“Don’t,” Scott muttered, clutching Cade’s arm.

Cade pulled his fingers away gently, hushing Scott. In this dark, damp, lonely place, his friend had been drained of all his usual mirth.

“We need to make peace with him,” Cade whispered. “If he’s planning revenge, he’s not exactly going to do it in front of his men, is he?”

Scott sniffed, but there was no reply. Hunched, Cade crab-walked around the fire, down toward Atticus. He was suddenly acutely aware of the sword on his back and was glad of its presence. Regardless of what he had told Scott, he was scared of Atticus.

This was a man who had kept his men alive for years, scratching out an existence on an alien planet, behind enemy lines. Cruel and paranoid as he was, there was no underestimating the man.

“Atticus,” Cade said, crouching on his haunches.

He did not come too close, for the man’s hand was hovering just above his hilt. Atticus had fallen far and must be desperate to volunteer for a mission like this. Desperate men were capable of anything.

Atticus did not speak for a while, instead observing Cade in the wan light of the flickering candle. He steepled his fingers and leaned toward him.

“We will not remove our armor tomorrow,” he said, then held up a finger as Cade began to argue. “We will not remove it, because the men are scared. Fear, pup, is our greatest enemy out here. A panicked man will run blindly, without thinking. And at the first sight of one of those beasts, they will panic.”

Cade, to his surprise, saw the sense in the man’s words. False courage, though, was a fickle friend.

“I have spoken with the men who ventured into this place,” Atticus whispered.

He noted Cade’s surprised expression and smiled. “Oh yes. Not the men who have ventured as far as this. After all, only one man returned from the first expedition, and he died soon after. As for the second … well, they never came back at all. Now, we follow in their footsteps, and I am loath to repeat history.”

“So who did you speak to?” Cade asked, the Codex translating his words over his shoulder.

“The hunters. The men who bring in meat. They do not venture as far as we have. But they have seen enough. And of course, we’ve all heard the stories. I did not come out here with my eyes closed. I am not such an incompetent as you may believe.”

Cade sat back on his haunches as he gained an understanding of the man. Still, these were just words. But he had seen Marius’s actions.

“At Jomsborg you had your men form up even though they were injured and bleeding. That didn’t seem like good command to me.”

Atticus sucked his teeth. “Discipline kept my men alive. Do you know how many succumbed to madness in that first year? Men killing one another over morsels of rotten insect. Others who would just stare and waste away, refusing to eat. You were not there in those dark days. There was no hope in that place. So I gave them fear instead.”