Asayaga could see Dennis from the corner of his eye. The man tensed and Asayaga knew that a mere nod of the head, a single gesture and the sergeant behind Sugama would have his blade buried to the hilt in Sugama’s back.
‘Force Leader,’ Asayaga hissed, looking straight at Sugama. The menace in his voice carried the warning and Sugama hesitated. ‘Turn slowly and look behind you.’
Sugama’s gaze broke away from Asayaga and he turned cautiously. The Kingdom sergeant nodded slightly, a flicker of a smile creasing his scarred face.
‘Now sit down slowly, Sugama. If you try for him, he’ll have that dagger behind his back buried in your stomach before you take another step.’
In spite of the game-within-games Asayaga knew he had made a mistake, but there was no way out of it. Sugama had just suffered another public humiliation. He had forestalled the encounter for the moment, but Sugama had to regain his honour. Sugama stood motionless, uncertain as to what to do next, while Alwin Barry slowly pulled his hand from behind his back, revealing a dagger with which he casually began to clean his fingernails.
After a painful moment, Sugama said, ‘Yes, Force Commander,’ and sat down.
Asayaga turned back to face Dennis who had not moved throughout the encounter.
‘As I said before, it will be an open fight between us,’ Dennis said again.
Asayaga grunted noncommittally and stepped closer, moving within the arc of Dennis’s sword.
Dennis looked up at him. ‘Walk with me a while, Tsurani.’ He rose and, without waiting to see if Asayaga was following him, went outside. He regretted returning to the cold, but what he had to say was not for the ears of the men on either side.
Once outside, the door closed behind them, Dennis walked a short distance away, to an empty water-barrel near the wall. He sat upon it and looked up at the Tsurani leader. ‘The second watch should be back in soon,’ he said, speaking slowly so that Asayaga could understand.
‘I know. The storm is lifting.’
‘The Dark Brothers will try a night attack. They’ve had several hours to dry out, eat some warm food. With the weather lifting they won’t wait. They know we’re both in here and will figure we’ve murdered each other. They’ll be eager for an easy kill.’ As he said the last words he smiled slightly.
‘Then we surprise them,’ Asayaga replied. ‘After that, you and I, we fight.’
Dennis shook his head. ‘Typical Tsurani. Always ready to stand and fight without thought.’
‘That is why we will win.’
Dennis held up his hand.
‘Listen, Tsurani. Even together we can’t hold this place. My father built this stockade, and he abandoned it for a reason.’ He pointed upward in the dark. ‘They get archers up on the sides of the pass it’s a death trap.’
‘So we put men up there.’
‘To put enough men up there, we do not leave enough on the wall to repulse an attack. No, you can stay if you want. In fact, I encourage you to do so.’
‘But you are running?’
Dennis nodded and gestured to the north. ‘They have three hundred or more, at least twenty mounted. North is the only way out of here now.’
‘And then where?’
Dennis grinned. ‘Wouldn’t you like to know.’
Asayaga studied him intently.
‘You don’t know yourself,’ he said softly, speaking so quietly that the Kingdom troops on the wall above could not hear.
Dennis said nothing for a moment. I scouted it years ago,’ he hesitated, ‘before you came. Not since.’
‘The black scout?’
‘The Natalese scout,’ Dennis replied evenly, ‘Gregory. Same with him. It’s land that no one claimed. Border marches separating our realms from the Dark Brothers and their allies – what we call the Northlands.’
‘Then follow the ridge of this mountain and go west for a day. After that, turn south back to our lines.’
Dennis shook his head.
‘They’ll pin us up here. The ridges are piled high with snow and ice after this storm. We’ll get trapped up there, they’ll circle us in, block our escape and then drag us out.’
‘So why are you telling me this?’
‘Because, Tsurani, its one of two choices. We settle accounts now, or you come with us. I don’t think you’re fool enough to stay behind so I don’t even offer that to you as a third alternative.’
‘You offer me a choice?’ Asayaga barked. ‘Perhaps it should be the other way around, dog.’
Dennis’s features clouded for an instant, hand gripping the hilt of his sword tightly. ‘Who is the invader here?’ he asked, his voice filled with menace. ‘You dare call me a dog, you murderer?’
Asayaga started to speak, but then held his words. What answer was there? For a brief instant he understood the Kingdom soldier’s anger. He inclined his head slightly. ‘I offer no apology,’ Asayaga said, holding up his hand, palm out, ‘but I do offer to talk.’
‘Well,’ Dennis replied haughtily, ‘that’s something, coming from a Tsurani.’
Asayaga was silent for a moment, as if weighing his options. Finally he said, ‘I heard one of your men speak your name. I know who you are, leader of Hartraft’s Mauraders.’
‘Yes,’ and there was a sharp note of pride in Dennis’s voice. ‘What’s left of the garrison of Squire Hartraft’s estates, in service to my lord, the Baron of Tyr-Sog. So why is that important?’
‘I have lost more than one man to you. Finding them in the morning, throats cut, no sign of an honourable fight. Slipping in like purse-thieves in an alleyway, then melting back into the forest.’
‘Bothers you, doesn’t it?’ Dennis said, a cold grin lighting his scarred face.
‘It is not war, it is murder.’
‘Don’t speak to me of murder!’ Dennis hissed, barely containing his anger. ‘Were you at the Siege of Valinar?’
Asayaga, even though he was unfamiliar with all the inflections of their language, could not mistake the tension in Hartraft’s voice.
He nodded. ‘No, I was serving with Clan Kanazawai under Kasumi of the Shinzawai against your Prince Arutha at Crydee. A hard fight, the first one I was in. But I have heard of Valinar; that was also a hard fight.’
‘That was my family’s estate.’ Dennis made a sweeping gesture that took in the men up on the wall and those inside the barracks. ‘This raiding company was formed around the few men who got out of Valinar. Less than twenty of us and those who remained behind, you killed them all. I am the only one left.’ He fixed Asayaga with a look that could only be called murderous. ‘My father, my mother, my younger brother and two sisters, and the woman to whom I was bethrothed, all were in residence at my father’s estate the night you Tsurani attacked.’ His voice fell to a whisper. ‘It was the night of my wedding-day. It’s been nine years, Tsurani, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. I held my wife in my arms when she died. I don’t know if my brother and sisters are even alive.’
Asayaga tensed. The captured Kingdom soldiers had been taken to Kelewan and sold as slaves. They were labouring under the hot Tsurani sun if they still lived, in the fields or down reclaiming the land of the Great Swamp. The women … the old ones to the kitchens, the young ones, like Dennis’s sisters … He thought it best not to mention that to Dennis. Then he remembered a story. ‘You’re the one who released the prisoner, aren’t