The Jackal of Nar (81 page)

“Pin ’em down good, gog,” Trosk ordered the Triin interpreter. “Don’t let ’em hold nothing back.”

The interpreter spoke in a rush. He was begging the children to listen to him, to quiet down and answer his questions. Dinadin begged silently along with him, waiting for Trosk to explode. The colonel’s face went from interest to boredom in less than a minute. He kicked the interpreter in the back with his pointed boot.

“Well? What’s the story?”

The interpreter swallowed hard. “They know nothing, I think. It is hard to tell.”

Trosk rolled his eyes. “Stupid gogs.” He signaled for his horsemen to follow and snapped the reins of his mount impatiently. “All right, let’s move it out, boys. We got a lot of doors to kick in.”

Dinadin followed soundlessly, his mouth as dry as the stones beneath him. It would be impossible to avoid the carnage this time. He tried to still his thundering heart, forcing down the wave of nausea. A tiny prayer sprang silently from his lips. He was no murderer, but today the butcher was watching.

They moved quickly through the streets, avoiding the other swarms of soldiers and the handful of homes already set alight. A woman was screaming, her garments and hair engulfed in fire. Dinadin could hear the insistent flailing of her arms as she tried to bat out the flames. By the time her wailing stopped, they were well past her.

Trosk’s horse stopped abruptly as the colonel jerked back on
the reins. One by one the horsemen halted behind him. Trosk sat as still as a pole, his gaze locked onto something in the distance. Dinadin traced the colonel’s gaze to a collection of tiny wood and paper houses. There, in the narrow avenue between two of the homes, was a small girl of perhaps thirteen, with a shiny metal object in her hand. The colonel’s face lit up with a lecherous longing.

“Mmmm, hello,” he rumbled.

Their eyes met for a brief moment. The girl clutched the object to her breast. Trosk’s tongue darted out to wet his lips. The girl gasped, then dashed off into one of the houses, slamming the door behind her. Trosk let out a perverse groan.

“Oh, my. What a little beauty you are.” Then he turned to smile at his troops, his face a perfect mask of mischief. “What do you say, boys? Ready for some fun?”

Dinadin shut his eyes. It was unthinkable. He tried to speak but couldn’t, and the others were already grunting their approval. Trosk laughed and hurried his horse into a gallop. The others rushed to follow him.

I can’t let this happen,
Dinadin told himself.
Please, God, help me.

God didn’t answer. Dinadin was alone and he knew it. He raced off after Trosk, hoping an idea would occur to him. He would have to reason with the colonel, make him see the horror of his plan. If that didn’t work …

Trosk was at the house. He threw himself off his horse and started toward the door. Dinadin leapt off his horse and scrambled up behind him. The colonel flashed him one of his arrogant grins.

“Time to make a man of you, Lotts,” he said, then smoothed out the brim of his hat and smashed in the door with his boot heel. A sharp scream broke from inside the house. Trosk stuck his head through the doorway.

“Hello, sweetling,” he called. “Ready for Ardoz?”

Dinadin strained to see past the colonel. He noticed the girl cowering in the corner of the room. The metal object was still wedged in her fist, but what it was Dinadin couldn’t say. Beside her was another figure, a very old man with a stooped back and razor-sharp wrinkles. Outstretched before him was a dull-looking jiiktar. The girl clung defiantly to his side. Trosk frowned.

“Forget about her,” Dinadin urged. “It’s not worth it. Let’s go.”

Trosk glared at him. “Go? What do they bed in Aramoor, Lotts? Sheep? I’ll not forget about her because of some old gog.”

The colonel stepped over the threshold, his hands raised plaintively before him.

“Easy now,” he crooned. “No one wants trouble.”

The old man raised the jiiktar higher. Trosk hesitated, then gestured to the others behind him.

“There’s a whole lot of us and only one of you, friend. Put the blade down and no one gets hurt. Simple, right?”

The old Triin hesitated, clearly seeing the hopelessness of his plight. Trosk took another step forward.

“Leave it alone, Colonel,” begged Dinadin. “He could hurt you.”

“Quiet, you ass,” growled Trosk from the corner of his mouth. “He’s listening to me, can’t you see that?”

Dinadin saw perfectly. He held his breath as Trosk took another step. The girl whimpered, the metal thing in her grip shaking. It was a statue, Dinadin realized then, a gold and silver rendering of a human figure. Trosk had spied it also.

