"Why use the men of the Vale for something like that?" Virve asked, picking up a crumbly, buttery pastry stuffed with spiced apples and drizzled with honey and crumbled goat cheese. "Send to High Fen City for mercenaries, or use Frost Walkers who have never fought humans for that. You're the Eldritch Lady of the High Pass. They'll listen to your orders, and they have no grudges."
"But they don't speak the language," Ashlynn pointed out. "Here in the Vale, everyone has learned the common tongue of humans. Even the people living in the outlying villages can at least speak a few hundred words of it. Enough for simple conversations. But the people in the High Pass and beyond, they won't be able to understand the people we'd need them to police."
