I could.

After breakfast everyone left the fort apart from the slaves, servants, engineers and anyone else who wasn't actually actively going to fight. Scouts would be out before dawn and away to do their job. Messengers shortly after.

Once outside we exercised and practiced maneuvers and spent at least two hours sc.r.a.pping with wooden weapons. No fatalities. By this time my muscles had warmed up and I felt fatigued but better. Mostly it was my arms and shoulders that hurt but already it was a good hurt, apart from the bruises of course. Under my clothes and armor I looked like a dalmatian but that would pa.s.s. I spent all day in armor. I got used to it and hardly noticed it was there.

After the noon meal, and a bit of time fielding further questions for me, there were duties for most; kit inspections if nothing else. All duties were either rotated, decided by lot, or negotiated among the men. For me there was an hour after that in the company of Tulian looking at reports, messages, sifting rumor, reading letters and discussing all of it and more. My commanders could find me there and came and went as usual. Most often I kept Sheo with me, first because he was my second and also because of his game leg. He was going to be my commander of equestes, and they were close by in any case. He and Yebratt had quickly forged a good working relationship; he told them where to go and what to do and Yebratt made it happen, taking half the troop if needful. Just as I would command one cohort and Kerral the other but the first centurions made everything we needed to happen happen.

It was all getting routine until the first real refugees started pa.s.sing and we knew that the rumors were accurate. The Orduli were moving in numbers in our direction and making a big ugly mess of the land and people as they went. The runners came to us and spilled their guts and begged for food and shelter and help. We gave what help we could but no one could stay, though some wanted to, others just wanted to get far away. We used them and their hardship, the stories they told of ravening barbarians, to fuel the anger of the men. We didn't have to make up much to outrage them. Citizens had been murdered, women raped. People burned alive in their homes. The enemy was ruthless and indifferent to suffering. They were cruel. The mood of the men changed. They wanted the fight. They wanted to kill the enemy. A whole day of that before the really bad news came.

"They sacked Ufingan," Yebratt said without preamble as he strode into the tent.

I s.n.a.t.c.hed a map and looked at it. "Twenty miles? They could be here any d.a.m.n second."

"How sure is this?" Tulian snapped.

"I have witnesses who were there. Want to see them?"

I shook my head and glanced at Tul. "No," he said, "but I want them interrogated and every last drop of information wrung out of them."

Yebratt cleared his throat.

"Yes?"

"They are citizens sir."

"No one said torture them. Just get the facts, as many facts as you can."

He saluted and left, looking relieved.

"I'll go with him," Sheo offered, not quite making it a question.

I nodded. "Yes, I'd value your observations."

"Can't wait for the next scout to get in."

"No. We seal the fort." We had already had the engineers make gates as we were planning to stay put for more than one night. "See to it," he instructed Gatren.

The aide looked excited and left. It was clearly his first actual order that involved more than messages.

"What?" Tulian was looking at me.

"Nothing."

"Let it go. He tried to st.i.tch you up, it backfired, he learned."

"So do we move against them or let them try and take us here?"

"No question in my mind."

"I was thinking that we better know their numbers; equal, we move against them and badly outnumbered stay put."

He sighed. "How many can there possibly be?"

There is an expression I heard once as a boy and really really liked. 'Famous last words.'

"We meet them in the open with the fort at our backs."

I nodded agreement. The numbers of the enemy had been increasing all day as the interrogations continued, as the refugees slowed to a trickle and stopped and the scouts came in. The engineers had been given orders at my insistence and were working their b.u.t.ts off raising towers and putting small siege engines on them. Nasty little pieces of work that could take down three men at a time. How many barbarians there were wasn't the only thing that changed as the day progressed. Who they were and where they were also fluctuated wildly. Not good signs.

I worried at it for a while but it had to be said so it could be considered. "We should get out of here." I had picked a moment when we were definitely not going to be overheard. He gave me a stern look and I kept my face impa.s.sive. "Listen. The reports are conflicting. What if they refer to more than one group; one of twelve thousand, the others of roughly six and four respectively."

"Impossible."

"Not impossible. Twenty two thousand if it's true."

