“Yo, Captain! How is he?”

Arcolin reined in. “The Marshal thinks the fever may have dropped a little. Where’s the surgeon?”

“Asleep in the first wagon, Captain.”

“Good. And the others—?”

“The same. Captain Burek said he wanted them ready to fight later.” The slightest tone of uncertainty there.

“Exactly right,” Arcolin said. He lifted the reins, and his mount picked up the fast amble again, past the first wagon, past the pack mules loaded with sacks of grain, past the cohort—smaller than it had been—Devlin alone at the head of it, and then Burek, on his roan.

“Sorry it took me so long,” he said to Burek as he came abreast of him. “First the bankers, and then the Council. Would you believe they thought it was my fault Korryn attacked? When they were the ones who’d insisted on an examination?”

Burek shook his head. “Vonja,” he said.

“Yes, indeed. I’d rather deal with Foss Council any day.”

“How is he, sir?”

“Still fighting,” Arcolin said. “Three Marshals and a Captain of Tir are with him; they’ve pledged the resources of both grange and camp to do everything they can. I don’t know—” He took a breath. It would not help Burek or the cohort to hear him say they could not go on without Stammel. He should not even think it. “I’ve been thinking about who to make temporary sergeant and corporals. With Arñe back there, we’re short on both. I’ll talk to Devlin, of course, but I wanted to ask your thoughts.”

“Mine?” Burek looked surprised, then thoughtful. “I haven’t been with them long enough, is my thought. Let me think. There’s Jenits … he’s always right there, doing what he should and more. Volya’s another good one, but you have many good troops. And I’m not sure—besides that—what to look for.”

“You’re on the right track with Jenits,” Arcolin said. “It’s not just being good with weapons, or obeying orders. We have long-time veterans who are steady as stone in a battle, reliable when someone else is giving the orders, but will not stir themselves without. What we need in corporals is someone with the potential to be a sergeant, and what we need in sergeants is someone who can see what needs to be done and do it—or know who to tell. It’s not age and experience; you find youngsters with the ability to see and the will to do, and older ones too. We may not have formal battles this season, but if we did you’d see that our sergeants and corporals also keep order in battle. Exhorting, encouraging, reminding recruits what commands mean. So they must be steady, able to stay calm in any situation.”

“I don’t think all companies choose them that way,” Burek said, frowning slightly.

“No, they don’t,” Arcolin agreed. “But it works for us, and it worked for Aliam Halveric. Some companies won’t let women into those positions, which is silly. One of the best sergeants I ever had—no shame to Stammel—was Dzerdtya. She didn’t want to be a captain, she said when offered the chance at knight’s training, but you could not ask a better cohort sergeant. We saw that in her from the first tenday of her training.”