Why?
Because everyone who followed him was walking toward the same probability calculations Thrak ran every morning.
Survival rates measured in percentages. Death as just another tactical variable.
"How's Varg?" Liam asked, changing the subject.
"Pissed off. Wants to fight something. I told him to wait." Koth shrugged. "He'll get his chance tonight."
"That confident?"
"Thrak's confident. And that mechanical bastard's calculations haven't been wrong yet." Koth turned to face Liam directly. "Question is, what's the play? We defend the walls? Set up another ambush? What?"
Liam looked out at the darkening eastern horizon. Somewhere out there, the Radiant Empire was moving. Calculating. Deciding that yesterday's disruption needed to be tested.
"We let them come," he said quietly. "And then we show them that last time wasn't luck."
---
The assault came three hours after sunset.
