On the other side are a group of Friendlies who had been misled into supporting an abortive local revolution. The Friendlies are led by Jamethon Black, whose engagement Tam had broken years earlier. The Friendlies are hopelessly outgunned and outnumbered. Tam has manipulated the situation so that not only will the Friendlies lose, but their ability to hire out their soldiers will be crippled, possibly leading to the end of their viability as a culture. He believes he can link the Friendlies to assassins hired locally, against all the accepted rules of war. He tries to recruit Kensie Graeme in a scheme to expose this, but Kensie refuses and insists on prosecuting the campaign his own way.