in the tent yonder."
Before following her, Caralla turned to Elaina.
"Get Father talking sometime—his trip this side the mountains during the troubles."
"Bergthora told me the part she saw, when the Wolves almost killed him. Said she had never seen anyone fight like that."
"When things go wrong. Mostly he makes sure they don't. That's the part you need to learn."
The next afternoon yells, men pointing south. Down the slope a line of wagons, heavy cavalry as escort. Elaina recognized the banner, turned to Caralla.
"What's Stephen bringing?"
"Something someone left behind."
Three of the wagons stopped in the camp to unload supplies. The rest continued over the ridge, down the other side, up; they came to a stop just below the top of the ridge that separated the camps of the two armies. The riders dismounted, started unloading. Two hours later the pile of lumber was gone; where it had been stood two trebuchets, just downhill from the archers on the ridge.
Elaina turned to her sister.
"Monsters. Where did Stephen get siege engines?"
"From a siege. Small engines get disassembled for the parts. Trebuchets are mostly wood, heavy to carry. They didn't get around to burning all of it."
The engines assembled, Caralla rode over to talk to Stephen.
"Brother says you damn near got him drowned."
Stephen looked up. "Did it work?"
"Whole middle section out."
"And Egil got a bath. Don't see what you're complaining about."
* * *
The next morning, Gavin woke to voices near the tent. When he came out, Kyro and a cluster of legionaries were staring at the opposite ridge.
"Archers still there?"
"Yes. Something new. At the west end—look."
The flagpole was almost a mile west of the enemy position. As Gavin watched, a flag ran up it, blew out in the wind—red. It dipped, came up again, down. A minute later it was followed by a pale blue flag; that one dipped twice. Then red again.
"Who