Rangers at Roadsend

by Jane Fletcher

  Katryn skidded to a stop. She stared around in confusion, realizing that she had drawn her sword in earnest for the first time and done nothing more than run down a hill, waving it about. Ellis would make a joke of it. Even as the thought went through Katryn’s head, the sergeant’s eyes turned in her direction. But before Ellis could say anything, Sergeant Takeda charged over. “Where the fuck were you?”

  “Obeying orders. What were you doing?” Ellis snapped back.

  “Why didn’t you attack on the signal?”

  Ellis paused. “We did.”

  “No, you didn’t. I know you, Ellis, and how you hang on to your record among the Rangers. You let my patrol—”

  Ellis cut in, raising her voice. “You went too early, hoping to claim all the kills. And now that you’ve been chewed up, you want to shift the blame.”

  “Chewed up!” Takeda almost screamed in outrage. “Yes, some of my girls have been chewed up, and I swear, if any of them are seriously hurt, you’ll pay for it.”

  Lieutenant Bergstrom, her face gray, arrived to hear the last exchange. “Ellis! Takeda!” Her voice cut through the argument. “This will be discussed at the proper time and in the proper way. Take charge of your patrols.”

  The two sergeants became aware of their audience. They both stepped back and looked around. Most of D Patrol was clustered around the spot where the large snow lion had been crouched. Takeda stalked over to join them. A short way off was another Ranger from D Patrol, swaying on her feet, her uniform soaked in blood, her eyes glazed. Takeda directed two Rangers to her assistance, but at first, the women of D Patrol seemed to be unwilling to disperse. Takeda literally had to push her subordinates into doing her bidding. As the tight knot of women separated, Katryn saw a figure lying unmoving on the ground.

  Jan had been standing close by the group, watching intently but making no move to intrude. Now she walked away, shaking her head. As she came closer, Tina muttered, “Who?”

  “Fitz. Dead.” Jan gave the terse answer.

  “Shit.” Tina stared down at the blood on her own sword, her lips compressed.

  Katryn stood to the side, feeling like a detached observer. She remembered Fitz from D Patrol complaining about her breakfast that morning, yawning as she saddled her horse, adjusting the collar of her cloak to keep her ears warm. Katryn’s eyes fixed on the bar of red clouds lining the horizon. The sun had dropped out of sight. The day was over.

  Jan came and stood close by Katryn. “Are you okay?”

  “Oh…yes, sure,” Katryn answered distractedly. “I didn’t get anywhere near a live lion.”

  Jan glanced back. Several members of D Patrol were crying. “It’s not a good start to active service.”

  “What went wrong?” Katryn needed the answers.

  “You were there. You’ve got as much idea as me.”

  “What did Takeda mean about Ellis’ record in the Rangers?”

  Jan’s mouth twisted. “Ellis has a lot of faults. But one thing she does well is keep her subordinates alive. Her patrol has the lowest injury rate in the entire Rangers.” Jan patted Katryn’s arm. “You may not have a nice time serving under her, but you stand the best chance of someday collecting your pension.”

  Chapter Twelve—Roadsend

  At the beginning of May, the 12th Squadron was posted to Roadsend. Katryn knew that regular shifts in scenery were part of life in the Rangers. The squadrons were rotated around all the bases covered by a division. It meant that by the time a woman reached the rank of sergeant, she was already familiar with the terrain throughout the region, rather than having to perform emergency reconnaissance during a crisis. It was also true that the authorities liked Rangers to be flexible, not overly attached to any location or to the women who lived there.

  The town of Roadsend was well to the south of Highview. The mountains were lower but no less rugged, carved into broken cliffs and canyons of red sandstone. Forests were confined mainly to the uplands; the valleys were stripped of trees. It was sheep country, with scattered flocks ambling over the scrubland. Roadsend had gotten rich on the trade in wool. Mutton stew was the staple food.

