"Can you tell us if it's true what Marshal Tigran says, about not being able to fight without supply even for one day? I still think brave troops could do without—not for long, maybe, but for a day or so." That was Con, more interested than aggressive. Tigran nodded to Paks, and she thought back to the various campaigns, and the day of the ambush in the forest near the Immer.

Paks described the enemy's apparent retreat, her Company's forced march trying to catch them, and the ambush in the forest. No one interrupted with questions; even Con was quiet. She told them of the damp cold that night, when the wounded had no shelter, and no one had food, when the smell of the enemy's food drifting across the locked squares made their hunger worse. And the next morning's attack, their allies' arrival. And finally the sudden weakness that toppled more than one of them, that long march and heavy fighting without food or rest.

"It's not a matter of bravery," she said. "You can live long without food, and stand and fight for a time, but not march and fight."

Tigran nodded at her. "Most of you have never been hungry for long—and since you aren't seasoned warriors, never when fighting."

"I wonder why you came to study, Paks," said Con after that class. "You already know as much as the Marshals—"

"No. No, I don't." She wondered how to explain what she didn't know. "I know what a private knows—the soldier in the cohort—"

"It seems plenty—"

"No, listen. I always wanted to learn, and so I paid attention to the sergeants, and the captains when they talked in my hearing. But I only know it from the bottom. I don't know how to plan—how to think of more than one cohort at a time. You know how to reckon amounts for any number—right?" He nodded. "Well, I don't. My sergeant taught me to divide by three, to find our cohort's share of the Company's supplies. And I can add that three times, to go from a cohort's share to the whole Company. But that's all. He told me one time that Marrakai, when he goes to war, has five cohorts. I can't reckon in fives at all."

"You can't? But it's not hard—"

"No, maybe not. But you know how, and I don't. And in tactics, I know some things not to do, but I don't always know why. I can write well enough, and read—but I can't write a description of a battle, as Marshal Drafin showed us, or read one and make sense out of it. The sand table is one thing, but those books—"

"Huh. I thought after the first night that you knew everything—or thought you did."

Paks shook her head again. "I won't ever know everything—there's not time enough to learn all I want to know—"