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indecision on this point but not any uncertainty. I would not commence battle if there was any doubt about the arrival of the northern army. I would not risk the campaign and my men.
    “Well. There is great risk but then there are great rewards! You wish to review the troops?” This was a joke. He meant the women. I assumed, whatever doubt had been in his mind, I had removed.
    “That would be good.” I said nodding slightly to him. He whispered to Ashan, his eldest son, to his right, who stood up and walked towards a tent. He returned a few moments later.
    Meth stood up and indicated the tent. “You are ready?” It would be impolite to look at prostitutes in the open. He walked towards the tent and I followed. As an afterthought, I turned and signaled for Geb to follow. It took a few moments once inside the tent, for my eyes to adjust. Seated on silk cushions in front of us were about twenty women, dressed in bright and loosely fitting garments – sensual. They were veiled but turned their eyes towards me. They had no doubt been told of my importance in their future. In our part of the world, only whores or superior women, such as princesses, are permitted to look a man in the eyes, the first time they meet.
    “Ask them to remove their veils, please.” I whispered to Meth. He spoke to Ashan, who clapped his hands. The women quickly unfastened the material covering their faces.
    I looked and was not pleased. They were not attractive women for the most part. They would not earn much money in a brothel of my city. I could not understand why Meth, a man of taste, had brought them. Perhaps they had other skills. Shakira would not like this part.
    “I will need to review them, in turn. Is there somewhere private, I can use?”
    “Certainly.” He indicated a curtain at the end of the tent and I pushed it aside and I seated myself on cushions in the room behind. “Please bring me wine and grapes.”
    The women were dressed in fine silks, ornamented with gold, silver and gems but each, to a woman, were, how shall I say it, gone to seed. There was not the slightest sign in their eyes of any interest in life. Theirs is a tough life, to be sure, but so is it as a soldier. And many soldiers had been conscripted too, although, strictly speaking, this was illegal.
    The first woman, probably in her late thirties, dark haired and buxom, if not fat, pushed aside the curtain in a flurry of tinkling jewelery and rustling silk and bowed her head before me.
    “Your name?”
    “Arnu, Lord.”
    That was interesting. Nobody had told them who I was, although she obviously knew I was a man of importance, from my manner.
    “Dance for me, Arnu.”
    As she twisted, not entirely without skill but without conviction, I looked her up and down. Her hips were probably twice the circumference they had been when she was of a ripe age. Her legs were short and although I could not see more than the ankles, beneath the silks, I had no reason to believe they were not fat. Her hands, with loops securing the green silk to her third fingers, were still pretty and her nails were polished with ebony lacquer.
    Her rouged cheeks were puckered, like a damp pillow, and her lips were wrinkled like an old red pepper. Occasionally I caught a glimpse of gold cloth around her hips and bust, a sign of seniority, and if not now, I guessed she must have been head-girl at some time.
    She was lamentably ugly and in an even more lamentable condition.
    I clapped my hands and she was gone. Another girl appeared.
    She, at least, was younger and thinner. Meth would own these girls now. I was sure he hadn’t hired them as this would be an unnecessary expense for such a long period but he wouldn’t necessarily take much interest in them. Nevertheless, he would take some pride in his judgment and would have them do their best to please me. I was sure the third girl would be the best. The women would be talking furiously together now, the first, indicating what she thought