by Guy Antibes
“I’ll be here. We’ve got to watch each other’s backs?”
Bellia nodded. “Right. Sergeant Major Noller’s going to the Second. He told me the minute he signed my transfer slip.”
“Is he taking Laxall?”
“I don’t know and I really don’t care. I can’t work for the two men who might have stolen away Pock’s business. I’ve done enough damage. Pock couldn’t trust me any better that you could your dad.” The comment just popped into Bellia’s mind and out her mouth. She felt a gaping wound of remorse in her chest. “Why don’t you accompany me to get a new uniform and change my unit with quartermaster storage? Do you fancy a walk into town, after?”
“Do we have something to celebrate?”
“No, commiserate.”
~
“I’ve got muscles I never knew about until now,” Bellia said as the Blue Scorpions walked off the training grounds on the other side of the horse lines.
“You should. Fighting’s different than pounding, girl.” Menna looked pretty tired herself.
“How am I doing?”
“Add another month of training to the one you’ve got underneath your belt and you’ll be ready to stain any battlefield with your own blood.” Menna laughed.
“Am I that bad? I feel I’m getting better every day.”
“You are, Bellia. But you’ve got to learn to take a joke. When you started training, I hardly broke a sweat. Look at me now. I’m as drenched as you. No, you’re doing just fine. Are you ready to figure out how to fight with that skinny knife of yours?”
“I do believe I am. Let’s get something to eat and then work on it.”
After lunch, the two squared off in a remote corner of the training grounds. Bellia pulled her long knife out for the first time ever to use it on another blade.
“I’ve always been meaning to ask why the long handle?”
“Balance.” Bellia took the blade and let it settle at the balance point. She took the blade and flicked it with her wrists, making the point carve figure eights in the air. She pulled her sword out of its sheath. Since she became a Blue Scorpion, she’d worked on hollowing out both sides of the blade and making the hilt match her long knife.
“A beautiful pair of weapons, Bellia. It’s a shame you’ll have to get them nicked today.” Menna grinned as she pulled out her new sword.
Bellia sheathed her weapons. “When did you get that?”
“It brand new. A shipment came in yesterday. Had to bribe someone to get it. Here.” Menna handed Bellia the sword.
It looked just like a Pock blade. The layering showed. It flexed the same. She looked at the mark. Pock’s mark.
“A Pock blade.”
Menna nodded. “At last. The army changed sword suppliers. The shipments were from some relative of your old sergeant. The damn things would break if you looked at them.”
Bellia smiled. Too much coal dust. Maybe she could write Pock, after all. The day suddenly seemed brighter. She tossed the weapon back to Menna. Noller and Laxall ended up in the Second Army and she was glad to be far away from them.
“Now, the trick is to split your mind. Fighting a man with a knife and sword, you have to think like you’re against two men. You’re fighting each with one of your blades. If you lose sight of that, you’ll lose, and losing is not something you want to happen,” Menna said.
The two spent the rest of the next hour choreographing moves and counter moves. Bellia found she could split her mind the way Menna said if she didn’t think too hard about it.
“There.” Menna brought her sword up against Bellia’s knife. The blade deflected Menna’s thrust. “Got your nick.”
Bellia raised her hand “Stop, let’s see.” They got their heads together to look at the blade. “There is a nick. Now do you feel like a soldier?”
Menna smiled and laid her finger on the blade’s edge. Menna pulled her finger back. Blood streamed from a gash. It was all Bellia could do to keep from moving the blade and doing more damage.
“Gods damn ‘em all!” Menna thrust her finger into her mouth.
“You’ll need more than a curse. I’ve told you not to touch the edge. It can cut a frosty breath.” Bellia pulled a hand square from her pocket. “Wrap it up in this. You’ll have to go to a healer.”
Menna glared at Bellia. “If you slipped with that blade when we practiced, you could have killed me,” she said through gnashing teeth as she wrapped his forefinger.
