Chapter 15: A Job Lined Up?

A night breeze carried a hint of cool, sweeping away the day's lingering, stifling heat. Bonfires dotted the camp's parade ground, with cauldrons and grills set up in rows. Mess cooks, sleeves cuffed and aprons tied, turned the silkie chickens slaughtered at noon into platter after platter of steaming dishes. The aroma drifted everywhere, and the soldiers, who'd breathed nothing but the acrid reek of realgar-the sulfurous stuff they burn to keep bugs away-all day, couldn't help but wear blissful...