As she made her way to the second floor, Kate read over the paper she had been handed.
Kestrel Squad. Sergeant, Farris Cholan.
Platoon 31. Lieutenant, Dar Nosan.
Company K. Captain, Cornac Wills.
Battalion 3. XO, Major Gregori Lent.
Battalion 3. Commander, Colonel Astor Delamere.
Regiment 1. General, Yael Stone.
She turned the paper over to see if anything else was written there. There was not. Six names was not too many to learn quickly. She read over them again and began testing herself on memorizing them.
A mid-sized room at the end of the western hallway was marked Kestrel Squad. Kate unslung the pack from her shoulders and searched for an empty bunk. She found one in the corner of the room, far from any window. It suited her dark mood, so she threw her gear down and looked around.
No one else was present, but most of the bunks seemed to be claimed. Those that were not had unlocked and open trunks at the end of the bed.
It only took her a few minutes to stow her gear in the trunk and lock it, pocketing the key. She had seen the supply depot on the way in and wanted to get her armor and whatever else she needed before lines started to form.
She thought it was kind of eerie that there were not more people around but then realized it was lunchtime and figured most soldiers not on duty would be in the dining halls. All the better for her to get her gear issued quickly so she would have more time later to look around and to prepare for her gate duty the next day.
She had been correct about mealtime being responsible for the lack of activity. After getting fitted for her standard issue chain mail with five full uniforms and stowing those with her other things, people began appearing. They didn’t acknowledge her, other than a few men who stopped to ogle her as she passed.
Just as well. Whether it was normally like that or word of her being a noble had spread before her arrival, she didn’t care. She could do without acquaintances if it meant avoiding another situation like the one with her former squad and Charity.
By the evening meal, her stomach was growling. She had meant to go to the dining hall to get something to tide her over, but she got so caught up in exploring the city, time got away from her.
The main dining area was a massive chamber with benches enough to seat at least two thousand people, she guessed. Phileas had told the new soldiers that with their numbers added to the Order, there were six thousand, nine hundred thirteen members of the Order. Unless the gate had opened since the last tally, of course, which would most likely mean there were fewer. So, about a third of the Order could eat at any one time.
All around her, people talked about the gate. It hadn’t opened in more than a month, and stories of combat with the demons were told at a fevered pitch. She noticed that the new Order soldiers were especially active in either telling or in listening to the tales.
It occurred to her that most of the recruits had never used a real sword in combat. Furthermore, none of them had ever seen a demon that wasn’t caged. Except for her, of course. She was intimately familiar with how the demons looked and moved when they were not bound. She fingered the firestone necklace under her tunic. How much difference did the stone make? Could she hurt a demon—even with a good steel sword—without the effects of a firestone? She had been told she could not. She wondered what would happen when the Order ran out of the magical talismans.
Someone sat next to her on the bench. She raised her eyes and recognized the boyish face attached to the body frozen halfway to sitting down.
“Wilfred,” she said with no inflection.
“Uh…yeah, hi.” He swallowed twice, still hovering above the bench. “Can I sit here? I mean, um, is it taken?”
Kate shifted her gaze to the empty benches to all sides of her and chuckled. “You seem to have caught me at a time in between when all my friends are massing around me.”
“Uh, yeah?” She wasn’t sure if it was a question, but she remained silent. He finally took it to mean that he could sit.
“So,” she said. “Blue, huh?”
“Yeah. It’s a good thing. You know how bad I am at all that fighting and stuff.”
“I remember.”
“For what it means, I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you more when we were in the same squad,” he said. “Arronax told me he would ‘crush that pitiful thing you call a brain’ if I did. Arronax was really strong. I didn’t want my head crushed.”
“I understand. It’s better that you didn’t, or maybe you would have been killed by the demons too.”
Wilfred visibly shuddered as he scooped a bite of food into his mouth. “That was horrible. Well, all except what you did. How did you kill five demons at a time with only a rake?”
She didn’t really want to think about it. “Just lucky, I guess.”
“Yeah, right. Lucky. The same luck that allowed you to beat everyone in the class, even when they came at you four or five at a time.”
“I have trained at fighting for years, Wilfred,” she said. “It was kill them or be killed. I have other things I want to do in life still. I wasn’t about to let those filthy monsters take all of that away.”
“Yeah, well, it was amazing,” he said. “Anyway, I hope you don’t have any hard feelings about me not talking to you. It was a bad thing.”
“It is all in the past. There is no one to tell you not to talk to me now, so why don’t we just start over?”
Wilfred’s eyes lit up. “Yes. That would be grand. Ahem. Please let me introduce myself, my fellow Order soldier. I am Wilfred Gaylord Lisney, of the Blue.”
Kate laughed but set her fork down and shook her head, causing her hair to settle back away from her face. “Why, it is wonderful to meet you, Wilfred Gaylord Lisney. I am Kate Courtenay, of the Red. It is my pleasure to meet you.” She reached her hand out and he shook it, chuckling.
