Doubting George gaped at him. “Not that gods-damned daft heretical notion!” he exclaimed. On the far side of the Western Ocean, back in the mother kingdom, the land from which the Detinan colonizers left for their newer world, a mage who called himself Inward had proposed that the gods let beasts compete over time, those better suited to whatever they did surviving and the others failing to leave offspring behind. Every priest in the civilized world immediately started screaming at the top of his lungs, the most common shriek being, With an idea like that, who needs gods at all?

“It makes a lot of sense, if you ask me,” Alva said. George had long known his wizard lacked conventional piety. He hadn’t known Alva followed the Inward Hypothesis. As far as he was concerned, the wizard who’d proposed it had known what he was doing when he chose a false name. Now Alva went on, “You said it yourself, sir. Armies that develop these rituals survive. Those that don’t-don’t.”

He hadn’t even been insubordinate this time. He’d left Doubting George nothing to do but repeat, “Dismissed.”

Major Alva saluted. “A pro-survival ritual,” he said thoughtfully. “I won’t forget.” And out he went.

Doubting George drummed his fingers on his desk. He’d scorned the Inward Hypothesis from the moment he first heard about it. But now, though he hadn’t even known he was doing it, he’d argued in favor of what he’d thought he scorned. What did that say? Nothing good, he was sure.

If I hadn’t tweaked Alva about saluting, he wouldn’t have tossed a firepot at my thoughts. George sighed. Alva hadn’t even meant to be inflammatory. As far as George was concerned, that made the wizard more dangerous, not less. “What am I going to do with him?” he wondered aloud. Asking was easy. Finding an answer wasn’t.

And what am I going to do if the northerners really are up to something? he wondered. That was about as puzzling as what he would do with Major Alva. The problem was, he didn’t have all the men he needed. General Hesmucet had gone traipsing across Peachtree toward the Western Ocean with all the best loyal soldiers in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Detina. He hadn’t expected the northerners to be able to mount much of a challenge here in Franklin. If he was wrong…