The letter came with the last fig-courier of the night, and Alistair read it once fast, then again slowly, because Due had folded two reports into one page so the whole shape would land at once instead of in pieces.
Two thousand men, Due wrote.
Two days out from our border, and here is the part that matters, so read it twice, brother.
There is no siege train with them, no heavy supply behind, and not one engineer in the whole column, and the missing engineers are the truth of it, because you do not knock a wall down without men who knock walls down, and they have brought none.
So it is not an army that means to cross.
It is an army that means to be seen deciding not to cross, which is a far nastier weapon, since you can brace against a thing that comes at you, not against a thing that just sits in a field and waits.
Sable got me the Edict's standing order, Due went on, and do not ask me how, you will only lose sleep.
Vohn holds her ground.
