Soldiers Live (10 page)

The Land of Unknown Shadows:

Due South
Campfires burned on the far slopes, opposite Outpost. Those pesky rock apes had
emigrated. The flocks of crows were expanding. Choosers of the slain, I heard
them called somewhere. The File of Nine had pulled a half-ass army together far
faster than our bemused foreign minister had believed possible.

“At last,” I said to Murgen, as he and I shared a newly discovered jar of
skullbuster. “To One-Eye.” The stuff just kept turning up. We were doing our
best to make sure it did not fall into the hands of the soldiers. In their hands
strong drink was likely to cause indiscipline. “Your old lady talked like it’d
be next year before they tried anything. If they ever got anything going at
all.”

The advent of unfriendly forces had been no surprise, of course. Not with Tobo
handling intelligence.

“To One-Eye. She has been known to err, Captain.” He was starting to slur
already. The boy could not hold his liquor. “Upon rare occasions.”

“Rare occasions.”

Murgen hoisted his cup in a salute. “To One-Eye.” Then he shook his head. “I do
love that woman, Captain.”

“Uhm.” Oh-oh. I hoped we did not get maudlin here. But I understood his problem.

She got old. We spent fifteen years in stasis, not aging a minute. A little
payoff from the gods for doing us so dirty the rest of the time, maybe. But
Sahra, who meant more to Murgen than life itself, who was the mother of his son,

had not been one of the Captured.

Which had been lucky for us. Because she had dedicated herself to freeing
Murgen. And eventually she succeeded. And freed me and my wife and most of the
Captured as well. But Sahra had grown and had changed and had aged more than
those fifteen years. And their son had grown up. And even now, four years after
our resurrection, Murgen still had not adjusted completely.

“You can get by,” I told him. “Bless One-Eye. Put it all out of your mind. Exist
in the now. Don’t worry about the then. That’s what I do.” In terms of
experience my wife had been ancient centuries before I was born. “You did get to
be the ghost that rode around with her and shared her life, even if you couldn’t
touch her.” I live with ten thousand ghosts from my wife’s past, few of whom
ever got discussed. She just did not want to talk about her olden days.

Murgen grunted, mumbled something about One-Eye. He was having trouble
understanding me even though I was articulating with especial precision. He
asked, “You never were much of a drinker, were you, Captain?”

“No. But I’ve always been a good soldier. I’ve always done what’s got to be
done.”

“I gotcha.”

We were outside, of course, watching shooting stars and the constellations of
fires that marked the enemy encampment. There seemed to be an awful lot of those
fires. More than the reported numbers deserved. Some genius of a warlord was
playing games.

“They’re not going to come,” Murgen said. “They’re just going to sit there. It’s
all for the benefit of the Nine. It’s showmanship.”

I blessed One-Eye and took another drink, wondered if Murgen was repeating his
wife’s assumption or his son’s. I cocked my head in favor of my left eye. My
night vision is questionable even when I am sober.

Murgen said, “I don’t think you can imagine the level of fear over there right
now. The boy does something to terrorize them every night. He hasn’t hurt a
louse on one of their heads yet but they’re not stupid. They get the message.”

You got the Black Hounds strolling through your camp, eating out of your
cookpots, or maybe pissing in them, and you have dozens of lesser night things
pulling up tent pegs and starting fires and stealing your boots and treasures,

you have troubles that will effect morale for sure. The soldiers will not
believe the stories you tell to soothe them, however clever you think you are.

“The thing is, if the leadership decides there’ll be war, they’ll come.” I knew.

I have been with the Company forever. I have seen men fight under incredibly bad
conditions. And, admittedly, I have seen men lose heart when conditions seemed
ideal. “To One-Eye. He was a big part of the glue that held us together.”

“One-Eye. You know the Fourth Battalion’s going up tonight?”

“Up?”

’To the plain. They’re probably moving out right now.”

“Suvrin can’t possibly have the shadowgate ready to go yet.”

Murgen shrugged. “I’m just saying what I heard. Sahra telling Tobo. She got it
from Sleepy.”

Once again the Annalist had not been included in the planning and
decision-making. The Annalist was irked. In a former life he had gained a lot of
experience planning campaigns and managing large groups of fractious people. The
Annalist can contribute still.

