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shouted, Get back to the wagons, lad.
He didn t make it halfway before the encounter ended. The enemy tried to turn
the flanks. The friendly natives pushed them back. Trumpets sounded. Hawkwind
led the heavy horse through aisles in the infantry, formed for a charge. The
enemy flew away, vanishing over the hill as swiftly as he had come. He
remembered Wadi el Kuf, and had no taste for another bout with the men in
iron.
Though Bragi had perceived their undisciplined rush as an endless tide, there
had been no more than five hundred of the riders. Outnumbered by a disciplined
foe, they had done nothing but probe. Even so, several dozen fallen comrades
were left scattered across the regiment s front. Bragi was one of only four
casualties on the Guild side.
The camp followers rushed out to cut throats and loot. The Guildsmen remained
standing at arms while their native auxiliaries went scouting again.
Bragi settled down with his back against a wagon wheel, cursing himself for
the stupidity that had gotten him hurt. All he had had to do was keep his head
down, just as he had been taught.
Some people will do anything to get out of walking.
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He looked up, lips taut. His wound hurt bad now.
Sanguinet dropped to one knee. Might have known you d be the first one hurt.
Let me look at it. He grinned. Close, eh? Don t look that bad, though. He
squeezed Bragi s shoulder. There s a reason behind every lesson we try to
teach. Hope you learned something today. You paid a cheap enough price. He
smiled. I ll send the surgeon around. You ll need stitches. Ride the chow
dray the rest of the way in.
Do I have to do KP? Sir?
Got to pull your weight somewhere.
I ll walk, then. Just stay with my squad.
You ll do what you re told, son. Laziness isn t a good enough excuse for
losing a leg.
Sir
You have your orders, Ragnarson. Don t compound foolishness with more
foolishness. Today Sanguinet spoke as a Guildsman to a brother, not as a
drillmaster belittling a recruit.
Birdsong let Haaken and Reskird drop back to visit the afternoon the regiment
started the long climb up the slope leading to the Eastern Fortress. They
lifted him down off the chow wagon so he could look at the castle. Gods. It s
big, he said.
They call it the Eastern Fortress, Reskird told him. Been here for like
eight hundred years, or something, and them all the time adding on.
Bragi looked around. How did the people of Hammad al Nakir survive in such
desolation? The castle turned out its garrison in welcome. Ranks of silent
men, dark of eye and skin, often beakish of nose, observed them without
expression. Bragi sensed their disdain. The were all old, weathered veterans.
He tried hard not to limp.
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If he could impress them no other way, his size ought to stir some awe. He
was six inches taller and fifty pounds heavier than the biggest.
Nowhere did he see a woman, and children were scarce. This is the reception
the old-timers talk about when Guildsmen come to the rescue? he muttered.
Where are the flowers? Where are the cheers? Where are the eager damsels?
Haaken, I m not going to like it here. I ve seen brighter people at funerals.
Haaken had his shoulders hunched defensively. He grunted his agreement.
The column passed through the castle gate, into a stronghold as spartan as
its defenders. Everything inside looked dry and dusty, and was colored shades
of brown. Dull shades of brown. The companies fell in one behind another in a
large drill yard, under the hard eyes of a group watching from an inner
rampart. Those guys must be the ones who hired us, Bragi guessed. He studied
them. They did not look any different from their followers. To him, very
strange.
Reskird murmured, Two things I d give up what Haaken owes me to see. A tree.
And a smile on just one of their ugly faces.
The group on the wall came down and joined Hawkwind. Time passed. Bragi
wished they would get on with it. After all that desert all he wanted was a
gallon of beer and a soft place to lie down.
Things started moving. Men led the horses away. The front company filed
through an inner gate. Bragi surveyed the fortress again, scowled. Not damned
likely to be any comfortable barracks here.
One by one, the companies ahead marched away. Then it was the recruits turn.
A lean native youth approached Sanguinet and spoke briefly. The Lieutenant
turned and started bellowing. The company filed out.
The quarters were worse than Bragi had imagined. Two hundred men had to crowd
into space meant for maybe seventy. Only a serpent would be able to slide in
or out after taps. He tried not to think of the horror consequent to an alarm
sounding after dark.
Even officers and noncoms got shoved into that overcrowded cage. There was no
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room at all for gear. That they left outside.
The growling and cursing died a little. Reskird muttered that he didn t have
room enough to get breath to bitch. Their youthful guide said, I offer my
father s apologies for these quarters. You came earlier than expected, and at
a time when many of our warriors are away, fighting the Disciple. You will be
moving to better quarters as soon as they can be furnished. Some may move
tomorrow. Your commander is already meeting with my father concerning duty
rosters. Men who are assigned stations far from here will be moved nearer
immediately. He spoke Itaskian with a nasal accent, but much more purely than
Bragi or his brother.
His gaze crossed Bragi s. Both youths stared for a moment, startled, as if
seeing something unexpected. Once their eyes moved on, Bragi shook his head as
though trying to clear it.
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