“Being hunted and exploited to the brink of extinction should not deter one from displaying a personal flair when allowable. If anything, it makes one’s individuality more important, I should think.”

“I see how all this came to pass now,” Brio remarks wearily. “You two are exactly alike.”

Both Evie and Sirach laugh, but Evie is already shaking her head.

“Hardly,” she says.

“We’ve had the good fortune to share common goals.”

“How is everyone getting on out there?” Evie asks Sirach.

“Much better since we raided the Skrain larders. It’s miraculous how full bellies sate even the most contrary of companions.”

“How long will the supplies last?” Brio asks.

“Long enough to see us to our next battle, which will in all likelihood be our final battle. In either case, the matter will be resolved.”

Evie’s expression turns grim. “Does it look that dire?”

Sirach unfurls the parchment scrolls in her hand and lays them out before Evie on the part of Brio’s sickbed not occupied by his missing limb.

“Confiscated dispatches,” she explains. “If they read true, there would’ve been another thousand Skrain and five hundred more Savage Legionnaires arriving at the encampment we razed by tonight.”

“Then you struck at the right time,” Brio says, trying to focus on a positive.

Sirach nods. “We did. Now, however, those forces will be recalled to the border. They’ll be combined with the garrisoned army there and that’s where they’ll wait.”

“What’s our strength?” Evie asks.

“I can field eight hundred soldiers, regular infantry and my Special Selection outriders. We have around two hundred of your Savages, and with the B’ors bands that arrived tonight we add another hundred of their warriors to that.”

Evie nods. She has no idea how the B’ors communicate over such a long distance, but Yacatek has been gathering bands from every direction, and each band seems to find the Sicclunan’s very secret base camp with little effort.

“You’ll be outnumbered almost three to one,” Brio says to both of them.

“That’s only counting the Skrain,” Sirach agrees. “If they still trust their Savages, they’ll send every one they have at our front line before we ever see a scale of armor. And the next battle will be fought on open ground. We won’t catch them unawares again. We’ll have to march in force right up to that border.”

“We could hold the line here, gather our own strength,” Evie suggests. “I began this for my own reasons. I won’t push all of you into suicide for my purpose.”