In a moment of clarity I understood why I was being left out. Because of the
thing that killed One-Eye. Its punishment was unimportant to Sleepy. She did not
want to waste time and resources on it. Particularly the time needed to argue
with me and those who felt the way I do.

I mused. “Maybe I shouldn’t try to avenge One-Eye.”

Murgen didn’t mind an unexplained shift in topic. He was listening more closely
to his own soul, anyway. He did say, “What’re you talking about? It’s got to be
done.”

So he agreed with me. It occurred to me that he had known One-Eye longer than
anyone else but me. I still thought of him as the new kid sometimes because he
was almost the last man to join us while we were still in service to the Lady,

in that other world so far away and so long ago that there were moments when I
almost waxed nostalgic for those bad old days.

“Here’s one more to One-Eye. And I want to know when we’re going to start
racking up some good old days.”

“They’re in there, Captain. Here and there. They just don’t stick out.”

I remembered one or two. But that only got me started thinking about what might
have been. About Booboo. And when I mix strong spirits with thoughts of my
daughter the weather turns maudlin every time. And we see more and more of that
weather as I get older.

“You got any idea what Sleepy’s strategy is?” I asked. She would have one.

Scheming and planning is supposedly her long suit. Long enough for her to have
outwitted the Radisha and my sister-in-law.

“Not a clue. I knew more about what was going on when I was a ghost.”

“You don’t go out of body anymore?”

“I’m cured. At least in this world.”

Not good, I feared. His loose attachment to his flesh had been the Company’s
most potent weapon for years. What would we do if we could no longer see what
was happening in places we were not at?

You do get spoiled fast.

Something chittered in the darkness. For a moment I thought it was mocking me.

But then a huge fireball rolled up into the night across the valley. The unseen
thing’s amusement was at the expense of the soldiers over there.

“This jar’s gone empty,” I grumbled, leaning back and shaking a last drop into
the back of my mouth. “I’m going to go see if I can’t make another one turn up
where we found this one.”

Glittering Stone:

Sneak Away
Doj nodded slightly as Lady and I rode past his place. When I glanced back a
minute later he was in the street with several Nyueng Bao henchmen. He was
wearing his sword, Ash Wand. Up ahead, Thai Dei, Murgen’s brother-in-law and
bodyguard, strolled along the street. He was armed, too. If he was moving,

Murgen would be, too.

I kept a wary watch behind. This had to be done before Sleepy caught on. Before
she could issue orders forbidding it. I would not defy direct orders.

She and Sahra were down in the valley. Tran Huu Nhang had come out under a flag
of truce. I had a feeling he would announce that the File of Nine had decided to
accept reality. They would never admit it but their army had been defeated
without stepping onto the field of battle. It was evaporating. The private
soldiers were unwilling to endure the persistent attentions of the Unknown
Shadows.

It was all pretty amusing—unless you were one of the Nine determined to make a
reputation for the File, or you were a crow with hopes of getting fat. Amusing
but handy. I was tired of waiting for a chance to slip away. My need to settle
with the Bowalk monster had grown pretty powerful, though I hid it well. I have
a number of obsessions that I do not let show.

Officially, the Eleventh Battalion was rotating up to guard the shadowgate. In
reality, the Eleventh would be started through to the fortress at the heart of
the plain, after nightfall. My gang would be up there much earlier, swiftly
moving beyond any hope of Sleepy turning us around. Tobo would cover our
backtrail.

I made a sign I hoped would be seen and passed along. We needed to move faster.

Sleepy is a resourceful little witch. If there was any way to beat me out of
this she might have it figured out already.

It did seem like she was out there by herself on the Bowalk question. One-Eye
had a lot more friends dead than he had had while he was alive.

Tobo was at the shadowgate. But he was supposed to be keeping an eye on his
mother and the Captain. Before I could say anything, though, he told me,

“They’re safe. The meet is a face-saving scheme by the Nine. They’ve realized
what they did was stupid. There’ll be a lot of ceremony but no admission of
anything, like even that they’ve got an army over there that wanted to do us
evil, and before they’re done they’ll give Mom a bull that grants the Company
permission to find and use the shadowgate secrets.” He grinned, a kid excited.

“I don’t think they’ve been getting enough sleep.”

“And why are you here?”

“I have family going through. Don’t I?”

