Soldiers Live (54 page)

Taglios:

The Great General
The villain was not a Deceiver after all. He did not understand what a Deceiver
was. He being Suruvhija’s son Bhijar, whom Booboo had pulled in with her “love
me” effect, working him only when no one else was around. She had sent him to a
secret member of the Strangler brotherhood. He had gotten the killing scarf
there. That had happened while we were in the air, coming home from the
glittering plain.

The boy received only what punishment his mother thought was appropriate. The
Deceiver who supplied the rumel, though, soon went the way of his Goddess. Along
with a number of friends. There would be no mercy for Stranglers until the last
was dead.

While others rooted out the truth I stayed busy with Lady and Booboo. I soon
realized that I did not have the skills to save either. I summoned the best
physicans from the Land of Unknown Shadows. To a man they told me what I did not
want to hear.

Sorcery was the only hope for either woman. And Tobo was the only one with a
command of the appropriate sorcery. Arkana and Shukrat could not help much. They
knew little about the healing arts.

I told Suvrin, “Regardless of my personal motives, the boy is one of us. We
can’t leave him in a Taglian cell.”

Suvrin had a little too much of the politician in him. Too much of the kind of
mind willing to let an individual go so the rest will not be inconvenienced. He
wanted to avoid a confrontation with Aridatha Singh.

I continued, “You do need to get into the Annals, Captain. You need to
understand completely what it means to be a brother of the Black Company.”

“Maybe I do. Until I do I’ll run things the way I am now.”

I did not argue. I had not expected any other answer. I met Shukrat outside,

shook my head. She tested her sleep spell on the men Suvrin sent after me to
make sure I behaved. That spell worked perfectly.

Shukrat and I went looking for the Great General.

Arkana kindly flew high cover.

We were going to bust Tobo out.

The flaw in that plan was, we did not know where Tobo was being held.

So we had to go ask Aridatha. Being more careful than Tobo had been when it came
to invading the Great General’s quarters. Shukrat prepared the way with her
sleep spell. It all started out so well I was hard pressed not to look on the
dark side and expect a trap.

Singh was not easy to handle unconscious. At least not easy for a gimp old man
and a mite of a teenage girl. Nevertheless, we got him aboard my post before he
was missed, then took him way up high into the clouds, and through, into the
moonlight.

I had Shukrat wake him up.

“We need to talk, Aridatha. And you need to stay calm while we do. Because it’s
almost a mile down to the ground.”

Singh was a cool one. He collected himself. “What do you want?”

“Tobo. Where is he? I’m asking, counting on you to continue being concerned
about Taglios. About what new fighting would do to the city.”

Singh did not say anything.

I told him, “You’re doing a good job of riding the tiger. But that tiger is
going to get a chance to run wild if I end up having to drop your ass from a
mile up in the sky.”

He considered that, suspecting that I might not be bluffing. “You could start a
new war.”

“You could.”

“The man tried to assassinate me.”

“He won’t do that again,” Shukrat told him. “We’re going to have a talk, Tobo
and me. When we’re done he’ll stop doing stupid things forever.” She did not
sound like she had any doubts. She did make it sound like Tobo had a surprise
coming.

I said, “To lay your mind at rest, it won’t trouble me a bit if we get into a
new fight with you people. I don’t have much left to live for. I can burn
Taglios to the ground without compunction. Unlike some, I don’t love the place.

It’s done nothing to win my heart.”

Arkana said, “If he kills you there won’t be anyone to look out for the
Radisha.” The Radisha had become regent despite tradition because Aridatha Singh
insisted. Strongly. And nobody wanted to argue with the Great General. Even out
in the provinces resistance to the new order seemed to be weakening, almost as
if it was just too much trouble to fight over all of this when things were going
so well otherwise.

Arkana did not give a rat’s ass about the Radisha’s welfare. She just wanted
Aridatha to survive this incident.

“Just tell us where Tobo is,” I said. “Shukrat and I will bring him out.”

Slowly, slowly, I tilted my post forward. Timing its arrival well, a gap in the
clouds appeared below, allowing the moonlight to get through and reflect off the
surface of the river. We discovered that, when he could actually see how high he
was, Aridatha Singh had a fear of heights. It proved to be one of those fears
which evades reason’s control.

We set him down on the north bank of the river. Arkana stayed with him. I
wondered if she would find the nerve to betray her interest.

Taglios:

Brain Surgery
Before Tobo could help me with my women, I, with the help of the best physicians
and surgeons among the Children of the Dead, had to bring him back from his head
wound. His Taglian captors had done nothing for him. He was two-thirds of the
way down the path to a lonely grave.

