Tegan pulled the Doc's sweater about her shoulders and climbed out of the wagon. She never knew how the Doctor would always find someone who would give him the benefit of the doubt, but she was glad for that talent of his nonetheless. Although they were camped in the Lord Houses camp, they were still close enough to the battlefield to see and consequently smell death as it laid on the fields.

The sweater she wore was long enough to cover her to her mid thighs and was more conservative than his coat had been. Still, she felt cold and wide open. She and Jessica were the only women other than the camp followers and that fact made her uneasy.

She stopped to cough heavily and then continued. The Doctor heard her and turned from his conversation with Kilred. Around them, other men, dressed in battle armor, were milling. The only thing she heard before the talking ceased was: "Your plan, Time Lord, is an all or none proposition."

"Tegan, what are you doing here?" he admonished. He walked quickly to her and turned her around by her shoulders. "Get back to the wagon and stay there, as I asked."

"You were helping them to plan an attack?" she asked, incredulous. "Doc…they do know that you abhor violence and that weapons are not your style at all, right?"

He fell into step next to her and escorted her back to the wagon. She stopped and he turned, exasperated. "Tegan."

"I want to help."

"Not now, Tegan. There is nothing you can do. Not right now…except get back in that wagon for my peace of mind."

"But…"

He pushed her, gently, ahead of him. "You do want to get Nyssa and Adric out of there, don't you? Please, Tegan, do as I ask. When the time is right, I'll come and get you." He stopped her abruptly and lifted her into the wagon.

"But…" she said, turning to the Doctor. "What are you going to do?"

The Doctor sighed. "You are right that weapons are not my style, Tegan, but I do know a little bit about logistics and strategy."

"You said that the King…" she began loudly, but the Doctor shushed her. "You said the King and the Pirates, when they combined their numbers, far out numbered the Houses…"

"Yes, and they do." He nodded to the bed of the wagon and Jessica. "Haven't you heard of the Trojan Horse, Tegan?" he asked with a wide smile. "Cover up and take that medicine that I gave you. I'll be back."

**

The Master wearily nodded in agreement with yet another leader as he bowed in homage to him. The King laughed, his overfull trench of ale swinging wide on his hand. As a splash of the amber liquid landed on his black sleeve, the Time Lord brushed at it with a frown. "Lazotan, I think that you rather underestimate the Nightyearners."

"They are tiny dogs," Lazotan stated, leaning across his arm of his chair. "The only thing I fear is their berserker ways when impassioned. It is not their numbers; its their anger. But our fighters with the Nightyearners enemy pirate clans, we will overpower them with little effort."

The Master shook his head. "Arrogance, when coupled with a below average intelligence, is a warrant for death, my dear very young king."

"My word is law."

The Master rose with a flourish and bowed lowly before the young king. "And I am your loyal servant, my lord. I will retire for the night."

He strode from the tent, passing two drunk soliders, until he stood at the edge of the leader tents. Then with a sigh, he bowed under a rope and edged through the corral of horses. Within moments, he was running across the open field toward the forest that lay at the edge of the camp.

**

Lazotan watched the Time Lord leave the tent and ordered his trench refilled with ale. As he banged it on the arm of his chair, he narrowed his eyes. "Underestimate the Nightyearners, indeed." He swallowed a mouthful of ale and then waved his hand to one of his generals.

"The sentry…have they anything to report?"

"Nothing, my liege," the man bowed. "And your men are ready for your orders."

"Ah, yes, but aren't they always," the King stated quietly. "We will attack the Lords at first light. Order the trebalts and the archers to light fires near the edge of the battlefield."

"But the Keep that is at the center?"

"Either occupy it or level it," the King answered.

The general nodded, adjusting his mantel about his shoulders and over his armor. "The occupation of the Keep could offer more than its destruction. Within are villagers and renegade warriors from the Houses; we might be able to sway them to our cause. Additionally, the food and water reserves…"

"I see your point," Lazotan said, quietly, narrowing his eyes at the flap in the tent where the Master had disappeared. "And I will take it under advisement, thank you, Jason. Send a guard to the Time Lord's tent. See that he arrives there…" the King said, quietly and leaned back in this chair.

**

"He will attack the Lords at first light," the Master said, breathing slightly hard at the run. "His flank will be open to the dead left, below the mounted archers."

Jandar nodded. "We will attack as you say, Time Lord."

"And our deal?"

"Remains intact, Master. Once we have killed Lazotan for his treachery, and we have helped the Houses win, you can take your place as ruler of Epsilon 3. We are not interested in power…"

"Only gold and trade," the Master answered. "Whereas I have no need for your monetary system. I simply wish to take my place as the ruler of this beautiful planet and bring it to the notice of the trisystem area."

Jandar reached down to help the Time Lord up to his mount's back. As the Master settled on the beasts back, they sped away from the edge of the trees and toward a rather dark den of assassins.

**

The Doctor wiped at his eyes tiredly and began again to sketch out a plan for a small wagon. Sometimes he wished that he carried two pairs of spectacles. The light from the candles was weak as well putting a strain on his eyes. Although he usually didn't sleep, the physically exhausting route that they had traveled for the last six days, the arrival at the Lords camp and the last day of planning had left him weary.

