Passing Through Darkness- The Complete Cycle

by Malcolm McKenzie

  Led by Railes, my troops were charging the enemy with swords drawn. A pair of carbines fired, then more.

  I stumbled to my feet. “No no no -” I didn’t need them in this melee. I didn’t want them.

  No more than ten yards from me, Odem leapt like a mad thing at the Monolith soldiers. I think the man whose short sword came up reflexively and plunged into the recruit’s belly was as surprised as Odem himself.

  “No, goddammit!”

  The wraith was shattered along with my concentration, but the Darkness flooded back into me as I rushed in and my katana split the Monolith ranger’s head open before he could even pull his weapon free of Odem’s body. I roared my rage, and the enemy troops broke and ran, leaving weapons behind in their mad flight. A few more gunshots followed the fleeing men, but brought none of them down that I could see.

  “Sir?”

  I whirled, and my skull-tattooed sergeant took two long steps back and raised his hands. “Sir?”

  I drew a deep, shuddering breath and let the katana fall. I couldn’t pull the Darkness fully back inside me, but it settled onto my skin, shimmering like a haze of angry smoke.

  I knelt next to Odem, but he was already dead. The blade had gone up under his ribcage and pierced his heart. The look on his face was one of total confusion.

  Groff came up behind me, but not too close.

  “He’s our only casualty, sir. I’ll carry him,” the big sergeant offered.

  I shook my head. “No. I will.”

  Rage and pain and the Darkness in my veins got me back to Second Battalion with Odem still in my arms - or more accurately, slung over my shoulder. He was not a light man, and a corpse is not a balanced load to carry over stone- and root-choked terrain.

  Even though the return through the woods had taken us hours, we still reached the road just as the point platoon was approaching. I left the dead recruit and my living troops with them and made my way down the column to find Captain Almet.

  “You made it across?” were his first words.

  I nodded tightly. “Lost one on the way back. There’s a blocking force. They were better organized today than yesterday.”

  Almet pursed his lips, trying to read my face. I went on, “First Battalion must be fifteen miles ahead of us by now.”

  He grimaced. “They hit us in the night. Shot up the supply train with fire arrows. Then when we finally got moving this morning they hit the point platoon again. Nothing as sophisticated as what they did to you yesterday - just plinked with a few bowmen and then took off. It slowed us down a lot, though. They’re doing what you thought they were.”

  “Learn anything from the prisoner? Sir?”

  “What you’d have guessed already. There’s a ranger company out there. Several different platoons harassing us. I spoke to Colonel Royce, but we’re not sure what to do about it. We don’t have forces that can match them in the woods.”

  “We halt both columns, sir, until we can deal with the issue. With your permission, I’ll cross back over and suggest to Colonel Hake that he hold position until we do.”

  “We can’t just camp in the road for a week,” Almet snapped. “How exactly do you suggest we deal with the issue?”

  “That’s simple, sir,” I threw over my shoulder as I turned and stalked back up toward the head of the column. “I’m going to kill them.”

  “Cat, I want you to spend the next three hours training the platoon in stealth. Then you’d better get some rest, because we’re going out again tonight.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “You?”

  “Me? I’m going back across.”

  “Alone?”

  “Yeah. I don’t think they’ll catch me, and I’ll be faster on my own. I should be back before dark. Railes, you’re in charge while I’m gone.” And with that I was off the road and in among the trees.

  Odem’s death gnawed at me. I’d lost companions before, in the ambush yesterday and on Yoshana’s expedition to the Darklands. I’d exchanged more words with Joav, the tight-lipped Knight of Resurrection who’d died on the edge of the Sorrows, than I had with Odem. But Odem was the first man to die under my command. When it was my fault.

  I hadn’t left clear orders with the platoon. They’d rushed to help me when they’d thought I was in danger. As indeed I had been, but the mad charge that had gotten Odem killed hadn’t been necessary. A frightened boy who’d been trying to prove himself and save his commander had died because I hadn’t communicated properly. That ate at my guts as if the Darkness itself had turned on me.

