Count Radosav eagerly looks across the valley at Countess Jovanka's forces and hopes for a battle the next day, while his knights and Mother Vincenza encourage him. Baron Rikard quietly tells Jakob that a battle would not suit their purposes, and Jakob agrees. Jakob reflects that whether Radosav loses, wins, or merely stalls, a battle would likely bury their hopes of finding Princess Alexia under military consequences and delay.

When Mother Vincenza declares that victory is assured because Archbishop Isabella prays for Radosav and the Church sanctifies his cause, Jakob answers with dry sarcasm about soldiers dying under holy approval. Jakob then steps forward and, after flattering Radosav as a powerful man who rarely hears hard truths, uses his vow of honesty as license to speak bluntly. He tells the count that battle is always a gamble and that he does not like Radosav's chances.

Jakob explains the reasons for his judgment. From what he heard in the field hospital, Radosav's soldiers admire him but are worn down by a long campaign, short supplies, wounds, and sickness, and many simply want to go home. In contrast, Jovanka's camp appears orderly, which Jakob reads as a sign of better morale and better provisions. Younger knights mutter about cowardice, but some older officers begin to take Jakob's warnings seriously.

Mother Vincenza insists that Jovanka's allies are heretics and that relics guarantee divine favor, but Baron Rikard deliberately sidetracks her with absurdly earnest talk about dumplings, chapels, and honeysuckle. With the priest occupied, Jakob walks Radosav through the military realities: Jovanka holds the higher ground, the slope on her side is steeper, and a stream and rocks would disrupt any attack. Jakob also points out that the wind is against Radosav, so enemy arrows would carry farther, and he sharply mocks an officer who offers only that the wind might change.

Radosav protests that he has Jakob, but Jakob answers that age has taught him one man can tip history the wrong way as easily as the right. As the count begins to admit his men are tired and the conditions unfavorable, one of the older knights adds that Jovanka also has the advantage in horse. Jakob then shifts from military reasoning to pride, warning Radosav to imagine the humiliation of being defeated by Jovanka and arguing that he can humble her more safely at the negotiation table. Radosav reluctantly accepts the point that every battle ends there in some form, and Jakob closes by saying that, after a lifetime of war, peace usually offers more to gain, even if he still carries a sword to lean on.