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least, not from me.”
    For the first time, Sego truly smiled. “Thank you for easing my worries, General.”
    Tresea nodded in satisfaction. “I will leave you gentlemen to your work. Sego knows where to go for everything. Draft help as you need it. In three days, I want a meeting with you.” She paused at the door and looked back at him. “Be prepared to tell me your strategy.”
    Darius rubbed his chin as the door closed behind her. His strategy, eh?
    “Do you have a strategy, General?” Sego inquired dryly, apparently able to read the expression on Darius’s face easily.
    “It’s a mite rough,” he answered with a wry shrug of the shoulders. “It needs refining. But to do that, I need information.” He turned to face his new aide squarely. “Sego, I need to know what food supplies we have, a full inventory of the equipment and what shape it’s in, as well as the number and status of the troops.”
    “Most of this information is reported daily to the queen,” Sego responded calmly. “It will not take me long to lay hands on it. You need this tonight?”
    “I’d best review it before that meeting. Also, go and speak with the three commanders. Kaveh, Navid and Ramin are the ones I requested.”
    “ You requeshted, shir?” Bohme repeated in surprise.
    He gave a nod to his hulking bodyguard and a wolfish smile teased at one side of his mouth. “I kept track of what commanders were in what area. It made it easier on me to know what I was facing. I quickly learned that if any of those three were my opponents, I would be in for a long battle. They’re not as seasoned as some of the others, but their raw potential is amazing. I’ve never seen commanders that can learn so quickly from their mistakes. With the proper mentor over them, they will become forces of nature, as deadly as a sand storm.”
    “So you want them,” Sego surmised. “Hmmm. I had heard from the queen that three men were to be assigned to you as your staff, but she did not mention to me that you had picked them. I don’t think she mentioned it to them, either.”
    Here was the first test. “Do you know these men well enough to gauge their reactions? Do you think it would be wise to tell them that I chose them?” Darius held his breath and watched Sego carefully for any signs of deception.
    Sego looked at the floor for a long moment, both hands clutching the round haft of his cane. “I am not sure. Kaveh I know well—we were neighbors as children—and I believe that he will take it as a compliment that you want him. But Navid is a man that has risen through the ranks under his own power—he has no political connections. I do not know him well.”
    Darius released the breath he held. If Sego had given him an airy assurance, then he would know that he couldn’t trust the man. But he clearly considered everything on an individual basis. Very good. “And Ramin?”
    “From what I’ve seen of him, he’s brash. He’s just as likely to respond instinctively to something than to stop and think before speaking. I have no idea if he’ll look favorably upon you or not.”
    “Hmmm.” Darius looked up at the ceiling for a long moment to think. “Talk to them. See how they feel about their appointment. If you think they will be unreasonable, send them to me. I do not blame them for having hard feelings against me—we were enemies for a long time, after all—but if they cannot set those feelings aside and heed me, I have no use for them.”
    “But you don’t think you’ll have trouble from them,” Bohme said.
    Men who couldn’t set their feelings aside didn’t adapt on a battlefield. These men had proven they were very flexible. So no, Darius didn’t really expect much trouble. But he did want to know what they would say to Sego, when he wasn’t around to overhear them.
    “Do that now,” he ordered Sego. “Bohme, we’re going shopping. I need a few things.”
    Sego looked a little panicked at this. “Wait, sir, if you’re