Kilred was perched at the flap of their tent and Tegan and Jessica were quietly sleeping in the interior, beyond the second flap. Occasionally he would hear one or the other of them quietly speak in their sleep before silence would continue.

Opting to take a slight break before his right eye gave out on him, he rose and stretched next to the table. He closed his eyes and pressed his hands against his lower back. Maybe he was getting too old for this; maybe he should have left these types of adventures to his younger incarnations.

"Not bad, if I say so myself."

The Doctor jumped and then growled out a greeting to Tegan in the form of: "Tegan…what are you doing?"

"I'm awake. And don't tell me to go back to sleep…I've been sleeping for a week, it seems and I can't keep my eyes closed. Before you ask, my chest is still tight, but I can breathe just fine. And it appears that you seem to be having problems. Have you slept?"

"No." He sighed in exasperation. "And I don't intend to…I don't need to, Tegan. But since you are adamant about remaining awake…" he waved his hands at the table and the two pieces of paper laid next to the sole flickering candle. "What do you think?"

"Artistically or logisitically?" she asked, moving to the table and moving around the paper, nearer to the candle. "As I said…not bad….artistically…"

"Well I was not planning on entering it in a contest, Tegan. It is simply to give to the idea to the Lords. I am asking them to place their best swordsmen at peril." He raised a hand to his brow, squeezing at the bridge of his nose. "Had best have something legible for them, don't you think?"

Tegan shrugged and sat down at the table, drawing the blanket about her shoulders. She traced the outline of the meticulously drawn wagon. It was evident, mostly from the boldly lettered containers, that it was meant to be a supply wagon. There were containers of ale, and boxes of cabbages and meats. "How do you expect to get men into this wagon…it would either have to be a right big wagon or the men are going to have to be very small, or very few in number, Doc."

He nodded. "It is planned for the largest wagon that they have…the one that the villages drove in here with us aboard." He pointed at the dimensions and various calculations that he had done in the corner of the paper. She groaned as it was all in calculus.

"As if I can tell what you have written there, Doc…its all maths…like a foreign language that is to me."

He squinted at the paper and then smiled, as if amused by the paper. "And that is Gallifreyan, Tegan. I had forgotten that the TARDIS will not translate written word. To put it simply," he leaned into the table next to her. "To put it simply, with there being at least two layers of boxes on each side, with the least amount of food in each and still be viewed as supply cart, we would only be allowed…" he squinted at the paper. "…about six men and myself."

"Six men?" Tegan asked, loudly and incredulously. "Six men? Doctor…you are not asking them to put themselves in peril…you are asking them to commit suicide."

"And myself, Tegan."

"All right…you are going to commit mass murder and your own death. Do me a favor…this time…when you regenerate…"

"Hush, Tegan. Did you know your voice gets less easier to understand when you get upset? No…I will be fine."

"But…" she rolled her eyes. "Wait a minute…you said you were going to get Nyssa and Adric out and that you are also going to help these Lords win…was that last part a lie? The keep is not in the Lords possession…or the other side for that matter."

"It will be by nightfall tonight, Tegan."

"Eh? How do you know that? You said you didn't know their history here…"

"The King would not have moved against the Houses unless supported. The pirates, I believe, he bought. And once this battle is over, they will part company again. The King will need the keep. He will need it to reinforce his warriors with food and water. The Lords are separate houses and no one house has alligence from the others…if one leader is killed, that house will have anarchy. The Nightyearners, with your friend Jandar, are to the East in the forests. If I know anything about battles, the King will try to attack the Lords with a full frontal assault to drive them back long enough to get inside the keep. They will then use the pirates clans to drive the Lords away…possibly to the west."

"You must be hell to play chess against."

"Be quiet, Tegan, and listen. The King is supported by someone not of this planet, Tegan. And whoever he is supported by is only using him. I have to not only take out the King the person who is supporting him. The Houses will agree to withdraw slowly…to throw the fight as it were, to allow the King to take the keep. Once that has happened…by tomorrow night…a call will be put out for supplies from the local towns and villages. And at that point, the wagon will go in. It is only an assassination force, Tegan…not a fighting force. We need only to find and take out the King and his support. I want to make sure Nyssa and Adric and Elrind are alive and well and I am quite curious about this support…I have a bad feeling…call it Time Lord intuition that it is another Gallifreyan."

"But we have the piece that you came for…can't we just get Nyssa and Ad-"

"And have what happened at RiverFall happen again?" he asked lowly. Tegan guiltily looked down at her lap. "I don't know Epsilon 3's history, Tegan, at least not well, but I do know that that did not happen and not often on this planet."

She nodded. After a minute, she said: "I'm going with you."

"No."

"Doc…"

"No. It would be too dangerous, Tegan. I won't allow it."

She thumped her hand on the table. Then with a sigh, she lowered her head and nodded. Suddenly, however, her head whipped up and she stared at her friend. "Hold on…you said it would only allow six men. And you want it to be an assassination force. Wouldn't women be more welcome and less questions be asked about their existence then extra men? And you could fit more women with bows and swords than men."

The Doctor gaped at her for a moment and then chuckled, reaching out to clasp both of her shoulders. "Tegan…sometimes you take my breath away."

She beamed proudly. "I get to go then."

"The answer to that," he said, picking up the pen and straight edge again and squinting at the paper. "Is still no, Tegan."

**