The Choice of Magic - Michael G. Manning Page 0,124

reason.

He heard Sven spit in the darkness. “That jackass deserves it. He even beat you up in the lockup. You think you’re the only one that heard them drag him out? You ain’t. Nobody else is going to go after them. Don’t make trouble for yourself.”

“What would your excuse be if it was me?” asked Will, but he didn’t wait for a reply. Lifting the edge of the tent, he slipped out and followed the men dragging Dave’s squirming body away from the camp.

The men taking Dave weren’t gentle as they hauled him along between them. They’d gone barely twenty feet before one of them dropped one end of the bundle, and they angrily kicked their victim several times before lifting him back up. They probably want to take him far enough away that no one will hear, thought Will. So, if I’m going to do anything, I better do it now.

Too scared to think any further, Will charged forward, tackling the man holding Dave’s legs from behind, knocking him prone. Jumping up quickly, he swung at one of the men on the left and felt his fist connect with something. Someone was cursing, and Will got several more punches in before something hard hit the side of his head. As he fell, he realized that there were more of them than he had thought. Eight, nine? I’m screwed. Hands caught him as he struggled to rise, and someone slugged him in the gut hard enough to take the fight out of him.

They let go of him then, and Will fell to his knees, expecting more blows, but when he looked up, he saw two more people had joined the fight. One was of an average size, but the other was too big to be anyone but Tiny. The two were outnumbered, but Dave’s abductors weren’t prepared to deal with a giant.

Tiny picked one of them up with one arm and threw him into a tree before wading into the rest of them. The big man took a lot of blows, but nothing seemed to faze him, and with every swing he sent someone else to the ground. The man with him was no stranger to brawls either, and as Will got to his feet he realized it was Sven. By the time Will rejoined them, it was almost over.

And then they heard the sound of whistles, and Will saw several lanterns approaching.

“Run for it,” yelled Sven. “They can’t see who we are yet.”

“What about Dave?” asked Will as everyone began to scatter.

Sven pulled him along. “He’s tied up, it ain’t like they’re gonna think he did it to himself.”

The tent wasn’t far, and as they reached it Tiny bent down and held the side up for them to enter. Will and Sven shimmied under it, but a voice yelled out before Tiny could follow. “You! Stop, right there!” Tiny dropped the tent flap, and Will and Sven could only listen from their bedrolls as he was taken away.

Looking around the tent, Will doubted anyone was actually asleep, but everyone was making a good show of it. Sven whispered to him, “They’ll come in here in a minute. Just pretend to be asleep. Ain’t nobody gonna say otherwise.”

Will frowned. “How do you know?”

“Trust me. Soldiers hate snitches more than anybody. Remember that when they start asking questions,” answered the older man.

Sven’s prediction turned out to be accurate. Moments later, men with lanterns men with lanterns threw open the front flaps of the tent and walked down the center, checking to see who was present and who wasn’t. They woke the corporals first and then dragged everyone outside for a roll call.

Amazingly, everyone had somehow managed to sleep through the entire event without hearing a thing, even Corporal Taylor. Will felt a strange mixture of awe and surprise as the normally honest corporal lied with a perfectly straight face about what he had seen. Will did his best to emulate the corporal’s example when they got to him.

“What’s that on the side of your face, trainee? A bruise?” asked Lieutenant Latimer.

“Yes, sir,” said Will.

“And you still say you weren’t involved in a fight?”

Will shook his head. “I got it during the drills earlier. I moved wrong and caught a shield with the side of my head.”

The lieutenant looked at Corporal Taylor. “Is that so, Corporal?”

“Yes, sir. It didn’t seem serious, so I didn’t report it,” lied the corporal.

The questioning didn’t go on much longer after that. Dave was released, and ironically,