motion,
headed for the main exit, overtaking staffers who were not dawdling themselves.
“Make a hole, people. Make a hole. Coming through.”
Outside, people were pointing and babbling. The moonlight and a lot of fire
betrayed a pillar of black, oily smoke boiling up from just below the gate to
the glittering plain. I stated the obvious. “Something’s happened.” Clever me.
“Suvrin’s up there. He has a level head.”
Suvrin was a solid young officer with maybe just a tad of worship for his
captain. You could be confident that neither accidents nor stupid mistakes would
happen on Suvrin’s watch.
Runners gathered, ready to carry Sleepy’s instructions. She gave the only order
she could till we knew more. Be alert. Even though to a man we believed that
there was no way major trouble could come at us from off the plain.
The thing that you know to be true is the lie that will kill you.
Black Company GS 9 - Soldiers Live
6
An Abode of Ravens:
Suvrin’s News
Suvrin did not arrive until after midnight. By then even our dullards understood
that there was significance to the agitation of the hidden folk and the crows
whose presence gave our settlement its local name. Arms had been issued. Men
with fireball poles now perched on every rooftop. Tobo had warned his
supernatural friends to stay out of town lest taut human nerves snap and cause
them harm.
Everyone of stature available gathered to await Suvrin’s report. A couple of
subalterns took turns running up to the headquarters’ roof to check the progress
of the torches descending the long scarp from the shadowgate. Local boys, they
seemed to feel that their great adventure had begun at last.
They were fools.
An adventure is somebody else slogging through the mud and snow while suffering
from trench foot, ringworm, dysentery and starvation, being chased by people
with their hearts set on murder or more. I have been there. I have done that,
playing both parts. I do not recommend it. Be content with a nice farm or shop.
Make lots of babies and bring them up to be good people.
If the new blood remain blind to reality after we move out I guarantee that
their naivete will not long survive their first encounter with my sister-in-law,
Soulcatcher.
Suvrin finally arrived, accompanied by the runner Sleepy had sent to meet him.
He seemed surprised by the size of the assembly awaiting him.
“Get up front and talk,” Sleepy told him. Always direct and to the point, my
successor.
Silence fell. Suvrin looked around nervously. He was short, dark, slightly
pudgy. His family had been minor nobility. Sleepy had taken him prisoner of war
four years ago, just before the Company climbed onto the glittering plain,
headed this way. Now he commanded an infantry battalion and seemed destined for
bigger things because the Company was growing. He told us, “Something came
through the shadowgate.”
Jabber jabber, question question.
“I don’t know what. One of my men came to tell me he thought he’d seen something
sneaking around in the rocks on the other side of the gate. I went to look.
After four years of nothing happening I assumed it would be just a shadow or one
of the Nef. The dreamwalkers visit us all the time. I was wrong. I never got a
good look at the thing but it seemed to be a large animal, black and extremely
fast. Not as big as Big Ears or Cat Sith but definitely faster. It was able to
pass through the shadowgate without help.”
I felt a chill. I tried to reject my immediate suspicion. It was not possible.
Nevertheless, I said, “Forvalaka.”
“Tobo, where are you?” Sleepy demanded.
“Here.” He sat with several Children of the Dead, officers in training.
“Find this thing. Catch it. If it’s what Croaker said, I want you to kill it.”
“That’ll be easier said than done. It’s already squabbled with the Black Hounds.
They backed off. They’re just trying to keep track of
headed for the main exit, overtaking staffers who were not dawdling themselves.
“Make a hole, people. Make a hole. Coming through.”
Outside, people were pointing and babbling. The moonlight and a lot of fire
betrayed a pillar of black, oily smoke boiling up from just below the gate to
the glittering plain. I stated the obvious. “Something’s happened.” Clever me.
“Suvrin’s up there. He has a level head.”
Suvrin was a solid young officer with maybe just a tad of worship for his
captain. You could be confident that neither accidents nor stupid mistakes would
happen on Suvrin’s watch.
Runners gathered, ready to carry Sleepy’s instructions. She gave the only order
she could till we knew more. Be alert. Even though to a man we believed that
there was no way major trouble could come at us from off the plain.
The thing that you know to be true is the lie that will kill you.
Black Company GS 9 - Soldiers Live
6
An Abode of Ravens:
Suvrin’s News
Suvrin did not arrive until after midnight. By then even our dullards understood
that there was significance to the agitation of the hidden folk and the crows
whose presence gave our settlement its local name. Arms had been issued. Men
with fireball poles now perched on every rooftop. Tobo had warned his
supernatural friends to stay out of town lest taut human nerves snap and cause
them harm.
Everyone of stature available gathered to await Suvrin’s report. A couple of
subalterns took turns running up to the headquarters’ roof to check the progress
of the torches descending the long scarp from the shadowgate. Local boys, they
seemed to feel that their great adventure had begun at last.
They were fools.
An adventure is somebody else slogging through the mud and snow while suffering
from trench foot, ringworm, dysentery and starvation, being chased by people
with their hearts set on murder or more. I have been there. I have done that,
playing both parts. I do not recommend it. Be content with a nice farm or shop.
Make lots of babies and bring them up to be good people.
If the new blood remain blind to reality after we move out I guarantee that
their naivete will not long survive their first encounter with my sister-in-law,
Soulcatcher.
Suvrin finally arrived, accompanied by the runner Sleepy had sent to meet him.
He seemed surprised by the size of the assembly awaiting him.
“Get up front and talk,” Sleepy told him. Always direct and to the point, my
successor.
Silence fell. Suvrin looked around nervously. He was short, dark, slightly
pudgy. His family had been minor nobility. Sleepy had taken him prisoner of war
four years ago, just before the Company climbed onto the glittering plain,
headed this way. Now he commanded an infantry battalion and seemed destined for
bigger things because the Company was growing. He told us, “Something came
through the shadowgate.”
Jabber jabber, question question.
“I don’t know what. One of my men came to tell me he thought he’d seen something
sneaking around in the rocks on the other side of the gate. I went to look.
After four years of nothing happening I assumed it would be just a shadow or one
of the Nef. The dreamwalkers visit us all the time. I was wrong. I never got a
good look at the thing but it seemed to be a large animal, black and extremely
fast. Not as big as Big Ears or Cat Sith but definitely faster. It was able to
pass through the shadowgate without help.”
I felt a chill. I tried to reject my immediate suspicion. It was not possible.
Nevertheless, I said, “Forvalaka.”
“Tobo, where are you?” Sleepy demanded.
“Here.” He sat with several Children of the Dead, officers in training.
“Find this thing. Catch it. If it’s what Croaker said, I want you to kill it.”
“That’ll be easier said than done. It’s already squabbled with the Black Hounds.
They backed off. They’re just trying to keep track of
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