Akaru gave him a disparaging look. "Were there no Warlocks, Demons or Dragons to take into account, I would agree with the quartermaster's estimate."

"He is not an imaginative soul," Tran rejoined with a sardonic smile, "and doubts the very existence of such magical beings. That said, he is a stout fellow, and will not quail when he comes face to face with the worst the Enemy can throw at us. And to that end, perhaps his lack of imagination serves him well."

"That said," Akaru muttered, turning his attention back to the doings of the Enemy, "we can only hope to hold this place for a matter of days. There is to be no slaughtering of our beasts except at need. Those vermin, yonder, are not yet entirely without provender. See you? Even now they gut, skin and truss up their own dead."

Tran followed the direction of his gaze with a sick, disgusted look. "They are cannibals! I had no idea . . ." his voice trailed off as he caught the murderous look in Akaru's eye.

"Their dead are to be saturated with poison and left out there in the field, beyond the ditch, for themselves to despoil after darkness falls. Don't give me that look! I'll not issue such an order for our own to be disposed on in such a manner, but if it were my own dead body, I would cry out to you from beyond the grave to use my corpse to deliver one final blow!"




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