Wilfred grew more serious as he dropped her hand. “First gate duty tomorrow. Be careful, Kate. I’ve heard stories of what it’s like. Pure hell. Literally.”
“I know. I’ve been hearing them. We’ll have to get used to it sooner or later. It is what we do in the Order. At least, it’s what the Red do.”
Wilfred’s mouth dropped into a frown, and his eyes grew liquid.
“No, no,” Kate said. “I wasn’t insulting you for being Blue. The Blue are definitely necessary. They drag us out of the battle when we’re injured and help to heal us, not to mention supplying us with what we need during the battle. They’re an integral part of the effort.”
“Do you really feel that way?”
“Of course. Without the Blue, this whole place would grind to a halt, and no one could fight.”
A small smile returned to the young man’s face. “Thank you. A lot of the Red don’t see it that way. I’ve already been called names and pushed around today, and we’ve only been here a few hours. It really made me feel bad about how you were treated during training.”
“I know how it feels,” Kate said. “Maybe it’ll get better. Just remember that most of these people aren’t worth getting upset over. We are here to do the Order’s work. Anyone who helps out is our brother or sister. If anyone gets too rough, you let me know. I’ll…talk to them.”
Wilfred’s smile widened at that. “Thank you, Kate. That makes me feel much better.”
“We have to stick together,” she said.
They talked for a while longer, the other conversations around her fading into the background. It was nice, being able to talk to a person without worrying about them trying to lay a verbal trap for her. Wilfred didn’t have a devious bone in his body, so it was like talking with the younger brother she never had. When she finally got back to her bunk, she went to sleep without delay, despite how anxious she was about the next day.
The start of her career in the Order, the real start, was to begin the following day. She had made it. Her dream of being a member of the Order of the Fire had been fulfilled.
Now
she just needed to survive.
17
In the morning, Kate joined the rest of the squad at their designated place on the practice field. A familiar face was there, this time with an orange cloak covering his uniform. Though many of the uniforms were the same color as the command to which the person belonged, the orange—the sergeant classification—was mercifully bland, nearly the natural leather color along with the chain mail. Kate’s uniform, like all the Red, had the leather dyed a deep scarlet color.
“You,” she said to the man who had given her directions the day before. “You’re our sergeant?”
He smiled at her as he had the day before. In fact, it was exactly as it was the day before. It didn’t reach his eyes. The more she looked at it, the more it looked like a mask.
“I am. My name is Farris Cholan. Sergeant Cholan to you, though.” He turned toward the rest of the squad, all fifteen men, and raised his voice. “All right, everyone form up. We’re going to get some grub, and then we have gate duty.”
Kate got in rank with the rest of them, feeling out of place. Not only was she the only woman, but she was a raw rookie. Thankfully, she noticed two of the others looking around, trying to emulate the veterans. That made her feel a bit better.
Breakfast was better than what she had been fed at the fortress during training. There were real eggs, thick slices of ham, hot bread, and a porridge that, while looking something like what she had been eating for months, tasted much better. She washed it down with water and pomegranate juice.
When it was time, the sergeant formed them up again and started them marching toward their duty.
They went through the walls by way of a small gate at the rear of the fortifications. Once clear of the walls, Kate saw their path. Hidden from view of anyone standing in front of the city, there was a road going slightly downward. It went on for not much more than half a mile and dropped in elevation maybe thirty feet before flattening out at the end, just below a set of massive stairs.
The steps were carved into the rock of the plateau itself, flanked by two sheer cliffs that had been hewn to provide a narrow bottleneck. The stairs gradually climbed to the flat hilltop where the gate rested.
“The Great Stair,” the sergeant said as they made their way toward it. “Much better than slogging up the hill as they had to do until the stairs were carved.”
It was early enough that the sun had barely cleared the horizon. Its slanting rays hit the black monstrosity in front of them but didn’t illuminate it. The ground itself was lighted, but somehow the black stone—or metal, or whatever the gate was made of—ate the light, drew it in and destroyed it.
Kate’s eyes slid back to the staircase. From where she was, it looked to be at least twenty or thirty feet wide, the rock walls pressing in on it from both sides and leaving no room between the carved steps and the cliffs.
To her, it looked like a death trap.
“Ah,” Cholan said. “I understand you excelled in strategy at the fortress. I see that you understand at least that much. To be caught on the staircase when the gates open would be…let’s say disadvantageous.
“The Order could have torn down the cliffs, of course, rounded the entire hill off, made it less of a risk. But then the demons could have simply flanked our forces when they poured out of the gate, and we would not have a chance to contain them.
“All accounts say that there are many more of them than there are of us.”
He paused, watching Kate as if to judge her reaction.
She nodded.
He nodded as well. “So, it is better to have the bottleneck there. The other parts of the hill are sheer drops and inaccessible from the gate. There are always troops at the top. Always. When we relieve those up there now, they will wait for us to get in place and then, only then, will they leave.