“What’s that you have?” he asked the girl gently. “Something good? Ooohh, yes, it’s very pretty. You’re pretty, too. What’s your name, darling?”

He was talking and inching forward, until he was less than two feet from the old man. He was looking right at the girl when his arm shot forward. A spray of blood erupted from the old man’s nose and he crumpled, dropping the jiiktar to the floor. Trosk watched him struggle to rise, then put his booted foot down hard on his hand. The old man cried in pain. Trosk ground his heel into flesh.

“There now,” he said happily. “That’s much better. I am a colonel of Talistan, in your filthy country to try and save my emperor. Don’t you ever threaten me, gog. Ever.”

He punctuated the last
ever
with a final drive of his foot. The Triin’s ancient bones popped under the pressure.

Now the girl was in a panic. Her eyes darted around the room, but everywhere the men of Nar were closing around her. She kept the statue close to her, and in a moment of mad insight raced for the small space between Trosk and Dinadin. Dinadin
started to step aside as the girl came toward him, but Trosk snatched at her skirt and dragged her backward.

“Where the hell are you going?” he asked viciously. “I’ve been through a lot for you, you little bitch.”

The girl scratched at him as she struggled to free herself. Trosk caught her hand and yanked her closer, then grabbed a tuft of her hair and pulled her head back. She let out an ear-splitting scream when he licked her face. On the floor the old man was begging Trosk to stop, his nose and jaw covered in blood. Trosk tore open the girl’s bodice and dug his teeth into the exposed flesh of her neck. He had her against the wall now, her shoulders flat against the exposed brick. At his feet the old Triin was grabbing for his legs.

“Damn it!” Trosk spat, kicking the man backward. “Lotts, you idiot. Don’t just stand there, get rid of this trash!”

Dinadin didn’t move.

Trosk stopped molesting the girl at once. The little statuette she’d been guarding fell to her feet. He wrapped his meaty fist around her throat and pinned her to the wall as he turned to scowl at Dinadin.

“Are you deaf, boy? Kill him!”

Dinadin slowly shook his head. Trosk’s dark eyes flared with rage, then suddenly the colonel laughed.

“No?” he asked. “Are you refusing my orders, you Aramoorian troll?”

“I won’t kill him,” declared Dinadin. He heard the brittleness in his voice. “My God, he didn’t do anything. He’s just trying to protect her.”

Trosk smiled, ignoring the struggles of the girl as she tried to loosen his grip on her throat. Her breath was coming in desperate rasps. The other infantrymen watched, too frightened or surprised by Dinadin’s boldness to move. The colonel’s grin was unearthly.

“You won’t kill him?” he asked. “All right. Then let’s see what type of men they make in Aramoor, Lotts.” He pulled the girl forward by her torn bodice and tossed her to Dinadin’s feet, where she collapsed into a sobbing mound. “You don’t have to kill the gog, Lotts. All you have to do is take the girl. Now, right here in front of us.”

The girl was on her knees between Trosk and Dinadin, looking from one to the other in a confused panic. Dinadin stared down at her. Trosk pulled his ruby-studded dagger from his boot.

“I won’t,” said Dinadin unsteadily. “You can’t make me do this.”

“Why not?” asked Trosk. “Don’t you like ladies, Lotts? Or have you just been waiting for us to find a fine-looking boy? Is that what you want? A boy?”

The colonel kicked at the girl, coaxing her toward Dinadin. She yelped and crawled closer, pulling at his pants leg and moaning for mercy. Dinadin moaned, too, trying to brush her away, to be rid of her haunting eyes and pleas. He wanted to run, to leave them all behind in the dingy little house and hide himself where Trosk would never find him. But the girl kept dragging him back.

“Do it,” demanded Trosk. “Take her if you’re man enough.”

“No,” said Dinadin. “I won’t. Do you hear me? I won’t!”

Trosk showed Dinadin his dagger. “You’d better,” he warned, stooping to lift the old man’s head and putting the blade to his throat. “Or else.”

“Don’t,” begged Dinadin. “Please don’t do this.”

“What’s the problem?” asked Trosk angrily. “You’re a man, aren’t you? She’s a girl. Take her.”

“Colonel …”

“Take her, you weasel, or I swear to God this gog dies!”

The old man wasn’t moving. He was staring up at Dinadin through a slick of blood, Trosk’s hand propping up his bruised head. The girl was still at Dinadin’s feet, crying and pleading. Dinadin put out his hand to calm her.

