Winter had opened its hand over the Open Hand. In the Bay of Lights, it was already clenching its fist. Despite the shelter of the hill, the winds cut like serrated blades, and the cold was fierce. The conditions would be worse when the snows began.

A little distance from the Commander and the Captain, General Klamath halted his company. To Matt, he said in a soft growl, “When I have introduced you, take the boys and Father Skurn to the kitchen. Get them fed. And watch that priest. Soon you will be relieved. Then you spend as much time as you need with Mattwil. There is no hurry.”

The First Captain nodded without meeting Klamath’s gaze. He was scanning the bunkhouses and kitchens with a father’s hunger, a father’s apprehension.

Sighing privately, Klamath told his company to dismount.

As he and Matt walked closer, Commander Forguile sent servants to tend the horses. Some of the boys started to follow the General, but Father Skurn called them back. As if he had put himself in charge of them, the priest gathered them around him to wait for orders. He may have thought that young volunteers eager for the blaze and thunder of cannon would be easier to convert than grown men. Or he may have simply wished to demonstrate his desire to be of service.

Forguile and Flisk came forward. The Commander walked a little ahead of his comrade. He had always been more sure of himself than Flisk, and had done much to help King Bifalt forge an alliance with Amika, Forguile’s homeland. But Klamath knew from their reports that they had become friends.

Both men wore rain-capes lined with layers of wool. Their garb, like their long exhaustion, made them indistinguishable from any of their laborers. Long ago, Ennis Forguile had been the first officer of King Smegin’s honor guard. Now he had set aside his orange headband and scabbard, and his trim goatee and moustache had become a ragged beard like any other man’s. As for Flisk, he had lost his place in Belleger’s army when an Amikan arrow had pierced his shoulder at the joint. That wound still hampered him. He looked weaker than Forguile; less capable. But the King thought highly of him. Naming him Captain, King Bifalt had sent him to serve with Commander Forguile overseeing the Bellegerins and Amikans constructing the bay’s fortifications. Only the signal flags tucked under their belts marked them as officers.

Curtly, General Klamath introduced Flisk, Forguile, and the First Captain to each other. He took it upon himself to mention that Matt was Mattwil’s father. Then he sent his old friend to the kitchen with the boys and the priest.