The mercenary leaders walked over and joined Anfey. Anfey glanced around and nodded. He turned to Blavi and said, "Go find Lord Marino. I wish to meet with Bernedo, Uri, and Shas.h.i.+bi."

Blavi nodded and hurried out of the room.

Anfey fell silent again. The mercenaries knew that he would be discussing important issues, so they did not say anything and did not interrupt his thought process.

After a few minutes, Blavi returned with Bernedo, Uri, and Shas.h.i.+bi. The three of them bowed at Anfey respectfully, but did not sit down with the other mercenaries.

"Sit," Anfey said, waving at the chairs. "Don’t be nervous."

The three nodded and sat down quietly.

Anfey smiled and said, "Let me introduce you. This is Christian. He will be the head of all mages in the alliance."

The three turned to Christian and nodded. Even though Anfey gave Ozzic many tasks, everyone always thought that Blavi was Anfey’s most trusted man because Blavi never referred to Anfey with any honorifics. However, anyone who had spent time with Anfey would know that he trusted Christian more than anyone else.

"I’m sure you already know Suzanna," Anfey continued, "so I wouldn’t reintroduce you. This is Lady Alice. She is responsible for all internal business within the alliance. Christian will be her deputy and will a.s.sist her. Suzanna will a.s.sist Christian."

Alice turned to look at him in shock. This was the first time Anfey recognized her position of power. In the past, she had been in charge of Moramatch, but she had to be careful, because one misstep could be disastrous. Now that she was in charge of all internal affairs, she had power over most people in the alliance, including Christian and Suzanna. Alice knew that Anfey wanted Christian to practice his leaders.h.i.+p skills with her. Suzanna’s position was

a bit baffling, but Alice was smart enough to figure out Anfey’s intention. Suzanna may have been a master swordsman, but she had no leaders.h.i.+p skills or experience dealing with internal affairs of a large group of people. Her appointment was to make Alice and Christian’s positions seem more special.

Alice frowned and licked her lips. She was excited but also nervous.

"As you know," Anfey said, "I’m not the most capable person. The only reason the alliance has been able to reach this size is because of all of you. I did not form the alliance, you know. Alice is the one that had this idea, not me. Without her, none of us will be sitting here right now. Without Alice, we will all be scattered throughout the nation, fighting zombies or dying."

"I agree, sir!" Ozzic said. "Lady Alice is a very smart and capable woman. There’s no alliance without her."

"Wait, let me finish," Anfey said with a smile. "We all know how brilliant Alice is. This was why I put her in charge of internal affairs. We have more than ten thousand men, which is something I never thought I would say.

"It is no easy task controlling and regulating all of these people. The only thing we can do is try to figure it out ourselves. Since the founding of the alliance, we’ve been supporting each other through thick and thin. I want everyone to know that the alliance will not become a reality without the work of all the mercenaries.

"Lord Marino is supportive of our cause, but we can’t be certain how the others will react. Glory, Storm, and Tiger of Tawau mercenary groups may not react as nicely. They will likely band together against us. We need to work together to resolve this situation.

"They say

say I’m a butcher, a murderer, but I don’t think I was wrong. If I had let those people go, who knows when they would come back and attack me?"

"You’re right, sir," the head of the third legion, Tiger, said. "Lord Bernedo here has attacked my men before."

Bernedo looked at Tiger with a mix of shock and confusion. Clearly, he didn’t remember what Tiger was talking about. Mercenaries attacking each other in the Forest of Death in order to steal spoils was nothing new.

Bernedo stood up and bowed to Tiger. "I apologize for my past behaviors, my lord," he said sincerely. "I do not know when or where I attacked you, but I hope that I can earn your forgiveness."

"What is past is past," Tiger said, shaking his head. "We are allies now, aren’t we? Don’t worry about it. You probably don’t remember me, though, because I was hiding then."

Bernedo nodded. He was confused. Tiger was such a tall man, it was hard to forget him.

"Sit, Bernedo," Anfey said. "Tiger is right. The past is in the past. We should not let it interfere with how we treat each other now."

