Dust of Dreams

by Erikson, Steven

  ‘Logistics is no problem for me,’ opined Fast.

  No one responded to that.

  Kindly arched his back and winced. ‘It was said, back when he was commanding the Aren Garrison, that Blistig was a sharp, competent officer.’

  ‘Witnessing the slaughter of the Seventh and then Pormqual’s army broke him,’ Faradan Sort said. ‘I am surprised the Adjunct doesn’t see that.’

  ‘The one thing we can address,’ said Kindly, ‘is how we can help Keneb—we need the best Fist we have, captains, not exhausted, not overwhelmed.’

  ‘We can’t do a thing without the squad sergeants,’ Faradan Sort said. ‘I suggest we corral our respective noncoms into the effort.’

  ‘Risky,’ said Kindly.

  Ruthan grunted—an unintentional response that drew unwelcome attention.

  ‘Pray, explain that,’ Kindly asked in a drawl.

  He shrugged. ‘Maybe it suits us officers to think we’re the only ones capable of seeing how High Command is falling apart.’ He met Kindly’s gaze. ‘The sergeants see better than we do. Pulling them in sacrifices nothing and may even relieve them, since it’ll show we’re not all a bunch of blind twits, which is probably what they’re thinking right now.’ Having said his piece he subsided once more.

  ‘ “Who speaks little says a lot,” ’ Faradan Sort said, presumably quoting someone.

  Kindly collected his reins. ‘It’s decided, then. Draw in the sergeants. Get them to straighten out their squads—Hood knows what Brys must be thinking right now, but I’m damned sure it’s not complimentary.’

  As Kindly and the others rode away, Skanarow angled her mount in front of Ruthan’s, forcing him to halt. He squinted at her.

  She surprised him with a grin and it transformed her face. ‘The old ones among my people say that sometimes you find a person with the roar of a sea squall in their eyes, and those ones, they say, have swum the deepest waters. In you, Ruthan Gudd, I now understand what they meant. But in you I see not a squall. I see a damned typhoon.’

  He quickly looked away, ran fingers through his beard. ‘Just a spell of gas, Skanarow.’

  She barked a laugh. ‘Have it your way, then. Avoid raw vegetables, Captain.’

  He watched her ride off. Fisherfolk. You, Skanarow with the lovely smile, I need to avoid. Too bad.

  Greymane, you always said that between the two of us I was the luckier one. Wrong, and if your ghost hearkens to its name, spare me any echo of laughter.

  He paused, but all he could hear was the wind, and there was no humour in that moan.

  ‘Walk on, horse.’

  Koryk looked a mess, trembling and wild-eyed, as he tottered back to the squad camp. Tarr frowned. ‘You remind me of a pathetic d’bayang addict, soldier.’

  ‘If paranoia comes with them shakes,’ said Cuttle, ‘he might as well be just that. Sit down, Koryk. There’s room in the wagon for ya come tomorrow.’

  ‘I was just sick,’ Koryk said in a weak growl. ‘I seen d’bayang addicts at the trader forts and I don’t like being compared to them. I made a vow, long ago, to never be that stupid. I was just sick. Give me a few days and I’ll be right enough to stick my fist in the next face gabbling about d’bayang.’

  ‘That sounds better,’ said Smiles. ‘Welcome back.’

  Corabb appeared from a tent carrying Koryk’s weapon belt. ‘Honed and oiled your blade, Koryk. But it looks like the belt will need another notch. You need to get some meat back on your bones.’

  ‘Thanks, Mother, just don’t offer me a tit, all right?’ Sitting down on an old munitions box, he stared at the fire. The walk, Tarr judged, had exhausted the man. That boded ill for all the other soldiers who’d come down with the same thing. The tart water had worked, but the victims who’d recovered were wasted one and all, with a haunted look in their eyes.

  ‘Where’s Fid?’ Koryk asked.

  Bottle stirred from where he had been lying, head on a bedroll and a cloth over his eyes. Blinking in the afternoon light he said, ‘Fid’s been listing all our faults. One of those secret meetings of all the sergeants.’

  Tarr grunted. ‘Glad to hear it’s secret.’

  ‘We ain’t got any faults,’ said Smiles. ‘Except for you, Corporal. Hey Bottle, what else were they talking about?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  That snatched everyone’s attention. Even Corabb looked up from the new hole he was driving through the thick leather belt—he’d jammed the awl into the palm of his left hand but didn’t seem to have noticed yet.

