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

Now they sat together, Matthas having decided to allow himself a few as well. "Here's the answer,
Manajas, old pal, see? They've done it." The note was concise, as pigeon-post required:
Friend of our youth; mission accomplished as instructed. For best results mention the four moles on a
square on the right shoulder-blade.
—Entrepreneurs.
It had come nineteen days after his missive to which it was a reply.
"I know those old sods," he said laughing. "Dangle enough money in front of them and they d storm
Hayel itself. Same as everyone, I guess. All right, all right,now I'll tell you what it's all about. Heh, why
not?"
He did, without mentioning any names, except one.
Manajas's guffawing burst out deafening in the quiet of the night.
"You're right! You're right, Nerashas, my friend, sh'worth it forthish ! Yeh, yeh, all the pigeons and
boxshes and that, sh'worth every ssshain-link! Here's to…"
They raised fancy pure-glass cups together. "Shefen-kash in Hayel!"
"Shefen-kash in Hayel!"
XI
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Shkai'ra raised her binoculars, a good pair she had taken off an Arkan's corpse. She squinted a little; it
was noon, the skirmishing had taken most of the day, with the enemy trying to break contact behind their
cavalry screens, mercenary Moghiur horse-archers. Broad swatches had been trampled through
nearly-ripe wheat that only birds and insects would harvest now. The bodies of humans and horses lay
unmoving.Cursed goodhorse-archers , Shkai'ra thought. The Slaughterers had lost four, dead and
wounded; the enemy a little less, probably.
There were hills to the west, gently rounded, with green pasture on the heights and a strip of dense
oak-wood at their feet; the highway ran up the valley between cleared fields that were a lake of
grain-gold, rising just enough to make an ox-team lean into the traces, through the forest, then zigzagging
up through a notch in the hills, beautifully maintained. And there was a unit of Arkan infantry deployed
where road met woods, a straight bar across the V of the woods, flanks securely anchored.
She turned the focusing screw, and the banner at the center of the formation sprang out; the Eagle
clasping the sun at the head of the staff, a flag emblazoned with a wild boar below. The soldiers stood
with pikes set in the ground, crossbowmen to each side with mostly single-shot crossbows, thank Zaik,
not those nasty Fehinnan seven-round models that had been turning up lately. Not an elite unit,
okas-caste soldiers undersolas officers, but there was a stolid steadiness to their ranks.