Cursor's Fury (Codex Alera #3)(249)

Tavi exhaled very slowly, and nodded. "You ready?"

"Born ready, ' Max replied cheerfully, drawing a round of quiet chuckles from the waiting Legion. The only three Knights Terra in the Legion came with him, their armor clanking, their vicious, oversized weapons weighing heavy on their shoulders.

Tavi nodded to the Knights and raised his voice. "Tribune Antillus?"

"Ready when you give the word, sir," called Crassus from the rear of the cohort, where he waited with his Knights Aeris-and the Legions' engineers, including their new recruits, the dancers from the Pavilion, now dressed in the armor of slain or incapacitated legionares.

"All right, then," Tavi said. "Keep the men in this courtyard, but let them get some food and rest. Once we start pushing, there won't be time for anything else."

Maximus nodded to Schultz, who began giving orders for his inexperienced cohort to fall out for food and remain nearby.

"Captain," Max said, under the cover of the noise. "Sit down. We have some time to wait through, and you haven't rested."

"No," Tavi said. "I need to be on the wall with the First Spear until it's time to move. I'll come back and get you then."

"Captain," Max said, in exactly the same tone of voice. This time, though, he put a hand on Tavi's shoulder, and his fingers clamped down on it like steel bands. "You aren't going to do anything up there that he can't. You let yourself get too tired, and it will slow down your wits. And since we're betting it all on your wits, sir, I think it best that you make sure they're ready to perform." Max met his eyes. "Please, Calderon."

Tavi closed his eyes for a second, and that horrible fatigue threatened him again. Part of him wanted to snarl at Max to shut up and follow orders. The rest realized that the big Antillan was right. He was asking these men to risk their lives carrying out a course of action he had planned. He owed it to them to give them his very best effort when they put everything on the line.

"All right," Tavi said. "I'll sit down. But just for a minute."

"A minute," Max said, nodding. "That's fine."

Tavi slipped out of his helmet, sat down with his back against the stone columns at the base of the Elinarch, and closed his eyes. He'd never be able to get any sleep, but at least he could take a few moments of quiet to order his thoughts, to go over the possibilities, all the things that could go wrong with his plan.

Try as he might, he couldn't think of anything else he might do, and after a few moments of effort, he shook his head and opened his eyes.

Gloomy daylight greeted his gaze, the veiled sun barely visible through the overcast above the land. Tavi blinked up at it in confusion for a second. A muscle cramp seized his neck and set off a series of similar painful contractions in the muscles between his shoulder blades. He labored to his feet and bent, trying to stretch the muscles, until the cramps eased.

"Sir," said Schultz from behind him.

"Centurion," Tavi mumbled, turning. "How long was I asleep?"

"Hours, sir," Schultz replied. "Tribune Antillar said to leave you be."

Tavi muttered something about Max-under his breath. It wouldn't do for a Legion's captain to call one of his Tribunes names in front of the men, after all.

"Oh," Schultz said. He swallowed, then hurried to one side and picked up a plate covered with a soft napkin and a tankard that lay nearby. "He told me to give you these first thing, sir."

Tavi ground his teeth, but managed to keep from snatching the plates from Schultz's hands. "Thank you."