Perenenda set up camp where Commander Rollo had recommended. He had a worn face with a disheveled mustache and the beginnings of a beard. From his telling of it, he had set out from Erland weeks ago to retake the Withings, but they had been stalled from going forward due to Baron Visant’s archers hidden at the top of the hills ambushing any advance.

They were all gathered around a small fire when Perendenda sat down on a folding chair. The air had a cold green smell to it, she scent of bark, leaves, and sap stinging her southern nose. In her hand was a smooth whittled stick from the endless white trees that surrounded them. She had been examining how hard and straight the wood was that these trees produced.

“What can you tell me about the Baron?” Perenenda asked Rollo.

“What does my lady already know?”

“Sornam the Peer has told me about the Baron’s ambitions,” she said. “He holds his seat in the castle Grastenport, and he believes his bloodline has a claim to the northern territories, including part of Ian’s Vale and the Headlands. And that he has twin boys, Pidric and Pidroc. Pidric is the pirate that commands the Baron’s fleet, though he was captured and brought to the Kiennese court. The other brother, Pidroc, is said to be the crueler of the two, and he commands the Baron’s armies, but he hasn’t been seen in years. Rumors are that he might be dead, and the Baron is now alone.”

“Alone, patient, and wealthy,” Rollo added. “Resources and time are assets owned by a formidable enemy. He is said to have allies in strategic fronts, though we have never been able to figure out whom the allies are.”

“How many men do you have with you, Commander?” Dao asked. “We saw more streaming into camp.”

"Not many, perhaps around sixty," Rollo said. "We started with over a hundred when we set out from Erland, but we've slowly lost our numbers.”

“And how often have you pushed?” Xaykansam asked.

“With every advance, we’ve been pressed back, and we always end up in this encampment,” Rollo explained. “Between this camp and Sundersport, Visant controls the entirety of the Withings. Being at a stalemate benefits the Baron, but at least we prevent his men from advancing south.”

“With sixty you’ve held your ground,” Kamfongil noted. “One can only imagine what hundreds can do.”

“And you’re certain you’ve been here by yourself?” Sornam asked. “You saw no one pass through from the south?”

Rollo shook his head. “We are ever vigil, nothing would escape our purview. We have eyes across the valley, up to the Eastern Ridge. If a badger passed crossed a creek we’d know.”

“A badger, eh,” Sornam said, lowering his eyes in thought as he started pacing.

“Are we pushing back on them with our combined numbers then?” Rollo asked.

“Tell me about the Eastern Ridge,” Perenenda said, twirling the stick in her hand and ignoring the question.

“The Ridge separates us from the Headlands,” Rollo explained. “Grastenport’s on the other side of it, but it’s a cliff that is unscalable, what’s down here can’t go up, and what’s up there can’t come down. The trees of the Withings are sparse as you get further away from the river and you approach the Ridge. You want to avoid being against the Ridge, as without the cover of trees, the Baron’s archers from the other side would easily pin your men against that wall like a child’s game of stick the feather on the pheasant.”

“That’s surely what we would do with our archers if it were me,” Grim added. “We need to stay on the western bank of the river, and use scouts to survey ahead. Slow and steady through the forest.”

“No, I don’t think so,” Perenenda said. “We are not taking cover in the Withings. We will avoid the forest altogether. We will risk crossing the river, as our intentions are to go upriver against the Eastern Ridge."

"The Eastern Ridge?" Rollo asked. "Did you not hear what I said? If they spot us we will have our backs against the cliffs and we will be crushed like grapes. You're not from here so you don't know how treacherous this terrain really is. No, I think we should stay in the Withings where we at least give ourselves a chance of cover.”

"He is right," Grim said. "I will not risk men of the Promise to such exposure. Any experienced field commander would not take such a reckless action."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You would stay in the trees?” Perenenda asked. “Where the commander has spent weeks, moving no further while the enemy makes a home in the forest, looking to pick us off one at a time?”

“But our numbers are different now,” Rollo said.

“They are about to be more different,” Grim barked. “You can take your foreign army and go to the Ridge, girl. I’m not going anywhere.”

"I carry your lord's banner and yet you would disobey my command?" Perenenda asked Grim.

"These men follow me, and I don't follow you.”

Perenenda's three captains all stood up and faced Grim. Perenenda motioned for them to stand down. "And what do you plan to do, seargent?" she asked.

