The Destiny of the Dead (The Song of the Tears Book 3) (22 page)

‘I don’t know,’ said Nish. ‘When I ponder the big questions,
I either find too many answers, or none. But perhaps you were spared so you
could lead the defence of Blisterbone yesterday and today and, hopefully,
tomorrow.’

‘Perhaps,’ said Flangers with a brief, wintry smile. ‘It has
done me good, this fight that can never be won. I no longer want to die; I feel
as though I
have
atoned, in my
soldierly way.’

‘Your conscience must be a damned hard taskmaster if it’s
taken you thirteen years. If only my father were as honourable –’

‘Let’s not talk about him just now.’ Flangers sighed and
settled down in his greatcoat. ‘I expect I will be killed now, since I’ve found
a reason to love life again.’

And not just life. Where were Flydd and Chissmoul, anyway?
Having no way of finding out, Nish pulled his coat around his ears, settled his
back against the rock and closed his eyes.

‘What’s that?’ one of the guards hissed, then,
‘Lieutenant Flangers!’

Flangers was awake and up before Nish’s sluggish mind could
register what was happening. He staggered to his feet but his knees gave way
and he fell onto the sharp-edged slate rubble. Every muscle in his body was
aching, every bone. It was dark, the wind had dropped and he could feel the
damp mist drifting around him.

‘What is it?’ he said quietly, climbing up onto the
right-hand wall.

‘Mifly heard rock crack on rock, down the track,’ said
Flangers.

‘Could they be ready to attack again so quickly?’

‘It’s been five hours since the avalanche.’

‘Really?’ Nish felt as though he’d slept for ten minutes. He
peered over. ‘I don’t see any lights.’

‘This fog is thicker than mud. Besides, the enemy might have
a way of seeing in the dark, just as you do with clear-sight.’

‘If they can see in the dark, it’s a lot better than my
clear-sight,’ Nish muttered.

‘It showed you the flaw in the ice.’ Flangers told the
guards to be ready, not that they needed orders. ‘Runner, stand by to wake our
reinforcements when I say so.’

Huwld was standing by. ‘I could run up to the tents now,
surr.’ Though the Gendrigoreans called Nish by name, they always deferred to
Flangers.

‘Let them sleep. They need it.’

Clack
. ‘There it
is again,’ said Flangers. ‘And not far down. The enemy must be sneaking up,
hoping to catch us asleep. As if
my
men would ever sleep on duty.’

Nish smiled thinly. Almost any man might sleep on duty, if
sufficiently exhausted. He had done it himself, once or twice. But not Flangers,
evidently. ‘Duty can be the breaking of a man, if it’s too onerous.’

‘And the making of another,’ said Flangers. ‘I’ve often
found it to be a crutch when my courage was faltering.’ He moved to the edge of
the wall, which here, founded on top of a rock buttress, was a good three spans
above the slope.

‘They’re close,’ he said to the defenders. ‘And remember
that they need not be men – the enemy has all kinds of beasts, both
savage native ones and fell creatures flesh-formed to suit Jal-Nish’s vicious
purposes. We must be prepared for anything. Are the torches ready?’

‘They’re ready,’ a woman said, from the darkness below.
‘Shall I light them?’

‘Yes, and hold them high so we can see our attackers. But
don’t expose yourselves to enemy fire.’

Light flared behind the wall and Nish caught a pleasantly
pungent whiff of burning pine resin. Resin-coated torches, bound to spears,
were carried up onto the left and right walls, and raised high. Nish and
Flangers crouched down and peered through arrow slits in the outer wall. The
flaring light reflected off the drifting mist, and Nish caught only occasional
glimpses of the track.

‘I saw something moving, about fifty paces down,’ whispered
a guard. ‘It’s huge, but low to the ground. Want me to put a spear into it,
lieutenant?’

‘Let’s see what it is first,’ said Flangers. ‘When dealing
with beasts, you should always know what they are before you attack.’

‘It’s hard to see through this cursed mist,’ said another.
‘Looks like a bear, creeping on its belly.’

‘Bears can take too much punishment, and they climb too
well,’ muttered Flangers. ‘If Klarm has a squad of bears, they’ll snatch this
pass in no time.’

‘Raise the torches a bit,’ said Nish, standing up to look
over the outer wall, heedless of the risk of being taken by an arrow. He could
just make out a low, bear-like shape, mounded in the middle, humping along the
ground.

