The man started pointing at the horse's back'Idiot,' Pores said, 'give me those reins, no, those ones.'
'That's the Adjunct's-'
'Thought I recognized it.' He pulled the beast away then vaulted onto its back. Then set off onto the road. The foundling, Grub, was walking out from the camp, at one ankle that yipping mutt that looked like what a cow would regurgitate after eating a mohair rug. Ignoring them, Pores angled his mount eastward, and kicked it into a canter.
He could already put a name to the one in the lead: Captain Faradan Sort. And there was that High Mage, Quick Ben, and that scary assassin Kalam, and – gods below, but they're all – no, they weren't. Marines!
Damned marines!
He heard shouts from the camp behind him now, an alarm being raised outside the command tent.
Pores could not believe his own eyes. Survivors – from the firestorm – that was impossible. Granted, they look rough, half-dead in fact. Like Hood used 'em to clean out his hoary ears. There's Lostara Yil – well, she ain't as bad as the restLieutenant Pores reined in before Faradan Sort. 'Captain-'
'We need water,' she said, the words barely making it out between chapped, cracked and blistered lips.
Gods, they look awful. Pores wheeled his horse round, nearly slipping off the animal's back in the process. Righting himself, he rode back towards the camp.
****
As Keneb and Temul reached the main track, thirty paces from the command tent, they saw the Adjunct appear, and, a moment later, Blistig, and then T'amber. Soldiers were shouting something as yet incomprehensible from the eastern end of the camp.
The Adjunct turned towards her two approaching Fists. 'It seems my horse has gone missing.'
Keneb's brows rose. 'Thus the alarms? Adjunct-'
'No, Keneb. A troop has been spotted on the east road.'
'A troop? We're being attacked?'
'I do not think so. Well, accompany me, then. It seems we shall have to walk. And this will permit you, Fist Keneb, to explain the fiasco that occurred regarding the boarding of your company.'
'Adjunct?'
'I find your sudden incompetence unconvincing.'
He glanced across at her. There was the hint of an emotion, there on that plain, drawn visage. A hint, no more, not enough that he could identify it. 'Grub,' he said.