Escana (64 page)

'Why the fuck does it matter to
you who I am?'

He shrugged. 'It doesn't matter
to me, we're all dead regardless. I just want to know the man I'm
going to die fighting beside.'

Thom look disappointed, Gadtor's
heart sank.

'Is that it? Your life hangs in
the balance and the only thing you have to say is that you want to
know me because you're going to die beside me? What of all the other
men you're going to be fighting alongside? Are you going to get to
know them as well? It doesn't fucking matter who they are or were,
none of that is relevant. As soon as you go to Sah'kel you're done,
who we were died the moment we were placed in that box without a
struggle.'

He loosened the large sword on
his back. 'I can make this painless for you if you'd prefer. In spite
of your incessant prattle every soldier deserves a clean death. Are
you going to raise your blade in terrified defiance of my execution
or are we going to do this like men?'

Gadtor spotted a young boy
running into their part of the camp, asking who the ranking officer
was amongst them all. A man with no ear raised his arm and nobody
sought to dispute him, they were all slaves here and few had held any
rank prior to their being drafted.

'Alright you set of bastards,' he
roared with an intimidating basso of a voice. 'This boy here's from
the new General himself, he's looking for anyone on the front line
that's ranked Corporal or higher to make himself known. Any
time-wasters will be put to the sword.'

The raising of several hands
immediately ceased, most people were just looking for a way to get
off the front line and deeper into the camp where assaults from the
lizard creatures were less likely.

The boy added his reedy voice to
the call. 'General Garth requests that any ranking officers above
that of Lieutenant report to his tent immediately.'

Silence greeted him,

'As I thought, sorry kid. Nobody
of any rank is here.'

Gadtor felt a lurch as Thom
pulled them both to their feet and started to hobble over toward the
man.

'What was the General's name?' he
asked the boy urgently, Gadtor trying desperately not to topple them
over in the wake of Thom's steps.

The man stepped in front of him.
'You not hear me before? you'll get gutted for impersonating an
officer.'

Thom ignored him, looking
straight ahead at the young officer. 'What was the General's name?
Out with it boy!'

The youth snapped to attention at
the sound of Thom's voice, the man blocking his path seemed taken
aback that this slave had such an authoritative tone. Gadtor knew
better, a Warden rarely needs to ask twice for anything no matter the
circumstance.

'General Garth sir, he's new
around these parts and is looking to rebuild the chain of command.'

Gadtor thought he saw a crooked
smile on Thom's face for the first time since he'd known the man. Had
he some previous affiliation with this General?

'You may take me to your General
then, as technically I outrank him.'

There was something in the way
Thom said it, with such assuredness and steel that the man previously
blocking his way stepped away, eyes bulging in surprise. Gadtor
blinked in disbelief, was he calling the General's bluff or telling
the truth?

'Sir I am required to ask your
name so that I may report back to the General of your impending
arrival.'

'I am Thom.'

The boy's face paled. 'General
Thom? The General Thom of Sultcher's pass?'

Thom waved his hand dismissively.
'That was a long time ago, just take me to Garth.'

The man he was attached to was a
General?

Thom noticed the look on Gadtor's
face and smiled at him. 'You just received a stay of execution.'

T
he guard had
taken him away from C-Company's most pointless task, sweeping the
corridors of the fort so that they were clean of sand. Had it been
any other distraction from the labour he would have been overjoyed,
unfortunately he was being taken to see Corporal Dyson.

He had been warned by his fellow
members of C-Company that should he be taken by the guards anywhere
not to stay a word, no matter what they did to you. This sent a
shiver down his spine, he was waiting for the man to turn around and
force himself upon him. If the guard had this in mind he showed no
inclination of it, as far as he was concerned Jimmy was beneath
acknowledgement beyond ferrying him to Dyson's door and back. A great
number of C-Company were treated that way, it was actually much
better than the beatings for sport and general contempt other guards
would show them.

They wound their way down
all-too-familiar corridors now, Jimmy had been forced to scrub these
clean of sand any number of times, he knew the layout of the fortress
by heart.

The guard gave the customary
peculiar knock on the door, it differed yet again from Yalem's and
Jadil's, both of whom seemed to alternate knocks over time to prevent
any unwanted visitors into Dyson's office. The door of which swung
open to reveal an impossible sight.

It couldn't be.

Sat in the chair opposite Dyson
was his father, he'd come to rescue him.

'Father!' he exclaimed, starting
to move forward. 'You came for me!'

Gooseman didn't turn as the
guard's fist halted Jimmy in his tracks.

Dyson continued to look at
Gooseman as Jimmy raised himself to his hands and knees, confused and
bleeding.

'The boy is well enough, you want
him to be my personal assistant in exchange for the release of the
prisoner into your custody. You also strictly want no harm to come of
him after the transaction has occurred. You mentioned nothing of harm
prior to the transaction, did you?'

Gooseman shook his head. 'I don't
recall saying as much, no.'

At Dyson's bidding, the guard
sank a boot into Jimmy's sternum, causing him to curl up onto the
floor.

'Excellent, this one has been
most irritating in his time with us, I'd have hoped that would change
given the gravity of his circumstances but it seems some things
simply need beaten out.'

The guard continued to
relentlessly pummel Jimmy as he lay crying on the wood, fists and
arms flying at the parts of his body he left unprotected after each
strike.

'When will your guard return with
the boy?' Gooseman asked lightly, as if he were enquiring to his host
about a beverage.

