One of Li's senior guards woke him just after dawn with the news that Fox had returned and was on his way to Lord Rong's office.
He'd meant to have more time to rouse Lord Ye, but Fox had apparently made it past the Camelia's guards on the walls and gates unnoticed, and only Li's men securing the castle had caught his return.
It left him scrambling to wake Lord Ye when the spy refused to wait to speak to Lord Rong, and while Li knew they were close friends, there was still a protocol to follow.
Thank the rock he'd run into Marian in the halls, and she'd pointed him to the Princess's rooms, so he didn't waste time.
She'd also told him to call them all to the Atlas room, and she'd have coffee and breakfast sent up since there was no doubt Fox had news that would require planning.
Li had a positive opinion of Lord Ye, the Princess, and Lord Zhao, who were, to his mind, children with more responsibility than they should have to handle, but who hadn't done too badly a job so far. He's seen plenty of Lords and Ladies in his time at the Camelia that weren't half as skilled and didn't care a fraction as much as the three of them did.
And, quite frankly, Li wasn't going to comment on what anyone did together behind closed doors as long as everyone was a consenting adult.
And given that he knew all three of them well enough to know they were all stubborn brats when they wanted to be, it was easy to ignore the fact that he'd roused all three of them from the Princess's bed.
His wife, long gone to be with the rock, had had wide, varied tastes that had broadened his horizons significantly, even though he'd never taken to it the way she did.
"Lord Rong and his spy will meet you in the Atlas room." He told a surprisingly alert Lord Ye. The Princess was still blinking awake, and Captain Li could still remember the violent dreams she'd suffered from on the journey to and from Tira-Lian that had her crying out in the middle of the night, and didn't seem restful at all.
Lord Zhao threw Lord Ye's robes at him as the princess yawned and pulled on her own. "I'm assuming this is bad news."
"I couldn't say either way for sure, my lord. All he said was it required immediate reporting." That didn't necessarily mean it couldn't be good news, but either way, it was suspicious.
And significant.
Marian, as efficient as always, already had coffee and a cold breakfast waiting when they reached the Atlas room, and Lord Rong was pacing next to the great map while his exhausted agent watched from a chair.
"What happened?" Lord Ye demanded before the door was even closed.
Lord Rong turned to the spy. "I don't know. Fox?"
Li stood back with Marian as the spy pushed to his feet and turned to face Lord Zhao.
He bowed. Deeply. "My apologies, Lord Zhao. By the time I reached them, the company was already dead. It seems they were ambushed in the low hills a few miles from their outpost."
Marian gasped, a hand flying to her mouth and the other grabbing Li's for support.
Lord Zhao looked like he didn't quite understand what he was hearing at first. "I- survivors?"
The spy shook his head. "I found none. It seems the entire two-thousand-man company was caught unaware."
"How the hell did they catch two thousand men by surprise?" The Princess demanded, spinning to study the Atlas. "There's no terrain significant enough to conceal the force needed to do that."
Lord Ye shoved a chair under Lord Zhao moments before he collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. "My men…"
Li shared the Princess's shock. The borderlands were mostly flat prairie with a few rolling hills, and to ambush a force of two thousand experienced soldiers, you'd need at least six thousand to give a reliable ratio. The only way to make up for lacking those numbers would be terrain significant enough to conceal the attacking force and also confine the force being attacked, inducing panic and confusion when they couldn't escape the onslaught.
The largest tribes, including the Bandri, could field a few thousand fighters at a time, but the Camelia's overall numbers had always won out, and she'd never suffered a complete and total loss of a force before.
"Who was it?" Lord Ye demanded. One hand tight on Lord Zhao's shoulder.
The spy straightened, pulling a small cloth-wrapped object from a pouch on his belt. "I took this off one of the arrows from the site."
He handed it to Lord Zhao, who unwrapped it with shaking hands.
A small bone figurine fell into his hand. A delicately carved bear in the shaft of an arrow. It wasn't larger than his thumb, but the detail in such a small carving was startling.
"I don't believe it." Lord Ye murmured, sharing a shocked look with the Princess.
"We were just discussing…he seemed sincere." As he spoke, rage grew in Lord Ye's voice. "It was all an act."
"An impressive one." The Princess sounded even more furious. "They must have been preparing since the end of the last war."
"That was when Beng Shai took control." Lord Rong hissed.
His pride was probably hurting on top of everything else, Li thought. Lord Rong's role as the First Eye meant he was expected to know what was going to happen before it actually did, and having something so significant happen without warning was a blow to his pride as much as his ability.
Lord Zhao leapt to his feet. "I need to warn the other outposts."
The Princess looked up from the Atlas. "When did they last report?"
"They're due today." Lord Zhao's fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles were white.
Marian's hand tightened around Li's. If those reports were even an hour later, it could mean the rest of Lord Zhao's forces had fallen.
"The Bandri don't want peace; they want a war." Lord Ye sounded terribly sad at first, but his voice hardened as he spoke. "So we'll give them one."
~ tbc