Page 132 of Scorched Earth

“Yes, sir.” The scout dug in his heels and galloped ahead to relay the message to the advance force.

Mounting his mare, Marcus headed back to the road where Austornic waited and fell in alongside the boy.

“Sir?”

Marcus twitched, looking sideways at Nic. Realizing the boy had asked him a question, possibly more than once, he said, “Pardon?”

“I can lead your horse if you want to get some rest.”

It was something Felix would have done, the two of them trading off wakefulness during a hard march, but something in Marcus recoiled from the idea of showing any weakness to the thousands of men marching around him. “I’m fine.”

Nic shrugged. “As long as you know that I can do more, if you want me to. Since Felix isn’t here.”

“Nothing to do but ride and hear reports.”

“I can take the reports, sir.”

“I need to hear them, unfiltered.” To soften the rejection, he added, “I’d tell Felix the same.”

Silence stretched, the only sound the steady thump of marching feet.

“I know you’re keeping your plans close, sir,” Nic said. “But I’m curious as to the central motivator behind your choices given that overly complicated plans invite error. Particularly in circumstances such as these, where we are…” He hesitated. “Flying in the dark.”

“My central motivator is the desire to win.” Yet as Nic fell silent, Marcus was reminded of his speech to the Thirty-Seventh. These boys were his responsibility, his younger brothers to teach and protect.

Clearing his throat, he said, “You know how to play the game. What you still need to learn is how to play your opponent, which in this case is Kaira. We not only know her to be a warrior nearly without equal but also that she’s been granted some level of supernatural intuition by the grace of the god Tremon.”

Nic wrinkled his nose, not having been in the Dark Shores long enough to overcome his Cel prejudice against paganism, and Marcus gave him a half smile. “Believe what you will, but trust that her intuition will sense that we…” His exhausted brain struggled for words. “… are up to something. Which of course we are.”

“I can accept that,” Nic said.

“The key to achieving victory with minimal loss of life is not an application of our force of numbers, but an application of cleverness and guile. Of using the strengths that are, if not unique to Celendor’s legions, at least unequaled, to facilitate our trickery. Except one such as Kaira will suspect a trick, which she most certainly did upon learning our entire force was sailing north. That is why Astara came in search of us, arriving in time to witness us use yet another trick with Rastag’s bridge. Astara will report that I have three legions with me on the northern bank, my intent to march on Emrant. Kaira will suspect that this is only the first of my gambits and Astara will once again be sent to spy. A quick survey will show that the Forty-First is not marching with us, and she’ll track them down. Will watch them travel by boat down the river to load onto the waiting ships, which will sail north with Zimo’s Thirty-First, suggesting we are reverting, at least in part, to what is perceived as my original plan.”

“Not the final trick, I take it.”

“Of course not.” Reining his mare around a pile of rocks, Marcus said, “Kaira’s instincts will again be warning her that what I appear to be doing is not my end game. Except how many times has she redeployed her soldiers to face my perceived shift in tactics? Soldiers who haven’t trained as we have to switch strategy on the spin of a copper. Who haven’t been drilled to endure hard marches on thin rations, as we have. Who haven’t the discipline of a lifetime of training, as wehave. Not only are they likely to be tired and frustrated, they may well be spread thin covering the multiple fronts where wemightattack.”

“The Gamdeshian army is said to be extremely well trained.”

“There is well trained,” Marcus said, “and there is indentured to the Empire at age seven to become weapons.”

He allowed Nic to quietly contemplate that fact before he added, “The trouble with instincts is that while they may warn you of threats”—he moved his hand in a circle in front of him—“at a certain point, there is too much warning, an overwhelming of the senses, and the inability to determine the greatest threat. Or at least, a reduced ability to move forces to meet that threat. It is at that point my blade will fall.”

Nic was quiet as he thought, then he said, “So all of this complexity and additional cost, it’s for Kaira?”

It was for Teriana.

And for himself.

But Marcus said, “Kaira is my opponent, the woman sitting across the game board from me, and every decision must be catered to what I know of her. And I’d be a fool to underestimate or discount her rumored abilities.”

He could see the frustration in Nic’s demeanor, the boy trained to make decisions based on facts, not intuition, and sure enough, he muttered, “Then it’s all a roll of the dice. An entire strategy based around some girl’s supposed magical powers, which could easily blow up in our faces.”

“Woman,” Marcus corrected. “Kaira is no child. Unlike yourself.”

Nic scowled at him, and Marcus laughed to soften the blow. “Think what a fool she’d be to underestimate you because you are young,” he said. “Then imagine how much a fool it would make you to underestimateherbecause of what is between her legs. She is a legend in this half of the world, her reputation only rivaled by Dareena Falorn and Killian Calorian in the north. The Sultan of Gamdesh has given her full control of his military, which means that he trusts her prowess. The Empire might have taught you that martial skill is the domain of men, but keep in mind that it behooves themenin the Senate to propagate information that allows them to maintain their power, even if that information is lies. We are bound to their will, but that doesn’t mean we are bound to believe everything they tell us.”

Not waiting for Nic to respond, he added, “As to the roll of the dice, all strategies are, to a greater or lesser extent. Even a planformed entirely on facts and certainties can and will go awry, which is why we must examine every possible way the die may fall and create contingencies. I plan to be right. But I also plan to be wrong. So rest assured, I have strategies in play in case I have misjudged Kaira.”