  ‘Hood knows you’re the worst liar I ever heard,’ said Cuttle.

  ‘Fid’s expecting a fight, and maybe soon. He’s tightening the squads. All right? There. Chew on that for a while.’

  ‘How hard is he working on that?’ the sapper asked, eyes narrowed down to slits.

  Bottle looked ready to spit out something foul. ‘Hard.’

  ‘Shit,’ said Koryk. ‘Look at me. Shit.’

  ‘Take the wagon bed tomorrow and maybe the next day,’ said Tarr. ‘And then spell yourself for a few days after that. We’ve that long at least until we’re into possibly hostile territory. And eat, Koryk. A lot.’

  ‘Ow,’ said Corabb, lifting the hand with the awl dangling from the palm.

  ‘Pull it and see if you bleed,’ said Smiles. ‘If you don’t, go see a healer quick.’ Noticing the others looking at her she scowled. ‘Fish hooks. The, uh, fisherfolk who used to work for my family—well, I’ve seen it go bad, is all. Punctures that don’t bleed, I mean. Oh, piss off, then.’

  ‘I’m going for a walk,’ said Bottle.

  Tarr watched the mage wander off, and then glanced over and found Cuttle staring at him. Aye, it’s looking bad.

  Corabb plucked out the awl and managed to squeeze out a few drops of blood. He gave Smiles a triumphant grin, then returned to working on the belt.

  Bottle wandered through the encampment, avoiding the disorganized mobs besieging the quartermaster’s HQ, the armourer compound, the leather and cordage workshops, and a host of other areas crowded with miserable, overworked specialists. Even outside the whore tents soldiers were getting into scraps. Gods, where are all the officers? We need military police—this is what happens when there’s no imperial oversight, no Claws, no adjutants or commissars.

  Adjunct, why aren’t you doing anything about this? Hold on, Bottle—it ain’t your problem. You’ve got other problems to worry about. He found he was standing in the centre of a throughway, one hand clutching his hair. A storm of images warred in his head—all his rats were out, crouched in hiding in strategic places—but the one in Tavore’s command tent was being assailed by folds of burlap—someone had bagged it! He forced the other ones out of his head. You! Little Koryk! Pay attention! Start chewing as if your life depended on it—because maybe it does—get out of that sack!

  ‘You. You’re in Fiddler’s squad, right?’

  Blinking, Bottle focused on the man standing in front of him. ‘Hedge. What do you want?’

  The man smiled, and given the wayward glint in the man’s mud-grey eyes that was a rather frightening expression. ‘Quick Ben sent me to you.’

  ‘Really? Why? What’s he want?’

  ‘Never could answer that one—but you’re the one, Bottle, isn’t it?’

  ‘Look, I’m busy—’

  Hedge lifted up a sack. ‘This is for you.’

  ‘Bastard!’ Bottle snatched the bag. A quick look inside. Oh, stop your chewing now, Koryk. Relax.

  ‘It was moving,’ said Hedge.

  ‘What?’

  ‘The sack. Got something alive in there? It was jumping around in my hand—’ He grunted then as someone collided with him.

  An armoured regular, big as a bear, lumbered past.

  ‘Watch where you’re walking, y’damned ox!’

  At Hedge’s snarl, the man turned. His broad, flat face assumed the hue of a beet. He stomped back, lips twisting.

  Seeing the man’s huge hands closing into fi
sts, Bottle stepped back in alarm. Hedge simply laughed.

  The beet looked ready to explode.

  Even as the first fist flew, Hedge was ducking under it, closing tight up against the man. The sapper’s hands shot between the soldier’s legs, grabbed, squeezed and yanked.

  With a piercing shriek, the soldier doubled over.

  Hedge added a knee to his jaw, flinging the head back upward. Then he drove an elbow into a cheekbone, audibly shattering it.

  The huge man crumpled. Hedge stood directly over him. ‘You just went for the last living Bridgeburner. I’m guessing you won’t do that again, huh?’ Hedge then turned back to Bottle and smiled a second time. ‘Quick Ben wants to talk with you. Follow me.’

  A few paces along, Bottle said, ‘You’re not, you know.’

  ‘Not what?’

