On the other hand, it had to be said that Brucal was an old man who could quickly draw a sword and do considerable harm. And he refused to admit he was ill.

Brucal pulled off his heavy gauntlets and handed them to an aide. He allowed another to remove the heavy fur-lined weather-cloak he had worn from his own tent. He was dressed in simple blue trousers and a grey tunic, his tabard left behind in his tent. 'And this bloody rain doesn't help.'

'Another week of this and the snows will be falling in earnest.'

'According to our scouts, it's already snowing heavily up north, around the Lake of the Sky,' replied Brucal. 'We should consider sending the reserves back to LaMut and Yabon for the winter.'

Borric nodded. 'We might get one more week of clement weather before the winter storms come, though. Just enough time for the Tsurani to start something. I think we'll keep half of the reserves close by, I'll order the other half back to LaMut.'

Brucal looked at the campaign map on the large table before Borric. He said, 'They haven't been doing much, lately, have they?'

'The same as last year,' said Borric, pointing at the map. 'A sortie here, a raid there, but there's little evidence they seek to expand much any more.'

Borric studied the map: the invading Tsurani had taken a large chunk of the Grey Tower Mountains and the Free Cities of Natal, but had seemed satisfied to hold a stable front for the last five years of the war. The dukes had managed one successful raid through the valley in the mountains the Tsurani had used as their beachhead, and since then intelligence about what was occurring behind enemy lines was non-existent.

Brucal blew his nose in a rag used to oil weapons, and then threw it into a brazier nearby. His large nose now looked red and shiny.

The nine-year campaign had taken its toll on him, Borric noticed. Borric thought back a moment to when the first sightings of the Tsurani invaders had been reported, by two boys at his own keep who had found a wrecked Tsurani ship on the headlands near his castle at Crydee. Later, word had been brought by the Elven Queen of aliens in the forests that lay between her own Elvandar and the Duchy of Crydee.