Swords & Dark Magic - By Jonathan Strahan Page 0,20
hall was the nearest thing to an assembly hall we had. The cooks had been run off. The place reeked of unhappiness. Half the guys lived in town, now, including me. Some had women. A few even had common-law stepchildren they did not mind supporting.
Those guys would pray that carpet meant the Lady had sent somebody out with the payroll. Only, in Aloe, our pay came from gentle taxes on the people we protected. No need to fly it in from a thousand miles away.
The Captain did his trained-bear shuffle up to the half-ass stage. A creepy brown bundle of rags followed. It dragged one leg. The hall filled with a hard silence.
The Limper. The most absurdly nasty of the Taken. A dedicated enemy of the Black Company. We had screwed him over good back when he tried going against the Lady.
He was back in favor now. But so were we. He could not have his revenge just yet. But he was patient.
The Captain rumbled, “The tedium is about to end, gentlemen. We now know why the Lady put us here. We’re supposed to take out a Rebel captain called Tides Elba.”
I checked the spelling later. It was not a name we knew. He pronounced it “Teadace Elba.”
The Captain said that Tides Elba had enjoyed some successes west of us, but none of her victories had been big enough to catch our attention.
An interesting line of bullshit, some of which might be true.
The Limper climbed up with the Captain. That was a struggle. He had that bad leg and he was a runt—in stature. In wickedness and talent for sorcery he was the baddest of the bad. A reek of dread surrounded him. So did a reek of reek. On his best day, he smelled like he had been in a grave for a long time. He considered us from behind a brown leather mask.
Folks with weaker stomachs jostled for space in the back.
The Limper said nothing. He just wanted us to know he was around. Important to remember. And something foretelling interesting times.
The Captain told the Company commanders and platoon leaders to tell their men that we might be making movement soon. Pending investigatory work here in Aloe. They should settle their debts and personal issues. Ideally, they should shut down their Aloe lives and return to the compound.
We might see some desertions.
Elmo jabbed me in the ribs. “Pay attention.”
The Old Man dismissed everybody but me and the magic-users. He invoked me directly. “Croaker, stay with me.” The wizards he told to stick with the Limper.
The Captain herded me over to Admin. In theory, I owned a corner space there where I was supposed to work on these Annals. I did not often take advantage.
“Sit.” A command, not an invitation. I sat in one of two crude chairs facing the ragged table he uses as a bulwark against the world. “Limper is here. He hasn’t said so but we know that means we’re headed into the shit. He hasn’t said much of anything yet, actually. That may mean he doesn’t know anything himself, yet. He’s following orders, too.”
I nodded.
“This isn’t good, Croaker. This is the Limper. There’ll be more going on than what we see.”
There would be. I did my best to look like a bright child awaiting ineluctable wisdom from an honored elder.
“I’d tell you you’re full of shit but you don’t need the special memo. You know that taste in your mouth.”
He was going to come down on me for something?
“You been putting on a show of being as useless as the rest of these dicks. But when you’re supposedly off whoring or getting fucked up you’re usually really somewhere poking into the local history.”
“A man needs to have more than one hobby.”
“It’s not a hobby if you can’t help yourself.”
“I’m a bad man. I need to understand the past. It illuminates the present.”
The Captain nodded. He steepled his fingers in front of a square, strong, dimpled chin. “I got some illuminating for you to do.”
He did know something about what was up.
“You could maybe fix it so the Company don’t wallow in the usual cesspit.”
“You sweet-talker.”
“Shut the fuck up. The Lady wants Tides Elba before she turns into an eastern White Rose. Or maybe she is the Rose. I don’t know. Limper, he wants to go balls to the wall so he can look good to the Lady. Hopefully getting us all killed in the process.”