Soldiers Live (32 page)

Midway Between:

The Rescue
Fully attired in her family uniform Shukrat seemed a lot more formidable than
the cute little freckle face who hung around with Tobo. Her apparel seemed to be
alive, seemed excited to have rejoined her. The black cloth kept stirring around
her, restlessly. She resembled an Unknown Shadow who had chosen to let itself be
seen. Her blue eyes sparkled. I suspected she might be having fun. I told her,

“Tobo’s dad and I will come along as far as we can,” although she did not seem
to need reassurance. She did understand that having Murgen along meant Thai Dei
would be there, too. And Thai Dei did not trust her at all.

Our sometimes odd personal entanglements did not interest Shukrat. Not that she
would ever talk about them with an old fart like me.

Shukrat forgot that she was wearing that same outfit the day she fell into our
hands. When she was not alone. She forgot that she was not invincible.

Sorcerers never lack for self-confidence. Especially young sorcerers.

Those whose self-confidence is justified live to become old sorcerers.

A platoon of elite fighters would creep along behind us, far enough back not to
irritate Shukrat’s pride but close enough to salvage her cute little behind if
her confidence was not completely justified.

For Tobo’s sake I would try to make sure she became an older sorceress, by at
least one more day.

Murgen scrounged up fireball projectors for himself and Thai Dei. Uncle Doj
scrounged up himself and Ash Wand and invited himself into the game. He might be
older than dirt but he was still spryer than me. He and his disciples stole
through the battered wood in silence so total I wondered if my hearing was
going. My old bones were less cooperative so I ended up as rearguard. Today my
whole body insisted on reminding me that I had been critically wounded not all
that long ago. Although it did that almost every day.

I wore my Widowmaker armor. Though the Hsien reproduction was quieter than the
metal original that Soulcatcher made I still seemed to be all clang and clatter.

I took One-Eye’s spear along, against Lady’s advice.

Shukrat’s flying post trailed behind her. My ravens rode it, one offering
directions, the other poised to carry news or unexpected holiday greetings to
the rear.

It would be a holiday somewhere in the world. And fate offered me a glimpse of
Goblin in the distance, evidently passed out, much as he had done after
preferring the holiday excuse for being drunk, half a lifetime ago. I hefted the
black spear.

I glimpsed the girl, too. She was moving but doing it like a drunk on the brink
of passing out. I recalled another time, long ago, when a brother named Raven
and I had ambushed a sorceress called Whisper on Soulcatcher’s behalf. Circles
of fortune. The madwoman had been our employer at the time. Now she worked for
us. Or would be given the opportunity to work for us if I could keep her alive.

That might be a tough assignment.

Seeing the girl and my old friend hurt. I wished I had a weapon I could use to
end this here, now. One-Eye’s spear seemed to turn in my hand. I pointed out the
view to Murgen and Thai Dei. I breathed, “On the way out. After we have Tobo and
Howler.” I indicated their bamboo poles.

Murgen worked to keep a blank face. Thai Dei did not have to work. Thai Dei did
not come equipped with facial expressions, so far as I could tell. Uncle Doj
nodded. Uncle Doj was old friends with unpleasant necessity.

I told Murgen, “I’ll do it if you can’t.” Sometimes you have to build a wall
around your heart.

A few steps onward we encountered the emotional phenomenon the soldiers had
reported. But with the girl stunned it did not overcome reason. I just had to
concentrate on not giving myself up to love for the Daughter of Night.

I did wonder how much worse it had been when she was in control of all her
faculties.

We reached Tobo without incident. Howler lay not ten feet away, miraculously
silent. The gods do play amazing games.

I examined Tobo before I let anyone move him. His pulse was strong and regular
but he was covered with cuts and abrasions and had suffered a lot of broken
bones. He was not going to be much use to anybody for a long time.

Shukrat whispered. “He would have been fine if he had been wearing this.” She
indicated her apparel. That seemed spellproof, too. As promised, she was
suffering none of the effects of the Daughter of Night’s emanations.

It was a struggle for the rest of us, and getting more difficult as Booboo
regained her senses.

We got Tobo aboard a crude litter that we slung underneath the flying post.

Howler we hoisted onto the log itself. We tied him into place. He was not badly
hurt, just persistently unconscious. His rags had served him better than any
armor. He needed to find himself an alley and do some ragpicking. He needed a
new outfit desperately. What he was wearing no longer came up to the standard of
rags.

I told Thai Dei and Murgen to collect as many scraps of flying carpet as they
could without alerting the Taglians to our presence. No telling what could be
learned from them. We did not need Goblin and Booboo getting any brilliant
notions about improving their mobility.

Howler chose that moment to wake up, stretch and greet the world with a good
scream. I clamped an armored hand over the little bastard’s mouth but I moved a
beat too late.

Booboo’s men started scrambling around. Goblin woke up and glared around, but in
apparent confusion. Somebody eager to hurl himself into the gap between peril
and the Daughter of Night smashed into the girl violently enough to knock her
off her feet and leave her groggier than she was already.

