A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1654 - 1654: Swirling Fires - Part 7

"That would be you pointing fingers at Blackwell then, not me," Greeves said. "But I checked their working, and they got it right. And they managed to do so without being cocks about it."

"You hide quite strongly behind the protective mantle of your master," the Colonel said, raising his eyebrows. "Do you not see my men bristling? They might hold quills now, but it is swords and spears that they are most comfortable with. They are, at the end of the day, Blackthorn men."

"That might be why you're fuckin' struggling then," Greeves said. "You need a team of a hundred to do what one man can easily do. For the bloody logistics corps that sounds like a crying waste in efficiency. And look at this – twenty minutes it's taken you to rattle through just an absolute dog's bollocks in terms of numbers. Yer questioning me on everything – fucking… I don't need to answer that shit. I'll give you your numbers, then you can piss off and check the grain yourself, and see who's right."

That was likely the line crossed, for two wax writing tablets went clattering to the ground, along with their quills, and two bristling soldiers came forward, with all the anger that might have been expected from General Blackthorn himself.

"See? You've angered them," Colonel Stopdon said, his own face wearing the red of rage.

Judas stepped forward, gritting his teeth. "Now you've all been fuckin' rude," he said, waving his mace at them. "I doesn't care for these numbers, and that, but you lot – you're fuckin' late. We went through hell so you could come up here, and beg us for figures. You better show some respect to him – and to her. You don't have the slightest fuckin' clue who you're talking to. Nobles, or Serving Class, I don't care for a piss. She put down more Colonels in the battle with Emerson than you've put down dinners. And he took Prince Hendrick hostage himself. What the fuck have you lot been doing, eh?"

Nila had her bow in her hands as well, and an arrow drawn, long before any of them could step close. "I will put an arrow in his eye if you lay a finger on either of them," she warned those guardsmen. "At this range, good Colonel, do you doubt me?"

The Colonel stared her down, along with her arrow. The fierceness in Nila's eyes was not something that he could easily see through. "I'd heard that General Patrick – as I am being made to call him now – was somewhat famed for his temper and his impulsiveness… But I had not considered that it might have leaked down as far as his men."

"Then you thought bloody wrong," Greeves said. "What, did ya think normal folk would follow that twisted little shit into a battle against twenty-thousand? The lot of us have lost it, I tell you! I must have bloody lost it as well, 'cos I swear to all the Gods, I'm willing to die over this. Your fuckin' disrespect. You have no idea what you've wandered into. I don't give a rat's arse how your General sees us. Our General Patrick spun a magic trick, in a battle where any other fucker would have fled."

"As he was ordered to," Colonel Stopdon pointed out. "Insubordinance, when our strategies are built on the most delicate piles of cards, that's something to be shunned, and stamped out, before you can light a fire out of it."

"Fuck off," Greeves said. "You know what the boy is – you said it yourself, he's got a reputation. That you couldn't guess what he'd do. That's your own pissin' faults. You don't get to play high and mighty here. Not when you've done fuck all."

"You know not what battles we've fought," Colonel Stopdon said. "You really think yourself to have claimed heroics above us – above our General?"

"Aye! Ain't that the pissin' point! I don't know! Because you ain't done nothin' worth knowing," Greeves said. "You think those grain figures are off? You think our decision to fight was off too? Then we're going to be on the wrong foot, Colonel. Our General sees things differently to you lot – and we see things differently too. If you don't understand it, don't complain to us. But those grain figures are right, and I'll stake both my balls on it. If you find a single number wrong, you can come after me with a rusty knife, and I'll gladly stand there and let you do the deed. I don't fuck about when I've said I'll do something."

Finally, the Colonel broke into a smile. "Put your swords away, men. We're dealing with lunatics. It isn't worth spilling blood over."

"No?" Greeves said. "I'll gladly continue this, if you want. Even if we get butchered for it."

"No, you've made your point," the Colonel said. "And a rather entertaining point it was. Very well, on the stipulation of both your testicles, I will trust in the figures that you have given me, and I will assume that the starting figures were correct as well. In that case, it would seem, Merchant, you have achieved a feat. You have pulled supplies where there ought to be none, and so, before I ask the Lady Felder to lower her bow and the arrow on its string, would you tell me quite how you managed to pull that magic trick?"

"...Smaller rations on some days, to the point that they can't notice," Greeves said. "Food scavenged from the Ernest homes we found. And the occasional hunting party led by Lady Felder… Oh, and we got that shipment from a merchant that owed me a favour. Not a bad price either."

"Sorry?" The Colonel said. "I can overlook the first three things on that list. But what of this merchant?"

"You had a few of those," Nila said.

"Aye, and you've had a few hunting trips. Don't know how you're managing in winter, or why you're bothering to travel so far so ya don't upset the ecosystem too much, even though we're at bloody war."