Marcus saluted and withdrew from the tent. He found Lady Aquitaine walking beside him.

"Sloppy," he said quietly. "Speaking that openly. Someone could overhear."

She made a tsking sound. "I extended the windcrafting to include you."

Marcus grunted.

"The duel is to be held on the south wall of the fortifications," Lady Aquitaine said. "This is the time for the balest, I suppose."

Marcus nodded. "Which?"

She shook her head. "There's something to be had on all fronts of this debacle. If Arnos is vindicated, our would-be Princeps has been dealt with. If Oc-tavian wins, he gets rid of a useless retainer who might well return to stab me in the back when I'm not looking."

Marcus understood the cold-blooded logic of it. "Wait until it's over. Shoot the winner."

"Problems solved," Lady Aquitaine said.

"There might be some problems you aren't considering," Marcus said. "About sixty thousand of them."

The mourning howls of the Canim army drifted through the night air.

She frowned, and rubbed her hands on her arms as if cold. "It's unfavorable. I'd rather not lose the Legions, but the odds would seem to be against it."

"You could improve them."

Lady Aquitaine stopped in her tracks and stared. "You can't be serious."

"Consider the advantages should we succeed," Marcus said. "Between this and the Vord attack in the citadel, you'll be establishing yourself as a true hero of the Realm. You'll gain even more allies."

"Assuming I'm not killed in the fighting, of course," she said. "No. That's not a chance I'm willing to take. Should the battle go ill, I'll take us both safely away."

No you won't, Marcus thought. I know you, Your Grace. Why remove two liabilities when it's as easy to manage three?

Marcus brooded for a moment, and when the privacy aircrafting Lady Aquitaine had been holding suddenly collapsed, he all but collided with the captain.

"Ah, there you are," the captain said. "I've been looking for you. Where did you get off to, First Spear?"

Tavi's eyes traveled to the disguised Lady Aquitaine, and his eyebrows rose in time with the corners of his mouth. "Ah-hah."

Lady Aquitaine dropped another curtsey, her eyes on the ground, and her cheeks turned pink.

Marcus coughed gruffly as he saluted. "Captain." He turned to Lady Aquitaine. "I must attend to my duties."

She nodded silently, still blushing-or pretending to be-and kissed Marcus on the cheek, curtseyed again to the captain, and hurried away.

"I didn't know you had a woman," Tavi said, grinning. "Ready to work?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. I-" The captain frowned suddenly, studying Lady Aquitaine as she left.

Marcus watched him frown pensively. "Sir?"

"Mmmm?" The captain shook his head. "Oh, nothing. She just seemed familiar to me for a moment."

"You may have seen her around the camp, sir."

"That's probably it." The young man rolled his shoulders beneath his armor. "The show starts in an hour. I'd like you to make sure the south wall is cleared of debris and ready."

Marcus saluted. "Will do, Captain."

The captain thumped a fist down on one of Marcus's armored shoulders. "What would I do without you, centurion? Carry on."

Marcus strode away to the wall, rounded up two spears' worth of legionares, and proceeded to clear it. Then he hurried back toward the wagons to get his gear. He'd already picked a likely spot from which to shoot. There should be just time enough to collect the balest and reach his position.

And after that, who knew.

He might even get to rest.

Chapter 54

As challenger to the duel, protocol required Tavi to arrive at the field first, and his knuckles were white as he climbed up the ladder to the southern wall.

It felt like a very long way up.

Tavi pulled himself up to the top of the wall and made room for Araris, who was coming up behind him. The structure was a standard Legion battle wall, at least in appearance. Given how much material they'd had to raise, and how little time they'd had to do it, Tavi was sure that it lacked the interlocking, interwoven layers of stone that would make it practically invincible to all but the most violent furycrafting. The wall itself was a flat shelf about eight feet across, and crenellation rose along its outer edge. The tops of the merlons rose to a few inches higher than Tavi's head, and the embrasures between them rose to the middle of Tavi's stomach.

The wall was a series of straight sections, each one at a slight angle to the next, following the terrain it had been built upon. It would not be difficult to keep track of the inner edge, which would be handy for avoiding a potentially fatal fall to the ground below. At Tavi's order, his men had left a series of fury-lamps along the length of the wall, providing plenty of light to see by.

He felt cold. Though spring was edging toward summer, the night was chilly, and the steel of his armor drew the heat from his body.

"Walk a bit," Araris suggested. "Stretch out. You don't want to go into it with your muscles cold and tight."

Tavi followed the singulare's suggestion. "How many times have you fought in the juris macto, Fade?" He caught himself and shook his head. "I mean, Araris."

The older man smiled, his eyes wrinkling at their corners. "I don't mind it from you," he said. "And I've done it four times. I championed someone else in three of them."

"Four?" Tavi asked, still stretching. "That's all?"

"I don't enjoy hurting people."

Tavi shook his head. "That's not what I meant. From your reputation, I thought it would be dozens."

Araris shrugged. "Quality over quantity, I suppose. I fought the High Lord of Parcia's bastard half brother when he challenged the old man for the throne of his city. Antillus Raucus took offense at a young Knight, even younger than you, who had been sleeping with his sister. I had to intervene on the Knight's behalf."

"You beat a High Lord at the blade?" Tavi asked.

"Like I said. Quality over quantity." Araris frowned. "He's got a scar or two to show for it, but I didn't kill him. And I championed Septimus just before the Battle of Seven Hills broke out-"

"That was you?" Tavi said.

Araris shrugged again. "Kadius, a Placidan Lord, had decided that he needed to improve his lands by stealing his neighbors', and Septimus and the Crown Legion were sent to restore order. Kadius challenged the Princeps to compel him to withdraw-and when I killed him, his wife went insane with anger and sent every soldier in her army against the Crown Legion. They had a respectable force of Knights. It was a mess."

"And the fourth was Aldrick ex Gladius," Tavi said.

"With more than a hundred duels to his credit. He used to hire out as a champion, before he took up service with your father. That one got a lot of attention. We went for about ten hours, all the way around Garden Lane and Craft Lane both. Must have been fifty or sixty thousand people that came down to see it."

Tavi frowned, lifted a boot to one of the embrasures, and leaned, stretching out his leg. "But he challenged Sir Miles originally, right?"

"Yes."

"Over what?"

"A girl." Araris narrowed his eyes, looking down the wall past Tavi. "They're here."

A hundred feet down the wall, Navaris pulled herself up from the ladder and rose. The slender cutter wore close-fit armor of leather and light mail, rather than the heavy, steel-plated Legion lorica Tavi wore. She faced him from a hundred feet away, and her expression was empty, devoid of humanity. She carried a long blade and a gladius on two belts slung over her shoulder, just as Araris carried Tavi's. Neither of them would burden themselves with a scabbard in this duel.