  I would have welcomed a patrol of Monolith rangers. What was churning in me needed release. So of course my path through the forest was completely clear of enemies.

  Even so, First Battalion was well past when I reached the other roadway. Even the droppings the horses and oxen had left were cold.

  Some of my anger had worked itself out in the woods. More leached away into fatigue as I jogged to catch up with the column. “There’s such a thing as too much exercise,” I muttered.

  I was pleased but not surprised to see Sergeant Herin had attached himself to Colonel Hake’s headquarters unit.

  “Thought you might need me again,” he remarked as I trotted up.

  “You looking for a job, sergeant?”

  “In your platoon, sir? With all due respect, it seems like way too much work and a real good chance of getting killed. But I’m happy to help with logistics.”

  “That’s what I need, sergeant. I’ve got other guys to die for me,” I added bitterly.

  “Rough day, sir?”

  “Lost one of my men today. He was a newbie. Didn’t even have a chance to figure out what he was doing.”

  Herin nodded. “It happens, sir. Old farts like me get old by being lucky at first. Then we get enough experience to be careful. I’ll take you to the colonel.”

  Once again the sergeant parted the humanity teeming around the colonel like an ice-breaker clearing a frozen river. The column was still in motion, so we found Hake astride a warhorse sturdy enough to handle his bulk.

  He looked down at me with a little smile. “Good to see you made it through, Lieutenant.”

  “Yessir. Thank you for the carbines, sir. And the advice. You were absolutely right. They had adjusted their tactics. They hit us with a full platoon this time.”

  “Then I’m very glad to see you made it unscathed.”

  “Not unscathed, sir. I lost a man.”

  “One man? Against a superior force? You are a terror, aren’t you?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think my previous commander would have been impressed.”

  Hake pulled up his horse. “When we spoke yesterday, I told you not to get above yourself. That includes being harder on yourself than strictly necessary. You’re not Yoshana. If what they say is true, then no one is except Yoshana. You had command of your unit for a day. If it didn’t perform perfectly, that’s no reflection on you or them. If you made a mistake, learn from it. If a man died because you made a mistake, that’s a damn shame, but it happens in war every day. Now report, Lieutenant.”

  I braced to attention. “Sir. Second Battalion is even farther behind - probably fifteen miles by now. They took additional harassing attacks last night and today. I recommend both columns halt until the Monolith rangers responsible are eliminated.”

  “And let me guess, Lieutenant. You’re going to eliminate them.”

  “Yessir.”

  “And you really think you can.”

  “Yessir.”

  Hake nodded once, sharply. “Then do it.”

  It was pitch dark, but Cat could still follow the trail from the spot where Second Battalion’s point platoon had been attacked. The enemy rangers’ woodcraft was good - I doubted anyone but a paleo could have tracked them at night.

  My whole unit was going - what was left of us. I’d considered taking just Cat and Railes for greater stealth, but if we were going to exterminate a whole platoon, it would take more than three of us
. This time, though, I’d made the team’s instructions explicit.

  “Cat and I are in the lead. They’ll have sentries. We should be able to take them silently, and then we’ll get to work on the rest. I only need the rest of you involved if they wake up. If they do, hit them hard and fast with everything we have.”

  Was it dishonorable and bloodthirsty to ambush the Monolith troops while they slept? Probably. I didn't care. They’d ambushed us. And they’d killed Odem. Maybe if they came to fear the night, the rangers would leave the forest. That was an acceptable alternative. So was the one where they all died.

  I winced every time a twig cracked behind me. Ahead of me was only Cat, and she was silent as the shadow of death. But the rest of the team wasn’t so noisy, considering. Our hands, faces, and clothes were blackened with soot from cook fires. And we went slowly, giving the paleo time to puzzle out the track. We had all night.

  The Darkness ranged in front of us, searching for our foes. An hour or so after we set out, I sensed a small wolf pack pacing us. One animal sniffed at the shifting tendrils, growled deep in its throat, and fled. The others followed. I ignored them and we continued to advance.