'Soon enough,' Dyson replied.
'Jadil is an experienced soldier and will follow his orders, your
goods will not be harmed.'

Jimmy let out a scream as one of
his ribs seemed to buckle under a savage kick.

'I have felt exposed in Yalem's
absence, he is a vengeful sort. Your timing is most fortuitous as he
would have undoubtedly sought retaliatory action somehow. I doubt
very much that your arrival is coincidental.'

Gooseman nodded. 'I am not a
believer in coincidence, Corporal. We are the architects of our own
destiny, I don't subscribe to the whimsical belief that the world we
live in is full of random acts.'

The next boot rattled Jimmy's
skull, his vision started to blur. He couldn't tell if it was tears
or blood or impending unconsciousness causing it.

'Every action serves a purpose
and every event has a meaning. Others would be wise to learn such a
lesson.'

A knock came on the door and the
guard ceased pummelling him.

They waited in the silence, the
knock came again.

'Enter,' Dyson called, seemingly
satisfied that Jadil had returned.

The guard entered with Jakob in
tow, who looked down at Jimmy with an expression of shock on his
face, then at Gooseman with an even darker look in his eyes. Clearly
he'd realised that the father had let the son be beaten to such a
sorry state. Jimmy just hoped that the beating had stopped now that
his friend was here.

Jakob looked at Dyson in askance.
'Why have you summoned me here?'

Dyson stood, clearly not liking
being looked down upon or asked questions in his own office. 'You are
familiar with Harold Gooseman, he has convinced me to release you
into his custody. You are no longer a member of A-Company and will be
leaving with this man immediately.'

Jimmy watched Jakob look down at
him then. 'What about the boy?'

The Corporal took a calming
breath, his face starting to flush in anger. 'The boy will stay in
Greyhawk, his father has accepted assurances that he will be treated
fairly.'

He failed to see how he was
treated fairly by being beaten on the floor.

'Very well, we may depart.'

It hit Jimmy harder than the
blows he had sustained already, first the rejection from his father
and now the rejection from Jakob.

A fourth knock came on the door,
Yalem limped in before Dyson could respond.

'Can't find him,' he reported to
the increasingly furious Corporal.

'What the fuck do you mean you
can't find him? Who let you out of bed anyway?'

Yalem snorted in response, it
seemed the large man wasn't planning on being kept down for long.

Jadil chipped in at this point,
clearly trying to soothe Dyson's rising temper. 'I sent man looking
for him but the guard Captain said he do it himself. I say no but he
rejected.'

Gooseman sighed, looking around
the increasingly crowded room. 'It seems that whatever rogue talent
was once here has been alerted to my presence and subsequently
vanished. It is of no consequence in the grander scheme of things, I
have what I came for and I shall be departing now. Excuse me
gentlemen.'

He rose from his seat and walked
toward the door, his eyes firmly on his destination.

'Father, please!' Jimmy pleaded.

The man walked past him as if he
didn't exist, Jakob gave Jimmy one last pitying look and followed
him.

Jimmy watched the door close
behind them, his father had disowned him, Jakob was gone and The
Hermit had vanished. Now he truly was all alone.

H
e returned
that evening, covered in blood.

She had just extinguished the
bedside candle when she heard a scuffling sound coming from the
archway, his staggering form silhouetted in the moonlight like some
dancer lurching from grace to spasm out of control.

He tried to ward her off as she
came to him, mumbling something in a language she didn't understand.
The blood clung to him stubbornly, it had dried into a second skin on
his journey back to Levanin.

'What happened to you?' she asked
him, not expecting a coherent answer given his condition. 'We need to
get you to a healer.' She had no idea where the nearest healer was.

'I will recover,' he mumbled. She
barely caught it under his breath as she was dragged toward the bed
with him.

They lay there for some time, his
breathing was ragged but over the course of the night it
strengthened. She eventually built up the courage to light the candle
and survey the extent of his injuries as best she could.

He was still conscious, his eyes
wide open and staring up at the ceiling as if in deep concentration,
what inspiration he found there Ella could not tell.

She couldn't understand what
possible situation El-Vador could face that would leave him in such a
mess. His ribs were cracked or broken, though none of them seemed to
have punctured a lung. She tried to remove his shirt but the caked
blood had acted as an adhesive. She'd have to cut him loose in order
to get a closer look and she didn't trust herself with his sword.

A large gash on his thigh
extended down toward his knee as if something had been hacking wildly
at him and he had barely dodged its intent. Whatever way she looked
at it, her idea of El-Vador's near-omnipotence had been brutally
extinguished.

He coughed then as he drew a
deeper breath in, she brought a pitcher of water up to his lips but
he seemed uninterested in drinking.

'Chance encounters can be most
humbling,' he said in a cracked voice. 'They make fools out of us all
sometimes.'

She was still none the wiser as
to what he was talking about, for all she could glean from it he may
as well have been delirious and she didn't want to push him to answer
in this state.

'He blind-sided me as I hunted, a
very old grudge. He hasn't changed in all these years, as barbaric as
ever.'

Ella couldn't help herself.
'Who?'

He turned his head painfully with
a grimace, then looked at her with those strangely focused eyes. Was
that sadness she saw in them or regret?

'I cannot tell even you. So
tired, so weary.'

She found herself reaching out to
him, stroking his hair tentatively as if it might cause him to jump.
'He attacked you, but you fought back. He won't come to Levanin in
pursuit of you, will he?'