“Would you like me to sharpen your knife? It probably won’t take as fine an edge as mine, but it will be close enough.”
Menna’s face softened. “Throw in my sword and we’ll call ourselves even, girl. Play’s over, let’s find me a healer.”
~
Bellia was sewing a button on her uniform, when Astun walked up.
“How are you doing? Haven’t seen you in awhile.”
“Nor you. I hear you’re tearing up opponents on the practice field.” Astun said. He smiled, but Bellia sensed some reticence to his words.
“Something’s up. Are we mustering the camp? Is it time?”
“We’ve camped for over a year in this same spot. The army is costing the King too much money sitting here. We’re off for South Wansua before summer’s end. The orders came through this morning. You probably won’t be told until tomorrow. It takes us rear guard flunkies a long time to get prepared. That is if all our plans actually work.” Astun gave Bellia a weak smile.
“Are you afraid?” Bellia made sure no one was around.
“Terrified. We’ve hardly had time to learn how to hold a sword or a pike much less fight with one.”
“What kind of weapon do you have?”
“Pike.”
Bellia thought. “Trade it in for a short spear and then while we are camped, come round and we can spar. You don’t have enough meat on your bones to properly handle a pike or the arm strength for a sword. A short spear is something you poke with. How about it?”
“Where did you learn that? You were just a blacksmith when you came.”
“I’ll bet if you and I listed all the things we’ve learned these past months, our lists would be just as long, only different. As far as all this fighting stuff, it’s all I do. For the past month, all of the Blue Scorpions have learned the rudiments of all the weapons. We’ve been told that you never know what you’re going to pick up on a battlefield.”
“A lot of good that will do me. Rear guard doesn’t fight with the real soldiers,” Astun said.
“You can only learn so much counting sacks of grain.” Bellia laughed.
“Hey that’s not what I do,” Astun said, playing hurt.
Bellia smiled and then winked. “Thanks for the information. I’ll make sure I don’t spread it around.”
Menna walked up and clapped both of them on the shoulder. “Guess what? We’re moving out.”
“How do we transport the tents?” It hadn’t occurred to Bellia how the armies moved.
“Our packs will be dropped off tomorrow.”
“Packs?”
“We carry everything we’ll need to live except for food on our backs. These tents go on wagons only to be taken off if we spend some months at a siege. Until then we use field tents.”
Bellia had no idea what a field tent might be but if it fit on a pack, it wouldn’t be much shelter.
She walked into the tent she shared with Menna and four others. She hadn’t accumulated much in the last five months. Most of her coins were hidden in her belts. She had a shield, a better-fitting helmet, sword, long knife and another set of clothes.
Menna on the other hand had scarves and jewelry, but no dresses. For extra clothes, she had a set of leathers that she brought out to inspect from time to time. A strange little idol, she didn’t like to talk about, stood in the tent corner. A chest of who knows what sat underneath her bed. Their sergeant often had Menna open it to make sure she wasn’t hoarding civilian clothes.
“Ready?” Menna said as she entered and l
ooked at all of her junk.
“I am, but look at yours. How will you carry all of that?”
“I won’t.” She popped her head out of the tent and a little man shuffled in. “This and this…” Menna pointed to most of her possessions.
She looked at Bellia. “It’s going into storage. Brollo, here, is going to store it in a chest at his inn.”
“For a fee,” the little man said. “For a fee paid in advance.”
“This stuff is important to me, Brollo.” Menna pulled out here knife. “Don’t think about selling any of it. Even if you hear that I’ve died. If I haven’t picked it up in twenty-five years, I suppose you’ll be safe.”
The man gulped. “Twenty-five years. I’ll get it tagged when I move it out after your gone.”
“No. I want it out before nightfall.”
“I’ll need special permission.”
Menna grimaced. “Here is something for permission.” She put a five-guilder gold piece in Brollo’s hand. “And here is your fee.” Three more of the little gold pieces dropped into the man’s open hand.
