Along with learning how to slaughter the foes of Unkerlant, Leudast had learned to mouth the phrases: "Time and motion - least and fewest."

"Least and fewest," Magnulf agreed around a mouthful of his own sausage. Leudast had a little trouble understanding him, but waiting to swallow would have been inefficient. Magnulf scratched his formidable nose - though it was less formidable than those of Leudast and half the other troopers in his squad - and went on, "The stinking Gongs are liable to try something tonight. That's what we hear from prisoners, anyhow."

Leudast wondered how they'd squeezed out the news. Efficiently, without a doubt. His stomach did a slow flipflop as he thought- about how efficient interrogators could be.

One of his squadmates, a fellow named Wisgard who was slim by Unkerlanter standards, spoke up: "Back home, it would be midnight or so, and here the sun's barely down."

"We are a great kingdom." Magnulf thumped his broad chest with a big, thick-fingered fist. "And we are going to be a greater kingdom still, once we drive the Gongs off the mainland and over to the islands they've taken to infesting."

"That'd be easier if they hadn't stolen this stretch of land from us during the Twinkings War," a trooper named Berthar said.

"Proves how important efficiency is," Magnulf said. "A kingdom gets on fine with one king - that's efficient. Try to put two in the space meant for one, and everything goes to pieces. "

That wasn't efficiency, not the way Leudast saw things. It was just common sense. If either Swerninel. or Kyot had admitted he was the younger twin, Unkerlant would have been spared a lot of grief Armies had marched and countermarched across Leudast's farm - it had been his father's then, for he'd been born just as the civil war was finally petering out - stealing what they could and burning a lot of what they couldn't.