Meta Gods War 3, B. Miles [best english books to read for beginners .txt] 📗

is terrified of fighting again. Our first engagement was nearly a disaster.”

“We’ll get better,” he said. “We’re already learning. Now we know they can jump at least ten feet. In the future, you’ll hit them hard as soon as they land.”

She smiled a little. “If there is a future.”

“There’s a future.” He put an arm around her shoulder.

She leaned against him. They sat in silence. Fire crackled and danced in the breeze.

Men moaned around them in pain and frustration.

Cam couldn’t deny that had nearly been a disaster. If he had lost Key back there, plus an entire battalion, he wasn’t sure they could have come back from that. The morale hit would have been too great.

But they’d survived. They hurt the wolves as much as the wolves had hurt them.

They’d get better. They’d be smarter, stronger.

Cam squeezed his arm tight around Key’s shoulders.

“Now,” he said, leaning his lips against her ear. “I have a little Need I’d like to discuss with you.”

She smiled and laughed and Cam grinned back.

There was a future. He was sure of it.

18

The bulk of the army rolled through the woods. Days passed, trees shook and quivered in the wind, rivers came and went. Axes lopped off branches for firewood. Each night a chorus of digging shovels and grunting men erected a ring of defensive fortifications around their position.

“They’re trailing us,” Brice said about a week after Key’s first engagement. Her dark hair hung loose over her shoulders as she hunkered over a map. Candlelight shaped her lips into a full heart.

“That’s what we want,” Cam said.

“Key’s been having running battles with them in the rearguard,” she said. “And we’re losing men.”

“How many?”

Brice shook her head. “Too many. Ten, twenty every day. We lost fifty yesterday.”

Cam grunted and ran a finger down a list of provisions. They were low on salt already.

“Reinforce her from the seventh,” he said. “Captain Frant can spare the men.”

“He won’t like it.”

“Then he can march back to the Mansion.” Cam stretched his arms behind his head.

Brice lingered over the map. Cam gazed along the curve of her hip, the arch of her spine, and saw a hint of her breasts beneath the neckline of her tunic. She caught him looking, but instead of standing up, a smile slipped over her lips.

“Easy there,” she said. “You know you have more than one girlfriend in this army, don’t you?”

“There’s always room for more,” he said.

She laughed and sat back. Cam let out a breath. Brice’s eyes were like steel, but her lips and body looked like they would be soft beneath him.

“There’s been some grumbling,” she said.

“Grumbling?”

“Complaining. From the general staff.”

“That’s not surprising.”

“Felin’s been a little… aggressive in her tactics.”

Cam laughed. “Also not surprising.”

“The Generals don’t like it,” she said. “I’m afraid they’re going to start abandoning the army if Felin keeps pushing at them like this.”

“What would you have me do?” Cam asked. “I need her to sniff out disloyalty.”

“I think you’re sowing more chaos instead.”

Cam crossed his arms over his chest. “I hadn’t considered that.”

Brice chewed her lip for a moment. Cam had never seen her so indecisive before, but then she leaned forward and put her elbows on the table.

“There are men here that want to see you fall,” she said, speaking very slowly and carefully. “I won’t deny that. But most of the army just wants to do what’s best for the Mansion and their families.

“You think I should reign Felin in.”

“I think you should be subtler,” she said. “Felin has an important role. We need order in the camps. But the way she’s been doing it…”

“I’ll talk to her.”

“Thank you.” Brice leaned back, and her relief was surprising and palpable.

Cam tilted his head. “Did you think I was going to get angry at you for bringing this up to me?”

“I wasn’t sure how you’d react.”

He rubbed his eyes. “I’ve been under a lot of strain lately,” he said. “For obvious reasons. But I’m not going to snap at my officers just because they don’t agree with all my decisions. I need some dissent in my ranks, at least enough to keep me honest.”

Brice gave him a smile. Her eyebrows arched. “You want me to be that dissenting voice?”

“If I deserve it. You don’t have to worry about… punishment.”

“Oh, but General. Sometimes I do deserve to be punished.”

Cam’s mouth dropped in surprise.

Brice laughed and stood. She turned away and Cam stared at her pert, round ass. She walked toward the far tent flap, but before she could push it aside, Janter stepped through.

“Sir, Theus is here to see you,” Janter said.

“Send him in.”

Brice gave Cam another look. Theus stepped inside, looked from Brice to Cam, then held up a hand.

“Am I interrupting?”

“I was just leaving.” Brice nodded to Theus then slipped outside.

He watched her go then turned to Cam. “What was that about?”

“I have no clue,” Cam said, his voice soft. “One second, that woman hates me. And the next she acts like she wants to throw herself in my bed.”

“Must be nice.” Theus walked over and took the chair Brice just left. “All these women throwing themselves at you.”

“I really don’t know what it is.”

“Momentum, I’d guess.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” he said, “you started out with one, right? Miuri was first?”

“I guess so.”

“Then Miuri helped with Key… and Felin came along… then Galla threw herself into the mix. So now I guess women see that you’re desirable, and apparently open to multiple women, so…” He shrugged and spread his hands out. “Momentum.”

“I’ll just keep picking up more women like a rock rolling downhill then?”

“Pretty much. Like I said, lucky guy.”

Cam sighed and rolled his eyes. He leaned back in his chair and stared up at the tent ceiling, watching the heavy canvas fabric ripple slightly in the wind.

“I learned something interesting before we left the Mansion,” Cam said.

Theus looked up from studying the maps in front of him. “Did you now?”

“Sirrin told me something about magic. I’ve been thinking a lot about it, ever since we left,