  We heard the sneeze before Cat or I made contact. Voices followed.

  “Jesus! I nearly shat myself. You just woke up the entire Rockwall army.”

  “Sorry. This pollen is killing me.”

  I slowly moved up past the paleo. The Darkness showed me a large clearing with three sentries on guard, one rubbing at his nose. Slumbering men turned and grunted in their bedrolls, their sleep disturbed by the noise.

  I scowled. It was harder to murder the enemy when they acted human. I crawled backwards past Cat, motioning her to follow, until we rejoined the rest of our platoon.

  “Change of plans,” I hissed. “The point of the exercise is fear. I’m going in there alone. Don’t engage them unless they try to attack me.”

  Railes shook his head. “The first plan was fine. We can take ’em all.”

  “We don’t need to. This is better.”

  Even by the wan moonlight filtering through the trees I could tell the sergeant didn’t agree, but he said nothing further. We moved up.

  I had all the time in the world. Slowly, carefully, I eased the Darkness into the three sentries. Little by little, it flowed into their carotid arteries and blocked the blood flow. One sat down, then the others. Soon, all were unconscious.

  I wrapped myself in the Darkness and entered the clearing. Silently I made my way to the center. And there, a dark mass in the thin moonlight, I bellowed, “Paladin!”

  I had been right - he was sleeping in the center of the camp. The big man lurching to his feet in front of me, blade coming clear even as he stood, had to be the leader.

  Of course, everyone else woke up as well. Most were stunned or sleep-fuddled, but one behind me stumbled up and reached for a bow.

  “Sit!” I commanded. He ignored me.

  A carbine cracked, then two more. The bowman fell and lay still.

  “What are you?” hissed the Paladin, his blade angled toward me. He was a brave man - confronted with a humanoid cloud of blackness I would have run, at least before I became what I now was.

  But a fair fight with a brave man didn’t suit my purpose. My katana was made to slash, not stab, but it could do the latter when needed. The blade plunged into his heart, his parry failing as his sword fell from a hand rendered nerveless when the Darkness severed his tendons.

  I set my left palm on his face as he hung impaled on my steel. The Darkness etched my handprint into his flesh, corruption blackening and dissolving the skin and the bone beneath.

  “The Shadowed Hand is upon you,” I said. I let the corpse fall and stalked back into the trees. No one moved to stop me. The nearer soldiers scuttled away in terror.

  We spent the next day sweeping the forest. We found no one.

  6. A Darker War

  Captain Almet and I reclined on camp chairs under a canvas awning half a mile from the siege lines at Riverside. Both battalions had made their way north without further interference. But we had failed in our plan to encircle the Monolith army in the field. Alerted by the retreating rangers, they had pulled their forces back into the ruined town and fortified it as best they could. We didn’t have the numbers to assault it, they didn’t have the numbers to sally. For the moment, we glared at each other across their improvised defenses and called each other nasty names.

  “What are you doing here, Minos?” Almet asked. The cider we were drinking had more alcohol than most, and he’d put away a lot of it. His speech was ever so slightly slurred.

  I shrugged. “The Select are often warriors.”

  “The Select are often mercenaries.” He jabbed an accusing finger at me. “But you, you enlisted like any common soldier. The Select demand far more pay than that. And Panther City’s too cheap to cough up that much. So you are, as far as I know, the only Select in this entire army. So, again, why?”

  It was a good question. Following the chain of events that had led me here, it was hard to see much logic guiding my decisions.

  “I suppose these days I’m very good at only one thing.”

  “Still doesn’t tell me why here. The Monolith will pay for Select mercenaries, you know. They’ve got ’em.”

  I breathed out a long sigh. “People in Rockwall always treated me decently. The Monolith - sure, they’re pragmatic enough to hire us, but the Josephites think we’re damned. I don’t need much money, but with this in me -” I let a tendril of the Darkness coil around my hand, “I don’t need anyone telling me I’m damned. I’m worried enough about that as it is.”

