"The female troop?" Captain Judda repeated, sounding like he didn't know what on earth that was.
Almost at the same time, the other man she asked answered, "The Lord General Uwe, I believe. Currently stationed in the north as acting commander in my place."
"Can you supplant his authority here, Uncle?" Hilde asked immediately.
"Right now, even you can, Princess," he said. "But you already knew that."
Hilde showed a tight smile. "I must ask you to do it, Lord General."
After a brief, considering pause, he nodded. "Probably the wiser choice."
Seeing that he understood, Hilde felt some of the heaviness in her chest lighten. It wasn't that she didn't want to be associated with the female soldiers—quite the opposite, in fact—but this Lord General Uwe was not known to her, and there was a c
