"My lord Hanrahan," Isabell said calmly as she seized control of the conversation, ignoring the laughter around her to direct a sharp, hardened gaze at the portly baron. "Do you know what the greatest difference between wars fought in the old countries and wars fought against the demons is?" she asked calmly.
"Men can be reasoned with and forced to surrender," the portly baron said instantly, waving a hand as if he could shoo away her question like a distracting fly. Clearly the woman intended to claim some sort of knowledge about wars that were irrelevant to the struggle against powerful demons and he had no intention of allowing her to build momentum around that notion.
