Chapter 17: The Dining Room

By the time the bread came out of the oven, the whole yard had heard the bell.

A boy from the village lookout post came down the Kita Road at a dead run.

He fell into the dining room with his hat in his hand.

"Demons," he panted. "Scouts, on the north ridge. Eleven riders, in black. They looked at the fork and turned back."

"Eleven," said the Princess, very calm. "There will be more behind them."

"A day away, my lady. Maybe less."

Kaito was at the head of the table with a bowl of porridge he had not touched.

All the color had gone out of his face in the last minute.

"We withdraw," he said.

The soldiers turned their heads.

"We withdraw to the capital at once. The campaign has failed for the winter."

"We cannot hold an inn against a vanguard."

"My lord," said a captain by the door. "The village has three hundred people."

"The village must follow us south."

"They'll be caught on the road."

"Then they will be caught on the road!"

Kaito's hand slammed down on the table, and the porridge jumped.

"I will not be told how to command my own army by a roadside tavern!"

The room went quiet in a bad way.

He looked around at faces that had stopped agreeing with him.

Then his eyes went to the stairs, where Jiro had just come in with his sleeves rolled to the elbow.

Hanae saw the thought arrive.

"You," said Kaito.

"Your Excellency."

"This is your doing. You have been whispering in this house for a week. You are poisoning her against me."

"I have spoken to no one."

"You were dismissed from the Hero's party for cowardice!"

The sound that went through the room was a hundred small things at once: a spoon, a chair, a breath.