“Tonight.”
“Before tonight.”
Brollo nodded and left.
“What are you looking at?” Menna said to Bellia.
“Wouldn’t it be cheaper just to sell it all?” Bellia gave Menna a crooked grin.
“Something in all of that is very valuable. Someday when the time is right, I’ll tell you. Now is not the time.” Menna was dead serious causing Bellia to raise her eyebrows. “Okay? We all have our secrets.”
~~~
Chapter Five
A Strange Encounter
~
Thearmy had pushed just passed the borders of South Wansua. Today was Bellia’s turn to put up the field tent. The shelter ended up not much different than she thought. The tent consisted of three pieces of oiled cloth, two poles, eight stakes and thin rope.
Bellia spread the smallest cloth on the ground. It was about eight feet by eight feet. She set up the poles and the stakes and laid the largest cloth on top. It was the biggest and was cut so flaps hung down and could be tied to close off the inside of the tent. If the weather was nice, she guessed they wouldn’t have to put the other cloth on. But since it was fall and the night temperatures fell enough for heavy dew, a couple of dowels were place in the tops of the poles and another cloth provided a double thickness for the top of the tent for bad weather.
Astun had told her most armies used just the one cloth with the flaps, but King Rollack’s staff felt getting men off the dirt and keeping the inside of the tent dry made for a healthier army. King Rollack seemed to be doing a lot of things correctly, Bellia thought as she put the tent together. Where did he get his ideas? She shrugged and went back to her work.
Bellia tightened the lines and didn’t doubt her quartermaster friend. Menna dropped her pack before she headed off for dinner. Bellia stowed Menna’s pack and all of her possessions except for her sword and knife in the tent and hurried off in the twilight to get something in her stomach.
Quartermasters had walked the camp before the soldiers arrived and marked off where the courtyards would be. King Rollack kept his two armies on separate routes and each night the camps were duplicated to his specification.
As Bellia went to the mess area, she felt someone kick her heel. She looked down to see Astun eating on the ground. “Bring your food back here. I’ve got something to tell you.”
Bellia picked up the night’s stew. The army must have found a herd of cattle. She smelled the beef and it made her mouth water. She looked in her little mess bucket at the shredded meat and picked a piece out on her way back to Astun.
“Beef tonight,” she grinned at her red-haired friend. Bellia sat down cross-legged in the dirt along with hundreds of other soldiers. If they stayed any time at this camp, this area would be the training area. “What’s up?” She dipped into the brown stew and relished the meat. Most nights it was just broth and vegetables.
“The King is joining the First Army. He’ll be here tomorrow. We’ll stay here for a few days while his officers offer terms to the King of South Wansua.”
Bellia furrowed her brow. “Why didn’t he just do that in the first place?” She took another spoonful.
“He already has. This will be his final offer. The King wants to rule all of Testia. We will go south to Kokota, and then to Tuathua. We’ll head north on the east side of the continent back up to North Wansua and the Great Desert.”
“That’s going to take some time,” Bellia said.
“The King is young. I’ve heard he’s willing to spend years uniting the continent.”
“Each kingdom must be rich.”
“He doesn’t want to take the wealth. No looting. The beef you’ve just been consuming? He bought that. He wants to rule a land that doesn’t hate him.”
“Funny way to wage a war,” she said.
“The King has new ideas. I don’t know what they are. I guess he talks to his Lords and officers about that. We’re just the little people, Bellia.”
“So did we go through all of this training for nothing?” Bellia was done with her stew and lifted the pot to get all of the juices.
“No.” Astun frowned. “The quartermaster officers say South Wansua won’t cave in. Fighting is certain. It could start within a week.”
“You’ve done well with our training. Now you even know how to swing a sword, but I think the short spear still suits you best.” Bellia thrust her fork out.
“You’re right about the spear, I’ll grant you. But I don’t know if I can really bring myself to poke another human.”
