---
"That if you pull back," she said, "if you turn this gambit into a siege of patience instead of a slaughter, I will personally see to it that certain… factions in the royal court do not use your restraint as an excuse to raid your back lines. You get time. Your men get to live long enough to eat something that is not panic. The court gets to think it has simply chosen a more elegant strategy. Everyone saves face. And I get to… decide what to do about the man on the hill without you trampling him in the meantime."
Vorak studied her for a very long time.
Behind him, the map did not move. The teeth markers sat in place, waiting.
"You are asking me," he said finally, "to stake my command on the word of a woman whose name I do not know, whose rank does not show, and whose allegiance is unclear."
"Yes," she said.
He exhaled through his teeth.
"This is deeply unwise," he said.