  The barracks were virtually identical in layout to those at Highview, although the site backed onto the river, and the position of the stores had been adjusted to take advantage of the loading wharf. The most obvious difference was that the buildings were made of brick and stone rather than wood. Within two days of arriving, the squadron had settled back into its old routines—routines that included Katryn spending the evening standing sentry duty at the gates of the barracks.

  Only in the most exceptional of circumstances did sentries fulfill a military role. Normally, the gates were unguarded. Sentry duty was used almost exclusively as a punishment, a boring way of wasting time, and everyone going in or out would see the woman and know that she had committed a disciplinary offense.

  Katryn found that aspect the hardest one to take. The loss of her free time was not so bad. She had no wish to go into town, get drunk and pick up a local woman, which appeared to be the only form of entertainment on offer. But she had spent so many nights at Highview on duty by the gates that by now, everyone in the squadron must believe her to be either incompetent or a troublemaker. She was halfway to doubting herself.

  That morning, Ellis had found fault with the state of Katryn’s kit and had canceled her free time for the evening. As she stood to attention by the gates, Katryn’s eyes drifted over the darkening hillsides surrounding the town while she went over the charges in her mind. All the equipment had been cleaned, polished and sharpened to the best of her ability. Katryn dared not do otherwise. But Sergeant Ellis had described her work as a disgrace.

  Katryn chewed on her lip. Was it possible that Ellis was right and her kit had been in so much worse a state than anyone else’s? No. Katryn closed her eyes. She knew that Ellis’ charge was simply unjust—and especially galling because Bo had spent less than half as long on the same task.

  Katryn’s thoughts were disturbed by the crunch of footsteps. “Are we awake here?” Ellis’ voice rang out.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Katryn replied sharply. It was unwise to assume any of Ellis’ questions to be rhetorical.

  The sergeant came to a halt in front of Katryn and looked her slowly up and down, a scowl of distaste twisting her features. “Why are you here?”

  “My kit was not prepared to an acceptable standard, ma’am.”

  Ellis took a half-step back; then her face shifted into a mocking grin. “That’s why I put you on sentry duty. But what I meant was, why are you still here?”

  “Ma’am?” Katryn was confused.

  “I told you to stand duty for two hours,. You’ve been here three.”

  “I…” Katryn bit back her words. Ellis had originally stated her duty as being for the entire evening; Katryn was certain of it. But there was no point in arguing or calling in others as witness. It was just Ellis’ idea of a joke.

  “Of course, if you want to stay here all night, you can.” Ellis threw the words over her shoulder as she started to walk away. “But you’ve got to be bright and alert for tomorrow. I’m sending you out with Corporal Sivarajah on patrol.” Her voice was fading, but Katryn could still make out the last sentences. “I won’t start crying if she doesn’t bring you back, but that’d be too much to hope for. A few days without you will have to do.”

  Katryn glared at the sergeant’s back as it faded into the dusk. “And I’m sure you won’t enjoy those days without me half as much as I’ll enjoy the days without you,” she whispered under her breath. Then, as though the word were an obscenity, she spat out, “Ma’am!”

  *

  The site Jan chose for their camp the first night verged on the idyllic. A stream gurgled down a narrow valley sheltered by fragrant fir trees. The thick grass was as springy as a mattress. Through breaks in the branches, the rich blue sky was speckled with the first stars. The only sounds were the water, the breeze over the treetops, the chomping of the hors
es and the crackle of the campfire. Best of all, no one was there apart from the two of them. However, as the light faded, Katryn found herself growing uneasy and repeatedly having to fight the urge to peer over her shoulder.

  “You worrying about what’s creeping up behind you?” Jan asked, grinning, clearly amused.

  Katryn jumped guiltily. “I…um…well…” She swallowed. “I’ve only been out in the wilderness in large groups before, and I guess I…” Her voice died.

  “Think we might be outnumbered by a pride of snow lions?”

