I have of growing wings and flying. And you have every chance of killing
more of your men than have died since we left the \Vestlands if you go
out there now."
"' ou've always given me good advice, Captain Ajutani," Balasar said. "I
appreciate your wisdom on this."
"I wouldn't call it wisdom particularly," Sinja said. "Just a common
interest in not turning into ice sculpture in a bean field somewhere be-
twwwecn here and there."
"Thank you," Balasar said, his tone making it clear that the meeting had
ended. Sinja saluted Balasar, nodded to Eustin, and made his way out.
The door closed with a click. F,ustin coughed.
"Do you think he's lying?" Balasar said. "I le'd been living in \lachi.
If there were a place he didn't rant captured, it would be there."
Eustin frowned, arms folded across his chest. lie looked older, Balasar
thought. The grief of losing Coal was heavy on his shoulders too. In a
sense, they were the last. 'T'here were other men who had taken part in
the campaign, but only the two of them had been there from the
beginning. Only they had been to the desert. And so there was no one
else who could have this conversation and truly understand it.
"I le's not lying," Eustin said. I lis voice was thick. Balasar could
hear how much it had cost him to agree with Sinja. "h,verything I've
heard says the cold up there is deadly. It's not a pleasant day out now,
and the season's milder here."
"And Nlachi's army?"
Eustin shrugged.
"It wasn't an honorable fight," he said. "If we empty t'tani and "lan-
Sadar, we've got something near three times the men Coal had at the end."
It would take them weeks to reach Nlachi, even if they started now. A
bad storm would be worse than a battle. "Ian-Sadar, on the other hand,
was a safe place to winter, and when the spring came, they could
overwhelm Machi in safety. They could revenge Coal a thousand times
over. 'T'here was no army that could come to \lachi's aid. Meaningful
defenses for the city couldn't be built in that time.
Snow was the only armor the enemy had, and the turning seasons would he
enough to remove it. Every strategist in Galt would counsel that he
wait, plan, prepare, rest. But there were poets in Machi, and all the
world to lose if he failed.
He looked up from the maps. His gaze met Eustin's, and they stood
together in silence, the only two men in the world who would look at
these facts, these odds, these stakes, and have no need to debate them.
"I'll break it to the men," Eustin said.
20
"`And quietly, one foot sliding behind the other, for the parapet was
too narrow to walk along, the half-Bakta boy went from his own prison
chamber around to the bars of the Empress's cell."' Utah paused, letting
the half-Bakta boy hang in the air outside the prison tower. And this
time I)anat failed to object. I lis eyes were closed, his breathing
heavy and regular. Utah sat for a moment, watching his boy sleep, then
closed the hook, tucked it in its place by the door, and put out the