The Serpentwar Saga: The Complete 4-Book Collection

Erik nodded. ‘Zila said you had no choice.’

Rian spat. ‘A man always has a choice. Sometimes it’s to die with honor or live without, but there’s always a choice. That pretty Raj was a man. He might never have fought a day in his life, but when it came time to surrender he spit over the wall. He cried like a baby when they hoisted him up onto the stake, and he howled like a broken-backed dog when he felt it coming up his gut. But even while he hung there with his own shit and blood running down the pole, he never asked for mercy, and if Khali-shi’ – he used the local name for the Goddess of Death, who judges the lives of men – ‘has any goodness in her, she’ll give him another chance on the Wheel.’

Erik said, ‘Zila said you were never offered the chance of surrender.’

‘Zila’s a lying sack of pig guts. He was our corporal, and with the Captain and sergeant dead he thinks he’s our Captain. No one’s killed him yet because we’re all too damn tired.’

‘Come with me,’ said Erik.

He led Rian to the hut Calis used as his office and quarters and asked to see the Captain. When Calis appeared, he looked at Rian, then at Erik. ‘What?’

‘I think you should hear this man out,’ said Erik. Turning to Rian, he said, ‘What about the offer to surrender?’

Rian shrugged. ‘The Raj told the lizards he would burn in hell before he’d open the gates of his city to them. But he offered any captain who wanted to quit the city the chance to leave – without pay, of course.’ Rian sighed. ‘If you knew Bilbari, you’d know he was one greedy son of a mule. He took a bonus for staying, then made a deal with the lizards to betray the city and join in the looting.’ He shook his head. ‘But that was the joke. It was the worst betrayal of all: as soon as the fires started and the looting began, they hunted down the mercenary companies one at a time. Those that stood died, and those that surrendered were given the choice of swearing service or taking the stake. No day’s grace, no laying down of weapons and walking away, nothing. Serve or die. A few of us managed to get free.’

Calis shook his head. ‘How could you betray your vow?’

‘I never did,’ said Rian, with what was the closest to a show of emotion Erik had seen so far. He stared Calis in the eyes and repeated, ‘I never did. We were a regular company, soldiers for life, sworn in oath as brothers. We voted, and those who voted to stay and fight were on the losing side. But we swore an oath to each other long before we took the Raj’s gold, and damn me if I’d leave a brother for being wrong-headed.’

‘Then why did you seek service with us?’

‘Because Bilbari’s dead and our brotherhood is broken.’ He looked genuinely sad. ‘If you knew Bilbari, you also knew he had his own way of taking care of his men. Some of us were with him ten, fifteen years, Captain. He was nobody’s father, but he was everyone’s eldest brother. And he’d kill the first man who harmed one of his own. I’ve been selling my sword since I was fifteen years old, and it’s the only family I’ve known. But it’s a dead family now. After Khaipur, no man will have us to service, and that means being a bandit or starving.’

‘What will you do?’ said Calis.

‘I’d like to head out tonight and get a march on this news heading south. Maybe catch a boat out of Maharta if I can’t find a billet there, head up coast to the City of the Serpent River or down to Chatisthan, someplace nobody knows me. I’ll find another company who’ll hire me, or a merchant needing a bodyguard.’ He looked to the north for a moment with a thoughtful expression. ‘But with what’s up there, I don’t know that any of us can find a peaceful life anywhere. I’ve never seen war like this before. You saw the smoke, Captain?’

Calis nodded.

‘They fired the city when they were through. I don’t mean a fire here or there, but the entire city. We saw from a ridge to the south before we ran for our lives, but we saw.’ His voice lowered as if he was afraid someone might overhear. ‘From one end to the other the fire burned, and the smoke rose so high it flattened and spread through the clouds like a big tent. Soot rained from the sky for days. Twenty, thirty thousand soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder before the gates, shouting and laughing, chanting and singing as they killed those who wouldn’t serve their cause. And I saw her.’

‘Who?’ said Calis with sudden interest.

‘The Emerald Queen, some call her. In the distance. Couldn’t see her face, but I saw a company of lizards on those damn big horses of theirs, and a big wagon, bigger’n anything I’ve ever seen before, and on the wagon was this big golden throne, and this woman sat there, in a long robe. You could see the green flicker of the emeralds at her throat and wrists, and she had a crown with emeralds. And the lizards all went wild, hissing and chanting, and even some of the men, those who’d been with them long enough, they all bowed when she came by.’

