Alera’s voice turned wry. “How many more would have died had you done nothing, young Gaius? How many more would have died had you perished with the Queen’s first strike? Do you not see what this attack means?”

He opened his eyes and frowned up at her.

“She cannot have many Citizens left to her,” Alera said. “Yet she attacked this camp with more than fifty strongly gifted earthcrafters, knowing that it was a suicide mission. She told you she’d only come to weaken you.”

“That... doesn’t make any sense,” Tavi said. “To waste such a valuable resource merely to weaken an opponent? Why would she do such a thing?”

“Indeed, why?” Alera asked.

“Because she thought it was worth the sacrifice,” Tavi murmured. “But that doesn’t make sense. Our losses were...” His lips tightened bitterly. “Light.”

“She didn’t come here to kill you, young Gaius. Not yet. She came here to bleed you.”

“But why?” Tavi asked. “If she’d waited until the Legion was closer, she could have hit us with overwhelming support rather than losing her collared Citizens. It isn’t rational! It’s...”

He suddenly stopped speaking. He blinked twice.

“It isn’t rational,” he said softly. “It’s the kind of mistake a young commander makes when victory is threatened. He forgets to be disciplined. He decides that doing anything is a better idea than doing nothing.” Tavi’s eyes widened. “She was afraid of me.”

Alera inclined her head and said nothing.

A moment later, Tavi snorted. “Well. I think I must have cured her of that mistaken impression.”

“And yet,” Alera said quietly, “she ran. You didn’t.”

“Of course she ran. It prevented us from concentrating forces on her. It allowed her to control the pace of the fight...” His eyes widened.

Defeating the vord Queen was not about simple bloodletting. It was not about tactics, about furycraft, about organization or technique or ranks of shining armor.

It was about minds. It was about wills.

It was about fear.

Tavi felt himself shoot up off the table. “The horde,” he said. “Where is it now?”

Alera considered the matter for a moment, then said, “They are about to attack the second defensive wall of the Valley. I do not think there is a reasonable chance of the Legions holding the wall.”

“They aren’t supposed to,” Tavi said. “The vord have no chance of overcoming Garrison unless they are directed. To control them, the Queen must be within twenty-five or thirty miles—well beyond the second wall. That’s near Bernardholt. I know that region, and there are only so many places where she could set up a defensive position around her hive.”

Alera tilted her head thoughtfully. “You’ll have the advantage of knowing the terrain.”