“Thank you.” The tension in her chest eased.

He shrugged. “In any case, it’s not as though I could easily inform the archimandrite of her lapse. Captain Kurkas tells me he rode north in a fearful hurry yesterday. He might be halfway to Tressia by now.”

“Good,” Calenne said feelingly.

“Perhaps. He can make mischief for us in the north.” He shrugged. “My actions here have left him displeased.”

“Didn’t I ask why you’d come here? Don’t you have a war to fight?”

“The war is why I’m here.” Discomfort flickered across his face. “I need your help. I need your advice.”

So that was the way of things? “Josiri.”

“Yes.”

“Well, I didn’t think you’d come to ask about the best way to repel the Hadari.”

Another slim smile. “No. Governor Yanda has the initial phases in hand. At this point it’s more an exercise in prayer than practice. Trelszon has fallen, and if Prince Saran isn’t foolish enough to lay siege to Kreska, he’ll be here in a matter of days.”

“Can you not hold them at Charren Gorge? Oh, don’t look at me like that. There are plenty of maps at Branghall.”

Viktor inclined his head in unspoken apology. “We could, had we the numbers. Which is why I need Josiri to rally the Southshires to war.”

Calenne glanced out the window where Elda busied herself with hanging baskets. Or at least gave that appearance. She probably heard every word.

“Survival often provides all the motivation folk need to fight.”

“If it does here, they give no sign of rising to the challenge,” said Viktor. “I suspect more would fight alongside the Hadari than against them.”

He spoke matter-of-factly, without even the dour distaste of a man discussing inclement weather. It was worse, Calenne decided, to hear doom laid out in such plain-spoken terms, without the adornment of anger or fear.

“I wish I knew what to tell you about him,” she said. “It seems to me of late that I don’t know Josiri half as well as I thought.”

“There must be something.”

“I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve changed Josiri’s mind.” She shrugged. “He’s stubborn, he’s proud, and he has no reason to trust anything you say.”

“I regret that more than you can imagine, but pride is a poor coin of exchange when lives are at stake, whether it be Josiri’s, or mine.”

His fervency burned like smouldering flame. Calenne thought it strange that the fate of her people could matter so much to Viktor, and not to herself.

“Why is this so important to you?”

“Duty is not handed down from on high, Calenne. It comes from within.”

She didn’t believe him. “As simple as that?”

“As simple as that.”

She definitely didn’t believe him. But what did it cost her to help?