Shadow's Son by Shirley Meier, S.M. Stirling and Karen Wehrstein ...

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"You've gotten much too complicated, girl," the Kommanza chided. "From looking through those things,
probably… you should be able to see it at a glance."
"Uhh…" Sova blinked a few times, looked, squinted, gazed helplessly at Shkai'ra. "Khyd-hird… I
don't."
The Kommanza heaved a long-suffering sigh. "Well, I guess you aren't doing any worse than the
strawhair—he doesn't see it, either. And he's an accredited strategist, trained and all. Or maybe he got
orders and had no choice."
"But they're all just standing still!"
"You think the planning doesn't start before the ranks aredrawn , girl? Hurry up and figure it out before
the fight starts and we have to watch for thedifficult points."
"But—I thought you wanted me to look for the way they were ranked and that's what I answered!"
"I didn't say anything about how they were ranked, just who was making the first mistake."
"But all I can see that's different is—" She slapped herself on the cheek. "Oh,duhhh ! Thenumbers !"
"Exactly," said Shkai'ra. "Here's this Arkan, of no particular genius anyone here has ever heard of,
outnumbered, against He Whose Bottom Is Dipped in Gold. He, or whoever's commanding him, isnuts
to fight here like this—they're going to get their asses kicked from here to Illizbuah. Maybe they're just
being set up as sacrifice, to incur losses; stupid, when they've seen so many times that he knows how to
win without great cost."…
"Maybe," she amended her own prediction, heavily. "There are those who'd argue that it isn't particularly
smart for Gold-Arse to fight sixty-thousand on fifty, on plain ground, if he wants to keep advancing
through hostile territory. The numbers aren'tthat lopsided. But then, he's won with less advantage than
this. All right. What else do you know that touches what's going to nappen?"
"Theyhaven't had much sleep," Megan said drily. Sova snickered.
"Ummm…"
"About either side.Anything ."
"We'rein good morale.They're not."
"All right, what else?"
"The Arkan's commanding troops he's not familiar with. And a good chunk of them—" Shkai'ra gave her
a withering look. "Uhh, about seven thousand are tired from marching here."
"What else? Sova, pretend I just came here from the moon. That I know nothing, and you have to tell
meeverything ."
"Uhh… despite being tired, the fresh troops are overconfident?"