lastkingsamazon (23 page)

“
Where is the nearest town?” I might get lucky.

#

I had no idea.

“
Isn't fun is it?”

Tulian was grinning from ear to ear. He'd sized up my dark and hollow eyes as I entered his tent (Ostrich or Elderberry depending on who you asked, him or me) and knew I'd not slept for things that needed doing and decisions that needed making. Here was one.

“
We need to talk.”

“
We are.”

“
Alone.”

“
Sorry, you'll have to wait. First things first.” He indicated his commanders, waiting for their orders. I nodded and settled to wait. “Get the commander a chair,” he said to no one in particular. One appeared and I sat in it, gratefully.

I paid attention to everything he said, wishing I had had a mentor, or time as an aide to watch and learn. Well, I'd had the opportunity and declined it several times. No one to blame but me.

“
Money,” I said when we were alone and he laughed.

“
No way.”

I sighed, thought he might say that. What was his motivation to help me support a larger force than I could afford? “Thought you'd say that. My force is bigger than yours..”

“
But I know how to use mine, and can afford it,” the barbs went home, “and we had an agreement, remember?”

I did. “I'll honor it but it was worth a try.”

“
Forget it. You have the makings of a good commander but you don't have the experience. Use your larger force as I direct and we will be fine.”

“
I'll argue if I think you are wrong.”

“
I expect it, but not on the battlefield itself, understood?” I knew he was right, so nodded.

“
Good.”

“
You will help me feed my men.” It wasn't a question.

“
I'll do that but the money I use is a loan with interest.”

“
Greedy, cousin.”

“
Aren't we all, cousin. Agreed?”

“
Okay, sir. When do we formalize this?”

“
Now. I ordered a full assembly, best you get your men to do the same.”

“
Oh, and I want Yebratt Shaheel, one of your knights, red hair and a beard.”

“
I know him. Why?”

“
I know him and I don't want an unknown in command of my horse.”

He nodded. “Good enough reason. I'll issue the order.”

I left. I had things to do.

#

It was four days before Sapphire threw down his practice sword and said, “Practice with your own men from now on. I've taught you all I can in the time,” and walked away without another word.

I swore at him under my breath.

Pakat didn't say anything but I could see he didn't approve.

I was hurting too much to care. I thought I had been busy before but that was nothing, I now realized. I worked with Sapphire for an hour each night, or rather he worked me over. I was up before dawn, planning the day and giving orders. Latrines. My army literally couldn't take a dump without me giving an order. Then I went and trained with the men till noon. Every single problem came to my tent. I didn't have the experience to deal with it but I did have knowledge.

Unknowingly I gained a reputation as being thoughtful commander, because I paused every time I was asked anything to think and remember. I was glad I had the natural arrogance of my class or I never would have had the guts for it. Still, I couldn't cope alone and I learned to delegate. First had been the chain of command: Tulian above me, and no one else. Then myself commanding one cohort and Kerral the other. I'd left Quail in charge of the half cohort. Sheo to command the equestes and Yebratt Shaheel as captain, the equivalent of first centurion; he had been delighted and grateful for the promotion. For each cohort I had assigned Pakat and Luk as first centurions, and Geheran and Gobin as seconds. Tul had let me keep them. I had managed to hire two healers, Libby and Westel, from the nearest town, called Undralt, where they had lived and worked. They cost a fortune and I was already in debt after day two. But in debt to a surprise creditor.

Sapphire had come to my tent early the morning after we had arrived. He'd dumped a satchel on my desk without a word of preamble and handed me a letter.

This scrip is a loan.

That was all. Not a word of praise. Still, I was relieved to have the scrip with his seal on it. I had played with the idea of using my own but every single transaction would have been an argument out here where I was not known; my family name might have cut it sometimes but I didn't have time to argue with everyone I wanted to hire or buy from. My father's name was much better known and trusted, and natives could ask a man of the city and be assured the scrip was good. I was relieved of one more problem but couldn't quite manage gratitude.

As I watched Sapphire walk away now, having just been worked over by him, I wondered why I had never seen him before. He was my father's agent after all, and clearly very well trusted. Why had I never seen him? All of my father's Clients came to his door every day throughout my childhood. I dismissed the thought, but it would come back to me later, just one more thing nagging for my attention.

“
What do you think?”

