Soldiers Live (36 page)

With the Company:

Going South
Sleepy always saw idleness as a vacuum in need of filling. No way was she going
to put up with ten thousand men sitting around, maybe spending an hour or two
each day training. When they were feeling particularly ambitious.

Just miles away stood a perfectly ugly wood desperately in need of
clear-cutting.

You put a whole lot of people to work on a place like that, starting from the
outside and working inward, making sure you get even the tiniest twigs and
shoots, you can get some great bonfires burning. The evening of the second day
the soldiers had one entire horizon hidden behind ramparts of smoke.

Sleepy was daring Goblin and the girl to come show us what they had.

I had doubts about the wisdom of that. Sleepy was not impressed enough with the
fact that Goblin had a slice of Kina stuffed inside him. And Kina’s bad-ass
reputation was well-deserved.

But I was not the boss. I could advise but I could not make anyone listen. My
worries just earned me one of Sleepy’s enigmatic smiles.

“You ready to go for a fly?” Lady asked. “Howler’s got a carpet ready.”

“You in a hurry?”

“You told me Sileth’s only got a week. That was three days ago.”

“I did, didn’t I? How big is that carpet?”

“Big enough.”

“I mean it, hon. It’s got to have room for six people.”

She stared. After several seconds she said, “I don’t think I’m even going to
ask. Except maybe who.”

“You and Soulcatcher. Howler. Gromovol. Arkana if she wants to go.”

“Still playing games, Love?”

“No game. Progress. We lost the most promising one of those kids when Magadan
got killed. That was a bad career move on his part. Gromovol is as useless as
teats on a bull. I’d just as soon kill him. But if we give him back to those two
old Voroshk demons Shivetya’s got tied up down there we might score a point or
two.”

She frowned.

“Thought you were the master manipulator of the greatest empire . . . ” She
pointed a finger. An invisible darning needle began to sew my lips together. She
was getting the power back. “I’ll just explain then, shall I?”

“There’s the man I married.”

Bullshit. But I was not going to argue. “We got the top two Voroshk locked up
out there on the plain. They’ve got no home anymore, far as we know. As far as
Shivetya is letting anybody know. They have no future, nowhere to go. An
apparent act of kindness might add a couple of heavyweights to our ranks just
when it would be handy to have them.”

“You’re evil.”

“I try. Let me go blow in Arkana’s ear.”

“You do and you’ll wake up in the morning wondering how long before you get your
first hot flash.”

Well, well. Maybe that explained some recent crankiness. Hers. Mine was caused
by the iron-strapped, rock-headed obtuseness of the people who insisted on
tangling my feet. That was a whole different hunk of monkey meat.

I went to blow in Arkana’s ear. Verbally.

“I’m not going to give Gromovol a choice,” I told Arkana. “This is a chance for
me to maybe make peace with his old man. Which is the only good that can ever
come of the idiot. If I keep him here he’ll eventually do something stupider
than anything he’s done already. I’ve told you before, I’ve been in this racket
a long time. When you come up with a liability as big as Gromovol you look for a
way to use him. Or you kill him. I’ve been getting soft in my twilight years.”

Her skeptical expression told me how well I had sold that fairy tale.

“You, you’re special. You get choices. You can go back if you want. You can tag
along for the visit and stay with us when we’re done. Or you can hang around
here and not go at all.”

“Oh, I’ll go. I can’t not. I’ll decide what else I need to do after we get
there.”

We went aloft by night, under the light of a full moon, with Lady, Soulcatcher,

Gromovol and Arkana aboard Howler’s new carpet. Tobo, Shukrat, Murgen and I
witched along on flying posts. Despite Sleepy’s objections, and Tobo’s aches and
pains, Tobo insisted on coming along because Shukrat was coming. So Murgen rode
with me because Sahra refused to fly. The youngsters larked about us fearlessly,

engaged in some dragonfly mating ritual.

Murgen and I dropped out briefly at Dejagore. Sleepy insisted we check up on
Blade and his occupation force.

Drifting down toward Dejagore’s citadel, I asked, “You think Sahra’s been having
visions or something?”

“Huh?” Murgen’s thoughts had been wandering.

“This frantic mother stuff. I swear she keeps getting worse. I thought you might
have noticed her having psychic seizures. Or something.”

“She don’t talk about it. If she does.”

“What do you think?”

