At Ashwell, Khao'khen received the intelligence about Snowe's defense and said nothing for a long moment.
The silence was the silence the chieftains recognized as the silence that preceded the decisions that no one expected. The silence that preceded the bridge of silence, the drum wall, the march on the capital.
"Snowe is defending his home," Khao'khen said.
"With eight hundred soldiers and two thousand militia against twenty thousand barbarians with dwarven weapons and shamans," Sakh'arran confirmed. "His earthworks are holding. The construction techniques are consistent with our own defensive engineering. He adapted our methods."
"He learned from fighting us."
"He learned from losing to us. The quality of the education was different."
Khao'khen stood at the command table and looked at the map. The barbarian advance. The Snowe dominion. The king's army, reduced and retreating with dwindling ammunition. The Horde at Ashwell, fortified and watching.
