“Move!” Tavi shouted, as the regulars marched closer. “Reserves, withdraw to your secondary positions near the bridge!” Tavi whirled, spotted the nearest centurion, and growled, “Get those men’s shields strapped on tighter. One of those hurled stones will spin the bloody things on their arms and smash their brains out.”
The young centurion turned to face Tavi, his face pale, saluted, and began bellowing at the indicated legionares.
The centurion was Schultz. Tavi took a look left and right, and found few faces as old as his own. Only the centurions were veterans at all, and even they looked like young men serving in their first term of service in that rank.
Crows, he shouldn’t have ordered the veterans off the wall, but it was too late to change it now. After the pounding they’d just received, after brutal and exhausting battle on the wall, they might not have held up against a tide of armored Canim. It was possible that the fish would be better suited to the maneuver than the veterans-if only because they were too inexperienced to realize just how much danger they were about to face.
Tavi bit on his lip and silently, savagely berated himself. That was no way to think about young men who were about to put their lives on the line for their Realm, their fellow legionares-and for him. He was about to order these young men into a storm of violence and blood.
And yet the cold fact was that if the ploy worked, it could cripple the Canim army, perhaps beyond its will to fight. If Tavi had to sacrifice a hundred legionares-or a thousand-to contain the Canim invasion, it would be his duty to do precisely that.
The walls were finally cleared, the wounded headed back to the next aid station, the reserve cohort coming up behind the fish on the wall marching for the fallback point. Tavi looked up and down the walls one more time-and saw quietly terrified young men, all of them pale, all of them standing ready.
Boots pounded down the battlements, and Max arrived at Tavi’s side, along with Ehren. Crassus was a dozen steps behind, and Tavi glanced over his shoulder to find most of the Knights Aeris not yet judged ready to fly in combat rushing into positions opposite the gate.
“Great bloody crows,” Max panted as the Canim came on.
“Ready, Captain,” Crassus added. “Jens is all set.”
“This is one bloody big throw of the dice, sir,” Max said. “I never heard of such a thing being used.”
“How much time have you spent working within a steadholt’s woodshop, Max?” Tavi asked him.
He scowled. “I know, I know. I just never heard of it before.”
“Trust me,” Tavi said. “Sawdust is more dangerous than you know. And if the grain storehouse was on this side of the town, it would have been even better. He watched as the regulars closed, and said, “All right. You two get back and be ready to cover us.”
Crassus saluted and turned to go, but Max remained in place, frowning out at the Canim.
“Hey,” Max said. “Why’d they stop?”
Tavi blinked and turned around.
The Canim regulars had, indeed, stopped in their tracks, several dozen yards out of arrow range. To Tavi s increased surprise, they all settled down onto their haunches again, and they were so many that even that sounded like a rumble of distant thunder.
“That,” Ehren said quietly, “is a whole lot of Canim.”
At the front and center of the regulars, a single figure remained standing-the same Cane Tavi had addressed earlier in the day. He swept his gaze around the armored Canim, nodded, then took a long, curved war sword from his side. He held the weapon up, facing the town, then deliberately laid it aside. Then he strode out onto corpse- strewn killing ground between and stopped halfway to the wall.
“Aleran Captain!” the Cane called, his deep, growling voice enormous and unsettling. “I am Battlemaster Nasaug! I have words for you! Come forth!”
Max let out a grunt of surprise.
“Well,” Ehren murmured, beside Tavi. “Well, well, well.
“What do you think, Max?” Tavi murmured.
“They think we’re stupid,” Max said. “They’ve already broken faith with us once. They tried to murder you the last time you went to them, Captain. I say we return the favor. Call up our Knights Flora, shoot him full of arrows, and let’s get on with it.”
Tavi snorted out a low laugh. “Probably the smart thing.”
“But you’re going to go talk to him,” Max said.
“Thinking about it.”
Max scowled. “Bad idea. Better let me go. He gets frisky, I’ll show him how we do things up north. “
“He’s already seen me, Max,” Tavi said. “It has to be me. If he makes a move first, take him down. Otherwise, leave him alone. Make sure everyone else knows it, too. And get Marcus back up here, meanwhile.”
“You think you’ve driven a spike between their leader and the warriors?” Ehren asked.
“Possibly,” Tavi said. “If this Nasaug had hit us instead of stopping out there, it could have been bad. Now we’re getting a chance to breathe and reorganize. I can’t imagine Sari’s terribly pleased about that.”
Ehren shook his head. “I don’t like it. Why would he do that?”
Tavi took a deep breath, and replied, “Let me go ask him.”
Tavi did not ride out to meet the Canim this time. Instead, he went to the gates, which opened just enough to let him step outside the protection of the walls. The ground beneath the walls stank of blood and fear, fire and offal. Canim bodies lay piled in windrows, and since the fighting had ceased, thousands of crows descended to begin feasting upon the dead.
Tavi fought to keep his stomach under control as he walked out to meet the Battlemaster-a rank akin to an Aleran captain, a commander in charge of an entire force. Twenty yards from the Cane, he drew out his sword and laid it down on the ground beside him. With or without it, he stood little chance against an armored and experienced Cane afoot-but he could all but feel the watching eyes of his fellow Alerans behind him. They would be of greater protection than any horse or suit of armor. In all, Tavi had the position of greater strength, for Nasaug was in the reach of Tavi’s companions. Tavi was far from Nasaug’s.
Nonetheless, as Tavi approached the Cane, he had to admit that Nasaug’s sheer size was more than frightening enough to protect him from Tavi, personally. Not to mention that his natural weaponry was considerably more fearsome than Tavi’s. It was not a situation of perfect balance, but it was as close to one as they were likely to get.
Tavi stopped ten feet from Nasaug, and said, “I am Rufus Scipio, Captain of the First Aleran.”
The Cane watched him with dark and bloody eyes. “Battlemaster Nasaug.”
Tavi wasn’t sure who moved first, and he didn’t remember consciously deciding to make the gesture, but both of them tilted their heads very slightly to one side in greeting.
“Speak,” Tavi said.
The Cane’s lips peeled back from his fangs, a gesture that could indicate either amusement or a subtle threat. “The situation prevented me from recovering my fallen within the time limit you granted me,” he said. “I wish your permission to recover them now.”
Tavi felt his eyebrows lift. “Given how matters transpired before, my men may be nervous about yours so near the walls.”
“They will approach unarmed,” Nasaug replied. “And I will remain here, within range of your Knights Flora, as a pledge of their conduct.”
Tavi stared at Nasaug for a long moment and thought he saw a certain amount of smug amusement in the Cane’s eyes. Tavi smiled, a baring of his own teeth, and said, “Do you play
The Cane lifted his helmet from his head, ears twitching and flicking as they came out from beneath the steel. “At times.”
“Allow me to call out a messenger to send word to my men while you send for your own. Your men, unarmed, may approach until the sun is set. I will remain here with you until that time, in order to help avoid any unfortunate misunderstandings.”
A burbling growl came from Nasaug’s throat-quite possibly the most threatening chuckle Tavi had ever heard in his life. “Very well.”
And so, in the next five minutes Tavi faced Nasaug across a traveling