“I think that if she hasn’t she’s definitely afraid that she might start.”

“Yeah?”

“When we were young she worried about turning into her mother.”

“Sometimes she’s damned crabby.”

“She’s no Gota the Troll, though. Her body doesn’t hurt her enough. So now she’s
terrified she’s going to turn into Hong Tray. Her grandmother.”

“And?”

“And maybe she will. She’s started to look like the old woman did. Whenever she
starts cranking about it I remind her how calm and accepting Hong Tray always
was. Like a solid rock in a wild river.”

“Doesn’t work, does it?”

“Not for a second. Well. Somebody must’ve smelled us coming.”

We had not yet settled to the top of the citadel tower, but Blade and his chief
lieutenants were there to meet us. Blade called up, “We were expecting Tobo, the
way the shadows were all spooked up.”

“You got lucky. The kid’s hurt so you get the old farts instead. Captain wants
us to check up on you. So you give us a couple of good drinks, we’ll tell her
you’re doing a kickass job, no need to even think about you guys.”

“I think we can handle that.”

Taglios:

Decision
The sharpest-eyed spy can be misdirected or deluded if you know he is watching.

Having been of the Company once and having been victimized by the Company more
than once, the Great General understood its policy of deception. His
understanding had served him well during the Kiaulune wars, where the trickery
had gotten the best of him rarely. He and Aridatha Singh were observing
large-scale close order drills from the wall of a fortress that bestrode a hill
just south of Taglios. The soldiers had begun to show some interest in improving
their skills lately. The approach of a powerful enemy was a mighty motivator.

The Great General asked, “They all went?”

“I’ve had the report from two independent sources within the last hour. They
went out right after moonrise. A flying carpet and three flying poles. They
headed south. They passed close enough to Haband’s tree for him to identify the
Howler, Lady, Croaker, Murgen, the boy wizard and three of those white wizard
children I saw when I visited. They aren’t worried about us.”

“There’d be more of those.”

“I’m sure the rumor is true. I’ve had it confirmed too many times. They’re
dead.”

The Great General refused to take anything at face value where those people were
concerned. “Where would they go?”

“Maybe something’s happened at Dejagore. Or farther south.”

Farther south would have to be beyond the Dandha Presh. Support for the
Protector had evaporated outside those territories still directly under the
Great General’s control, near as his agents could determine, though there had
been no outbreaks of enthusiasm for the return of the royals. The mood of the
empire was indifferent, excepting amongst those who could profit, one way or
another.

Same as it always was, Mogaba reflected.

Mogaba played with a snail shell as he talked. Doing so seemed almost a tick
anymore. But he startled Aridatha by popping his arm back suddenly, snapping the
shell out as hard as he could throw. “Time for a full-scale field exercise.

Let’s find out how good their intelligence is with wonder boy away.”

Aridatha asked a few brisk questions. These days he commanded the division that
would form the left wing of Mogaba’s army. It was backboned by his own City
Battalions.

The Great General said, “Make all your preparations exactly as you would if we
were going down there to fight. Issue appropriate rations. But prepare in a
relaxed manner. We just want to see how ready we are. So we know where we need
to do more work. Don’t encourage questions. And from now on I want to see our
spies personally when they bring in news.”

Aridatha went away wondering what Mogaba really had in mind.

The Great General sent for the rest of his staff and commanders. He spent a
particularly long time, in bright midday sun, conferring with his cavalry
captains.

Beside the Cemetery:

Confusion
Willow Swan stuck his head into Sleepy’s cabin, which had been built for her
from the better logs harvested from the Grove of Doom. “Another contact with
Mogaba’s cavalry. Three miles west of the Rock Road.”

This happened periodically. It was one way the Great General kept track of his
enemies. The probes became more numerous when Mogaba wanted to provoke a
response. Sleepy grunted, untroubled.

“I’m a little concerned,” Swan told her. “This time they’re pushing harder.

Since we don’t have any good way to get anything out of the hidden folk who
didn’t run off after Tobo, we don’t have any idea what Mogaba is doing. We’re as
blind as he is.”

“Is his main force maneuvering behind his cavalry screen?”

“I get that impression.”

