They all looked the same, with their polished helmets and their pikes, their boots and their colors. All so frightfully similar, each the product of a life replaced by ritual. They ate early breakfasts prepared by mess-cooks; after, the morning arms-drills, where squared regiments of men coordinated the work of blades and shields; later, acquisitions, when new rations were distributed among the soldiers and mail was delivered daily by couriers from North Passage Down. In the evening, much to the fascination of Myrkentown's children, there was always dress-parade. Small pockets of the Crown's men demonstrated the majesty and the prowess of their training to handfuls of curious boys and girls. Sometimes soldiers broke rank to squat down beside their miniature onlookers and let them feel the weight of Crown-funded steel in their little hands.
This was the heart of a military at peace.
Gloria Wynsee watched over the heads of tykes and tots who thrust out their fingers and begged their mates to look, look! as two soldiers worked through a dance of thrusts, parries, sweeps, and ripostes with halberds that seemed nearly as tall as they sky.
Soldiers rarely mean to hurt innocents, Lady Egris had said.
She followed the whispering memory of those words through the small crowd when the display was done. She sought out the Kestrel's banner and the scattering of men underneath it. Their shadows cast great black streaks across the earth. The girl approached them, her skirts cracking, snapping against her thighs and ankles in the stifling summer breeze. Her right hand lifted to hold tight to the ribbon of her dirty bonnet. Squinting against the Glass Sun's last few rays, she waved to hail one of the Lady's nearest soldiers.
"Your pardon," the seamstress said to the handful of soldiers, tilting into a greeting curtsey as a few turned to regard her. "I'm trying to find one of your fellows. I thought you might know if he's here.
"Henderson," Gloria said. "Have you seen him about? Could you be so kind as to point me in his direction?"