  ‘The last living Bridgeburner. There’s Fiddler and Quick Ben, and I even heard about some survivors from Black Coral hiding out in Darujhistan—’

  ‘Retired or moved on every one of them. Fid said I should do the same and I thought about it, I really did. A new start and all that.’ He tugged at his leather cap. ‘But then I thought, what for? What’s so good about starting all over again? All that ground you covered the first time, why do it a second time, right? No—’ and he tapped the Bridgeburner sigil sewn on to his ratty rain-cape. ‘This is what I am, and it still means something.’

  ‘I expect that regular back there agrees with you.’

  ‘Aye, a good start. And even better, I had me a talk with Lieutenant Pores, and he’s giving me command of a squad of new recruits. The Bridgeburners ain’t dead after all. And I hooked up with a Letherii alchemist, to see if we can come up with replacements for the Moranth munitions—he’s got this amazing powder, which I’m calling Blue. You mix it and then get it inside a clay ball which you seal right away. In about half a day the mix is seasoned and set.’

  Bottle wasn’t much interested, but he asked anyway. ‘Burns good, does it?’

  ‘Don’t burn at all. That’s the beauty of Blue, my friend.’ Hedge laughed. ‘Not a flicker of flame, not a whisper of smoke. We’re working on others, too. Eaters, Sliders, Smarters. And I got two assault weapons—a local arbalest and an onager—we’re fitting clay heads on the quarrels. And I got me a new lobber, too.’ He was almost jumping with excitement as he led Bottle through the camp. ‘My first squad’s going to be all sappers along with whatever other talents they got. I was thinking—imagine a whole Bridgeburner army, say, five thousand, all trained as marines, of course. With heavies, mages, sneaks and healers, but every one of them is also trained as a sapper, an engineer, right?’

  ‘Sounds terrifying.’

  ‘Aye, doesn’t it? There.’ He pointed. ‘That tent. Quick’s in there. Or he said he would be, once he got back from the command tent. Anyway, I got to go collect my squad.’

  Hedge walked off.

  Bottle tried to imagine five thousand Hedges, with the real Hedge in charge. Hood’s breath, I’d want a continent between me and them. Maybe two. He repressed a shiver, and then headed to the tent. ‘Quick? You in there?’

  The flap rippled.

  Scowling, Bottle crouched and ducked inside.

  ‘Stop spying on the Adjunct and me,’ the wizard said. He was sitting at the far end, crosslegged. In front of him and crowding the earthen floor in the tent’s centre was a heap of what looked like children’s dolls.

  Bottle sat down. ‘Can I play?’

  ‘Funny. Trust me, these things you don’t want to play with.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know. My grandmother—’

  ‘I’m tying threads, Bottle. You want to get yourself tangled in that?’

  Bottle shrank back. ‘Ugh, no thanks.’

  Quick Ben bared his smallish teeth, a neat white row. ‘The mystery is, there’s at least three in there I can’t even identify. A woman, a girl and some bearded bastard who feels close enough to spit on.’

  ‘Who are they tied to?’

  The wizard nodded. ‘Your granny taught you way too much, Bottle. I already told Fiddler to treat you as our shaved knuckle. Aye, I’ve been trying to work that out, but the skein’s still a bit of a mess, as you can see.’

  ‘You’re rushing it too much,’ Bottle said. ‘Leave them to shake loose on their own.’

  ‘Maybe so.’

  ‘So, what have you and the Adjunct got to be so secret about? If I really am your shaved knuckle, I need to know things like that, so I know what to do when it needs doing.’

  ‘Maybe it’s her,’ mused Quick Ben, ‘or more likely it was T’amber. They’ve sniffed me out, Bottle. They’ve edged closer than anybody’s ever done, and that includes Whiskeyjack.’ He paused, frowning. ‘Maybe Kallor. Maybe Rake—yes, Rake probably saw clear enough—was it any wonder I avoided him? Well, Gothos, sure, but—’

  ‘High Mage,’ cut in Bottle, ‘what are you going on about?’

  Quick Ben started, and then glared. ‘Distracted, sorry. You don’t need to spy on her—Lostara saw the rat and nearly chopped it in half. I managed to intervene, made up some story about using it for an augury. If anything vital comes up, I will let you know.’

  ‘A whisper in my skull.’

  ‘We’re heading into a maze, Bottle. The Adjunct’s ageing in front of my eyes, trying to figure out a way through the Wastelands. Have you tried soul-riding anything into it? It’s a snarl of potent energies, massive blind-spots, and a thousand layers of warring rituals, sanctified grounds, curse-holes, blood-pits, skin-sinks. I try and just reel back, head ready to split, tasting blood in my mouth.’

