What Smitty said now was, “You aren’t the only blond in King Avram’s army, Rollant. When we get done licking the northerners with them helping, folks’ll have a lot harder time saying blonds can’t fight. And if a man can do a proper job of fighting, he’s on his way to being a real Detinan.”

If a man can stand up to a Detinan was part of what he meant. The Detinans had spent centuries forcing blonds down, and then wondered that they didn’t leap to their feet at once when no longer held down by laws. Rollant said, “Well, there’s Hagen, or there was.”

“Gods damn Hagen, and I daresay they’re doing it,” Smitty said. “On account of Hagen, we’ve got Lieutenant Griff in charge of this company instead of Captain Cephas, and Griff isn’t half the man the captain was.”

“Captain Cephas turned out to be too much of a man for his own good,” Rollant said. “If he hadn’t messed around with Hagen’s wife-”

“Corliss didn’t need much messing with,” Smitty said.

Rollant couldn’t argue that. It hadn’t been a rape, or anything of the sort. He felt a certain amount of responsibility for what had happened, because he’d found the two blonds and their children near Rising Rock after they’d fled their liege lord. Hagen had cooked and cut wood and fetched and carried for the company, getting paid for his labor for the first time in his life. Corliss had got paid for doing laundry, too. She hadn’t got paid for warming Cephas’ cot, not so far as Rollant knew. She’d just wanted the company commander, as he’d wanted her. And, right after the battle of Proselytizers’ Rise, she’d gone into his tent-and Hagen had followed her with a butcher knife. Now all three of them were dead; Cephas had managed to use his sword before falling.