‘That’s no bear. It’s a man,’ he muttered. ‘Hold your fire!
It’s a wounded man.’

‘We should finish him off,’ said the guard on the left. ‘That’s
what they’d do to us.’

‘Don’t fire!’ bellowed Nish, feeling the hairs rising on the
backs of his hands, for he had just had an outrageous thought. He scrambled
down the steps at the back of the barrier, ignoring the pain in his legs, and
ran around to the slot. ‘Out of the way. Let me through.’

He pushed between the guards, scrambled over the rock wall
blocking the lower half of the slot, and moved down, slowly now. Could it
possibly be him? Tears sprang to his eyes and he could barely swallow for the
lump in his throat. Yes, he’d know that enormous shaggy mop anywhere.

‘It’s Clech! Get a stretcher.’

Clech was forcing himself up the steep slope on his back,
using just his mighty arms. His legs trailed below him and each movement raised
him only a couple of ells. A little mound rested on his belly, on its side.
Aimee’s body. And then it moved! She moved, and groaned.

Nish felt the hair rise on the top of his head. He swallowed
painfully. It was impossible, but they were alive! But in bad shape.

‘Clech?’ said Nish, as two men came scrambling down, bearing
a stretcher made from tent canvas bound to a pair of spears. ‘What happened?’

‘Bloody fool broke both legs,’ said Aimee in the barest
whisper. ‘I told him to land on his big fat head, but he took no notice.’

‘Had to hold you like a baby,’ Clech croaked. ‘Had to look
after those little sparrow ribs of yours.’

‘Sparrow ribs!’ she whispered in outrage.

They continued bickering as they were loaded on the
stretcher, still locked in each other’s arms, and Nish called another two men
down to lift the weight.

‘I thought you were dead,’ said Nish. ‘How did you survive?’

‘We expected to die,’ said Aimee quietly. ‘But the bowl was
full of snow and wet ice, smashed into powder, and we went down a span or two
before it broke our fall. We nearly suffocated getting free.’

‘Why didn’t you call for help once you were out?’ said
Flangers.

‘Silly lunkhead slipped and knocked his head on a rock. Took
him ages to come to, and I didn’t have the breath to yell.’

‘I’m not surprised, with broken ribs,’ said Flangers.
‘Still, the healers know how to deal with those. Let’s get you into shelter, in
case the enemy are about.’

Nish embraced them both, not bothering to hide his tears,
and left them to the healers. Their survival was a little beacon of hope in the
darkness that had surrounded Santhenar for so long, and the best possible
ending to such a desperate day.

 
SIXTEEN

Surr,’ Flangers shook Nish by the shoulder. ‘Wake up.’

He felt as though he had been submerged in treacle. His body
clung to sleep; his exhausted mind yearned for it and had to be prised awake.

‘Is something wrong?’ he said groggily.

‘They’re attacking again, from both sides, and they mean to
finish us off.’

Nish sat up, rubbing his eyes, and glanced out through the
tent entrance, into darkness. ‘What time is it?’

‘Just before dawn. The enemy troops are throwing themselves
at the defences. I – I’ve never seen anything like it; they’re taking
suicidal risks. Klarm must have upped the reward, made it so high that they’ll
do anything to get it. Things are getting a bit desperate.’

Nish snapped awake, for Flangers never exaggerated and if he
was worried, it must be really bad. Nish pulled on his boots and crawled out,
the sabre’s sheath dragging on the ground, for he’d been too exhausted to take
it off. He brought the serpent staff as well, though he had no idea if it could
be used for offensive purposes.

Outside, the sky had cleared and the stars were visible. He
hadn’t often seen them in Gendrigore. ‘Where do you need me, Lieutenant?’

‘The western pass. There are a lot of torches down the
track; the enemy could have five hundred men down there.’

‘Has Klarm marched more reinforcements across Liver-Leech?’

‘I assume so.’

‘Then they must have left before the avalanche.’

‘No doubt of it.’

Nish rubbed his bristly jawline. ‘In that case, they may not
know that a good part of his army has been destroyed.’

‘Klarm’s scriers would know, surely?’

‘I’m not sure they can talk to him from a distance, up
here,’ Nish said. ‘When Klarm attacked us in the clearing the other day, he
kept flying back and forth as if he didn’t know what was going on.’

