“Marcus,” Raesinia said, “you’re on the military side. Andy should be able to get you some eyes and ears, and you know what to look for. We’ll prepare maps and notes, and when Janus’ army gets close we can send riders to meet him. Or Giforte might get back in touch, in which case we’ll want to be able to pass along as much as possible.”

Marcus barely bit back an instinctive Yes, sir! He grinned and nodded, fighting the urge to salute.

It’s always good to have a proper commander in charge.

Chapter Twenty-one

WINTER

The Army of the East debouched from the passes of the Kell Mountains, descending in a long, winding column along a road that switchbacked between the steepest hills before leveling out into lush, gentle country. This was the Duchy of Orlanko, the ancestral lands of the Last Duke, and Winter had half expected the whole place to look sinister. Orlanko had been a mostly absentee landlord, though, spending much of his life in the capital, and his realm was a sleepy, well-ordered place of broad pastures and quaint medieval towns.

As a result of the Last Duke’s ancestor’s good sense in choosing the cause of Farus IV over his noble opponents, the Duchy of Orlanko had never suffered the horrors of the civil war and the Great Purge that had followed. The victorious king had left his greatest ally’s lands alone while he reordered the rest of the kingdom, and as a result traveling through Orlanko was in some ways like walking in Vordan’s history. The previous hundred years might as well not have happened; riding at the head of her regiment, Winter passed through villages of half-timbered houses with tiny, mottled glass windows and vast fields given over to pasturage for cows. The animals stood by the fences, staring dumbly and lowing now and then as the army trooped past.

The people were another matter. The folk of Deslandai hinterland had been positively pleased to see the Vordanai army, and had been willing to sell to anyone with coin in their pockets. Here, back in Vordan at last, the locals were much less friendly. Winter wasn’t certain if they were loyal to Orlanko, to the Directory, or simply scared by the stories that had been spreading ahead of the army, but every building they came to was locked up tight.