Farther out, the rest of the Army of the East was emerging from the wooded ridge. That height, a long rill running roughly east-west, was perpendicular to the line of the advance. The land sloped down to a streambed, running too low this late in the season to be an obstacle, and then up again to a shallower ridge. From that modest elevation, where Winter was currently positioned, she could see that the fields ran downhill all the way to the Kos, visible as a ribbon of silver in the middle distance.

The ridge was too far from the river for the Deslandai to contest it with more than a few scouts, who took off at a run when they saw the blue-uniformed line advancing. Winter guessed it was more than a mile from the edge of the town, which was a neat cluster of shingled and whitewashed buildings, like a larger version of the little villages they’d been passing by. Tiny figures scurried everywhere, wearing flame-colored yellow-orange jackets darker than the bright yellow of their Hamveltai allies. At this distance, they looked like a swarm of colorful insects.

Her regiment was on the far right, at the eastern end of the Vordanai line. To her right, there was only a battery of artillery, moving laboriously uphill as the horses strained at their limbers, and a few squadrons of cavalry keeping pace at a walk. On her left, another regiment, this one in three battalion columns, was working its way up the ridge. Beyond that was another, and another, with still more following in reserve and cannon interspersed at intervals. Forty thousand men make for an impressive array. On the march in separate columns, it was easy to forget how big the Army of the East actually was, six or seven times larger than the whole Colonial force Janus had led in Khandar.

Winter shaded her eyes, searching the line for a familiar flag. The Colonials had become something like Janus’ personal guard and his most reliable troops, following him into battle and doing the jobs he could trust to no one else. Ordinarily, they would be in place at the very center of the line, but either they weren’t there or some trick of the ground was hiding them. Maybe he’s holding them out of sight as a reserve. She shook her head and turned back to more immediate problems.