There were no other Nyueng Bao with the Company anymore. The handful who had
reached Taglios with us had stolen away to their native swamps soon afterward.

Tobo required delicate surgery to clear a dozen dangerous bone chips off the
surface of his brain. I did most of the work myself, using my fellow surgeons as
my other hand. The job took twelve hours. Shukrat was there every second.

Sometimes I thought the ghost of the boy’s mother was looking over my shoulder.

I collapsed moments after we finished, my physical and emotional reserves
utterly spent. Some kind souls saw to it that I got into a bed.

Taglios:

Family Matters
It had to be afternoon. Storm season thunder rocked the old Greys barracks. The
roaring hiss of the deluge ate up almost all other sound. The air was cool to
the point of feeling nippy. I told myself to enjoy the cool while I could. Once
the rain stopped the heat would return. And the air would be damp enough to
steam vegetables.

A whole different, pounding roar developed as wild winds began to slam and kick
the barracks. Hail had begun to fall. Heavily. The streets would be filling with
Taglian children determined to harvest the ice. Some surely would be injured by
large hailstones. It happened frequently.

Shukrat came in. She did not look cheerful. Suruvhija followed her, bringing
food and drink.

I asked, “How bad is it? Is it infection?”

Shukrat was puzzled for a moment. “Oh. No. Tobo is all right. He was even awake
for a minute a little while ago.”

So. The way she did not go on told me where the real problem lay.

When I jumped up, nearly injuring myself in my haste, she barked, “Take it easy!

Getting in a dangerous hurry won’t help.” And, when I failed to calm myself
enough to suit her, “You won’t be fit to help anybody if you show up emotionally
too ragged to cope.”

She was right. An old man like me, in my professions, got plenty of exposure to
that truth. Not only fear, but most emotion, is the mind killer. We do stupid
things when we let emotion take over. Then we are forced to endure the
consequences for the rest of our days.

I took deep breaths and drank cold water. I told myself I could handle even the
worst news because I have been dealing with bad news all my life. “Lead on,” I
told Shukrat.

Soldiers live. Bad news is part of the life.

Arkana and the white crow were with Lady and Booboo when I arrived. Suruvhija
had gotten there ahead of me. She slipped out right away, with a murmur of
gratitude for excusing her son from the worst consequences of his actions.

It was not a good day for me physically either. I was having to use my cane.

Both of my women were lying on their backs, making no noise. I saw no immediate
cue as to what the crisis might be. The crow paced back and forth on a shelf
above Lady’s cot. Arkana perched on a chair beside my daughter.

I went to my wife first.

Lady was breathing. Barely. And having to work extremely hard at it, gasping and
fighting for every breath. I groaned. “I may have to cut her throat open below
the obstruction.” The operation might save her life but her vanity would be
sorely tested. The results are never pretty.

I felt relieved as I turned to the girl. And guilty, because I felt so much
relief.

Soldiers live.

Booboo was gone. But it had only just happened.

That ripped my guts out.

Arkana told me, “There was someone with her every minute, Pop. It was like she
just didn’t want to make it.” She made me take the chair.

“Oh, I understand that part. She didn’t have any reason to go on. We took
everything that meant anything away from her. But knowing she wanted out, in
here,” and I tapped my temple, “doesn’t do anything to stop the bleeding in
here,” tapping my chest. I drew a deep breath, let it go in a long sigh. “Tell
Suruvhija to come back in.”

Once the little Shadar woman returned, I told her, “Buy as much ice as you can
get. I want to pack my daughter in ice.” I touched Booboo. She was still warmer
than the surrounding air.

Shukrat asked, “What’s up? What’re you going to do?”

“I’m going to take her down to the ice cave.” We had to go back to get the
Children of the Dead back across the plain and to keep our word to Shivetya.

Maybe sooner was better than later.

The white crow made a little sound, simply a device for getting my attention.

I said, “She’s first in my heart. If that’s what it takes to save her, then I’ll
put her down there with you, too.”

Suruvhija was gone. I hoped she got no grief trying to buy ice. If anyone tried
to keep her from getting the money I would be tempted to break some bones.

I did not reflect on what my response, as Captain, would have been toward an
underling with my present attitude. The Words Immortal are: That Was Different.

The first ice arrived not much later. Booboo had chosen the perfect time and
season to die. We bundled her in a quarter ton of hailstones, inside heavy
blankets, which we sewed shut. Lady’s flying post, slaved to Arkana’s, was just
able to hoist the weight.

