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‘I’row up, then,’ Narasan declared ‘Fro here lately, we’re the only honest people in the whole Ereed with a wry smile

It was perhaps a year or so later when Narasan, Gunda, and Padan began their more formalized education, and of course, their teachers were all professional soldiers, and ‘We don’t march until we see the money,’ seemed to turn up in every class they attended

Padan, whose sense of huht very well be an excellent motto to be added to the army banner Narasan was a little startled when their instructors appeared to give Padan’s silly proposal soht

The studies associated with their classroom education were extremely tedious, and the boys in Narasan’s classon the drill-field Steel swords were heavier than the wooden toy swords of their childhood had been, and it took the boys a while to toughen up their ite tactics at that particular ti accusto and their long spears locked in place Unification lies at the core of the phalanx for ‘Unification! Unification!’ at the boys until Narasan got tired of hearing it He soon came to realize that if he held his shield no eant would start screas

It was shortly after Narasan’s eighth birthday when his father’s army was hired to put down a slave rebellion off in one of the provinces in the western part of the empire Narasan’s father had never actually said as much, but Narasan rather suspected that his father disapproved of slavery Narasan himself had never even seen a slave, but rumor had it that a fair number of the soldiers in his father’s arate of the army compound and announced that he was interested in a military career, nobody asked hioodly number of the soldiers in the compound had spent their early years involved in various cri questions either

When the arn in the west, Narasan’s uncle Kalan wasat the head of the coluh Narasan

‘It was one of those ridiculous things that should never happen,’ Kalan sorrowfully told Narasan and his mother later that day ‘A runaway slave had somehow found a broken spear that only had about half of its shaft We didn’t even know that he was hiding in the bushes e , he jueneral direction, and then ran off like a scared rabbit I don’t think he’d ever sotook ht in the throat, and he died almost immediately I’d venture to say that rascal could have thrown that broken spear a thousand times and never duplicated that first cast’

‘Did you chase the slave down?’ Narasan’svoice

‘Oh, yes,’ Kalan replied gri tiuess,’ Narasan’s ized, ‘but it’s about all I can give you We put down that stupid rebellion in short order after that The men were very unhappy about what’d happened to your husband, so they ot their hands on I’m fairly sure that the slave-owners will have to do their own far for the next few years, because we didn’t return very many live slaves to them when it was all over’

‘That’s just too bad,’ Narasan’s mother replied Then she rushed fro fro the next days and weeks, Narasan’s , without rief, but in tih the worst of it As his ree of norer rational It was quite obvious that her grief had unhinged her mind Narasan decided at that point that he should never rief of a soldier’s wife could obviously go on forever Narasan saw quite clearly that a real soldier was married to the army anyway

Narasan’s uncle Kalan had filled his brother’s shoes as the commander of the army, and he kept a close eye on his nephew

When Narasan reached his twelfth birthday, army custom placed hirounds ere extensively trained so that they’d be ready to receive coe Narasan excelled as a cadet, and when he turned fifteen, he was offered a commission as a very junior officer in his uncle’s arh several wars before he turned twenty, and it was quite obvious that he was going to go far and fast - assuh the ranks

He’d reached the rank of sub-commander by the time he turned thirty-five, and his boyhood friends, Gunda and Padan were not far behind him The three of them served very well, much to the satisfaction of Commander Kalan Narasan was fully aware of the fact that his uncle was keeping a close eye on his progress, so it careat surprise when, as the climax to the celebration of Narasan’s fortieth birthday in the officers’ lounge, his uncle rose to announce that he was retiring, and that Narasan would replace him as army commander

‘I’m not really ready for coet ready then,’ his uncle declared, ‘because like it or not, you will be the commander when the sun comes up tomorrow’

‘How do you plan to spend your retirement, Coht I ht catch up on my sleep,’ Kalan replied ‘Since I won’t be a soldier any ht the way I’ve been doing for the last forty years Noon sounds about right to o back to bed until supper-time’