Bellia pursed her lips. “I don’t either, Astun. So far it’s been nothing but a game. I’m fit. I’m fed. But fight? I’ve been paid to do that. I guess I will, especially when some farmer, impressed into the South Wansuan army, starts poking a short spear at me.” She raised a corner of her lip. Bravado. Sheer bravado. Bellia had no idea if she could push the point of her blade into an enemy, who was just another person defending their home and family. She took a deep breath and continued to give Astun a confident look and hoped it looked a bit convincing.
Astun caught the barb. “Yeah. I guess we’ll all find out what we’re made of.”
Bellia knocked her mess pot on the side with her fork; she paused and then looked at Astun. “Here it comes down to doing what we can as a unit. You do your camp outlining. I play with my sword all day when I’m not marching. That’s the army. There’s more to life than that. My dad was a scholar. Your dad was a merchant. They had other lives. After this is all over we will too.”
Astun just shook his head and smiled. “Where do you come up all of this philosophical reflection all of the time?”
Bellia just shrugged, even though it was something that preyed on her mind. She had just begun to get some comfort thinking about the future when something always came up the remind her of the past.
Astun got up. “I’ll see you around. We probably won’t have time for practice. If the King comes with all of his staff, we’ll be buried in work.” Astun patted Bellia on the head and disappeared among the crowd of soldiers.
Bellia watched him go. She liked Astun and thought they were good friends, but he seemed distant at times. She guessed that she was as well. Bellia hoped Astun would be able to defend himself when the time came. She had to admit that she often wondered the same thing about herself. It felt good to share ideas with Astun that she wouldn’t dare talk to Menna about.
She rose to take a walk past the camp boundaries. A stream flowed into camp. She walked up it a ways to drink some water and wash her mess pot. It wouldn’t do to drink the water downstream, even though the animals and jakes were as far away from water sources as possible. Precautions kept soldiers healthy.
She rose from the stream, pot washed and thirst slaked. A light wavered deep in the woods on the other side of the stream. Bellia loosened her sword and knife and walked over rocks in the stream to the other side. She tried t
o be silent as she approached the light’s source.
A small camp of two tents. Four men huddled around a cookpot over the fire that Bellia had spotted.
“Hello the camp!” Bellia called from some ten paces away in the woods. She intended that her call would keep the men from alarm.
As she stepped into their little clearing, they stood with knives drawn. The men all wore gray robes, but looked more like soldiers than monks. Bellia raised her hands.
“I mean you no harm. I was washing my mess pot in the stream when I saw your fire. Did you know a whole army is camped not more than a few hundred paces away on the other side of the stream?”
“We know. Don’t worry about us. We’ve visited the camp commander. He knows we are here,” the oldest of the group said. “We are servants of the Blind God. Will you sit with us?” The man put his knife back in its sheath.
Bellia didn’t think anyone would mind for a bit. She had no idea where Menna ended up and she hadn’t heard the horns calling the army to bed.
“Who is the Blind God?” Bellia asked as she sat in their circle. Her father had rejected all religion and didn’t encourage its study among his children. His mother had just kept quiet when her father would talk about how stupid religion was. She suspected her mother might harbor different thoughts, but Bellia never learned what they might have been.
“Have you eaten?”
Bellia nodded.
“The Blind God cannot see all that happens in the world, so we tell him. He cannot be in all places at once, so we read reports to him. He lives to learn, you know. Our temple is in Tuathua.”
“What good is a god who isn’t omnipotent?”
“No god is in Gleanere’s pantheon. All of them have had their foibles, their strengths and their weaknesses. The Blind God is the wisest of them all. He still strives to perform great deeds.”
“What good is a god who doesn’t know everything?” Bellia couldn’t believe a god could be so blind. These men must be delusional.
“He does more than you may realize. He works through people. He can appear to those he senses in great need. He can counsel others to do the wonders he can’t.”