  ‘The ghost of a gate,’ said Bottle.

  Quick Ben’s eyes glittered in the gloom. ‘An area of influence, yes, but that ghost gate, it’s wandered—it’s not even there any more, in the Wastelands, I mean.’

  ‘East of the Wastelands,’ said Bottle. ‘That’s where we’ll find it, and that’s where we’re going, isn’t it?’

  Quick Ben nodded. ‘Better the ghost than the real thing.’

  ‘Familiar with the real one, are you, High Mage?’

  He glanced away. ‘She’s worked that one out all on her own. Too canny, too damned unknowable.’

  ‘Do you think she’s in communication with her brother?’

  ‘I don’t dare ask,’ Quick Ben admitted. ‘She’s like Dujek that way. Some things you just don’t bring up. But, you know, that might explain a lot of things.’

  ‘But then ask yourself this,’ said Bottle. ‘What if she isn’t?’

  The wizard was silent for a long moment. Then he sighed. ‘If not Paran, then who?’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘That’s a nasty question.’

  ‘I don’t spy on the Adjunct just when she has you for company, Quick Ben. Most of the time I watch her, it’s when she’s alone.’

  ‘That’s pathetic—’

  ‘Fuck the jokes, High Mage. Our Adjunct knows things. And I want to know how. I want to know if she has company none of us know a thing about. Now, if you want me to stop doing that, give me a solid reason. You say she’s got close to you. Have you returned the favour?’

  ‘I would, if I knew how. That otataral sword pushes me away—it’s what they’re made to do, isn’t it.’ Seeing the sceptical expression opposite him, he scowled. ‘What?’

  ‘It doesn’t push you as hard as you like to pretend it does. The risk is that the harder and deeper you push through the otataral, the more of yourself you potentially expose—and if she catches sight of you, she won’t just be close to knowing you, she’ll be certain.’ He jabbed a finger at Quick Ben. ‘And that is what you don’t want to happen, and it’s the real reason why you don’t dare push through. So, your only chance is me. Do I resume spying or not?’

  ‘Lostara’s suspicious—’

  ‘When the Adjunct is presumably alone.’

  The High Mage hesitated, and then nodded. ‘Found anything yet?’

  ‘No. She’s not in the habit of thinking out loud, t
hat much is obvious. She doesn’t pray, and I’ve yet to hear a one-sided conversation.’

  ‘Could you be blinded?’

  ‘I could, yes, but I’d sense the gaps of awareness. I think. Depending on how good the geas is.’

  ‘If it’s a geas directed specifically at your extra eyes?’

  ‘It would have to be. But you’re right, something specific, Mockra maybe, that slips into the rat’s tiny brain and paints a pretty picture of nothing happening. If that’s the case, then I don’t know how I could do anything about it, because with the local effect of the otataral, the source of that sorcery would be an appallingly high level—a damned god’s level, I mean.’

  ‘Or an Elder’s.’

  ‘These waters are too deep for a mortal like me, Quick Ben. My spying only works because it’s passive. Strictly speaking, riding a soul isn’t magic, not in the common sense.’

  ‘Then seek out something on the Wastelands, Bottle. See what you can see, because I can’t get close and neither, I think, can the Adjunct. Find a wolf, or a coyote—they like to hang round armies and such. Who’s out there?’

  ‘I’ll try. But if it’s that risky, you might lose me. I might lose me, which is even worse.’

  Quick Ben smiled his little smile and reached into the heap of dolls. ‘That’s why I’ve tied this thread to this particular doll.’

  Bottle hissed. ‘You miserable shit.’

  ‘Stop complaining. I’ll pull you back if you get into trouble. That’s a promise.’

  ‘I’ll think about it,’ said Bottle, rising.

  The High Mage looked up in surprise. ‘What’s to think about?’

  ‘Quick Ben, if it’s that dangerous in the Wastelands, hasn’t it occurred to you that if I’m grabbed, you may not be the one doing the pulling on that thread? With you suddenly drooling and playing with dolls for real, the Adjunct and, more importantly, her army, are well and truly doomed.’

  ‘I can hold my own,’ Quick Ben growled.

  ‘How do you know you can? You don’t even know what’s out there. And why would I want to put myself in the middle of a tugging contest? I might well get torn to pieces.’