lastkingsamazon by Chris Northern Page B

even as I watched. I raised my hand and waved them back.
    “ Coming?”
    He grinned. “Surely. But let's each go talk to our men first, eh? Like you said. This could get ugly.”
    I agreed. “Embarrassing at the least.”
    Without another word we walked away from each other. My back itched all the way back to where my man was waiting with my horse. Rastrian Bacht had a spring steel crossbow on his back. And as soon as I'd seen it I'd looked for others and seen that all of his men carried similar weapons. I was sure that Gatren Teciba Orans had given me the wrong password. I was also sure that he had done so deliberately. Still, I could be wrong. I could get a quarrel in the back any moment. It wasn't a comfortable feeling. My man was watching the crossbowmen intently.
    “ Relax,” I told him as I swung into the saddle.
    “ Ours, sir?”
    “ Pretty sure of it. I'll need your horse in a moment.”
    We rode back to the main group, most of which had dropped back out of sight. Yebratt and the rest of my unit were waiting in a single line, ready to react either way. Someone else was with him, one of the commanders whose name I had not caught. I berated myself for that. I should know and I didn't. He sat his mount to one side, observing the crossbowmen but didn't acknowledge me, so for the moment I ignored him.
    “ Problem?” Yebratt said.
    “ Wrong password. I'm taking their captain in to meet the commander and sort it out. I think they are ours. But keep an eye. I'll get some of them,” I gestured down slope to the hundred or so cavalry who were now gathered there, “to get out and scout, just in case. You stay put and watch them.” I'd pitched my voice so that the commander could hear what I had in mind, and was watching him as I spoke. He glanced at me and nodded when I was done, informed me that he would take care of the scouts, then turned his mount and rode back down the slope. So, Tulian would know what was going on before I got there. I hoped he approved. I was going to catch shit any way it turned out but worse if I made what he considered an error in the meantime.
    I took the spare mount back with me to meet Rastrian Bacht at the mid point, watching his men as I did so. They were pretty much the same as before, but conversation had stopped and they were all looking my way now. He came alone, mounted without a word, and we rode side by side back toward my men.
    “ You don't carry tower shields,” I commented, making it a question.
    “ I requested that Tulian Dural Verrans buy enough for my men and bring them with the baggage train. It's a pain to carry them on foot, you understand.” He had used Tul's full name again, making it clear that he knew exactly who he was.
    I imagined carrying a tower shield and guessed it would be a pain. “And you traveled cross country because...?”
    He grinned at me. “Best route from where we were. Pretty good calculation, eh?”
    I thought about it. Actually it was, depending on where they had come from. I would, now I thought about it, have expected them to hit the road either ahead or behind us. I thought about it some more. “You have a sorcerer with you.”
    “ Shaman, he calls himself. From the south.”
    We passed through my men and over the ridge. Things had changed. The equestes had split into two groups, now each a hundred strong, and were well to the left and right of the place where we crossed the ridge and headed down toward the army. Another cavalry unit of maybe twenty men was making its way out from the main body. The army had stopped and formed up either side of the road facing both ways, ready for anything. It was an impressive sight, the men as still as statues, the light breeze moving the grasses around them and the occasional shadow of a cloud passing over them contrasting with their own lack of movement. We made our way down the slope at no great speed. I didn't want anyone getting edgy, best to keep things slow and smooth. The small group of