Page 140 of The Infernal Battalion

Dorsay snorted. “Are you entirely certain he isn’t invincible? He certainly gives a good impression of it.”

“I would know better than anyone, Your Grace.”

The duke let out a long sigh. “Well. My orders are to assist you, and I suppose we can interpret the specifics as... suggestions. If you want to defend Vordan City, I don’t think I can stop you. But if you lose, you may waste all Raesinia’s hard work in securing a Borelgai army. Georg won’t commit soldiers to a lost cause.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Marcus grinned. “We’ve got no time to waste. I’ll get my men on the march today.”

“Splendid. I’ll return to the fleet and prepare the transports.” Dorsay returned the smile. “It is good to be working with you, General. Glad to have the chance to repay the favor you did for me.”

Dorsay bowed slightly and went off toward his guards. Marcus turned to Cyte.

“Well done,” she said. “I didn’t think we were going to convince him.”

“Me either. But I think he genuinely wants to help. He’s tangled with Janus before.”

“Do you think it’s true that some of ours would switch sides if Janus took Vordan City?”

“Maybe. I suspect we’d see a lot of quiet desertion, at the very least.”

“What’s this favor you did him?”

Marcus shrugged. “I saved his life from Orlanko’s assassins, back in Murnsk.”

Cyte’s eyes widened. “And you didn’t think cashing in that chip would help?”

“Not with Dorsay,” Marcus said. “Not if he thought it was the wrong thing to do.”

Cyte looked after the duke, who was being helped onto his horse by his guards, then back to Marcus. “If you say so. What now?”

“Now,” Marcus said, “we need to break it to everyone that they’re going to be getting on board a bunch of Borelgai transports.”

*

As Marcus had expected, this did not go over well.

“You can’t trust the Borels,” Colonel Blackstream said, bristling. “Once we’re on the transports, we’ll be completely dependent on them. They could ship us to Khandar for all we could do about it.”

Blackstream was old enough to have served in the War of the Princes, Marcus reflected, which made his distrust natural enough. He and the other colonels of the Second Division had gathered in the command tent, along with Cyte, Fitz, and Give-Em-Hell.

“Not completely dependent,” Fitz said mildly. “I imagine we’ll still have access to our weapons, and we’d considerably outnumber the crews. We could take the ships, if necessary.”

“And if we did,” Blackstream shot back, “what about the men-of-war? They could blow us out of the water, no trouble.”

“Why would they bother?” said de Koste. “If the Borels wanted us out of the way, they could just leave us here in the middle of nowhere.”

“I’m more worried about what will be waiting for us at the other end,” said Sevran. “Forgive me, sir, but are you certain it’s wise to go straight to Vordan City? Perhaps we could send messages ahead and ask any forces there to meet us at Vayenne while we wait for Borelgai reinforcements.”

“Bah,” Give-Em-Hell said. “What’s the use in waiting? They’ll come for Vordan City, and we’ll be ready. You boys hold the line against the first charge, and then we’ll ride out and give ’em hell!”

“Against three-to-one odds?” Sevran said.

“We’ve faced worse,” Give-Em-Hell shot back.

Cyte leaned close to Marcus’ ear as the argument went on. “Aren’t you going to remind them who’s in command here?” she murmured.

“Let them have it out first,” Marcus said quietly. It was something he’d learned in Khandar, when his status had been more like first among equals as senior captain. People were far more likely to give in to authority after they’d worn themselves out in argument than when they were full of fight. “Besides, I can’t say they don’t have a point. We can’t tell them about Winter.”

“Enough.” To Marcus’ surprise, it was Abby’s voice that cut through the rising chatter. To this point, she’d been quiet, but now she stood with her hands flat on the table. “Of course we’re going back to Vordan City. Your queen heard that you were in difficulty, and she managed to pry a fleet out of the Borels, for God’s sake, and sent it to come get you. Now she needs you to get back into the fight.” She looked around the circle. “Are you going to say no?”