The Best of Us is the third chapter of The Heroes.
Chapter Summary
Bremer dan Gorst is an object of ridicule and scorn, having been dismissed in disgrace as King Jezal’s First Guard, after the debacle in Sipani that almost led to the death of the High King of The Union.1 He is now acting as the royal observer for the Second Northern War, writing florid claptrap extolling the heroic virtues of the Union Army. In realist the army is in a fiasco, bogged down on the rotten Northern roads.
Gorst stalks through the mud-spattered encampment to Lord Marshal Kroy headquarters. Inside, Kroy and his senior officers2 are anxiously awaiting a visit from a member of the Closed Council. Moments later, their faces pale as none other than Bayaz walks through the door, with his obliging servant Yoru Sulfur. After a few pleasantries with The Dogman and Gorst, Bayaz gets down to business; this war is taking too long, and must come to a swift conclusion. He will be staying to observe, and to field test a new invention from the University.
As Bayaz leaves, the senior officers break into an angry babble, but Kroy bluntly brings it to an end. They must move all The Union forces north at once towards Carleon to draw Black Dow into a decisive battle. Gorst offers to ride north with a message for The Union vanguard under General Jalenhorm, ordering him to secure the area around Osrung with all haste.
As Gorst is leaving, he runs into Lord Marshal Kroy’s daughter Finree, who he’s secretly been besotted with for years. To his dismay, he learns that she is now married to Colonel Harod dan Brock.
Characters
Locations and Terms
The North | Sipani | Battle of the Heroes | Union Army | Knights of the Body | Closed Council |
University | The Union | Carleon | Osrung |
References
- In Best Served Cold, during the chaos in Cardotti's, an unnamed Union man runs out of one of the whore's rooms and straight into Caul Shivers. Shivers butts him in the face, and bundles him down the stairs. This man is revealed to be Gorst.
- In the original trilogy Kroy was one of the three troublesome generals of Lord Marshal Burr. This is paralleled here with Lord Marshal Kroy having to deal with vexing General Mitterick, General Jalenhorm and Lord Governor Meed.