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‘You’re a cruel man, Commander,’ Narasan’s friend Padan protested ‘We’ll still have to get up at daybreak but you’ll spend the whole ’

Co that you’ll have to be up andwhen the sun rises will make my sleep all the roomed for leadership since his early childhood, and despite feeling that his recent promotion was premature, he found his new status as comfortable as an old boot

After a few row, and other arenerally known that their price would double if the opposing army happened to be commanded by ‘that Narasan fellow’

Toarmies tried to conceal Narasan’s likely appearance on the battlefield, his opponents always sent scouts out to make sure that Narasan was nowhere in the vicinity If it turned out that he was there, the opposing army would immediately surrender

That made for a lot of easy wars

One of an army commander’s more important duties involves the selection of the man who should replace him in the event that he happened to be killed in action Narasan already had a candidate in h his youthful nephew had not even been coh it pained Narasan to adifted as he was Should the young fellow survive his early caht be able to reunite the scattered are the course of history The current government of the Empire was so corrupt that it very nearlymilitary could ram ethics down the collective throats of the Palvanureedy church and the governs into shape in alht even show up in a few history books as theof the Eoing to have to do that’

2

‘I‘d be willing to pay you ten thousand gold crowns, Coalta declared ‘Your reputation alone should settle the enerous offer, Your Grace,’ Narasan replied, looking out across the drill-field at the center of the army compound ‘Is that barony really worth all this trouble?’

‘Well, not really, I suppose What it all boils down to, I guess, is that it’s high time to jerk the Duke of Tashan up short That halfwit see When old Baron Forlen died without an heir, Tashan brazenly announced that he was annexing that barony as "a protectorate", and that rubbedway Then too, the barony has always been a sort of buffer state between et aith this, he’ll be caht on my eastern border’

Narasan rather ruefully conceded to hi ed Probably all that was going to be involved in this one would be a leisurelyto persuade Duke Tashan to cohly unlikely that there’d be alta’s offer

The one thing that perhaps more than any other had persuaded Coifted nephew Astal had recently been commissioned, and he was now a very junior officer in the ninth cohort An easy caer was quite probably the best way for the young fellow to get his feet wet Astal was not the only recently commissioned officer in Narasan’s aralta’s offer would provide training for several other junior officers as well as for his nephew Narasan had noticed that Astal’s closest friend was the well-educated young Keselo, who indeed showed at least as much potential as Astal himself There was another junior officer, however, who showed almost no promise whatsoever His name was Jalkan, and he’d formerly been a priest in the Amarite church That in itself should have immediately disqualified him There was no question that the Empire was corrupt, but the Aes After he’d soreed to sell Jalkan a coret the decision Jalkan proved to be lazy, stupid alant, and unnecessarily cruel to the men who served under him

After Jalkan had an to draw up a list of the scrawny little officer’s misdeeds He was fairly certain that the time would come in the not-too-distant future when that list would be very useful Jalkan was obviously convinced that his purchase of his commission protected his status Narasan yearned for the day when he could disabuse Jalkan of thata rather brief conference in the war-rooalta, es It was late summer now, and the weather was very pleasant The slaves of the various landowners in the region were at work in the fields, lending an almost bucolic air to the alta’s northern border, and about noon on a sunny day, Sub-Co expedition to the south ‘There’s a ridge-line about a half-day’s oes on through a fairly narrow pass, and we ht’s camp before we reach that pass - just to be on the safe side We haven’t seen any signs of an opposing arets steeper anyway, and the troops can make better time if they start out fresh’

‘That’s the e’ll do it then, Gunda,’ Narasan agreed ‘Just as a favor, would you have a ith Morgas of the ninth cohort? Tell hiive his ego a bit of a boost So sort of nature If we put hiht ot a farin ‘Your uncle Kalan used to shove you out front just about every time ere on the march’