Of course he did. I was on edge. “Let’s keep moving, people.” With Nyueng Bao,

old Company hands, my wife and whatnot, I would have just over forty people
joining my hunt. For a while. If it dragged on I might not be able to hold them
together.

Tobo told me, “Make camp at the first circle. Even if it seems like you can
cover a lot more ground before it gets dark.” He told Lady, “It’s important.

Keep him in check. The first circle. So I can catch up when I get away.”

Willow Swan called, “Hey, Croaker. If you stand right here and look just right
out of the side of your eye, you can see the Nef. In broad daylight.”

Swan was on the other side of the Hsien shadowgate. His voice had a dampened,

distant quality.

I gave him my best scowl. “Don’t forget plain discipline.” Shivetya might be our
ally and the soul of the plain but there were perils up there even he could not
master. The Unforgiven Dead were as hungry for life as ever. Only the roads and
circles were safe. Extreme care had to be taken to avoid piercing the protective
boundaries. Their master spells would repair them if you did. But you would not
be alive to enjoy the result. All that would be left of you was a desiccated
husk that had taken a while dying, screaming all the way.

Lately there seemed to be less shadow activity than in the past. Possibly
Shivetya had found a way to control them. Maybe even to destroy them. They were
a later accretion. He had no use for them. He would love to be rid of them.

Which would be as wonderful for those sad but deadly monsters as it would be for
us. They would achieve the release of death at least. A release Shivetya
understood. It was a release he yearned for himself.

I started barking at people. “Let’s get that equipment out and moving! Where are
those mules? I thought I sent them up here last week.” When a lot of people
agree with you, you can move a lot of material without drawing much attention. I
started work on this as soon as I was sure Sleepy did not intend to pursue it
herself.

“Calm down,” Tobo told me. And I did. Stunned. Because a kid was saying it to a
veteran. And was right. “Come here. Lady, you too.” He stepped away from the
road, to a rudely made wooden box balanced precariously atop a jagged boulder.

“This same rock is over on the home side,” I said. “Your father had a bunker
right over there where that bush is. What have you got?”

The box contained what looked like four black glass cylinders a foot long, two
inches in diameter, equipped with a metal handle on one end.

“These are keys. Like the Lance of Passion was. The kind you need to get on and
off the plain. I made new ones. It’s not hard if you have the specifications.

Blade has one key. Suvrin has two. One is in place in this gate here. We’ll take
it away when we leave. Two more are with a couple of the battalion commanders
who went up already. You’re going to take two with you. Just in case.”

He handed me one cylinder and gave the other to Lady. Mine seemed heavier than
an object its size ought to be. The handle was silver. I asked, “You just drop
it into the hole in the plain, right?”

“Exactly. Remember your repair lessons?” He faced Lady when he asked that. I did
sit in on the classes but my wife had gotten a lot better understanding of the
process. It would have to be a major emergency before we counted on me doing
anything even vaguely related to sorcery.

A stream of mules and men passed through the shadowgate. Each got checked by a
sergeant who must have spent his formative years at Sleepy’s headquarters. He
wanted to make note of every man, every animal, every fireball thrower and other
major item of equipment or weaponry. The Nyueng Bao, not really belonging to the
Company, were rude to him. I went over and was rude myself. “You’re gumming up
the works, Sergeant. Go away. Or I’ll ask Tobo to sic one of the Black Hounds on
you.”

The pack was not far off. Nobody could see them, of course, but they made plenty
of racket when they quarreled among themselves. And that never stopped.

My threat had the desired effect. The keeper of inventories departed so fast
there was almost a whoosh. He would file an official complaint. But that would
end up far down the list of my delinquencies.

Tobo overtook me. Most of my gang were through now. The kid bowed to his father,

formally polite. He and Murgen had a mutual problem. Neither knew quite how to
bridge the gap left by Murgen having been buried during most of the years Tobo
was growing up.

The boy told me, in a voice his father was intended to hear, “You’d better push
it now. Mom just got word of what you’re doing. She’ll keep her mouth shut for
Gota’s sake. For now. But when she hears that Dad is in on it she’s going to
boil over and head straight for the Captain.”

