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.”
Hell. 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.”
43
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 scrapping 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 pass. 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 passing 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 snatched a map and looked at it. “Twenty miles? They could be here any damn 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 stitch 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.'
44
“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 butts 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 impassive. “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.”
