Returning the salute, George said, “And what can I do for you?”
“Sir, I’ve just received orders from Georgetown,” Jimmy said.
Excitement thrummed in his voice. George could see it in his stance. “What sort of orders?” the commanding general asked, though Jimmy’s delight gave him a pretty good idea.
And, sure enough, Jimmy answered, “Detached duty, sir. My whole contingent of unicorn-riders. I’m ordered to go down into Dothan, smash up everything in my path, and hound Ned of the Forest to death.” He sounded quiveringly eager to be about it, too.
Doubting George was also quivering-quivering with fury. “Congratulations, Brigadier. I hope you do it, and I think you can.” He wasn’t angry at Jimmy, or not directly. “These orders came straight to you?”
“Uh, yes, sir. They did.” Now Jimmy knew what the trouble was. “Do you mean to say you didn’t get them?”
“That is exactly what I mean to say,” George growled. “By now, the butchers dismembering the carcass of my army must suppose I’m dead, for they don’t even bother letting me know before they hack off another limb. At least they had the courtesy to tell me when they took John the Lister away from me.”
Hard-Riding Jimmy turned red. He stroked one end of his long, drooping mustaches. “I’m sorry, sir. I assumed you would know before I did.”
“Ha!” Doubting George said. “Marshal Bart doesn’t think I deserve to know my own name, let alone anything else.”
“Well…” The commander of unicorn-riders was too excited about what he was going to do to worry much about his superior’s woes. “I can’t wait to come to grips with Ned, not when I’m getting reinforced, all my men will have quick-shooting crossbows, and he can’t afford to send his troopers scattering like quicksilver. He’ll have to defend the towns in my path, because the manufactories in them make crossbows and catapults and such for the traitors. He’ll have to defend them, and I aim to take them away from him and burn them to the ground.”
Southron brigadiers had been talking like that when they went up against Ned of the Forest since the war was young. Most of the brigadiers who talked like that had come to grief in short order. Doubting George doubted whether Hard-Riding Jimmy would, though. He was a good officer, had a swarm of good men armed with fine weapons that had already proved their worth-and the north, now, was visibly coming to the end of its tether.
“May the gods go with you,” George said. “I wish I were going with you, too, but I can’t do a gods-damned thing about that.”
“I wish this had been handled more smoothly,” Jimmy said. “I feel real bad about it.”
“Nothing you can do. Nothing I can do, either,” Doubting George answered. “When you do go to Dothan with your detached command, though, you make sure you do whip those traitor sons of bitches, you hear me?”
“Yes, sir!” Hard-Riding Jimmy saluted once more. “I’ll do it, sir.” He got back onto his unicorn and rode away.
Doubting George stared after him. Then the commanding general turned and kicked a small stone into the Franklin. It splashed a couple of times before sinking without a trace. Might as well be my career, George thought gloomily. Not all the sons of bitches are traitors. Too gods-damned many of ’em are on King Avram’s side.
These days, Ned of the Forest often felt he was the only officer in Honey-indeed, the only officer in Great River Province and Dothan put together-who was behaving as if he felt the north could still win the war. In a sour sort of way, that was funny, for Bell’s disaster in front of Ramblerton had thrown the last log on the pyre of his hopes.
But, as far as he was concerned, the fight had to go on, hope or no hope. King Geoffrey hadn’t surrendered. Geoffrey, in fact, kept loudly insisting that he wouldn’t surrender, that he would sooner turn bushwhacker than surrender. Ned, a master bushwhacker if ever there was one, had his doubts about that, but he kept quiet about them.
His unicorn-riders kept patrolling north of the Franklin. A few of them sneaked across the river and raided southron outposts on the far bank. They behaved as if the war still were the close, hard-fought struggle it had always been.
Not so the footsoldiers who remained in Honey, the remnants of the once-proud Army of Franklin. Every day, a few-or, on a lot of days, more than a few-of them slipped out of their encampments, heading for home.
Lieutenant General Richard the Haberdasher, the general who’d taken over for Bell, summoned Ned to his headquarters in the best hostel in town. Richard, a belted earl, was King Geoffrey’s brother-in-law and had a blood connection to King Zachary the Rough and Ready, now some years dead. Despite his blue blood, he’d proved a capable soldier, and had done some hard fighting in the northeast.
To do any more fighting with what had been the Army of Franklin, Ned was convinced, Earl Richard would have to be more than a capable soldier. He’d have to be able to raise the dead. But all Ned did on walking into Richard’s suite was salute and say, “Reporting as ordered, your Grace.”
Richard the Haberdasher was tall-though not quite so tall as Ned-and handsome. He was in his late thirties, four or five years younger than the commander of unicorn-riders. “I have a favor to ask of you, Lieutenant General,” he said.
“What do you need?” Ned asked.
“I want you to put a cordon around Honey,” Richard said. “These desertions have got to stop. Can you do that?”
“Yes, I can,” Ned of the Forest answered. “And I will.” He was glad to see Richard trying to take matters in hand. About time, he thought. Still, he couldn’t help adding, “You could do it with footsoldiers, too, you know.”
“I could, but I’d rather not,” Earl Richard said. “I’m not sure I can rely on them. Your men, though-your men I can count on. And so, if it’s all right with you, I’d sooner do that.”
“All right. I’ll take care of it.” Ned wished he could disagree with Richard the Haberdasher. That would have meant the remaining fragments of the broken Army of Franklin were in better shape than they really were. The commander of unicorn-riders felt he had to add, “If I set some of my troopers to riding patrols around Honey, that means I can’t use those fellows against the southrons.”
“Yes, I know,” Richard answered. “But it also means I’ll have more pikemen and crossbowmen to send against them when I find the chance.” He seemed to hear what he’d just said, to hear it and think he had to retreat from it. “If I find the chance, I should say.”
Ned of the Forest nodded. Bell’s successor was proving he had a better grasp on reality than the man he’d replaced. Had the one-legged officer kept his command here, he probably would have been planning yet another headlong assault on the southrons. He seemed to have wanted the Army of Franklin as thoroughly maimed as he was himself. But Richard the Haberdasher clearly realized the days of storming to the attack were gone forever for these soldiers.
“We have to do all we can to hold the manufactories in Dothan and the smaller ones here in Great River Province,” Richard said. “With Marthasville and Veldt gone, they’re the most important ones we’ve got left this side of Nonesuch.”
“I understand,” Ned said. “And with Marthasville and Veldt gone, gods only know how anything they make in Nonesuch’ll get out here to the east. That means the ones hereabouts count for even more than they would otherwise.”
“True. Every word of it true.” Earl Richard hesitated, then said, “May I ask you something else? I swear by the Thunderer’s strong right hand that whatever you answer won’t go beyond the walls of this room.”
The walls of that room were covered by a garishly flowered wallpaper that couldn’t have been much uglier if it tried. Ned of the Forest didn’t like to think of anything that hideous listening to him, but he nodded again. “Go right ahead.”