“If there is one thing you must remember, Kate Courtenay, Red Cloak of the Order, it is that there must always be Order soldiers at the gate, without fail. The day we fail in that is the day demons get loose and wreak havoc upon our world.”
He stared into her eyes as he said it, that eerie smile on his face.
“I understand, Sergeant,” she said.
“Good.” He turned and walked back to the front of the squad, talking with the three sergeants of the other squads in her platoon.
All told, there were fifty-eight Red soldiers in platoon thirty-one. Four other platoons joined them as well. They would make up the line should the demons open the gate. Looking back at the stair and the gate itself, Kate wondered if it was enough. It would have to be, at least until reinforcements could arrive.
There were provisions for that, of course. Watchers in the towers would report immediately through the use of bells and horns if the gate opened. Before the first sword fell or the first flight of arrows was loosed, standby units would be mustered to reinforce the soldiers on the line. The Order had been doing this a long time. They knew their business.
Kate didn’t look around at the others she was marching next to, though a few of them tried to get a better look at her. She focused on the stairs as they ascended, and how the gate loomed above them when they finally reached the flat top of the hill.
“Halt,” Sergeant Cholan shouted, and he was echoed by the other sergeants bringing their own squads to a stop. “At ease,” he said, and the soldiers dropped into a parade rest stance. It wasn’t really being at ease, but at least it wasn’t standing at attention. Kate stood, like the others, with her legs spread just wider than her shoulders and with her hands clasped loosely behind her back, under the bottom edge of her shield.
They had practiced staying in this position for long periods of time during training. Now she knew why. The sun rose and pushed its rays at them, but the air was cool, so it wasn’t all that uncomfortable.
They waited.
Every hour or so, the Blue would come and offer them water. Kate knew enough to always take at least a little. Every four hours, they brought food as well. Trips to the privy were allowed, if frowned upon, but that was another thing she had trained for. Dante used to require her to regulate her food and liquid intake but never told her why. She hated it then, but now she was thankful.
Three of the four-hour blocks and not so much as a rumble of the gate. Their relief came up the hill, and Kate’s platoon went back down the stairs, their day’s duty done.
One of the first things Kate had done once she settled in was to search out the large firestones that protected the entire plateau. They were larger than the ones at Faerdham Fortress, and there were four of them. They were under guard at all times, four Order soldiers on watch to make sure nothing happened to them. A lapse in coverage here, so close to where the demons entered the world, could be catastrophic.
She was required to serve three days in a row, and then they were off for three days. The triads alternated, with one being day shifts and the next night. It became a habit, three days of doing nothing but standing at the gate and then sleeping, and then three days off, trying to catch up on sleep and training to keep from losing her conditioning. She spent much of her spare time wandering the area around the walled city or reading in the library.
And as it went on, they continued to wait.
And the gate stood there, closed. Taunting them.
Sometimes, it seemed like it would be better if the gates would simply open and pour the demons out into them. The waiting was interminable and the anticipation horrible. Kate was sure she’d be sorry she wished for combat once it came, but doing nothing felt like it was squeezing the life out of her.
Kate and her platoon has suffered through two weeks of the endless boredom, the energy-draining anxiety that came from watching the huge doors and nothing happening. Two days into a three-day rotation, they were standing and watching the gate, as normal. Kate shifted her weight from foot to foot every minute or two to keep the muscles from tightening up.
She made it a game to see how long she could stare ahead, tracing the designs on the
gate, and wondering what the runes meant. The Order had no doubt studied them, but no one had ever told her what they meant, or even if the Order knew. She would have to ask about them on her next three days off. She hadn’t been able to find anything about them in the library. Yet.
Two and a half hours into her shift, a vibration radiated up into Kate’s feet. She swung her head around at the others surrounding her. Many were chatting quietly with their neighbors while trying to look like they were not talking. No one seemed to be reacting. Maybe she had imagined it.
She tightened and loosened her leg muscles and rolled onto the balls of her feet to loosen up. When she settled back into her parade rest stance, she felt it again. Stronger.
She observed those around her carefully. Didn’t they feel the shaking? Was it the precursor to a quake? Her gaze finally found Sergeant Cholan. He was staring intently at the center of the gate, his mouth moving like he was chewing something invisible. Or talking to himself.
One more shake, this one more of a thump, ran through the ground and to Kate’s feet.
“Sergeant?” she said. He turned his pale blue eyes to her and nodded as if he had just received confirmation of something.
“Form up!” he shouted so abruptly that Kate jumped. Most of those around her did, too. “Incoming.”
The eyes of all those around her were glued to the gates now. All talking had stopped, except for the other sergeants yelling their own commands. Every soldier on the line jumped to attention, waiting for their orders.
Lieutenant Dar Nosan, a wiry man with long hair, half-black and half-grey, strode up to the platform at the side of the top of the stairs. His light hazel eyes stood out against his dark hair and sun-darkened face, even at a distance. Kate had not talked with the man personally, but he seemed to be a stickler for rules. Good. That was what they needed right now.
Call of Fire Page 13