  “No,” Katryn said quickly. There had been none of the malicious ridicule that Ellis would have put into the words, but she did not want to give the other Ranger grounds to think she was a coward or a fool. “I know they’ll all have gone back north by now. And it would have to be a very hard winter to push them this far south to start with. The largest predators are going to be mountain cats, and they aren’t likely to be a problem at this time of year, with plenty of their natural prey availa—”

  Jan cut her off with a laugh. “It’s all right. I was teasing you, not testing you.”

  Katryn closed her eyes and sighed. There was no need to get defensive, but it was starting to become a habit with her. She pulled her lips into a lopsided grin. “I was just trying to show that I hadn’t slept through all my training classes.”

  “Very wise, too. They’ll be an unending source of amusement as you remember them in years to come. Like, when you’re being chased by three mountain cats in February, you can shout out, ‘Shouldn’t you be hibernating?’”

  “With all due respect, in those circumstances, I think I might save my breath for running.” Katryn matched Jan’s smile, feeling more relaxed.

  “You know, I think you’re right.” Jan feigned earnestness. “The time it happened to me, I did wait until I was safely up a tree before instructing them in proper behavior.”

  “So what else didn’t they tell us about mountain cats that I should know?”

  “They’re far more timid than snow lions and much smarter. They usually run from people, and they can smell that they can’t eat us. The only ones that’ll try are ill; maybe they’ve lost their sense of smell. So watch out for cats with runny noses.” Jan’s tone was not entirely serious. “The only time they’re generally dangerous is in a month or two, when the females are coming into heat and the mature males are staking out territory. The younger males form packs to harass them and squabble among themselves and pick fights with anything else that blunders their way. They mark the area with an oily secretion that smells like”—Jan wrinkled her nose—“rancid cider. So if ever you’re on your own and you catch a whiff of it, it means you should be somewhere else. The youngsters mainly stick to the backwoods, but once in a while, a pack causes mayhem in an outlying farm.”

  “It doesn’t sound like there is much need for a full squadron of Rangers to be stationed here permanently.”

  “Don’t get that idea. Roadsend can be a very lively posting—or should I say very deadly?”

  “What causes the problems?”

  “Nothing with four legs. Sheep country is bandit country—as the 12th has found out in the past. It’s due to size. If you kill someone else’s sheep, you can pick up the whole carcass and walk off with it—not like a cow. Or if you want to keep the stolen sheep alive, there are hundreds of canyons where you can hide a flock for years. Shear them, and there’s no way anyone can tell where the wool came from.”

  “The 12th has had run-ins with gangs around here?”

  “Oh, yes.” Jan poked at the fire and then raised her eyes to meet Katryn’s. “Really major trouble. Almost wiped out the squadron.”

  “What!”

  “Thirteen…going on fourteen years ago. It’s part of the tradition of the 12th. I’m surprised no one has mentioned it to you before.”

  Nobody talks to me, Katryn thought but did not say.

  “The only survivors still left in the squadron are Ellis and Bergstrom. Although the Roadsend quartermaster, Gill Adebayo, was a corporal in the 12th at the time.”

  “What happened?”

  Jan pursed her lips. “There was a gang leader who called herself ‘the Butcher.’ Everyone else added the word ‘mad.’ She even scared the other thieves. She managed to get control of all the criminal activity in the area. Then she started extorting money from the town, which was her first mistake. The other crooks couldn’t inform on her without implicating themselves, but the shopkeepers had too much to lose. Someone made a map of where the Butcher had her hideout, and a raid was planned, but word was leaked to the gang. If the Butcher had been sane, she’d have fled. Instead, she arranged an ambush, and the 12th walked straight into it. It was a massacre. Twenty-one Rangers were killed, and another six were badly injured.”

  “Twenty-one lost!” Katryn was horrified.

  “And four of the injured never returned to active service.”

  “Did the Butcher escape?”

  “She did on that day. But of course, Central HQ immediately sent every Ranger it could muster to Roadsend—eight full squadrons. Within two months, every member of the gang was either captured or dead. And those who were captured didn’t last much longer. They were tried and hanged in the market square.”

  “Do we know who leaked the warning to the gang?”