The other mercenaries all nodded and agreed.

"In order to control the mercenaries better, I want to reorganize the legions. We also need more scouts, and I want Long and Ling to be the heads of the scouts, but we will discuss that further when they get back." Anfey paused and turned to Ye. "Ye, I want to form a policing force, and I want you to take charge of it."

Ye froze and turned to Ozzic. He knew that if he turned this down, it could affect the later appointments and Ozzic.

Ozzic smiled at him and nodded. "I believe Ye is more than capable for this position," he said.

Ye

he said.

Ye nodded and accepted the appointment.

"I want to reorganize the alliance into five legions," Anfey said, "with approximately three thousand men in each."

The mercenary leaders glanced at each other, murmuring. Three thousand was a large number, especially for those that had been in charge of smaller groups in the past.

"Ozzic, you will be the leader of the First Legion. The original Fourth Legion will combine with the original First Legion, and Stein will be your deputy. Blavi, you will be in charge of the mage coordinator in the First Legion."

"What is mage coordinator?"

"I can’t divide up the mages," Anfey said. "In an emergency, the coordinators will be the commanders of the mages in their legions. In a normal battle, the coordinators will be a.s.sistants to the leader of the legion."

"There are three thousand men," Ozzic stood and said. "I don’t know if the three of us can keep them in line all the time."

Anfey smiled. Ozzic not only accepted Blavi’s position, he had implied that Anfey should send more people to help him. He was sincere enough to be a good example. "You’re in charge of the legion," Anfey said. "You will do as you please." Ozzic nodded and sat down.

"s.h.i.+nbella, you will head the Second Legion, and Tiger’s original Third Legion will join you. Tiger will be your deputy and Riska will be your coordinator." s.h.i.+nbella glanced at Tiger and Riska and nodded briskly.

"Orsie, you will be the head of the Third Legion and Khufu will be your deputy. Zubin will be the coordinator." Orsie nodded. The rest of mercenaries muttered to each other. The mercenaries who had been demoted were not fond of this decision, but they knew that they did not have seniority.

"Thompson, you will be the leader of the Fourth Legion. Shas.h.i.+bi will be Shas.h.i.+bi will be the deputy and Feller will be the coordinator." Thompson and Shas.h.i.+bi glanced at each other and nodded. Feller grinned.

"Bernedo will be the leader of the Fifth Legion and Uri will be the deputy. Sante will be the coordinator." Anfey paused. "I don’t have experience leading so many people. None of us do. We need to depend on each other to figure everything out."

"I need a chief of staff," Alice said quietly.

"Who do you want?"

"Hui Wei."

"Done," Anfey said.

Hui Wei frowned but did not say anything to turn down the offer.

"k.u.maraghosha," Anfey called. "I know you but… I need you to see someone. Come to me after you talk with him and tell me what you want."

k.u.maraghosha glanced at Ye, who smiled at him, and nodded.

"Anything else?" Anfey asked. The mercenaries shook their heads. While they were happy about how big the alliance had gotten, they felt pressured by their new positions. Alice watched the mercenaries shuffle out of the room and walked over to Anfey.

"Don’t you think something’s missing?" she whispered.

"What is?"

"Hope," Alice said. "Prize. Benefits."

Anfey shook his head. "I have more than five hundred mages, Alice," he said. "I can’t use the crystals."

Alice pursed her lips and nodded. "Do you trust Marino?"

"I do," Anfey said. "Don’t worry about that."

"He’s going through our spoils," Alice said. "He didn’t partic.i.p.ate in the battle."

"He provided us a place to rest," Anfey said. "Tell me, Alice. Why did Baery tell you to find me?"

"I already told you," Alice said.

"You can go talk to him yourself," Christian said after he made sure no one was eavesdropping. "He’s coming here in a few days."

"Do you know what he wants?" Anfey asked. Baery was Christian’s uncle, so maybe he had told Christian things he had not told the others.

Christian shrugged and shook his head.