This part of Desland was not too dissimilar from a well-off district of Vordan City, though the Hamveltai influence was apparent in the steeply sloped roofs with carved wooden buttresses at the corners. Carriages rattled back and forth, and pedestrian traffic was light but steady. There had been an exodus in the first few days as those who were convinced the Vordanai would exact vengeance fled the city, but now the locals who remained had apparently decided their conquerors were not going to put the place to the torch after all. The three blue uniforms—one of them worn by what was clearly a woman, and one with a colonel’s eagles—drew quite a bit of attention, and they walked in the center of a bubble of stares. Passersby detoured to give them a respectful distance.

Winter forced herself not to stare back, and instead tried to focus on what Bobby was saying, which was a slightly overexcited explanation of how Janus had won the Battle of Gaafen. Cyte, on her other side, listened with the indulgent air of someone who had heard it all before.

“—Give-Em-Hell and the Colonials crossed the river upstream, fifty miles short of Gaafen. They had to detour to find a good road, which is why we moved so slowly on the approach. Every day we marched six miles and they made fifteen. Give-Em-Hell started raiding the Deslandai supply lines so they’d think that was all that was going on, and the cavalry kept the scouts from figuring out the infantry was there. They were all in position the day before we reached the Gaafen line.”

“Wait,” Winter said. “That means the Colonials went over the river before we knew the Deslandai were going to fight at Gaafen?”

Bobby nodded vigorously. “Janus knew. It’s like he could read their minds. The morning we attacked, Fitz Warus led a company from the Colonials down to the Gaafen Bridge and captured it before the Deslandai engineers could set off the charges they’d rigged to destroy it, and then the rest of the Colonials came over and attacked the town from behind. After we threw back their first attack on the right, Janus brought the center forward, and they just started to panic. The whole Deslandai army fell to pieces in an hour.”

Winter smiled ruefully. And I thought we might be reduced to battering a fortified position head-on. I ought to have more faith in Janus. Such faith had been justified many times over by now, even if the general was not in the habit of explaining his plans to his subordinates.

“And the city just surrendered?” Winter said. “We were still on the wrong side of the Velt. They could have tried to keep us from crossing.”