Sugar thought about her parents. If Mokad wasn’t stopped, she was sure that evil horn would be taken to every hollow and plain in the New Lands, and if Mother and Da had not already made their journey, what protections would they have? They’d be as helpless against the call as those souls today, leaping across the rooftops to their doom.
One of the soldiers sent to watch their rear came running up the road and reported that a kiteman was winging their way.
“He’ll have a harder time finding us if we split up,” Urban said.
Shim agreed, and they broke up into their respective hammers and moved out. Sugar went with Urban. He’d lost five of his crew on the streets, and it looked like Lamborn would be next. The shaft had gone right into his gut, and gut wounds did not heal well. Lamborn told them to leave him, but Urban wouldn’t hear of it and ordered him to stay on his mule.
They burned their Fire and jogged, Sugar keeping them headed in the right direction. One man stayed some distance ahead to scout their way. Another lagged behind to watch their backs. Sugar had been multiplied for many hours now, and a burning thirst was upon her, and she wasn’t the only one. When they came to a brooklet, all of them rushed to the clear water. Some of the men fell to their knees and scooped up the water with their hands. She knelt at the bank next to Soddam on a carpet of bright autumn leaves that were soft with moisture and slurped straight from the cold, delicious flow.
When she’d had her fill, she sat back on her haunches and wiped her mouth.
A few moments later Soddam sat back and smiled at her. “You did well today.”
She shrugged. The loss of men and the horrors she’d seen didn’t make her feel like celebrating.
“How’s your Fire?”
“Steady,” she said. “It flared once, just after we exited the cave, but I brought it in control.”
He nodded. “I’m still thinking about you and those maulers in that workshop. That was steel, girl. Hard steel.”
“Only because I knew a fearsome sleth had my back. How is the hand?”
He held it up. The bandages were bloody, but it looked like the bleeding had stopped and dried. “I’ve had worse,” he said.
She thought about him on the roof, the seafire and the men screaming in pain below as they burned. The sights and smells of burning flesh and the stink of seafire pressed in on her mind and sickened her.
“You look troubled,” he said.
“I’m just thinking about those men we burned today. I know it was us or them, and the Divines have to go, but I just can’t shake the faces. I can’t shake the feeling I’ve done some horrible thing. Some of them were probably good men. Had children or lovers they were faithful to. And that one in the hallway . . .”
“It was gruesome,” Soddam agreed. “That’s for sure. But is it worse than what the Divines did to the souls out on that field? Those Kains were ugly as sin and deserved to die. So does that Skir Master.”
“Even when they’re enthralled?”
“Especially when they’re enthralled. Being a thrall does not excuse their actions. Think about what they’re doing. The only way to stop them is to kill them.”
“I suppose you’re right,” she said, “although it doesn’t feel any better.”
He reached out and smoothed her hair, looping it behind her ear, and looked at her with his slit-iris eyes. “I have a daughter like you: all heart.” He was about to say more, but a look of pain flickered across his face, and he drew his hand away and looked to the side.
“You knew my mother from before,” Sugar said.
“Aye,” he said tossing a yellow leaf onto the water. “She was a fiery thing.”
“Was she in this crew?”
He laughed wryly. “Now, that would have been the sight. Her submitting to the likes of Urban. No, but she did help train him. She was a grand woman, open-hearted, destined for great things. I’m very sorry to hear how she died.”
Sugar wanted to hear more about what Soddam knew of her, but Urban approached. “It’s time to move,” he said and held some dreadman biscuits out to them.
Soddam took a few biscuits and rose. “I’ll take point,” he said.
Urban nodded.
Soddam turned Sugar. “We’ll talk later,” he said, then headed down the road.
Sugar accepted a biscuit and dipped it in the water to soften it a bit. “I wonder how much of our futures we’ve consumed with our Fire. It’s a strange thing knowing you’re hastening your end.”
Urban shrugged. “I tend to think it’s what you spend your days upon that matters. Not necessarily how many of them you have left. Those that forget that are the ones that go awry.”
Sugar pulled her biscuit out of the water. Dreadman biscuits were made with honey and fine milled flour and salt. Sometimes the bakers would mix in seeds. She bit down on this one and began to munch.
She said, “Soddam seemed quite distressed a moment ago.”
“About what?”
“His daughter.”
Urban nodded. “The sight of you probably causes him pain.”
“But why should that distress him? Has he been away from them long?”
“They’re dead. His wife, daughters, all of them butchered.”
“Oh,” Sugar groaned in sympathy.
“It would be nice if the world were neat and tidy,” he said. “Clean sheets, clean beds, pretty flowers. But it’s not.”
“He talked as if his daughter was still alive.”
“Let me ask you something. There are some who join the Grove and lose their way. They make a mistake. What happens to them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do. Your mother was one such.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She swallowed and took another bite of her biscuit.
“The Order has its discipline.”
“Well, there are rules.”
“Do you agree with them?”
“The lore is not something to be trifled with. I suppose it’s necessary.”