  I stared at the ground. Prophetess and the Universal Church called the Darkness the physical manifestation of sin. I didn’t believe that. I told myself I’d done a merciful thing by frightening the Monolith rangers away instead of killing them all. But I couldn’t erase from my mind the look of horror on the Paladin’s face as I’d killed him in a fight where he’d stood no chance at all. And I couldn’t forget the fierce rush of joy I’d felt as his men cowered, or how close I’d come to striking them down like the shadow of death as I’d passed by.

  Almet didn’t say a word. He was looking at me with an expression I couldn’t read.

  “How about you, sir?” I asked, changing the subject. “How did you decide on the military life?”

  He cracked a lopsided smile, but it didn’t seem to me there was much humor in it.

  “Rockwall has no military academies or hereditary nobility, so it has two sources of commissioned officers. One is the field commission - that would be you. Any officer of the rank of captain or above can raise an enlisted man to the rank of lieutenant. No further, I’m afraid.”

  He locked eyes with me. “It isn’t encouraged, because it can interfere with the army’s revenues from regular commissions. Regular commissions are purchased, you see. Generally by younger sons of wealthy families with nothing better to do.”

  He spread his hands and the sad smile widened. “For example, I am the third son of Tessel Almet of Almet’s Brewing, maker of fine lagers, ales, stouts, and ciders. This is ours, by the way. Good, isn’t it?”

  He raised his mug, and some of the cider sloshed over the rim.

  “I must say, the ladies find an officer much more impressive than a third son who won’t inherit much beyond an income… although I’m sure the income helps, too.”

  And so he felt guilty, and promoted men from the ranks who might or might not have the talent to be officers.

  “You’re a good leader, Captain,” I said. He was, too. He was reasonably smart, fair, and bold. Decisive but willing to listen.

  I stood up. “I need to go check on my troops. The Shadowed Hand should be just about ready to end the siege.”

  Almet peered at me in bleary confusion. “How do you think you’re going to do that?”

  “Fear. It’s all about fear.”

  The platoon was conducting exercises in the woods. Wor
d had spread that we’d driven off the Monolith rangers. Actually, word had mostly spread that we’d killed them all. In some versions, we’d scattered pieces of the bodies so widely they couldn’t be found. I did nothing to discourage the rumors. They’d eventually be helpful.

  They’d already gained us new volunteers for the platoon. Some were killers - or would-be killers - so vicious and bloodthirsty that even Railes had turned them away. But a few were very useful. One was a hunter named Sesk, a short, dark man nearly as at home in the woods as Cat. He was teaching the rest the basics of snares and traps, and helping the paleo instruct them in stealth and tracking.

  I found Herin sitting on a fallen tree at the edge of the forest. He’d been formally attached to my unit. The grizzled sergeant was whittling a stake when I came up.

  “This is as close to playing in the woods as I get, Lieutenant,” he said.

  “That’s fine, sergeant. I don’t need you sneaking around in the bushes. I’ve got Cat for that.”

  “That one’s scary, sir. You’ll want to be careful she don’t slit your throat in your sleep.”

  “She tried once. It didn’t work. How do you think I found her?”

  He shook his head. “Sometimes I wonder if you’re overdoing the spooky, sir.”

  I grinned. “You’ve been doing this stuff longer than I have, sergeant. You know perception is reality. If the other side thinks we’re a terror they can’t defeat, they’ve lost.”

  “You aiming to terrify them again soon, sir?”

  My grin widened. “Yes I am.”

  I stepped in among the trees. The raucous caw of a crow sounded from my right, and then the woods fell silent. I froze in place and sent tendrils of the Darkness questing outwards.

  There was nothing human within forty yards of me. My range was short, because I was covering a full circle around me. Even in the late morning sunlight, the trees shrouded everything in shadow. I could see no movement.

  I could be a shadow myself. I had shaved my head so the white hair wouldn’t stand out. Someone in the quartermaster’s unit had found us brown and gray dyes to stripe our uniforms. And I had been experimenting with Yoshana’s technique of using the Darkness to blur my outline. I wasn’t going to be detected easily as I slid like a ghost among the trunks.