“Getting cooler,” Jane observed, holding up one hand to test the breeze. “We’ll need coats before long. I . . .” She hesitated, peering at the colored markers and the tents going up between them. “Something’s gotten screwed up here.”

Winter sighed. Sometimes you just have to tear the scab off. “It’s not screwed up. I told Cyte to change the layout.”

“What? Why?” Jane looked around. “You’ve got us all mixed up with the Royals!”

“Alternating lines by company, in a checkerboard pattern,” Winter said. That left each line of Royals’ tents directly facing a line of Girls’ Own.

Previously, the two battalions had camped separately, with the drill field between them like the neutral territory between two feuding powers. In addition to the sentries who guarded the entire camp from ambush by the enemy, Jane always posted lookouts from the Girls’ Own to watch the Royals for mischief.

“You can’t be serious,” Jane said. “Do you have any idea what’s going to happen?”

Winter shrugged. “Maybe they’ll compare cooking?”

“Don’t play dumb.”

Jane turned her horse into Winter’s path, forcing her to stop, and fixed her with a glare. Winter sighed.

“We can’t have the Girls’ Own treating everyone else in the army as the enemy, Jane.”

“It’s not like I want to. But—you know the Royals, the way they behave! De Ferre was ready to leave us to die. They are the enemy, whether we like it or not.”

“That was de Ferre.” Winter thought of the piles of complaints. “I’m sure some of the nobles hate the Girls’ Own, but the rankers don’t. They come from the streets and the farms, the same as your girls do.”

“If they’re on our side, they should have come to help us,” Jane said. “Whatever de Ferre told them.”

Winter shook her head. Jane had still not really gotten the hang of the military mentality. “They had orders. You can’t blame them.”

“Orders.” Jane spit the word. “I think you were a soldier too long.”

Winter took a deep breath and rallied to try again. “Look. You had men helping the Leatherbacks. We didn’t capture Bloody Cecil or take the Vendre with just your girls.”

“I’m not saying they can’t help,” Jane said. “But there are good reasons I didn’t let them into the building.” Her eyes were flashing with anger. “You have no idea what can happen—”