The “love me” spell weakened significantly. Half a dozen Taglian soldiers
materialized. The first two stopped instantly when they got a look at me and
Shukrat. Those behind them piled into them.

Doj leaped forward like a man a third his age. Ash Wand glittered in a dance of
death.

More soldiers appeared. Lots more. Murgen and Thai Dei emptied the bamboo
fireball projectors they carried, then drew swords and joined Doj in weaving a
tapestry of steel.

Shukrat told me, “Go. Now. Just push the rheitgeistide. It will go ahead of
you.” In a straight line only, I discovered instantly, unless a couple of people
pushed and pulled it real hard to get it going in a straight line in some other
direction.

I did not have anyone to help me right away. Tobo’s male relatives were busy
turning the Taglian army into bite-sized bits of crow food. Shukrat was playing
hard to hit with a band of Taglian archers.

When their arrows reached her she seemed to lose definition momentarily. Her
cloak swirled around her, almost cloudlike. Nothing touched her.

A cloud of a thousand glittering little obsidian flakes boiled off Shukrat.

Despite a breeze blowing into our faces, the cloud headed for the Taglians. In
moments enemy soldiers were swearing, slapping themselves, forgetting to be
bellicose toward me.

Most excellent.

I had seen One-Eye and Goblin pull similar stunts frequently over the years,

usually with bees or hornets. One time one of them stirred up an army of ants to
attack the other. Much of their creativity for much of their lives had gone into
inventing new ways to harass one another.

I missed the little shits, aggravation and all.

It was not a good time to be a Taglian devotee of the Deceiver messiah, willing
or otherwise. Tobo’s family was making the blood fly.

That damned Goblin exploded like a starving vampire popping up out of his grave.

He landed amongst his own soldiers. Three or four went down. Doj, Thai Dei and
Murgen all got thrown around like they weighed nothing. Their swords seemed
incapable of doing any harm. The fiercest blows sounded like they were slamming
into a waterlogged tree trunk. And did about as much damage as they would have
done to a huge old watersoaked log.

I recalled One-Eye’s last hours. And was in motion already when I did, the black
spear extended way out in my right hand, head starting to glow.

The Goblin thing whipped to one side fast enough to avoid getting skewered. It
did suffer a cut that would have been enough to require stitches if it had been
the true Goblin.

Its flesh felt tougher than an old smoke-cured ham.

The Goblin face betrayed complete astonishment, then horrible pain. The spear
flashed and smoked in my hand. Goblin shrieked. For an instant I saw the real
Goblin looking out of tormented eyes.

I fought for my balance and tried to get him with a truer thrust.

I did not get him at all. He flung out of there in complete terror of my weapon.

His wound looked like it had gone gangrenous already.

All this took only moments. The troops I had asked to tag along behind wasted no
time rushing up to help. Still down, Booboo was not radiating enough “love me”

to disrupt their ability to fight. They started grabbing the rest of us and
dragging us out of there.

“I can walk!” I snarled. Though I had almost no strength left. I got hold of the
flying post and started walking it.

The soldiers carried Doj and Thai Dei. Murgen looped an arm over the shoulder of
another fighter who had managed to get himself injured already.

This did not look good for the Ky family.

More of our men rushed up.

I leaned into the log. I tried not to worry. Behind me the skirmish got rowdy.

More men came up on both sides. Fortunes shifted as the girl found strength or
weakened. Evidently using the “love me” enchantment sucked the strength out of
her flesh.

“I hate this kind of fight,” I told Sleepy when she came over to see how the
survivors were doing. She kept her back to the ranks of the dead.

Howler was up and around already. I had a whole team working on Tobo. Murgen was
going to make it. He just needed time. But time had run out for Doj and Thai
Dei. Soldiers live.

I kept doing what I could for Soulcatcher, too, mostly when my wife was not
watching. “You can lose a lot of men without accomplishing a thing.” I meant
that as a subtle suggestion.

“They’ve realized they can’t win. They’ve started moving north. Before we can
finish surrounding them.” I heard nothing in her voice expressing
disappointment. “How bad is Tobo?”

“Not as bad as his uncle and Doj.”

“Croaker.”

“Sorry. We’re out of business. Maybe for a long time. If Tobo has a bone that
isn’t broken I can’t find it.” I exaggerated only a little. The kid had a broken
leg, a broken toe, a broken arm (two places), a concussion and a whole rack of
crushed or broken ribs. “Unless you’re willing to face Mogaba without him.”

“Outnumbered by the best troops we’ll face, commanded by the only intelligent
commander we’re likely to meet?” Meaning a general she had fought during the
Kiaulune wars but never had beaten. She eyed Soulcatcher. “Counting on Howler to
give us his best? I think not.”

“Then we’d better fall back to Dejagore and get comfortable. Or move up to
Ghoja.”

“Ghoja,” she decided instantly. “We want control of that river crossing. And
that barrier.”

