Through the Darkness

What Farkas did, at first, was put his head together with Kun. The sorcerer’s apprentice pointed east and a little south. Farkas nodded. He said, “Aye, I gauge that to be the proper direction, too. Now--you will be so good as to procure for me a spiderweb.”

Behind the lenses that helped them see better, Kun’s eyes widened. He gestured at the snowy landscape. “In this, sir?”

Farkas merely looked impatient. “Will you help me with all your heart, as you said, or will you fume and complain?”

Off Kun went, muttering under his breath, to paw through ferns and bushes and examine pine boughs. Istvan guessed he would be a long time volunteering again. To the sergeant’s amazement, he did find a web. “Here you are, sir,” he said, turning the mage’s title of respect to one of reproach.

Farkas said, “My thanks,” as if he’d expected nothing less from Kun. Istvan wouldn’t have wanted to be on the receiving end of the look Kun blazed at Farkas. But the military mage got to work without even noticing it. That made Kun angrier than ever. It would have angered Istvan, too. As far as the rich and powerful were concerned, common folk might as well have been beasts of burden.

Holding the scrap of web above his head, Farkas looked up to the sky through it. Part of his chant was in the old hieratic language of Gyongyos, which Istvan recognized but did not understand. Part was in another tongue altogether. In an interested voice, Captain Tivadar asked, “Is that Kaunian, from out of the east?”

“Aye,” Farkas answered, on reaching a point where he could stop. “It is a subtle tongue, and painful experience on the islands has taught us that we need subtlety to detect and neutralize this sorcery.”

He kept looking through the spiderweb. Istvan wondered if it let him see the holy stars despite daylight and cloud cover. If it did, what were the stars showing him?

Istvan got the answer to that in short order. “There are mages familiar with the nasty Kuusaman spell on that bearing.” Farkas pointed toward the southeast, not quite in the same direction Kun had before. He did some more incanting, this time all in hieratic Gyongyosian. Kun joined him in a few of the responses. If there was risk in what he did, Istvan couldn’t see it. At last, Farkas said, “The distance is just over a mile. Have we egg-tossers far enough forward to reach them?” His tone said Tivadar had better be able to produce such egg-tossers.

And Tivadar nodded. “Sir, we do.” He took a map from his belt pouch, studied briefly, and made a mark on it. When he showed Farkas the mark, the military mage nodded. Tivadar gave Szonyi the map. “Take this back to the tossers in the clearing. Tell ‘em to pound that spot with everything they have.”

“Aye, Captain.” Szonyi saluted and hurried away, the map clutched in his big fist.

Farkas said, “I notice that several men here have the identical scar on their left hands. What does it mean. Sergeant, would you tell me?” His golden-brown eyes speared Istvan.

Istvan spluttered and stammered. Ice walked up his back. Telling the truth was the last thing he wanted to do. His face heated; taken by surprise, he had trouble coming up with a plausible lie. Captain Tivadar did it for him, speaking in casual tones: “Some few of these veterans have sworn blood brotherhood, one with another. You see the marks from the wounds that went with the oaths.”

“Ah.” Farkas inclined his head in grave approval. “The marks of warriors.” “The marks of warriors.” Istvan found his tongue. “Aye, sir.” A few minutes later, eggs started bursting on--he hoped they were on--the Unkerlanter position. He hoped they slew those devious mages. Even so, he had the feeling he’d escaped worse danger from Farkas than anything the Unkerlanters could have given him. Goat-eater. No, the mark inside him would never go away.

Leudast’s leg twinged under him. He had the feeling he would be able to foretell bad weather with his wound as long as he lived. He still limped. But he could get around on the leg, and so the Unkerlanters had handed him a stick and thrown him back into the fight against the invaders.

As a sergeant, he’d been given a platoon, here in the low, rolling hills northeast of Sulingen. His company commander was a very young lieutenant named Recared. Recared was either impeccably shaved where most of his countrymen were bristly, or else, more likely, couldn’t raise a beard no matter what. Leudast missed Captain Hawart, missed him and wondered if he still lived. He doubted he’d ever find out.

Recared liked to hear himself talk. As night slowly and reluctantly yielded to day, he said, “You men know that, when the sun rises behind us, we attack.”

“Aye,” Leudast chorused along with the rest of the soldiers Recared was haranguing. He wished the lieutenant would shut up. If they didn’t know what they were supposed to do by now, one more lecture wouldn’t get it through their heads.