“I’m all right.” He stumbled to a chair and sat down. The exhaustion of months of riding, fighting, desperation, and anxiety seemed to catch up with him all at once and he found that his strength was gone. His eyelids felt weighed down by lead shot. What had he done? If the Wings abandoned him now, could he finish this war?
Someone cleared his throat.
Tamas looked up to find Inspector Adamat holding his hat, looking rather embarrassed to have witnessed the fight between him and Abrax.
“In a moment, Inspector. Vlora, what were the losses to the Wings of Adom?”
Vlora shifted from one foot to the other. She’d not yet put on her boots, Tamas noticed absently. “A little less than twenty thousand.”
“Ah, pit. No wonder Abrax was so angry. That’s almost half of their forces wounded or killed.”
“They took the brunt of the attack, sir. Just like you planned.”
“Just like I planned. Of course.” His thought had been to let the mercenaries earn their pay. And they had, many times over, it seemed. They weren’t his men. They were Abrax’s, and she had the right to be furious that Tamas had used them for a millstone. “Inspector. How did the affair with Lord Vetas go? Is your family safe?”
“Lord Vetas is dead,” Adamat said. “And thank you for asking, sir. We were able to rescue all but” – he paused to clear his throat – “my oldest son.” Adamat looked as weary as Tamas felt. There were large black bags beneath his eyes and the little hair on his balding head was mussed from sleeping on the ground.
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you, sir. Our expedition against Lord Vetas was a success. We even captured many of his papers and men, but, I’m afraid, it was all in vain. You’ve been told that Lord Claremonte holds Adopest?”
“That’s what I was told. But one thing at a time. We still have to throw the Kez from our lands. Write up a report for me–”
“I have.”
“Excellent. I’ll read it and we’ll talk before the day is over. You’re free to roam the camp, but I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d stay close until I know everything I need to about Claremonte.”
“I’m afraid I’ll be of little help there, sir.”
“Every little bit counts. Now I would…” Tamas stopped himself. “Miss, could you come here?”
The girl with the curly red hair slowly stepped away from the corner. At first glance she seemed shy, but upon further examination Tamas recognized wariness, like an animal sniffing the air to identify a friend or foe.
“Nila?” Olem suddenly exclaimed.
“Hello, Captain,” the girl said, giving Olem a small smile.
“What are you doing here?”
“You’re the laundress!” Tamas blurted out as the memory caught up to him. “The one who disappeared with the Eldaminse boy.” He narrowed his eyes. “Where the pit did you get to? And what are you doing here?”
Nila curtsied and then folded her hands behind her back. “Field Marshal,” she said, “I did not steal away the Eldaminse boy. Not precisely. We were both captured by Lord Vetas, and escaped when Adamat attacked Vetas’s compound. The inspector will corroborate my story.”
“Is that so, Inspector?”
Adamat gave a nod, albeit hesitantly. “I don’t know the whole of it, sir. But she’s an honest girl.”
Tamas leaned back. Every vein in his head seemed to throb, and the pain from the wound at his side had surfaced through his powder trance. There was so much that needed to be done. Could he allow himself any rest? He looked cautiously at Vlora and Olem out of the corner of his eye. Olem’s brow was furrowed as Vlora regarded the whole affair with a look of bemusement. Tamas wondered if she knew that Olem had courted the girl just a few months ago. But then, the two of them were over, weren’t they?
“So she’s with you?” he asked Adamat.
“No sir,” Adamat said, coughing into one hand.
Tamas raised his eyebrows at the laundress. “Well?”
“I’m Privileged Borbador’s apprentice, sir,” Nila said with another curtsy.
“You’re a Privileged?” Olem asked.
“Yes. Field Marshal, if I may ask? Where is Borbador?”
“Ah,” Tamas said. He forced himself to get to his feet. “That’s another important matter. Adamat, I understand you were witness to Privileged Borbador ridding himself of his gaes – the one that compelled him to kill me.”
“That is true. I saw him remove the gem with my own eyes.”
Tamas felt the relief of another small weight being lifted from his shoulders. “Good. Thank you, Inspector. Olem, would you show Nila to her master and release Bo from our custody? They are allowed to leave, but I would be grateful if Borbador would come and see me before he does.”
Olem escorted Nila out of the tent, and at a nod from Tamas, Adamat followed them out. Tamas found a seat once again and lowered himself into it with a sigh.
“Sir,” Vlora said, “you should get some rest.”
Tamas leaned back, pressing one palm to the wound at his side, and closed his eyes. “We have work to do.”
“You’ve earned the rest, sir. If you don’t mind me saying so.”
“Not quite yet.”
“What do you intend to do?”
Tamas opened one eye. Vlora was lacing up her boots. “I’m going to drive the Kez from my country once and for all. I’m going to break their army and then I’m going to break their king. And then we’ll see about this army that holds Adopest.”
Chapter 19
Nila and Olem wound their way through the camp with silence between them, Olem greeting men as he walked, saluting officers, and nodding to infantrymen. Nila was still fuzzy-headed, the smell of an officer’s breakfast – ham and eggs, if she wasn’t mistaken – made her stomach growl. She had not slept well in two days, her dreams haunted by the screams of the dying, the report of artillery fire, and the smell of burned flesh.
“You understand that it’s vital the men think that Tamas was here for the entire battle,” Olem said, his voice low.
These were the first words he’d spoken to her since they left the tent. She felt her emotional defenses pull tight, and quickly said, “Of course. I won’t say a word.” What were they talking about again? Oh yes, Tamas’s absence. What did it matter if Tamas had been gone for the battle, if they had won? The mercenary brigadier seemed angry enough about it.
“Thank you.” Olem stopped them near the edge of the camp, out of earshot of the closest sentries, and looked off into the predawn darkness. “They should be here anytime now.”
“Who?”
“Our expedition. We took two hundred men with us to find the field marshal’s son. We found him, Privileged Borbador, and over a hundred prisoners. Once we had secured the prisoners and made sure Taniel was safe, I and the field marshal rode ahead to sneak into the camp to make it look like we’ve been here the whole time. The rest will be along shortly.”
“Won’t word get out? If two people know a secret, everyone else does too.” Nila remembered a time at the Eldaminse house when one of the maids had been caught sleeping with the head butler – caught by the butler’s wife. They’d tried to avoid a scandal by keeping it quiet, but the maid gossiped and the butler was dismissed.
Olem removed a rolling paper from his jacket and began to roll a cigarette. “Of course. Rumors will spread. But as you said, we won the battle and it doesn’t really matter now. As long as the Wings don’t decide to make an issue of it, it’ll stay nothing more than rumor.”
He finished rolling his cigarette and held it out to her.
“No thank you.”
He nodded and lit it with a match, smoking silently. Nila examined the side of his face and wondered what he had gone through during the last several months. She had thought him dead when she heard about the field marshal being caught behind enemy lines. But here he was, and didn’t seem much the worse for the wear – a new scar above one eye, his beard longer.