"Four hundred and twelve."
Chancellor Vedge was on his feet, and his voice cracked in the middle of the number.
"Four hundred and twelve of our sons at that gate. And you are telling this council that we buried them inside a family quarrel?"
"That is not what he—"
"We sent five hundred archers into that canyon on his word! We attacked the Reimgard Empire on the word of a man who forgot to mention he was born in it!"
Halloran waited until the shouting had run itself out of air, and then spoke into the gap without lifting his voice at all.
"Was it ever Ryugan you were defending, or were we the wall you chose to stand behind?"
Northern let them have it.
