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"Wonderful," Halesak repeated with a sigh, then shook his head. "Thanks a lot, Therman. Now you've almost got me wishing you were coming along with us!"
"All right," Commander of Five Hundred Cerlohs Myr said, looking around the briefing tent at the circle of faces one last time. It was pitch black outside the tent's canvas walls, but the spell-powered light globes illuminated its interior brilliantly. "All of you know what you're supposed to do. Now, let's go get the job done. Right?"
"Right!"
The one-word response came back in a strong, confident rumble of voices, and Myr nodded in satisfaction ... mostly.
He looked around at his flight and strike commanders. Their losses in the first attack had come as a shock to all of them, but since then, they'd scored an unbroken string of successes and advanced the better part of three thousand miles in barely eleven days without the loss of a single additional dragon. It was the sort of operation they'd trained at in maneuvers for years and never really expected to have the opportunity to mount, and they knew they'd performed brilliantly so far. Which explained why their faith in themselves went far beyond mere confidence now. They viewed themselves as an elite, and there was a brashness, a swagger in them.
That's good, Myr told himself. Dragon pilots are supposed to know they have big brass ones. That they're the best of the best.
But there was still that tiny, tiny flaw in his satisfaction. That sense that too much faith in themselves might still lead them to take one chance too many. To push that little bit too hard.
And just what do you want to do about it, Cerlohs? he asked himself. You want to make them less confident before you send them out on an op?
There could be only one answer to that question, he reflected, and had to smile at his own perversity.
It's just your own crossgrained cussedness, he scolded himself. You'd find something to be upset about even if you fell into a vat of beer!
"All right," he repeated again. "We've got another fort to burn. Let's get them in the air, gentlemen!"