barbarian elite: a heavy breastplate over a chain mail hauberk, rough boots, partial cuisses of studded leather on his legs, and thick leather gauntlets dotted with steel on his hands. The disturbing thing about the general was his calm, even though he surely must have known his life was in grave danger.
'Will the khahan offer ransom for you, General?' Alusair asked at last. After hearing the question translated, Batu merely shook his head.
Frowning, the princess leaned forward and looked into Batu's eyes. 'Will the khahan attack tonight?'
At first there came no reply. Batu stared at his interrogator for a moment, then at the translator.
'He wants to know if you are the daughter of King Azoun, the man he met in the Tuigan camp,' the wizard reported. 'He assumes your position in the army indicates a relation to the king, but also notes that you resemble Azoun in many ways.'
The princess was surprised to learn that her father had visited the enemy camp, but she let that shock pass and concentrated on questioning the general. 'I am Princess Alusair of Cormyr, daughter of King Azoun,' she replied. After a pause, she added, 'My father sends his regards.'
After bowing to Alusair from his seat, Batu met her gaze again. 'Then the king has survived the battle?' he asked through the translator. He raised an eyebrow in surprise, an act that shifted the bandage wrapped around his head. 'Yamun Khahan offered a great reward for your father's head. I was certain someone would collect that reward.'
A shudder wracked Alusair, but she tried not to show it. She took a sip from a waterskin that lay at her feet and offered it to the general, who stoically refused. 'Will the khahan come tonight?' she asked again.
The wizard translated the question, and Batu paused for quite a while before answering. From the expression on his blood-smeared face, Alusair guessed that the general was formulating a safe answer. Finally Batu said, 'I cannot guess the thoughts of the khahan, Princess, nor would I reveal them to you if I could. I will tell you this much, however. Your armies have presented the greatest challenge the Tuigan have faced in many months. Your troops fight most valiantly.'
It was Alusair's turn to pause, for she wondered where she should lead the questioning. Two of the dwarven guards started to build a fire to chase off the growing twilight, distracting the princess for a moment. When she turned back to Batu, she found him studying her.
'Would the honorable princess be so kind as to answer one question for me?' he asked through the mage. The princess nodded, and the general bowed slightly. When he looked up at Alusair, his eyes were dark and his expression grim. 'What do you plan to do with me?'
'We are civilized, Batu Khan,' Alusair replied without pause. 'You will be our prisoner until the end of the war. You will be taken from the fighting and kept from harm.'
That answer seemed to displease Batu Min Ho. The general sank into contemplation for a moment, then said something so softly that the wizard wasn't sure he heard it correctly. The comment wasn't meant for anyone else, but the general had noted, 'Then there will be no more illustrious battles for me.' He bowed stiffly to the princess and asked to be allowed to rest.
The discussion obviously over, Alusair ordered the four dwarven guards to escort Batu to the Alliance's camp at the rear of the battle lines. The khan and the dwarves had not gone more than a dozen steps from the princess when a scuffle broke out.
'Look out, Lugh!' a guard shouted in Dwarvish.
The clash of steel on steel rang out as Alusair rushed toward the fight. Batu Min Ho, a short dwarven blade in his hand, stood over a fallen guard. The three other dwarves circled him warily, their swords held out in front of them. Drawing her own blade, the princess stepped toward the Tuigan commander.
Batu met Alusair's gaze, and a curious smile worked across his lips. After a feint to drive the dwarves back, the general held the sword's point to his stomach. He softly repeated three names-Wu, Yo, and Ji-and fell forward. Batu didn't even cry out as the bright steel pierced through his armor and impaled him.
Other dwarves, hefting their silver-bladed pikes, were now charging toward the disturbance. The khan's original guards, still holding their swords, examined the general's body to see if he were truly dead. Satisfied that the suicide had been successful, they left the body where it lay and turned their attention to their fallen comrade.
The ever-efficient dwarves swiftly carried the dead guard away to be interred in the communal cairn they were building, and Alusair looked up from Batu Min Ho's corpse. The khan's strange, final words ran through her mind over and over again, and she wondered who or what he had called for in his final moment. In fact, the death took such command of her thoughts that the princess didn't realize she had walked far into the Alliance's lines until she was hundreds of yards from the flank.
She found Farl talking quietly to a dark-haired man clad in a muddied sky-blue tunic and hose. Where the color stood out on this man's clothes, it presented a stark contrast to the other soldiers' dark tunics or their leather or steel armor. Both men bowed formally when Alusair came near. 'Any word of my father?' she asked.
The blue-clad man bowed again, an act that tossed his ponytail over his shoulder. 'Your Highness, I am Thom Reaverson, the king's bard and royal historian. I just came from His Highness. The clerics have healed the arrow wound, but he is still unconscious.'
'That's not what I hoped to hear,' the princess replied, 'but it's certainly not the worst news I've had today.' The bard smiled warmly at her, and Alusair found herself returning the gesture. 'Could you go back to my father's side and keep me apprised?' she asked after a moment.
'Of course,' Thom said. 'I'll look for you near the Cormyrian standard, Your Highness.' He hurried off at a jog toward the Alliance's camp.
Alusair didn't watch him go, however. As soon as the bard had been assigned his task, the princess moved on to other matters. 'What's the army's status, Farl?'
After leading the way to a pair of rickety canvas-and-wood camp chairs set up around a nearby fire, the infantry commander gave his report. The Tuigan attack had cut the Alliance's number by half. With only a handful of exceptions, the cavalry had been wiped out, and a third of the wizards had been killed or wounded in the fighting. 'I've got the men gathering the dead,' Farl reported, 'but I'm afraid it's a monumental task.'
A quick scan of the battlefield revealed hundreds of torches flickering in the darkness outside the Alliance's lines. These torches illuminated the field for the details sent to retrieve western corpses and search for the wounded. So far, no body found outside the lines proved to be alive; the Tuigan had trampled most of the corpses in their retreat. A low moan continually hovered over the western camp as the injured and the grieving vented their sorrow together.
A sick feeling settled in the princess's stomach as she considered the situation. She rested her elbows on her knees and bowed her head in thought. 'Pull three-quarters of the troops off corpse detail,' she ordered at last. 'I want them breaking down what remains of the Alliance's camp. We should be ready to move if the need arises.'
Farl frowned. 'But the corpses of our soldiers-'
'— will be of no use to us now,' the princess sighed. She noted the shocked look on the general's face and added, 'The gods will certainly understand if the heroes who died fighting here are not given the proper burial rites.'
'Yes, Your Highness.'
'When that's done, organize the remainder of the troops into three shifts. I want the men rested up in case the Tuigan come back,' Alusair ordered calmly. 'One shift of the three should remain alert, waiting for the horsewarriors, while the others sleep.'
Nodding, Farl looked around at the Alliance's lines. 'I've already started on that, Your Highness. If the men weren't so frightened, they might be easier to command.' He paused and looked into the fire. 'I–I share their concern, Princess. I don't think we have the strength to make another stand here.'
A pressure had begun to weigh upon Alusair the moment she'd discovered her father was injured, the moment she'd been forced to take command of the army. The princess felt that pressure increase now. Her shoulders tight and her stomach in knots, she placed her hand on the general's arm.
'Then we'd best be ready to move by midnight,' she said softly. 'Perhaps we can find a more defensible place to the west.'
Farl didn't reply at first. Eventually he stood and bowed. 'I'll see that your orders are carried out.' He paused, then added, 'I'm glad you're here, Princess. I don't know how the men would have reacted to your father's injury if