‘You’ve been helpful,’ said Calis. ‘Take a fresh horse and whatever food you need and slip out at the guard change at sundown.’ Rian saluted and left.

Erik turned to leave and Calis said, ‘Keep what you heard to yourself.’

Erik nodded. Then he said, ‘Captain, the horses?’

Calis shook his head. ‘Very well. Do what you can, but nothing that diminishes our ability to care for our own animals. No medicines you can’t replace … easily replace.’

Erik was about to say thank you, but Calis turned and reentered the hut, leaving him alone. After a moment he headed back to the horses; there was a great deal of work to do, and some of Zila’s companions would be leaving on foot in two days if he didn’t work miracles.

‘Erik!’

Erik looked up to see Embrisa standing nearby, just outside the corral where he was examining a horse’s leg, and he said, ‘Hello.’

Shyly she said, ‘Can you have supper tonight?’

Erik smiled. The girl had asked him twice before, so he could meet her father and mother – though he already had in the market and knew them by sight, she wanted a formal meeting. It was becoming clear she had decided that Erik should court her, and he was both flattered and disturbed by the attention.

She would be of marrying age in another two years in Ravensburg, but that was Ravensburg. The people here were much poorer, and children meant hands that could work at three years of age, out in the field gleaning grain that fell from the stalks as the crops were harvested, helping with the heavy work by six or seven years. A boy was a man at twelve, and a father at fifteen.

He crossed to the rails, and climbed over, stepping down next to her. ‘Come here,’ he said quietly. She stepped closer and he looked down and put his hand on her shoulder. He kept his voice low as he said, ‘I like you very much. You’re as nice a girl as I’ve met, but I’m going to be leaving soon.’

‘You could stay,’ she said in a rush. ‘You’re only a mercenary, and you can leave the company. A smith would be a man of importance here, and you’d quickly become a leader.’

Erik was suddenly aware that besides being pretty, she was also a cunning girl who had sized up the most likely man in the company to become rich – at least by village standards – should he remain and ply a trade.

‘Isn’t there a boy here –’ he began.

‘No,’ she said, half in anger, half in embarrassment. ‘Most of them are already married or too young. The girls outnumber them because of the wars.’

Erik nodded. His own company, though composed of condemned men, numbered more than one former farmer’s son who had left home to seek his fortune as a soldier or bandit.

Suddenly Roo was standing beside them, and Erik knew he had overheard the entire conversation, though he pretended not to, by saying, ‘Embrisa! I didn’t see you there. How are you?’

‘Fine,’ she said, lowering her eyes; her sullen tone showed she wasn’t.

As if nothing was amiss, Roo said, ‘Did you talk to Henrik today?’

Erik knew who Roo spoke of, a young man from a village not too far from Ravensburg who served with another squad, but one whom he had barely exchanged a dozen words with over the course of his travels. Henrik was a dull man with little to say.

‘No, not today,’ answered Erik, wondering what Roo was leading up to.

Lowering his voice, Roo said, ‘He says he might come back here after we’re done. Says he likes it and might just settle down’ – he looked at Embrisa – ‘find a wife, and set up a mill.’

Embrisa’s eyes widened. ‘He’s a miller?’

‘His father was one, or so he says.’

Embrisa said, ‘Well, I must go. Sorry you can’t come to supper, Erik.’

After the girl was gone, Erik said, ‘Thanks.’

‘I was over there and heard what was going on,’ said Roo with a grin. ‘I figure a miller is the only one likely to make more money here than a smith, so I thought I’d give your young friend another target.’

Erik said, ‘Is Henrik really thinking of staying, or are you just making trouble?’

‘Well, I don’t know how much trouble, given she’s a saucy lass with an ample bosom and a firm young bottom. If she nets our friend the miller’s son, who knows? It could be true love, and he could indeed be thinking of staying by tomorrow.’

Erik shook his head. ‘Or hiding from her father.’

‘Maybe, but as her father’s downriver with his wife and their sons, leaving Embrisa here alone, I suspect she was laying a snare for you.’ He glanced at where the girl had gone. ‘Though I think it might have been a pleasant one for a night.’

‘The girl’s not yet fifteen years old. Roo,’ said Erik.