He looked angry. "They said you might be a coward, cousin. Tell me you are not, please."

I flushed up. "No, at least I think not. What I am is a rational man with a head full of everything ever written on the subject of war. Break enemy plans, avoid the joining of enemy forces..."

"Then we should pick one direction rumored and strike out against them."

"It's too late for that. They are too close, hours away. If we hit one and I'm right we could have an enemy at our back or flanks when still engaged. Our only advantage is that they may not know we are here, yet. In which case," I continued, thinking as I went along, "they will head for the nearest town..." I stormed away, heading for the tent, Tul a step after me. I knew where the nearest town was, what I wanted to do was look at the terrain and make sure the map was right.

"Yebratt!" I needed scouts to report on the terrain, to check against the map.

"You think they will hit Undralt without knowing we are here?"

"Maybe! It would give us an interesting situation. If we let them take it before acting we can destroy half their army while the other half is trapped inside."

"Battle of Yerprathin! The siege after the siege! I read too, you know."

I laughed. "Of course you do. We don't send out more scouts, agreed?"

"We don't want to risk one captured. Break the camp?"

b.u.g.g.e.r. My lovely towers and siege engines. "Let's think about it."

When Yebratt arrived we kept him busy.

"There are still recruiters out there."

The thought had just occurred to me and I just spat it out. There was no time to do anything else, decisions were being made. Get the info out there. Facts, think, decide, act.

"We leave the fort up then, you have a way understrength cohort, we leave them and the engineers and baggage."

"And messengers. We won't be that far but if the fort is. .h.i.t we need to know."

"Agreed."

We were now in a tent full of commanders who were taking orders and instructions or, like Sheo, pa.s.sing orders out the door as they came to be acted on. There were already people watching the town of Undralt from cover. They had mirrors to signal with if anything happened. A relay would get the message here pretty fast. A detailed message would follow. There was a battle mage on the walls. There is a d.i.n.ky spell called far-see that gave them better range of sight. But we didn't send them out of the fort. Too useful to risk. At night we would have to wait for word. As the scouts came in we re-a.s.signed them. No more scouts out lest they be seen or captured. We were trying to stay unknown now, and hoping it worked.

The day was on the wane. We needed to be ready to move out at any time, but I doubted anything would now make us move until dawn. There would be no practice tonight for me, and none for any of us the next day. Tomorrow it might be the thing we had been practicing for. A battle. The excitement bothered me but I couldn't not feel it. I didn't feel any fear, oddly enough, the excitement and the fact I was busy masked it if it was there.

"Best let the rest of the world know what's happening."

Tul was in fact at his desk writing, it was me who couldn't stop pacing and thinking and talking.

"I'm on it. Three copies, one for Orthand, one for the King of Wherrel, one for the a.s.sembly of patrons."

"Should we have warned the magistrate of Undralt?"

"How can they not know the enemy is near? And do we want to risk giving the enemy any information of us, no matter how slim the chance? I'm trying to write."

I let it lie and worried at my lip, trying to think if we had missed anything. It all relied on not being seen, even then nothing was certain. The enemy attack the town, take the walls, flood into the town and then we hit them hard from the rear. Any inside the walls would be useless, and as long as we broke the force that remained outside we could probably take the rest as they flooded back out again, their numbers useless. And they had numbers. The three force theory was holding up, traveling separately in an arc from north to north-west. They might join up before reaching Undralt, or arrive at different times, either way we would wait until the town fell. Something over twenty thousand looked to be true. Ten times our numbers. Six miles from here to the town. There was a danger that outriders would find us and we had small units placed in any cover, ditch or copse, to take down riders. Their instructions strict, keep cover if you can't take them, take them down if you can. If engaged, don't let any enemy ride away alive, no matter what the cost. If a large unit got close enough to see the fort - which would be a mile due to lay of the land and vegetation; orchard, coppice, copse and so forth - we would have some warning and be able to prepare to take them down. There had been no camp fires all day and would be none in the night.

We worked on, worried, worked over the plans again and again. By nightfall I was exhausted.

"Sleep," Tulian instructed me. "You'll soon enough be woken if something happens."