'Excellent!' said Burr, walking over to the convict and seizing his hand. 'Well done. Your regiment is gone, Pike. Not many survivors, I'm sorry to say. Damn few survivors, but I can always use trustworthy men here at my headquarters. Especially ones who are good in a tight spot.' He gave a long sigh. 'I have few enough of 'em to hand. I hope that you'll agree to stay with us.'

The convict swallowed. 'Of course, Lord Marshal, it would be an honour.'

'What about Prince Ladisla?' murmured Burr.

West took a deep breath and looked down at the ground. 'Prince Ladisla…' He trailed off and slowly shook his head. 'Horsemen surprised us, and overran the headquarters. It happened so fast… I looked for him afterwards, but…'

'I see. Well. There it is. He should never have been in command, but what could I do? I'm only in charge of the damn army!' He laid a fatherly hand on West's shoulder. 'Don't blame yourself. I know you did everything you could.'

West dared not look up. He wondered what Burr would have said had he known what really happened, out there in the cold wilderness. 'Have there been any other survivors?'

'A handful. No more than a handful, and a sorry one at that.' Burr burped, grimaced and rubbed at his gut. 'I must apologise. Damn indigestion simply will not go away. Food up here and all… ugh.' He burped again.

'Forgive me, sir, but what is our situation?'

'Right to business, eh, West? I always liked that about you. Right to business. Well, I'll be honest. When I received your letter we planned to head back south to cover Ostenhorm, but the weather has been dire and we've scarcely been able to move. The Northmen seem to be everywhere! Bethod may have had the bulk of his army near the Cumnur but he left enough up here to make things damned difficult for us. We've had constant raids against our lines of supply, more than one pointless and bloody skirmish, and a chaotic night-time action which almost caused full-scale panic in Kroy's division.'

Poulder and Kroy. Unpleasant memories began to crowd back into West's mind, and the simple physical discomforts of the journey north began to seem rather appealing. 'How are the Generals?'