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Gaius said quietly.

    "But, sire ," Tavi began.

    "Be silent ," the First Lord hissed. His eyes turned to Tavi and gave him a single, hard look, so full of authority that the young Cursor never so much as considered doing or saying anything else.

    "Yes, sire."

    Gaius nodded once, as the impatiently raised voices grew louder. "I need you exactly where you are—in command of the First Aleran. Don't give him an excuse to remove you."

    Tavi blinked and could only stare blankly at Gaius.

    "I'm sorry I couldn't do more for you here, lad," the First Lord continued. "My support doesn't mean what it once did, I'm afraid. Today, I'm little more than the chair of a meeting."

    "I didn't even get to tell them about what Ehren's contacts have learned or the theories we've drawn from it."

    Gaius's lips compressed for a moment. "He doesn't want to hear it. Arnos and his friends have plans for what happens next in the region, and their plans do not necessarily leave room for such minor inconveniences as fact."

    Tavi ground his teeth. "He's a fool."

    "He's a fool with the backing of the Senate," Gaius corrected him. "And he is the lawful commander of the Guard—and the First Aleran, I might add. He'll be assuming command in the region, with Sir Cyril as his senior advisor."

    Tavi took a deep breath. "What would you have me do?"

    "Your best," the First Lord said. "Work with Sir Cyril. Mitigate the Senator's idiocy. Save as many lives as you can."

    "If Arnos does what he says, Nasaug is going to hurt us, sire. Badly."

    "Three months," Gaius said. "Keep things together here for three months."

    "What?" Tavi asked quietly, confused. "Why three months?"

    "Because by then, the war with Kalarus will be finished, his rebellion over, and we'll have regular Legion commanders to spare. Once the Senate's 'state of emergency' is over, Arnos can go back to pushing soldiers around a sand table where he belongs."

    Tavi blinked at him. "How is that going to happen, sire?" The First Lord arched a greying eyebrow at him. Tavi noted, for the first time, that their eyes were now on a level with one another.

    Gaius's eyes glittered with dark humor for an instant. "That would be telling." He cast a glance at the tumult Arnos's comments had created. "The task I'm handing you is unenviable. Can you do it?"

    Tavi looked up at the discord swirling around the Senator and narrowed his eyes. He knew all too well the kind of price the legionares were forced to pay when their leaders made even relatively small and honest mistakes. What Arnos was proposing was barely this side of insanity, and the suffering that his actions could inflict on noncombatants in the occupied territory was a thing out of the young captain's nightmares. Something had to be done. "Yes, sire," Tavi said quietly. "I can."

Chapter 4

    "Well," Amara murmured to the First Lord as they departed the command building. "That could have gone better."

    "Actually," Gaius said, "it went as well as could be expected." He strode purposefully toward the area of the square typically used by Knights Aeris for landings and takeoffs. That area of the camp was kept policed of detritus and debris, so that the gales caused by fliers' windstreams sent a minimum number of objects flying around.

    Amara had to hurry her own steps to keep up with the much taller First Lord. "I thought the young captain held his own rather well."

    "Rather too well," Gaius said testily. "Great furies know, Arnos needs someone to bleed his ego to manageable levels, but Scipio isn't the one to do it. I need him right where he is."

    Amara shook her head. "I spent some time in the town last night, doing a little listening in the wine houses."

    "Amara," Gaius chided her. "You're serving as my liaison now, not as an intelligence agent."

    "Habit, sire," Amara said. "His men think new grass sprouts up in his boot-prints and flowers bloom where he spits. They'd never stand for his removal."

    Gaius made a thoughtful sound. "Really?