Pakat was also looking into the night after Sapphire. “Dangerous.”

“
That's what Kerral said.”

“
He was righter than he knew.”

“
Could you take him?”

Pakat wondered over and idly picked up the discarded practice blade. “Nope. Maybe. There's always a chance. Always luck, good or bad. Wouldn't like to know for sure.”

Hell. I'd seen Kerral take down three men with his bare hands in that alley the day he had saved my life. And Pakat was better. So Sapphire was what? He'd killed me fifty times tonight so I didn't even pretend to have a chance against him. Kerral, less chance that Pakat.

“
Don't fret. He's on your side. He was teaching you.”

“
Any man can turn into an enemy.”

“
True,” Pakat mused. “Too true.”

#

Food. Sleep. Then an hour before dawn Meran woke me. I don't know who woke him. Of course, the trumpet sounded the hour every hour, and brought me close to wakefulness for a moment, so I do know.

Things had changed a little. I didn't need to go as far. My tent was now in the center of things; then a big gap, of which the equestes took a small slice; the healers and battle mages were also here but no longer my responsibility, other than the two healers who were mine. After that came the tents of the men, then a gap, then the wall. The wagons were tucked in at the corners, still away from the wall so that missile fire couldn't hit them. It was nice to be in the center of things. My men came to me, I didn't need to go to them. I looked in on Tul but that was different, he dropped what he was doing, walked around the table and we conferred for a short time before I left. Much better all round. Apart from the endless stream of questions coming through the chain of command.

I delegated as much as I could.

After breakfast everyone left the fort apart from the slaves, servants, engineers and anyone else who wasn't actually actively going to fight. Scouts would be out before dawn and away to do their job. Messengers shortly after.

Once outside we exercised and practiced maneuvers and spent at least two hours scrapping with wooden weapons. No fatalities. By this time my muscles had warmed up and I felt fatigued but better. Mostly it was my arms and shoulders that hurt but already it was a good hurt, apart from the bruises of course. Under my clothes and armor I looked like a dalmatian but that would pass. I spent all day in armor. I got used to it and hardly noticed it was there.

After the noon meal, and a bit of time fielding further questions for me, there were duties for most; kit inspections if nothing else. All duties were either rotated, decided by lot, or negotiated among the men. For me there was an hour after that in the company of Tulian looking at reports, messages, sifting rumor, reading letters and discussing all of it and more. My commanders could find me there and came and went as usual. Most often I kept Sheo with me, first because he was my second and also because of his game leg. He was going to be my commander of equestes, and they were close by in any case. He and Yebratt had quickly forged a good working relationship; he told them where to go and what to do and Yebratt made it happen, taking half the troop if needful. Just as I would command one cohort and Kerral the other but the first centurions made everything we needed to happen happen.

It was all getting routine until the first real refugees started passing and we knew that the rumors were accurate. The Orduli were moving in numbers in our direction and making a big ugly mess of the land and people as they went. The runners came to us and spilled their guts and begged for food and shelter and help. We gave what help we could but no one could stay, though some wanted to, others just wanted to get far away. We used them and their hardship, the stories they told of ravening barbarians, to fuel the anger of the men. We didn't have to make up much to outrage them. Citizens had been murdered, women raped. People burned alive in their homes. The enemy was ruthless and indifferent to suffering. They were cruel. The mood of the men changed. They wanted the fight. They wanted to kill the enemy. A whole day of that before the really bad news came.

“
They sacked Ufingan,” Yebratt said without preamble as he strode into the tent.

I snatched a map and looked at it. “Twenty miles? They could be here any damn second.”

“
How sure is this?” Tulian snapped.

“
I have witnesses who were there. Want to see them?”

I shook my head and glanced at Tul. “No,” he said, “but I want them interrogated and every last drop of information wrung out of them.”

Yebratt cleared his throat.

“
Yes?”

“
They are citizens sir.”

“
No one said torture them. Just get the facts, as many facts as you can.”

He saluted and left, looking relieved.

“
I'll go with him,” Sheo offered, not quite making it a question.

I nodded. “Yes, I'd value your observations.”

“
Can't wait for the next scout to get in.”

“
No. We seal the fort.” We had already had the engineers make gates as we were planning to stay put for more than one night. “See to it,” he instructed Gatren.