“Is it? Were they right to mark your mother for death?”
“She wasn’t marked,” said Sugar.
“Have you asked Argoth and Matiga? Did you think it was chance your mother was so sick after your encounter with the Devourer and the others were not? I would wager they decided on poison.”
“It’s not like that,” she said. “She’d been pierced through by arrows, and who knows what the Devourer did to her.”
He shrugged. “Maybe you’re right.”
“There’s a difference,” Sugar said, “between someone who makes a mistake and turns away from it and one who turns toward the sin with appetite.”
“How right you are,” he said. “But the Order doesn’t see it that way. It culls any member who has sinned against the light. It’s to preserve the rest of them, they say.”
Sugar didn’t know how to respond to that. This was the first Sugar had ever heard of this.
“Soddam made a mistake long ago,” Urban continued. “He lost his daughters and his wife for it. He suffered for his crime, but the Grove sent me to hunt him down. They always sent me. I found him living on roots and insects, haunting his wife’s grave. He looked like an animal, but he was a man, with a man’s heart, who made one mistake. It was very clear to see.”
“So they listened to you and spared him?”
Urban shook his head. “If only it were that easy. I decided not to carry out the orders they’d given me. They didn’t know about it, or they would have sent another. But it wasn’t the first time I’d chosen not to carry out their orders. And by the time they found out, it was too late.”
“You think the Order is wrong.”
“I think the Order has strayed a bit. Not all who sin deserve to die.”
“But surely some do. It sounds l
ike you just have a different measuring stick to determine who that is. And what says yours is the right measure?”
“That’s the question,” he said. “That’s the very heart of the matter.”
She suddenly wondered how many sleth he’d saved. “How big is your crew?” she asked.
“As big as it needs to be,” he said.
She thought about Withers and Soddam and the fact that Argoth had asked them to make their quarters outside the fortress. “You seek them out, don’t you? You seek out the fallen.”
“We rescue those we can.”
She thought about that and wondered what had started him on this path, wondered if he himself had fallen and some Grove had put a bounty on his head. Then her mind turned back to what he had said. Had Matiga and Argoth really ordered her mother’s death?
“Soddam said my mother trained you.”
“She was part of my father’s Grove.” He smiled, reminiscing. “I think we were all in love with her. And not just because of her looks. When everyone else in our Grove had determined to kill my brother, your mother spoke out against it. She went tooth and nail against my father.”
“Your brother?”
“My father killed him. Oh, he wept a river, but he killed him all the same. I vowed on that day never to bind myself in a similar manner.”
Sugar was speechless. She couldn’t imagine what that would have been like. She could no more kill Legs, or imagine Mother doing it, than she could fly to the moon.
“Soddam was once like your mother,” said Urban, “all fire and life. I hope one day he becomes that man again.”
Sugar’s mind whirled. Had Zu Argoth poisoned her mother? Is that why she had died when everyone else had survived?
They left the stream and followed the path Soddam had taken. As they ran, Sugar thought about Urban’s words. About a mile later they came to a hill that gave a wide view of the bay.
Up ahead, Soddam had stopped to wait for them.
“I thought you were on point,” Urban said.
“I sent Sniff ahead.” Then he pointed out at the water. Ships stretched out for miles. Dozens upon dozens of fighting and cargo ships, all making their way to the Blue Towers harbor. Sugar had never seen so many ships.
“How many do you calculate?” Urban asked.
“I’m thinking an army of forty to sixty thousand.”
Urban looked out at the ships, shook his head, and blew out a sigh.
“They already had a few thousand dreadmen coming to dock when we were there,” Soddam said.
“And a full ship of priests, skirmen, and lesser Divines with the Skir Master,” said Urban. “And Kains, and eyes in the skies, and who knows what else.”
“And look there,” Soddam said and pointed, “out past the big ship with the striped sail. Those are from Toth, which means there are more of those blighted dogmen out there.”
Urban turned to Sugar. “What do you think about Shim’s odds?”
Shim’s army had about six thousand men in it. A few terrors of dreadmen.“We’re outnumbered almost ten to one.”
“More than that with the Skir Master and his crew,” said Urban. “It’s going to be a slaughter.”
“But commander Eresh’s strategy,” Sugar said. “That’s exactly why we’re breaking up, to avoid a slaughter. We’ll hide. We’ll strike as we can.”
Urban said, “They’re going to raze every Shoka village. How long before Lord Shim’s own people give him up?”
“All we have to do is take out the Divines.”
Urban smiled. “Just like that, eh? With sixty thousand troops surrounding them, and every last one of them alert to our intentions now.”
It had to be possible. There had to be some way to sneak a hammer or two of dreadmen in.
Urban shook his head. “I truly wanted this to work.”
“We can still do it,” Sugar said.
“So says the great warlord Sugar.” Urban’s eyes took on a gentle look. “It’s important we face the facts. Not what we hope and wish might occur. Impossible odds are for fools; and you don’t want to be gambling with the lives of thousands. I’ve seen my fair share of battles,” Urban said. “This one is not going to end well.”
