“Captain Sevran took it into his head to take the fight to the enemy,” Jane said. She had a smug expression, like a cat that had gotten away with some mischief. “He took the Royals down to occupy the farm.”

“I saw,” Winter snapped. “So what are you doing here? Did he tell you to stay behind?”

“No, sir,” Jane said. “But your instructions were to stay put. I didn’t think Captain Sevran had a good reason to—”

Oh, saints and martyrs. “I left him in command,” Winter grated. “If he ordered you forward, you should have damned well gone forward!”

“I don’t take orders from him,” Jane said, frowning. This was clearly not how she’d expected this conversation to go.

“You do if I fucking well tell you to,” Winter said, her anger boiling over.

“Winter—”

“Don’t!”

“Colonel Ihernglass,” Jane said. “Do you think we could speak privately?”

“No, I don’t,” Winter said. “I think we will get this battalion down there this goddamned minute.”

“I don’t see what your hurry is,” Jane said. “It’s just a bunch of Royals. Remember what they did to us, last time? And Novus—”

Winter crossed the distance between them in two steps and grabbed Jane’s collar, pulling her close. Her voice was low and fierce, for Jane’s ears alone.

“You know I love you,” she said. “And I know you’re angry at me, and you’re angry about what Novus did. I understand all that. But if you ever deliberately leave soldiers under my command in danger without a good reason, I swear by Karis and all the saints I will ship you back to Vordan. I am responsible for every one of those men down there, just as much as I am for every woman up here.”

“You think they’d come and help us?” Jane hissed back.

“Yes,” Winter said. “Now come on.” She raised her voice. “Follow me! At the double!”

“At the double!” Folsom bellowed, and the other officers took up the cry. The drums thrilled, and the women in the ranks shouted their approval. The line lurched into motion, erratic in places but still moving as a body in the direction of the farm.

Winter left Edgar behind—no sense in making myself more of a target than I have to—and scrambled to keep ahead of the advancing formation. A few moments later, Cyte reappeared, sliding off her own mount and hurrying to keep up.

“Sir, Captain Sevran says he saw an enemy formation trying to occupy the farm in advance of an attack. He decided the best way to stop them was to get there before they did.”