"It was a mistake to come here," Grim said. "You can fight the Baron with these Vale-men. I'm not risking my life for a girl’s ambition to play war to impress her absent husband. I’m turning around and going home with my soldiers."

"Commander Rollo, please excuse us," Perenenda said. She waited for him to leave the fire, and to turn to his own men.

"If you walk away you are betraying me and your lord," Perenenda warned Grim. "You cannot go against your word."

"Caspyr's ambitions is what set me off to this fight in the first place," Grim said. "I have no desire to satisfy the political whims of a newly minted lord. He’s an upstart, and barely an Earl.”

He turned to walk away.

"Captain Kamfongil," Perenenda said. "You told me I would not need to get my hands dirty. Do not let him take his men from this camp."

Kamfongil faced Grim again, who stared at the Neredunian and smirked. Grim was the taller man by a head. “You stink of Neredun horse.”

He started to walk past Kamfongil but the Butcher grabbed him by the arm.

“You dare touch me?”

“Apologize,” Kamfongil said.

Grim laughed. “Apologize? To you?”

“No, to my horse. For saying she stinks.”

“I’ve stomped on Neredunian rats that smelled fouler than you.”

“And I’ve pulled the entrails out of Kiennese captains who have made greater threats than you,” Kamfongil sneered. “Though it has been a while. I’m curious if Kiennese guts still look like rotten sausages.”

“Step aside, rat,” Grim said as he shoved Kanfongil aside. As he walked past, Kamfongil grabbed Grim's face from behind and slit his throat. Grim gurgled while blood streamed down his chest until he fell to the floor.

Perenenda caught herself from screaming at her captain by biting her lip. “Why did you kill him?”

"I prevented him from leaving camp," Kamfongil said. “This is what you wanted.”

"This is not what I wanted!" she cried.

Sornam kneeled next to Grim's body and pressed down on the gaping wound. "There are other ways to have dealt with this."

"This is our way," Kamfongil said. "The Field God holds no quarter in the afterlife for those who turn their backs to the field."

"This is our way," Xaykansam agreed. "Though we are on foreign soil, the ways of Neredun travel where we set our feet. I would have done the same, your Grace."

Perenenda turned to Dao, who nodded in agreement with the others. Perenenda felt like she couldn’t breathe. “I will lose the five hundred men. I will lose Caspyr's favor.”

"Show me the strength of your father," Kamfongil said. "We ride for you because of a contract, but also because the Butchers have wandered for years with nothing beyond a contract to ride for. Show me the strength of Burul within your blood, and perhaps I will be your sworn rider."

Sornam looked up at Perenenda in silence, his hands covered in Grim's blood.

"The strength of Burul does not include murder," Perenenda said, kneeling beside the body. "We do not follow the laws of Neredun in my army. We follow my laws.”

“You say this is not what you wanted,” Kamfongil said. “Well perhaps one day you’ll reveal to all of us what it is you actually want.“

Perenenda felt like a girl again. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her scalp burning from embarrassment for feeling so inadequate. She looked around the camp to see who had noticed, but it appeared no one else had seen Kamfongil’s brutal act. She breathed deeply through her nose until she knew her voice wouldn’t shake.

“Send for Rollo,” she told Xaykansam.

The young Tree Rider bowed and left for where the commander’s men were camped.

“I know you’re not asking me what you should do,” Sornam said. “You trusted yourself this far. Continue to do so.”

“We look like ignorant savages,” she said.

Rollo returned and gasped at seeing Grim on the ground. He knelt and examined the cut across the throat. “This is an officer of the Kienne army. What did you do?”

"Commander Rollo," Perenenda ignored the question. “Earl Larthkyrk gave me his banner. My command is as if he uttered the words himself. Do you dispute that?”

Rollo’s eyes were fixed at Grim’s body as he shook his head.

"Good," Perenenda continued. "Tomorrow we will cross the river and march up the open territory beside the Eastern Ridge. If the fighting comes to us, then so be it. As the ranking Kiennese officer you will command both your Vale-men and Earl Caspyr's archers. All of you, leave now and inform your soldiers. Captains of Neredun, mark your bodies for the battle tomorrow."

The captains bowed and shuffled away from the fire.

"Sornam, I need your counsel," Perenenda said.

Sornam turned back toward her. "My lady."

She walked away from the fire and past a small grove of trees, and Sornam followed. As soon as the others were out of sight she buried her head into his chest and wept.