Read Online Captain's Fury by Jim Butcher - Free Book Online

play by the rules, sire," Tavi said.

    In the front row, Captain Miles had apparently recovered enough to snort out a rough breath of a laugh.

    The creases at the corners of Gaius's mouth deepened slightly. "Explain."

    "They don't rely on furycrafting, sire," Tavi clarified. "They can't use it, and have no need for it. As a result, they don't think in the same terms, strategically. For example, they have no particular need for the use of causeways, the way an Aleran Legion does, if it wants to move rapidly. They avoid causeways whenever they can, forcing the Legion to march overland, which gives them a significant advantage in the field. They march faster than we do.

    "We've compensated for this to some degree, by introducing training for overland marches, the addition of auxiliary units of cavalry—"

    Aquitaine murmured something at the back of the room. Tavi only caught the phrase "naked barbarians," but the men standing with him let out low, growling laughs.

    "—as well," Tavi continued steadily, "as the addition of a cohort of mounted infantry."

    "Mounted infantry?" asked High Lord Cereus.

    "They ride to the fight, then dismount, Your Grace," Tavi clarified. "It lets us field a solid block of legionares to support our cavalry and our Knights, and provides us with greater tactical flexibility in the field."

    Arnos let out a derisive snort. "This is all beside the point, Gaius, and we all know it. Captain Rufus Scipio's tactics and Sir Cyril's strategies have, I admit, managed to hold on to the region and contain the Canim threat. It's quite possible that, given how badly outnumbered they have been, they were even appropriate to the task at hand. But that situation is now at an end."

    The Senator rose and addressed the room at large. "I have two outsized Legions of the Senatorial Guard, fresh and made up purely of veteran legionares , now camped outside. Between them and the remnants of the First Aleran, we will sweep the beasts back into the sea and end this humiliating charade." He turned to Lord Aquitaine, specifically. "I anticipate that we will bring the war in this theater to a conclusion by midsummer, at which point we can increase the pressure on Kalare's remaining forces and restore order to the Realm."

    Tavi stared at Arnos blankly for a moment. Was the man insane? True, the two Legions of the Senatorial Guard contained nearly ten thousand men each—but unless the mathematics instructors at the Academy had done Tavi a grave disservice, it still meant that the Canim's forces outnumbered the Alerans by well more than two to one. Those were not impossible odds by any stretch of the imagination, but they were daunting—and they did not take into account any former-slave forces the Canim might have raised.

    "Such an undertaking would be… premature, Senator," Tavi said. "Until we have learned more about the additional forces being raised by the Canim."

    That drew every eye in the room.

    " What ?" Sir Miles sputtered.

    "The Canim have armed at least one Legion of former slaves," Tavi said. "We presume that they're offering freedom in exchange for—"

    "Does this matter?" Arnos demanded, scorn open now in his tone.

    "They're our fellow Alerans," Tavi spat. "Many of the people who stayed probably did so because they had nowhere else to—"

    "Immaterial," Arnos said, arching an eyebrow. "As you yourself have pointed out, every loyal Aleran has already left the occupied territory."

    "That isn't what I said—" Tavi began.

    Arnos's well-cultured baritone overrode him effortlessly. "Those who remain behind—whether they are taking up arms against the Realm or simply supporting the Canim for their own personal profit—are traitors." His smile was sharp and hard. "They deserve nothing but a traitor's death."

    A number of men raised their voices at that point. Tavi began to join them, but there was a sudden presence at his side, and Tavi turned to find the First Lord standing beside him.

    "Be silent,"