'I guess we'll find out.' Logen grimaced as he stretched out his aching legs. 'It really seems like this shit used to be easier.'

Dogman gave a snort. Not a laugh, really. More just letting Logen know he'd heard. 'Memory can work some magic. You remember Carleon?'

'Course I do.' Logen looked down at his missing finger, and he bunched his fist, so it looked the same as it always had. 'Strange, how it all seemed so simple back in them days. Who you fought for, and why. Can't say it ever bothered me.'

'It bothered me,' said Dogman.

'It did? You should've said something.'

'Would you have listened?'

'No. I guess not.'

They sat there for a minute, in silence.

'You reckon we'll live through this?' asked the Dogman.

'Maybe. If the Union turns up tomorrow, or the day after.'

'You think they will?'

'Maybe. We can hope.'

'Hoping for a thing don't make it happen.'

'The opposite, usually. But every day we're still alive is a chance. Maybe this time it'll work.'

Dogman frowned at the shifting flames. 'That's a lot of maybes.'

'That's war.'

'Who'd have thought we'd be relying on a bunch of Southerners to solve our problems for us, eh?'

'I reckon you solve 'em any way you can. You have to be realistic'

'Being realistic, then. You reckon we'll live through this?'

Logen thought about it for a while. 'Maybe.'

Boots squelched in the soft earth, and Shivers walked up quiet towards the fire. There was a grey bandage wrapped round his head, where he'd taken that cut, and his hair hung down damp and greasy from under it.

'Chief,' he said.

Dogman smiled as he got up, and clapped him on the shoulder. 'Alright, Shivers. That was good work, today. I'm glad you came over, lad. We all are.' He gave Logen a long look. 'All of us. Think I might try and get a rest for a minute. I'll see you boys when they come again. Most likely it'll be soon enough.' He walked off into the night, and left Shivers and Logen staring one at the other.

Probably Logen should have got his hand near to a knife, watched for sudden moves and all the rest. But he was too tired and too sore for it. So he just sat there, and watched. Shivers pressed his lips together, squatting down beside the fire opposite, slow and reluctant, as if he was about to eat something he knew was rotten, but had no choice.

'If I'd have been in your place,' he said, after a while, 'I would've let those bastards kill me today.'

'Few years ago I'm sure I would've.'

'What changed?'

Logen frowned as he thought about it. Then he shrugged his aching shoulders. 'I'm trying to be better than I was.'

'You think that's enough?'

'What else can I do?'

Shivers frowned at the fire. 'I wanted to say…' He worked the words around in his mouth and spat them out. 'That I'm grateful, I guess. You saved my life today. I know it.' He wasn't happy about saying it, and Logen knew why. It's hard to be done a favour by a man you hate. It's hard to hate him so much afterwards. Losing an enemy can be worse than losing a friend, if you've had him for long enough.