With the morrow’s dawn, the armies moved eastward. In the distance, to the south, the men could see the wide expanse of the shimmering River Dnir, flowing through the low valleys to the distant East Seas. Beyond the Dnir, farther south, stretched slopes of grassland and forest that marked southwestern Logne.
Along their way, as the mornings passed, the armies contacted every garrison in that portion of the frontier and pressed those soldiers into service. Bands of mercenaries who fought for the love of fighting and plunder joined them. The stuff of siege craft was brought along, mantelets and catapults and testudines and battering rams, timber and hide for great moving siege engines.
The warriors were given no command save to keep marching. But at night, in camp, sitting around fires and
