Laika snorted. “Show ’em food and smiles, and most of ’em won’t run at all. And don’t forget—some of them are ours. And if word gets out that we left Valdemaran children to starve or hope for the mercy of the Sunpriests…” She let that particular statement sink in without elaborating. “What’s more, they aren’t more than a day’s march inside Karse! When the Tedrels moved this time, they were preparing the full-on invasion, remember. They thought we were going to go over with just a push, and they had everything and everyone set to move straight across the Border.”

“Surely not,” Lord Orthallen said skeptically. “Surely they were not going to put all of that so close to the battle lines.”

Laika smiled grimly. “And what makes you think they were unaware that the moment the fighters left the base camp, the Karsites were likely to grab everything? Believe me, that was the talk all over the camp—everyone wanted to be sure that they didn’t get left behind. The last camp they made would be where they left all the non-combatants and the baggage and all. In fact, there was talk about setting it less than a half-day’s march from the Border, figuring that the closer it was to Valdemar, the less likely it was that the Karsites would come calling. The campfire glow we saw in the farther sky last night was probably from their full camp, not their battle camp.”

“I thought they looked rather too well-rested,” murmured the Lord Marshal.

“Then that means we won’t have to break the Border so much as—bend it a little,” Selenay said speculatively. “I suppose one could consider what is in that camp to be legitimate war loot?”

Now it was the Lord Marshal’s turn to smile grimly. “One could, Majesty,” the Lord Marshal said. “And in fact, one should. Why, after all, should the Karsites have the benefit of this—war booty—when it is Valdemar that suffered?”

Alberich merely raised an eyebrow. “How can we, calling ourselves civilized, leave children to suffer? And welcome in Karse, they will not be.”

Now Selenay looked to the rest of her advisers and commanders. “I—honestly, gentlemen, ladies—I think we should do this. I know we can; I think we should.”

“Bringing life out of death?” asked the Chief Healer. “I don’t think there is any doubt. Sendar would.”

Selenay smiled wanly. “My father would have been at the head of the expedition,” she said softly.

That seemed to decide them all, and the prospect of having a positive task to organize also seemed to galvanize them, lifting them somewhat out of the slough of depression that most of the encampment had sunk into.

The mood in the tent suddenly lifted, and even Selenay’s voice took on more life than it had held since before the battle.