The fly of indecision bit me. I wanted to get the girl into the safety of the
cavern before nature had its way. But I did not want to be away from Tobo and my
wife and run the risk of disaster here.

Shukrat assured me, “I’ll damned well make sure Tobo is all right. And as soon
as he’s able I’ll have him help Lady. If you’re not back. Now go. Do what you
have to do.”

“Come on, Pop,” Arkana told me. “Once we put on some altitude that ice isn’t
going to melt nearly so fast.”

“Yeah. Shukrat. If anything happens . . . get more ice. Come on down. Maybe
Shivetya can help.”

Before we left I did have to visit Suvrin, to let him know what was going on and
arrange it so he would know what to do if the fates ordained that this was the
time when Croaker would not be coming back.

Even when you fly with the wind it takes a long time to get from Taglios to the
fortress with no name. It seems to take forever when worry is your most intimate
traveling companion. The white crow was not good for much of anything but an
emergency source of provender. Arkana was a dutiful daughter, more helpful than
she needed to be, but she was just too young. Most of her earnest conversation
seemed so naive, or even foolish, that it became hard to recall a time when I
was that age, still idealistic and hurling myself at life headlong, believing
that truth and right must inevitably triumph.

I kept my opinions to myself. After everything she had suffered already Arkana
did not deserve to have her surviving optimism skewered by my bitter cynicisms.

Perhaps her youthful shallowness was useful as a shield. It might help her shake
off those early traumas. I have known people like that, who live only in the
present moment.

Glittering Stone:

Bitter Desserts
Soon after we placed Booboo in the cave of the ancients, a scant few yards from
her aunt, I was stricken by a series of horrible thoughts.

What got me nervous in the first place was the way the imprisoned Soulcatcher’s
gaze seemed to follow me everywhere as we brought the girl in and settled her,

while Arkana set the stasis spells on her—as relayed to her by the white crow.

Paranoia struck deep.

Soulcatcher had control of the bird. And she knew all the ins and outs of the
sorcery necessary to lock someone into the ice caverns—or to release a prisoner.

She could let herself go.

The bird was not right there when that thought hit me. Else she would have known
that I had realized the possibility. I covered up before it noticed.

I stood in the weak, sourceless, pale cold light and stared for a long time,

without really seeing. My baby. Hard to believe.

“I never knew you, darling.” A tear rolled down. I thought of all the cold, hard
men I had known and wondered what they would think if they could see me now,

having turned into a maudlin old man.

They might be envious of the fact that I had hung around long enough to become
an old man.

The white crow came flapping in from wherever it had been, landed on my right
shoulder. Wings slapped my face, stinging. “Goddamnit!” It had not taken the
liberty before.

I do not know how long I wallowed in self-pity before the bird stirred me. Far
longer than I realized at the time. The crow brought me back to this world of
real trials and deep pain. “Arkana. We’d better head back now.” My separation
from Lady would be more than a week long before we reached Taglios.

It was going to be longer than that.

Arkana did not respond.

“Arkana?”

Arkana was not there.

The flying posts were not there.

Emotion is the mind killer.

In my worry about my women I had forgotten that my adopted daughter was the one
Voroshk with a brain. The one who had said she was going to bide her time and
pick her moment.

That moment had come and gone, it seemed. There was nobody down in that cavern
but me and the scruffy white bird.

She had not been completely cruel. She took the key to the shadowgates so the
gimp old man had no way to get away but she did not make him climb all the way
up out of that hole. Only part of the way. She left my flying post just far
enough up to give herself a few hours’ head start. Just long enough that I had
no chance to catch her.

Shivetya manna makes a tiresome diet, however good you feel for the first few
hours after you eat. Self-pity and self-accusation make bitter desserts. And a
crow haunted by your oldest and dearest enemy makes for a somewhat less than
ideal partner in exile.

After the anger faded and the despair subsided I helped myself to Baladitya’s
writing materials and went to work on bringing the Annals up to date.

There was no time in that place so I do not know how long that took. It seemed
longer than it probably was. I began to worry because nobody came to see why we
had failed to return. I feared that meant there was no one who could come. The
most likely someones who might not be able to come being Tobo or Lady.

But Shukrat was healthy. How come she did not show up?

With no one else there I found myself talking to the crow more and more. And
more as time went by, in an effort to defeat the gathering despair.

Shivetya watched from his huge wooden throne, evidently amused by my
predicament. While I was amused by Soulcatcher’s.

She did have the knowledge to get herself out of the ice cavern. She just did
not have the hands. And I thought that was delicious.

I was five or six sleeps into my exile when the Nef returned, first appearing
inside my dreams.