‘He may not be as expert with the tears as Jal-Nish,’
Flangers speculated.

‘And maybe his wisp-watchers and the like can’t talk to the
tears in this rugged country. Therefore, if the air-sled isn’t working …’ or
Flydd has nicked off with it, Nish thought blackly, ‘Klarm will be as much in
the dark as we are.’

‘That must mean this attack was planned yesterday, before
the avalanche. And he had to go ahead with it, because he had no way of telling
the force he sent over Liver-Leech about the avalanche.’

Nish felt a brief flare of hope. ‘Yes. How big is the
attacking force in the east?’

‘At least a hundred that I could see through the mist.
Though I dare say there are massive reinforcements further down.’

The hope died. ‘Undoubtedly.’

‘Still, while we live, anything is possible,’ said Flangers,
rather cheerily for a man facing imminent death. But then, he would die with a
clear conscience. He’d atoned for the crime he’d been ordered to commit by a
long-dead superior, and had never failed in his duty since. No man could have
done more.

‘If you think the main attack is going to be on the west,
should we move the healers’ tent?’

‘Why?’

‘To protect the injured. If the enemy break through, they’ll
put them to the sword.’

‘They won’t go after the helpless while there are armed
militiamen to deal with. I’ll go down to the eastern pass.’

‘I suppose you’re right. I’ll take command of the west,’
said Nish, not feeling the least bit cheery. They’d done so much, come so far,
wrought miracle after miracle, yet it was never enough; it never seemed to gain
them more than a day.

‘What’s the matter with the weather?’ Nish grumbled
when they were taking a brief respite from the fighting, hours later. ‘It
hasn’t rained in half a day, and I’d swear I’ve never seen that glowing orb in
the sky before.’

Bright sunshine had always been a rarity in rainy
Gendrigore, but a cloudless day was almost unprecedented. The sun was beating
down into the pass, shining on their backs, and Nish was a sweltering,
sweat-sodden mess. He moved into a small patch of shade and put his back
against the cool rock wall.

‘It means the
really
wet
season is almost upon us,’ said Hoshi quietly.

‘Is that so?’

‘The sun comes out, the skies clear for a day, sometimes
even a week, then the winds change and it rains like you’ve never seen it rain
before.’

‘I’ve seen it before,’ said Nish. ‘It rained like that the
other day, just before the flood that washed the enemy away.’

‘Only for an hour. In the really wet season it can pour like
that for weeks at a time.’

‘Our plan was to hold back the enemy until the really wet
season was on the way,’ said Nish. ‘Then, with every creek flooded, there would
be no way for them to get into Gendrigore.’

‘And we’ve succeeded,’ said Hoshi gloomily, for he was still
grieving for Gi and nothing could cheer him up. ‘They’ll never get in now
– or out!’

‘Or out?’ said Nish.

‘Every river, creek and gully on both sides of the Range of
Ruin is impassable in the really wet season. The rest of Klarm’s army will be
trapped here and they’ll starve to death. Even if they’ve killed us all, you
will have done what you set out to do.’

‘Klarm must know that the really wet season is close, so why
has he kept going?’ Nish said to himself. ‘Because he’s in so deep he can’t
pull out. He’s going to lose an army but he can still win the prize –
me
.’

‘It won’t do him any good,’ said Hoshi. ‘He’ll die like all
the others.’

‘Not Klarm,’ said Nish. ‘He’s far too cunning.’ He heard
someone running, calling his name. ‘Who’s that?’

‘It’s Huwld,’ said Hoshi, rising wearily.

Nish rose as well, knowing that he was needed before the
messenger boy spoke.

‘They’re coming again,’ the boy gasped as he lurched up the
hill. ‘We need reinforcements bad.’

Nish got up, weary in body and mind, and staggered back to
take his place at the western gate of Blisterbone. Huwld went with him,
red-faced and silent. He’d been a lively little joker once, but all the humour
had gone out of him as well, and how could it be otherwise after the bloodshed
he’d witnessed in the past days?

At least two hundred troops had massed below, waiting their
turn to scramble up the narrow and precipitous path and attack the defenders at
the gate. After making a forced march through the night over Liver-Leech Pass,
Klarm’s troops were almost out on their feet, yet they had the numbers, and
they were after a mighty prize.

For every man who fell, ten ran to take his place; they were
practically fighting each other to get to the front, and their chance at a
reward that would make them as rich as princes.