I gave Murgen an ugly look. Didn’t tell the old lady you were going out with the
guys, eh? How did Tobo know what his mother had just found out? The kid snapped
his fingers, made a series of hand gestures, said something obscure, apparently
to empty air.

A pair of shadows raced across the slope, slanting down from the southwest. They
headed straight toward us. I saw nothing to cast them. Then, suddenly, I had a
face full of flapping wings, weights on my shoulders and what felt like dragon’s
talons trying to rip the meat off my collarbones. Ravens.

“They only look like crows,” Tobo said. “Don’t ever forget that they’re not.” I
shuddered. I have lived with this stuff all around me, decade after decade, but
being exposed to it has not made it any less creepy.

Tobo told me. “At my request they’ve agreed to assume this shape. They’ll be
your eyes and ears wherever you have to operate without me. They won’t have the
strategic range you were used to with Dad but they can cover a few hundred
miles, fast, and they’ll give you a strong tactical advantage. Besides scouting
they can carry messages. Be sure to frame those carefully, clearly, without
ambiguity, and try to keep them short. Give them an absolutely crystal clear
address. Name names and make sure they know who the names belong to.”

I turned my head right and left, caught glimpses from the sides of my eyes. It
was disconcerting, having those cruel beaks so close. The eyes are the first
things the Choosers of the Slain go for on the battlefield.

One bird was black, the other white. They were bigger than the local breed of
raven. And the white one had not gotten the shape quite right. It looked like
one of its parents had been a startled pigeon instead of a crow.

“If it turns out that I can’t catch up and you need to get in touch, they can
find me easily.”

I am sure I looked grim.

Grinning, Tobo told me, “And I thought they’d go great with your costume. Mom
told me you always had ravens on your shoulders when you did Widowmaker, years
ago.”

I sighed. “Those were real crows. And they belonged to Soulcatcher. The two of
us had a sort of understanding in those days. Enemy of my enemy kind of thing.”

“You did bring the Widowmaker armor with you, didn’t you? And One-Eye’s spear?

You know you won’t be able to come back for anything you leave behind.”

“Yes, yes. I have it.” This Widowmaker costume armor was not the same outfit
that I had worn decades ago. That had gotten lost during Sleepy and Sahra’s
Kiaulune wars. Soulcatcher probably had it in her trophy chamber. This armor,

though mainly for show, came from Hsien’s finest armories and had a distinct
native flavor. Its black, chitinous lacquer surface boasted inlays of gold and
silver symbols that Hsien associated with sorcery and evil and darkness. Some
reproduced arcane characters of power once associated with the Shadowmasters.

Others went back to an age when Hsien’s now-extinct Kina cult was sending out
Deceiver companies on crusade. All those symbols were scary, at least in the
world where first they had been imagined.

Lady’s reconstituted Lifetaker armor was uglier than mine. The stuff on its
exterior was less clearly defined and much more creepy because she had insisted
on being involved in its design and creation. The inside of her head is filled
with spiders.

She did not get any pretend-to-be Choosers of the Slain. She got several ornate
little teak boxes and a thin stack of sheets of the strange rice paper preferred
by the monks of Khang Phi.

“You have to go. I’ll see that they don’t send a messenger to order you back.”

I grunted. Except for Uncle Doj, who paused to murmur with Tobo, I was the last
of my gang through the Hsien shadowgate. Lady squeezed my hand when I joined her
on the risky side. She said, “We’re off, darling. Again.” She seemed excited.

“Again.” I could not recall ever being excited by moving out.

Murgen asked, “You want to show the standard now?”

“Not until we’re on the plain itself. We’re renegades here. Let’s don’t make
Sleepy look small.” I had an idea, then. If I could come up with some material .

. . we could run up the old Company standard. From before we adopted
Soulcatcher’s firebreathing skull.

“Good,” Doj told me, stepping through the gate. “A bit of wisdom. That’s really
good.”

I began the climb to the plain somewhat numbed by the realization that I was the
only living member of the company who recalled our original banner. It had been
no more cheerful than today’s was but it had been a lot busier. A field of
scarlet with nine hanged men in black and six yellow daggers in the upper left
and lower right quadrants, respectively, while the upper right quandrant
featured a shattered skull and the lower left boasted a bird astride a severed
head. It might have been a raven. Or an eagle.

There was nothing in the Annals to suggest when or why that banner had been
adopted.