  “No.” Jan shook her head. “Maybe a Ranger was engaging in unwise pillow talk or bragging as part of her flirting technique. Chances are, whoever it was paid with her life. I don’t think the survivors were questioned too hard. They’d been through enough.”

  “It must have been bad luck that so many died.”

  “From what I’ve heard, it was more like good luck that any escaped. The gang knew the time and date of the raid and the route the squadron was going to take. They picked their spot. It was only because of Ellis that the massacre wasn’t complete.” Jan’s expression hovered between awkwardness and defensiveness. Then she shrugged and went on. “I can understand if you find that hard to believe, but as I told you before, the one thing Ellis can do well is keep people alive. When all hell breaks loose, she keeps her head and makes the right decisions quickly. No one has ever seen her panic.”

  “And that makes her a good sergeant?” Katryn asked bitterly.

  “No. She’s a bloody awful one.”

  “Then why…?” Katryn did not need to finish her question.

  “Because of the massacre. Ellis was only a Leading Ranger at the time. However, the Butcher had planed her ambush well. The captain and lieutenant were the very first to be killed. Utter chaos broke out, and the squadron became split. Ellis ended up in a group without any sergeants. I think there were a couple of corporals, but they were either wounded or panicking, so Ellis took charge and got most of the group out alive.

  “Afterward, Central HQ had to decide what to do with the 12th. There were only nine able-bodied Rangers left. They considered disbanding the squadron and assigning the survivors elsewhere, but in the end, they rebuilt the 12th. That’s when I came in as a new recruit. Dolokov was transferred over from the 8th as a sergeant. There are a few more of us around from that initial draft. Because Ellis had done so well during the ambush, she was promoted straight from Leading Ranger to sergeant. I suspect that if the captain or lieutenant or any of the old sergeants had survived, there might have been objections raised, but there was no one who could comment on her suitability for the post.”

  “In all these years, has nobody had second thoughts?”

  “You have to serve under Ellis to realize just how bad she is. She looks better from above. I think the previous captain knew she was less than perfect, but there were no incontestable grounds for disciplinary action.”

  Katryn stared grimly into the fire. “That never stops Ellis.”

  Jan reached over and patted Katryn’s shoulder. “I know you’re having a rough time. It’s Ellis’ way of keeping discipline. There’s always one member of her patrol who’s out of favor. It’s intended to kee
p the rest of us on our toes so we don’t end up swapping places. Before you arrived, Bo Hassan was the main victim, and she largely deserves it. She’s a lousy soldier. Sloppy. The Goddess alone knows how she passed her entrance tests. The rest of the patrol are okay—or would be with a better sergeant.

  “Sal drinks too much, which should’ve been stamped on years ago. Ellis has let it get worse and worse. Maybe she thinks an alcoholic will be easier to intimidate. Tina bottles things up and then explodes. She needs someone to give her direction.

  “Nikki is young and blusters. It’s due to insecurity, which is understandable in our patrol, but in a few months, she’ll get her Leading Ranger badge, and then she’ll calm down. And Pat’s competent, although not too bright.”

  “She seems sharp enough.”

  “She’s got a pretty face, and she’s taught herself to say little and look as if she’s having profound thoughts, but…” Jan broke off, shaking her head. “She’s the most one-dimensional person I’ve ever met.”

  “That must be a useful mental trait when you’re sleeping with Ellis.”

  Jan snorted in amusement. “True. No matter who she’s in bed with, the only woman Pat will ever love is herself. It’s one of life’s ironies. Pat is good-looking enough to have any woman she wants, and she’s too self-centered to notice anyone else. She agrees to sleep with Ellis, as it guarantees her place in the sergeant’s good books.”

  “So that’s what I’ve got to do,” Katryn said sarcastically.

  Jan looked at her in sympathy. “I’m afraid your case is hopeless. It’s your own fault.”

  Katryn glanced up sharply. Did Jan think there was any truth in Ellis’ accusations? “I try my best.”