Boil and I loped off, and we heaved stakes into holes as fast as they were dug, and cursed under our breaths at the surveyors who would rather stand and point at their maps than get their hands dirty. A mule kicked me, and by the time I was done hopping and cursing, I looked up and saw a bloom of campfires. Every contubernium had its tent and fire; every wagon had its dock; every mule had its picket. Legionaries trotted with their weapons, clerks with their scrolls, centurions with their tablets. A small and orderly city had gone up in less time than it took to seduce a reluctant woman—and it would fold back up into our packs and wagons tomorrow with no sign it had ever been there but a few fence holes and a scattering of manure.

Julius had a pot over the fire before the tent as I got back, and the others had hunkered down around it. I smelled mutton and hard wheat biscuits. “Want some?”

“Not if you’re cooking.” I ducked the ladle Julius threw at me. “I’ll take a biscuit and turn in. I was up all night last night with a weeping woman. God help me.”

“Maybe He’ll have to.” Simon gave me an odd look. “Cutting it close, aren’t you?”

“What?”

The others were snickering. “Never thought you had two,” Julius chortled.

“Two what?”

“No, three. You’re forgetting his redhead…”

More snickering.

“Go get bent,” I instructed them, and ducked inside the tent. And froze.

“Surprise,” said Sabina.

SABINA

When Sabina had perched herself on Vix’s rolled-up bedroll to wait for him, she’d resolved not to laugh. But one look at Vix’s expression as he ducked into the tent and she was lost. “Oh, Vix,” she giggled. “Your face.” She threw her head back and kept laughing.

“Wait here,” he said, and ducked out of the tent. Sabina saw his shadow looming against the fire outside over the other shadows that were his comrades. “You’re all dead,” she heard Vix snarl, and that sent her off again. She put her head down on her knee and laughed till tears came to her eyes, joining the torrent of snickers and hoots from outside.

“Dead,” Vix repeated, and banged back into the tent, his face now a dusky maroon. Sabina had gotten herself more or less under control, but as he glared down at her, she could feel her shoulders start to shake again.

Vix folded his arms across his chest. “How did you get in here?”

“Not the most original opening line, is it?” Sabina swallowed the last of her giggles with an effort.

“I marched twenty miles today, and built maybe twenty more miles of fence, and I haven’t slept more than two hours in the past forty. I’m too damned tired to be original. So, how did you get in here?”