“Then he’s trying to harass us into another panic.” Twice already Taglian forces
had come south and demonstrated until Sleepy responded, whereupon they had
retreated rapidly. Mogaba was trying to get his virgins some confidence-building
experience under the stress of near-battle. No doubt he would push them a little
closer this time. “Run one brigade up behind the pickets and have them make a
lot of noise. Keep another brigade in camp. Everyone else can see to their
normal business. I think we’re due for a reaction from the Daughter of Night
pretty soon.”

Her campaign against the Deceiver messiah and the Goblin-thing was much like the
Great General’s against her.

Swan reminded her, “We have official Deceiver titles for those two now.” A fact
one of the hidden folk had discovered in far Asharan, of all places, just before
Tobo’s departure. Asharan was a small city to the southwest unlikely to have any
impact on any events unless through its band of Deceivers. “Khadidas.

Khadidasa.” Slave of Khadi. Or Kina. “Is that one or both of them?”

“Those are the male and female forms. One for each.”

“Willow, that girl won’t be called a slave by anybody. She has the same blood as
her mother and aunt. Daughter of Night suits her just fine.”

Swan shrugged, departed. Tobo had said that there was no love lost between the
girl and the Khadidas. That, in fact, they tended to bicker. That, further, the
girl had begun to appear almost disillusioned.

The Great General’s cavalry continued to harass Sleepy’s scouts and pickets.

Skirmishes popped up everywhere. Commercial traffic dwindled on the Rock Road.

Sizable troops of horse probed the brigade deployed to screen the Company force.

They were mostly Vehdna. Vehdna had a tradition of being excellent horsemen.

These horsemen showed well against Hsien’s professional infantry. Sleepy brought
the other brigade out of camp and handed the backup role off to the native
recruits.

“I’m getting worried,” Swan told Sleepy.

“It must be escalating. You were just concerned before.”

“Exactly my point. Why is Mogaba working so hard to make us think he’s working
up to a straightforward attack? Why is he trying to force a response?”

“Because he wants to see what we’ll do. Unless he’s trying to distract us from
something else. Any chance he could’ve made a deal with the Deceivers?”

“Narayan Singh’s son is one of his cronies.”

That struck a spark. “Aridatha Singh is no Deceiver! Nor is he a Deceiver
stooge.”

“All right. Don’t get excited.”

Moments later, though, it became clear that it was time for everybody to get
excited about something, fast. The unexpected and deadly happened.

Mogaba’s cavalry faded away. They were replaced by the infantry of Mogaba’s
Second Territorial division, as numerous as Sleepy’s whole army. The Taglians
drove straight into the defending force, hurling them back, while the cavalry
began to leak around the ends of the friendly line.

Sleepy had messengers flying around and horns blaring before it became entirely
clear that this time Mogaba was not just teasing. She snapped at Swan, “We have
to keep them from getting inside the camp. Whatever that costs.”

“I’ll handle that,” Swan replied, though he was no official member of the
heirarchy. “I’ll use the recruits. You grab anyone else you can find.” He
sprinted away. If Mogaba captured the camp he would gain control of the treasure
that had come down off the glittering plain. That might win his war for him
right here, right now.

Swan began sorting the confusion in the camp as soon as he located the Hsien
sergeants in charge of training. He announced that the enemy had launched a
reconnaissance in force. Some elements might try to reach the camp.

Once he had the recruits assembled facing toward the enemy, Swan sent trusted
men to move the treasure into hiding inside the old Shadowlander military
cemetery. And well he did, too. Mogaba’s attack was much more vigorous than
expected. When it reached the camp the recruits did not long withstand it. They
allowed elements of Mogaba’s force to get into the camp itself.

All did not go well for the Great General, though. Soon after his own division
caught the attention of his enemies, a second was supposed to rush forward east
of the Rock Road, to catch the disorganized troops rushing back from the Grove
of Doom to help Sleepy. The commander of that force, not sure if he was being
led into a clever trap himself, vacillated until his attack had no chance of
attaining success. Shortly he would find himself free to pursue new career
opportunities. Many lesser officers would join him.

On the extreme left Aridatha Singh launched his attack exactly on schedule. Its
initial goal was to occupy the Grove of Doom. Then it was supposed to carry on
southward and westward and cut the enemy’s line of withdrawal. But before
Aridatha’s force was well into the maneuver he received a dispatch from Mogaba
directing him to pull back. The enemy had collected himself. A counterattack was
expected shortly. Mogaba feared that if Sleepy discovered Aridatha she would cut
him off and exterminate his division. Aridatha was a novice on the battlefield.