'She commands us to wait and see?'
'All right, since you insist, you are temporarily detached from me, a notion that should give you untold satisfaction. Go join the marines, or the sappers, or whoever in Hood's name is attacking tonight. And if you get a limb lopped off don't come crawling back to me – gods, I can't believe I just said that. Of course you can come crawling back to me, just be sure to bring the limb along.'
'You don't possess High Denul, Pearl, so what point in bringing back the limb?'
'I'd just like to see it, that's all.'
'If I do come crawling back, Pearl, it will be to stick a knife in your neck.'
'With those cheery words you can go now, dear.' She wheeled and marched from the tent.
****
Fist Keneb joined Tene Baralta in the mustering area just inside the north pickets. Moths and biting flies were swarming in the crepuscular air. Heaps of rocky earth rose like modest barrows where the soldiers had dug their trenches. As yet, few squads had assembled, so as not to reveal the army's intentions too early, although Keneb suspected that Leoman and his warriors already knew all that needed to be known. Even so, the Fist noted as he stared at the distant, uneven wall, topmost among the tiers of earth and rubble, there seemed to be no activity.
Y'Ghatan was deathly quiet, virtually unlit as darkness spread its cloak.
Tene Baralta was in full armour: scaled vest, chain skirt and camail, greaves and vambraces of beaten bronze rimmed with iron. He was adjusting the straps of his helm as Keneb came to his side.
'Blistig is not happy,' Keneb said.
Baralta's laugh was low. 'Tonight belongs to you and me, Keneb. He only moves in if we get in trouble. Temul was wondering… this plan, it matches his own. Did you advise the Adjunct?'
'I did. Inform Temul that she was pleased that his strategy matched her own in this matter.'
'Ah.'
'Have your company's mages begun?' Keneb asked.
A grunt, then, 'They say there's no-one there, no-one waiting to counter them. Nil and Nether have made the same discovery. Could Leoman have lost all his mages, do you think?'
'I don't know. Seems unlikely.'
'I trust you've heard the rumours, Keneb.'
'About what?'
'Plague. From the east. It has swept through Ehrlitan. If we fail tonight and find ourselves bogged down outside this city…'
Keneb nodded. 'Then we must succeed, Tene Baralta.'
A rider was galloping on the road behind and to their right, fast approaching. Both men turned as the pounding hoofs reverberated through the ground at their feet. 'An urgent message?' Keneb wondered, squinting to make out the grey-cloaked figure, face hidden by a hood.
A longsword at his side, the scabbard banded in white enamel. 'I do not recog-'
The rider rode straight for them. Bellowing in anger, Tene Baralta leapt to one side. Keneb followed, then spun as the rider flew past, his white horse reaching the trenches, and launching itself over. The picket guards shouted. A crossbow discharged, the quarrel striking the stranger on the back, then caroming off into the night. Still riding at full gallop, the figure now leaning forward over the horse's neck, they sailed over the narrow inside trench, then raced for the city.
Where a gate cracked open, spilling muted lantern light.
'Hood's breath!' Tene Beralta swore, regaining his feet. 'An enemy rides right through our entire army!'
'We've no exclusive claim on bravery,' Keneb said. 'And I admit to a grudging admiration – I am glad to have witnessed it.'
'A rider to bring word to Leoman-'
'Nothing he doesn't already know, Tene Baralta. Consider this a lesson, a reminder-'
'I need none, Keneb. Look at this, my helm's full of dirt. Light grey cloak, white horse and white-banded sword. A tall bastard. I will find him, I swear it, and he will pay for his temerity.'
'We've enough concerns ahead of us this night,' Keneb said. 'If you go off hunting one man, Tene Baralta…'
He emptied the dirt from the helm. 'I hear you. Pray to Treach, then, that the bastard crosses my path one more time this night.'
Treach, is it? Fener… gone so quickly from men's minds. A message no god would dare to heed, I think.
****
Lieutenant Pores stood with Captain Kindly and the Korelri Faradan Sort, within sight of their respective companies. Word of a spy in the army's midst, boldly riding into Y'Ghatan, had everyone more on edge than they already were, given that at any moment would come the order to move. Sappers in the lead, of course, disguised within gloomy magic.