‘Do you want me to help you or not?’
‘All right. Peace, then. The point is, it’s only looking like you’re deserting. The way Faradan Sort did outside Y’Ghatan.’
‘I ride south.’
Sinter nodded.
‘I go find the Perish and the Khundryl.’
‘Yes.’
‘And say what?’
‘You convince them not to abandon us.’
‘How in Hood’s name do I do that?’
Sinter’s look was wry. ‘Try using your charms, sister.’
Masan Gilani spoke. ‘Sergeant, if she’s going after both of them, where am I going?’
‘That’s not so easy to say,’ Sinter admitted haltingly.
Masan snorted. ‘Work on that answer, Sinter. Meanwhile, let’s go steal some horses.’
‘Ah, Lieutenant, found you at last.’
‘Master Sergeant now, sir.’
‘Of course, and where are your charges, Master Sergeant?’
‘Dispensed with, sir.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Rather, dispersed, sir. Inserted seamlessly into the ranks, not a stitch out of place.’
‘Why, that is simply superb, Master Sergeant. You would deserve a commendation if you deserved anything. Alas, having perused the latest roster updates, I have discovered that not a single one of those recruits can be found anywhere in the army.’
‘Yes, sir, they are well trained.’
‘At what, Master Sergeant? Disappearing?’
‘Well now, sir, I am reminded of a story from my youth. May I?’
‘Please, do go on.’
‘Thank you, sir. Ah, my youth. A sudden zeal afflicted young Aramstos Pores-’
‘Aramstos?’
‘Yes, sir-’
‘That’s your other name?’
‘It is indeed, sir. May I continue my tale, sir?’
‘Proceed.’
‘A sudden zeal, sir, to dig me a pond.’
‘A pond.’
‘Just behind the heap of broken bricks, sir, close to the lot’s back wall. I often played there when my parents had gone from fighting with words to fighting with knives, or the hovel caught fire as it was wont to do. On my hands and knees among the broken shards of pots and shattered dog teeth-’
‘Dog teeth.’
‘My father’s failures with pets, but that, sir, is another story, perhaps for another time. A pond, sir, one into which I could transplant the tiny minnows I was rescuing from the fouled river down past the sewage outlets-where we used to swim on cold days, warming up as it were, sir. Minnows, then, into my pond. Imagine my excitement-’
‘It is suddenly vivid in my mind’s eye, Master Sergeant.’
‘Wonderful. And yet, having deposited, oh, fifty of the tiny silver things, just the day before, imagine my horror and bafflement upon returning the very next morning to find not a single minnow in my pond. Why, what had happened to them? Some voracious bird, perhaps? The old woman from down the alley who kept her hair in a net? Are there perchance now glinting minnows adorning her coiffure? Insects? Rats? Unlikely to be either of those two, as they generally made up our nightly repast at the dinner table and so accordingly were scarce round our home. Well, sir, a mystery it was and a mystery it remains. To this very day and, I am certain, for the entirety of the rest of my life. Fifty minnows. Gone. Poof! Hard to believe, sir, and most crushing for that bright-eyed, zealous lad.’
‘And now, if I am to understand you, Master Sergeant, once more you find yourself victimized by inexplicable mystery.’
‘All those recruits, sir. Dispersed into the ranks. And then…’
‘Poof.’
‘As you say and say well, sir.’
‘Whatever happened to your pond, Master Sergeant?’
‘Well, my pet water snake thrived for a while longer, until the pond dried up. Children have such grand dreams, don’t they?’
‘That they do, Master Sergeant. Until it all goes wrong.’
‘Indeed, sir.’
‘Until we meet again, Master Sergeant Pores.’
‘And a good night to you, too, Captain Kindly.’
It was him. I was fooling myself ever thinking otherwise. Who can explain love anyway? She slid the knife back into its sheath and pushed through the loose flaps of the tent, stepping outside and suddenly shivering as something cold slithered through the faint breeze.
The dark north flicks its tongue. Echoes of some unwanted rebirth-glad I’m not a mage. They had nothing to dance about this afternoon.