“Stop,” he begged her. “Oh God, please stop. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not.”

“Do it, Lotts,” urged Trosk. “Now.”

“No!”

Trosk sighed. “Good Lord, you’re a stubborn one,” he said. “All right then, have it your way.”

He drew his blade across the wrinkled flesh of the old man’s throat. The man’s eyes widened in shock. Trosk released his head and he fell to the floor, clutching at the air and reaching for the girl, who was screeching now. Dinadin’s nausea spiked. He
saw Trosk looking at him with disgust. The colonel was going for the girl. For one brief second Dinadin thought to stop him, but again that old fear cemented his feet to the floor. Trosk took hold of the girl’s hair again and pulled her to her feet, tossing her against the wall.

“Better now?” asked the colonel bitterly.

Dinadin couldn’t answer. He was choking up bile and trying to wipe away the worst of it with his sleeve.

“You haven’t saved her, you idiot,” said Trosk. “In fact, I think maybe we’ll all take a turn at her. Except you, of course. You can go find yourself that little boy you want so badly.”

The colonel turned away and went toward the wall. Next to the girl was the object she had tried so hard to protect, the little statue of gold and silver. Trosk picked it up and examined it for a moment, then returned to Dinadin and handed it to him.

“Here. This might be something useful. Take it outside and give it to the legionnaires. Do you think you can do that?”

Dinadin could only nod as he accepted the object. He took one last look at the cowering girl, sick with guilt over her coming fate, then down at the Triin with the open throat. The old man had finally stopped thrashing. A river of blood ran along the uneven floor. Dinadin found enough of his voice to speak.

“Colonel—”

“Get out of my sight,” said Trosk, turning away.

Dinadin hesitated, then moved slowly backward. His head was pounding as he reached the doorway and stepped into the smoky daylight. Already the girl’s pleas had begun anew. Dinadin rushed away from the house, forgetting his horse, his hand clasped over his mouth. He ran to the center of the village, toward the legionnaires with the gathered children and the sobbing mothers and the stricken men. He ran so quickly he did not see the looming figure of the green and gold horseman until they nearly collided. Dinadin glanced up into the rider’s face.

“Baron Gayle,” Dinadin stammered. “I’m sorry, my lord. I didn’t see you.”

Gayle stared down at him contemptuously. “Lotts, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir,” answered Dinadin. “Of the green brigade.”

The baron motioned to the object in Dinadin’s hand. “What is that?”

Dinadin hesitated. He didn’t know what it was. He hadn’t even glanced at it. Quickly he inspected it, discovering it was in fact a statue of a man and a woman. Deities, probably.

“Give it here,” Gayle ordered impatiently.

Regretfully Dinadin handed the statue to the baron. Gayle looked at it for a moment, scratched at its surface with his fingernail, then hissed with annoyance. “More Triin garbage,” he said. “Do you know what we’re doing here, Lotts? We’re trying to save our emperor. This …” he dropped the statue into the dirt, “…  is worthless.”

And then he was gone, trotting past Dinadin without regard. Dinadin waited until the baron was out of sight before retrieving the statue. He lifted it up carefully to the sun and brushed the dirt away. The statue sparkled in the light, the two figures dazzling and graceful, one of gold, the other of perfect silver. It was an heirloom the girl had risked her life for, a lump of precious metal near priceless in the Empire. But it had a different value to Dinadin. He would keep it, he decided, and if he could he would avenge her.

“I’ll remember you, girl,” he choked, then walked slowly back toward his horse.

T
en days out of Falindar, Richius and Dyana reached the valley. On the afternoon of the eleventh day, they crested a hillside and saw Castle Dring.

It wasn’t actually the castle itself they saw first, but rather its soaring watchtower, erupting from a green blanket of trees around its base, reaching into heaven like a giant’s rocky arm. It was a welcome sight for both of them, and they would have marveled at it had they not been so exhausted. The long trip from the citadel had winded them all, and when the prominent watchtower at last came into view, the weary travelers let out a collective sigh.

“Finally,” crowed Richius. He happily patted the neck of his horse. “There she is, boy. We made it.”

Around him the faces of the warriors broke into triumphant smiles. Dyana was hanging out of her carriage, craning for a better view. The cylindrical structure gleamed in the distance, its multifaceted façade glowing like a jewel. Richius trotted his horse over to her.

“Pretty impressive,” he remarked. “That’s going to be our home for a while.”