Red Country Read Online Free PDF Page B

failure to do so cost the lives of several of my men, one a personal friend!’
    Cosca waved a lazy hand, as though personal friends were ephemera that could hardly be expected to bear on an adult discussion. ‘We were engaged here, General Brint, quite
hotly.’
    ‘In a bloodless exchange of arrows!’
    ‘You speak as though a bloody exchange would be preferable.’ Temple held out his hand to Friendly. The sergeant produced the contract from an inside pocket. ‘Clause eight, I
believe.’ He swiftly found the place and presented it for inspection. ‘Technically, any exchange of projectiles constitutes engagement. Each member of the Company is, in fact, due a
bonus as a result.’
    Brint looked pale. ‘A bonus, too? Despite the fact that not one man was wounded.’
    Cosca cleared his throat. ‘We do have a case of dysentery.’
    ‘Is that a joke?’
    ‘Not to anyone who has suffered the ravages of dysentery, I assure you!’
    ‘Clause nineteen . . .’ Paper crackled as Temple thumbed through the densely written document. ‘ “Any man rendered inactive by illness during the discharge of his
contractual obligations is to be considered a loss to the Company.” A further payment is therefore due for the replacement of losses. Not to mention those for prisoners taken and
delivered—’
    ‘It all comes down to money, doesn’t it?’
    Cosca shrugged so high his gilt epaulettes tickled his earlobes. ‘What else would it come down to? We are mercenaries. Better motives we leave to better men.’
    Brint gazed at Temple, positively livid. ‘You must be delighted with your wriggling, you Gurkish worm.’
    ‘You were happy to put your name to the terms, General.’ Temple flipped over the back page to display Brint’s overwrought signature. ‘My delight or otherwise does not
enter the case. Nor does my wriggling. And I am generally agreed to be half-Dagoskan, half-Styrian, since you bring my parentage into—’
    ‘You’re a brown bastard son of a whore.’
    Temple only smiled. ‘My mother was never ashamed of her profession – why should I be?’
    The general stared at Superior Pike, who had taken a seat on a lichen-splattered block of masonry, produced a haunch of bread and was trying to entice birds down from the crumbling ruin with
faint kissing sounds. ‘Am I to understand that you approve of this licensed banditry, Superior? This contractual cowardice, this outrageous—’
    ‘General Brint.’ Pike’s voice was gentle, but somewhere in it had a screeching edge which, like the movement of rusty hinges, enforced wincing silence. ‘We all appreciate
the diligence you and your men have displayed. But the war is over. We won.’ He tossed some crumbs into the grass and watched a tiny bird flit down and begin to peck. ‘It is not fitting
that we quibble over who did what. You signed the contract. We will honour it. We are not barbarians.’
    ‘
We
are not.’ Brint gave Temple, then Cosca, then Friendly a furious glare. They were all, each in his way, unmoved. ‘I must get some air. There is a sickening
stench
here!’ And with some effort the general hauled himself back into his saddle, turned his horse and thundered away, pursued by several aides-de-camp.
    ‘I find the air quite pleasant,’ said Temple brightly, somewhat relieved that confrontation at least was over.
    ‘Pray forgive the general,’ said Pike ‘He is very much committed to his work.’
    ‘I try always to be forgiving of other men’s foibles,’ said Cosca. ‘I have enough of my own, after all.’
    Pike did not attempt to deny it. ‘I have further work for you even so. Inquisitor Lorsen, could you explain?’ And he turned back to his birds, as though his meeting was with them and
the rest a troublesome distraction.
    Lorsen stepped forward, evidently relishing his moment. ‘The rebellion is at an end. The Inquisition is weeding out all those disloyal to the crown. Some few rebels have escaped, however,
scattering