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Tarkyn’s advance guard walked beneath overhanging sycamores until it joined a narrow deer track that ran through long grasses along the edge of a slope. As he walked, Harkell brooded over the thirty-three men who had already left to join Jarand’s army. They might actually be in a strategic position to lend assistance when the time came. But would their training convert them to following Jarand wholeheartedly or make them wish more fervently for Tarkyn to provide an alternative? On balance, Harkell decided, they were unlikely to be faced with anything more persuasive than a reiteration that Prince Jarand was their overlord and it was their duty to fight for him. It was not Jarand’s policy to reason with his officers and that attitude went down through the ranks.
As the path became stee