“Lord Shim—”
“Lord Shim is noble. He’s brave. But this is now nothing more than a glorious dream. The opportunity to build an army here has passed.”
“What are you suggesting?” she asked.
“Do you remember our discussion of an exit?”
“You’re just going to leave?”
“I’m surviving. It’s what I do.”
“You’re abandoning us.”
“I will not waste my men,” said Urban. “They have put their lives in my hands. Think about what’s going to happen when Mokad sends its thousands into Shoka territory to rape and pillage. Think about that horn and what’s going to happen to you and Legs and everyone else they slaughter. And I haven’t even started with the Bone Faces.”
“I can’t leave my friends.”
“No true friend would ask you to throw your life away.”
“So I just leave them?”
“Warn them.”
“What? Now you want me to start a revolt against Shim and Argoth?”
“No. Respect their agency. Let them make their own choice, but do not bind yourself to a lost cause. There’s more than just one Order. The Groves of Hismayas have done good things. But the Groves were made to support the people, not the other way around. Live and fight another day.”
Sugar couldn’t believe he was just turning his back on them. They needed every dreadman they could get.
“Shim took a high-risk gamble,” Urban said. “If we could have killed all the Kains, that would have shaken them. It would have put their dreadmen at risk. If we could have taken the Skir Master, they would have had to resort to traditional tactics. And we might have been able to harry them through the winter. But there’s nothing to stop them now. You think you can beat a hammer of dreadmen on your own? Because if we’re to win, that’s what every one of us will have to do. They’ll have Walkers watching the night, kitemen watching the skies by day. And there are already traitors among us.”
She turned to Soddam. “You agree with him?”
Soddam rubbed his beard. “I think we have twenty-four hours. And then Mokad will unleash its fury. Shim’s little army will be brained like so many rabbits. There won’t be one of us left to piss against the wall. Shim’s dream is now over.”
“You can’t just slink away,” Sugar said.
“I don’t plan on slinking,” said Urban. “I plan to talk to Argoth and Shim. But I already know what they’re going to say.”
39
Ferret’s Choice
SUGAR AND URBAN left the crew at the edge of the woods and jogged down the road that led across the field to Rogum’s Defense. They entered through the gates and were met by the smell of roasting meat and found the cooks feeding the last of the troops that had returned with Shim and Argoth at the great hall.
“Get yourself some food,” Urban said. “I’m going to talk to Argoth.”
Sugar was all too happy to get herself a bowl of swamp. She’d been multiplied for some time and was famished. She made her way over to the great hall, got a bowl, and let the cooks fill it. The thick stew was warm and savory and had large bits of fatty goat meat in it this time. She ate two bowls and a thick heel of bread, then made herself stop even though her hunger had not yet abated because she needed to look for Legs.
She found him up on the edge of the north parapet petting a big calico, one of the fortress’s cats. He sat on an embrasure between two merlons, his legs dangling over the edge of the wall. There were still a number of people in the fortress below, but not near as many as there had been earlier.
“I thought you’d
be by the gate waiting,” she said.
He looked up in her direction and smiled. “There was a lot of coming and going with the troops moving out, and I was only getting in the way.”
The calico cat nudged his hand with its head for another scratch. Legs scratched its head and said, “I heard the mission failed.”
“Not completely,” she said. “We killed a couple of Kains.”
“You should have taken Flax with you,” he said. “I don’t think Shim was smart to leave the only Divine killer behind.”
“Argoth hunted Divines once in his past.”
“If you’d taken Flax, you would have probably killed them all.”
“I see you’ve become one of his admirers.”
Legs shrugged. “You don’t need to be an admirer to see it was stupid to leave him.”
Sugar looked down the outside of the wall. It was a steep drop. “And I don’t know that this is a good place to sit. One bump and you’re over the edge. Come off of there.”
Legs helped the cat off his lap, then slid off the embrasure to the wall walk. “I’m weary of being left behind,” he said. “I want to fight. You and I could be our own fist.”
“We’ve only the one weave.”
“Flax says he might know how to make another.”
Flax again. “That’s a big promise, but I don’t see him much.”
“You’re not supposed to see him. He’s a spy. But he was here to kill that dreadman assassin, wasn’t he? It’s not easy to kill a slayer.”
“I suppose not,” she said. She looked at Legs and knew just what he was thinking. With a weave that would allow him to soulwalk, he could become a warrior. The Blind Warrior. That’s what they’d call him. And he could grow up to kill himself a slayer. Of course, it would take a number of years for him to train to become the fearsome thing he hoped to be. Right now he was just a boy. And if Urban was right, that’s all he would ever be. Yet another reason for her not to remain in a Grove that was going to be destroyed.
An insect moved on Legs’s hand. She looked closer and saw it was not an insect, but a ring that was black as flint. It shifted on his finger again. “What is that on your finger?” she asked a bit alarmed.
Curse: The Dark God Book 2 Page 37
