Four stallions were in the center of the group, and on these horses sat Johnis, Billos, Darsal, and Silvie. But he saw something else now. Two long poles were strapped to their saddles, making a stretcher.

Only this stretcher didn’t carry the wounded. It carried four large catalina cacti.

Thomas hid his smile and stopped twenty paces from them. For a long moment no one moved. What he saw next struck a chord of pride in his heart.

Johnis, the youngest of the four, dismounted, walked up to him, and knelt on one knee. “Your cacti, sir. Forgive our tardiness.”

So, whatever had happened, Johnis had emerged as the leader. The other three were on the ground now, kneeling.

“Stand up.” Thomas waved them to their feet. “Stand up and be counted.”

They stood.

“You’re alive,” Thomas said.

No response.

“How did it happen?”

Johnis hesitated. “We got lost and were taken captive,” he said. “A large Horde army marched in from the west but turned back when they saw the Guard on the cliffs. We were afraid you’d been fooled by their forces on the east, sir.”

Thomas glanced at Mikil, who nodded. “Four hundred thousand strong, by our estimates. They were turned back.”

So it was true! Qurong was becoming wiser in his ways of war. A year ago he never would have thought to try such trickery. The Horde was learning fast, much too fast.

“And the smoke we saw?” Thomas asked.

Again Johnis hesitated as if unsure how to answer. “There was a fire?” he asked. “Then I would assume it came from the Horde or their allies, the Shataiki.”

“Shataiki?”

“Figure of speech, sir.”

Billos and Darsal had been beaten and cut, he saw. Johnis and Silvie had bruises, but not like their comrades. All of them wore tattered tunics, stripped of armor. The poor souls had endured far more than he could guess. But they were alive, and at the moment he took more pride in these four than in any other members of the Forest Guard.

Regardless of what Johnis said, Thomas knew the smoke that had warned them had more to do with these four than they let on. There was too much coincidence to assume otherwise.

The crowd continued to swell, staring, eagerly listening for what Thomas, their supreme commander, would say to these four.

“Send word to the army,” Thomas said to Mikil. “Hold on both fronts, and let the Horde know that we aren’t fooled. I’ll join you in the morning.”

“Yes, sir.” She kicked her horse and galloped past him, headed for the barracks.

Thomas paced before them. “Your time to bring the cacti back has passed,” he said.

Johnis bowed. “And you would be remiss to instate us in the Forest Guard after such a dismal failure.”

Thomas could not hold back a small grin. “Is that so?”

“I think so, sir.”