Page 111 of Beds and Blades

He pointed toward the treeline, at a gap in the trees approximately four hundred meters out from the wall.

I looked. I could see them.

Three figures moved across the snow in a loose line, dark against the white valley. At that distance, I could not make out faces or individual features, only the narrow silhouettes and the measured consistency of their pace.

None of them stumbled or adjusted for the uneven ground.

“Command layer,” Varia said quietly, beside me.

“How do you know from this distance?”

“The armor.” She pointed.

I looked again and saw the moonlight catching hard, regular edges where loose cloth should have moved. Varia was right.

“Fitted black plate. We do not see the command layer on intercepts. They do not come out for small operations.”

They were not moving toward Ely. Their path angled across the valley toward the uplands behind the line, where the village hearths still burned in the dark.

Whatever those three were doing, it wasn't reconnaissance. They were going to turn a village.

She was already turning from the rail. She moved to the stairs with focus.

“Rouse the Vanguard,” she said to one of the guards. “Ten riders. Fully armed. Two minutes.”

The Vanguard was Ely’s elite mounted response unit.

The guard was already moving.

I followed Varia down the stairs.

***

Varia was at the weapons rack outside the barracks when I reached her, selecting what she needed. By the time I closed the distance, she was already strapping on her armor, the motion practiced and unhesitating.

“I am coming,” I said.

“No,” she said emphatically.

“Varia…”

“No.”

She said it with the settled authority of a lieutenant who had been making decisions about garrison safety for four years.

“This is not a training yard exercise. This is the command layer. These are not recently turned farmers. They are old and fast and tactically intelligent, and Scipio would not forgive me if I brought you out there and something happened.”

“Skip is not here,” I said.

“Scipio is always here,” she said. “He will know what happened tonight regardless of whether he is standing in this courtyard.”

“I am not asking for his permission,” I said. “Or yours. I am telling you I am coming.”

Varia lifted one eyebrow and regarded me in silence, her mouth tightening at one corner.

“You told me I was ready for this,” I said.

“I told you that you were a warrior,” she replied. “That does not mean you are invincible. Warriors die in open fields at night. I have buried enough of them.”