“Mogaba isn’t likely to come out right away. He’ll want to know exactly what’s
going on before he commits himself to any course. Hell, he might not come out at
all if we update him on what’s going on with the Daughter of Night.”

She agreed. “If we let him know, he might find a chance to do something
beneficial to all of us. See that he gets the appropriate information.”

How was I supposed to do that?

I did not ask.

I knelt beside Soulcatcher. Her breathing was ragged. She seemed to be getting
weaker. I did ask, “How’s Sahra?”

“She’ll be all right. She’s lived with this idea for a lot of years. She knows
nobody gets out of here alive. Even if they don’t have one of those silver
badges. I’ll let you know what she decides about funeral arrangements.”

I grunted.

She left me with a final caution. “Just don’t let her boy die. Things would get
unpleasant.”

Midway Between:

Escape Artists
Sometime during the excitement the Voroshk kids decided to run away. But before
they ran they had to argue about how to manage it and who should be in charge
after they succeeded and then they kept bickering until they wasted most of the
time when the rest of us were diverted first by Soulcatcher and then by Booboo.

Nothing got decided completely. After sundown they surprised their guards using
feeble disorientation spells. Gromovol killed several soldiers, mostly because
Magadan cautioned him not to. As soon as they were loose Gromovol started
looking for his flying post. Arkana and Magadan believed it was more important
to find their clothing. Without that they were almost powerless. They wrote
Gromovol off. They knew the Black Company well enough already to want to
distance themselves from the doom taking shape in his future.

Arkana told Magadan, “We’ll have to take one of those keys to their shadowgate,

too. Otherwise we’ll never get out of this world.”

“If we get the chance, yes. But the main thing we need to do is to get away from
these madmen.” Even after several months Magadan still did not understand what
was happening in this world. It was too alien. Nothing made any sense. His own
world had known no real war since his forbears had come to power.

Two hundred yards away Gromovol did something stupid and betrayed himself as he
tried to steal a flying post. An alarm sounded. In minutes rage flooded the
camp. The murdered guards had been found.

Arkana swore. “That idiot! We’d better surrender to somebody important right
now. If we keep on running the soldiers who catch us won’t listen to any
explanations.”

“Shukrat . . . ”

“Shukrat’s gone native. Shukrat’s decided there’s no way she’ll ever get home so
she might as well do the best she can for herself over here. It’s probably
because of her mother.”

“What?”

“Her mother. Shukrat’s been totally weird ever since the First Father put her
mother aside for that woman Saltireva. Besides, she’s infatuated with Tobo.”

“He is gorgeous, isn’t he?”

“Magadan! Well, yes. Exotic, anyway.”

“I hear his mother was one of the great beauties of this world when she was
younger. But his father grew up eating nothing but ugly soup.” All the while
they talked Magadan kept drifting away from the excitement. He had no
destination in mind but no intention of giving himself up. There would be no
chance like this ever again.

Arkana said, “Shukrat could be right.”

“What?”

“Suppose she hasn’t really gone native? Suppose she’s just winning their trust?

Maybe someday she’ll just stroll off with one of their keys and leave this
world.”

“Damn.”

“Shukrat won’t do it. But we could adopt that strategy.” It had not taken
Shukrat long to get her post and clothing back. She was becoming an important
part of the Black Company. Already.

“Why didn’t we think of that?” Magadan grumbled.

Arkana said, “Because we’re almost as stupid as Gromovol is. As blind to
anything that isn’t the way it was at home. Shukrat isn’t bright. But she does
see that this isn’t home and never will be. I’m turning back. You do what you
want. When the shouting stops I want them to find me right where they left me. I
refused to run away. It was all that idiot Gromovol’s fault.”

But, darling ice princess, don’t you know you never do anything alone?

The Voroshk never fully grasped the fact that the Unknown Shadows are with all
of us always. If Tobo wanted he could catalog every breath they took. The hidden
folk tap emotion. They learn to understand what is being said far faster than
even language naturals like myself. The Voroshk could no longer speak secrets.

Sometimes misfortune likes to get into the game.

Magadan told Arkana, “You go ahead. Be friendly. Flirt. Do what Shukrat did.

When you get your key come find me. I’ll walk you home.”

“Come back with me.”

“I can’t. They’ll blame me for what Gromovol did.”

The devil named appeared suddenly, running straight toward them, the light of
campfires exaggerating the terror distorting his face. Gromovol had expected to
fling open the door to freedom but had found it to be the door to hell and no
one on the other side cared who he was.

Before it could all be sorted out and the troops calmed down Magadan had been
killed, Gromovol had been wounded badly, and Arkana had been raped several
times. She brought a broken leg and several cracked ribs into my care as well.

In time I heard all the true details from my ravens, who seemed more inclined to
be communicative while Tobo was out of action.

Soldiers whose friends have been murdered are not kindly people. In a Company
without Lady and a female Captain no discipline would have been assessed at all.

As it was, the discipline was light and directed mainly at those who had
assaulted Arkana sexually. That could not be overlooked.