Soldiers' Redemption (First Cohort Book 1)

by M. R. Anthony

  After two days, I had the remainder of my lady’s army brought into the city itself and barracked in suitable accommodation. Gold was used to hosting thousands more of these guests than we brought with us, so even the destruction of the dedicated barracks buildings was little impediment, and the town absorbed us comfortably.

  For any other town, the burden of supporting so many men would have quickly become a problem. Here, it was not. Supply lines had long been established, to ferry in foodstuffs from the coast. For now, news had not travelled far enough that the supplies stopped coming. We would have quickly run out of the money to pay for them, but Corporal Knacker and a few of my men discovered a chest of Royals in Captain Garg’s old lodgings – he’d taken over a building adjacent to the original barracks that Bonecruncher had once inhabited, which had escaped the fire. Corporal Knacker also found two of the communication necklaces that I had once worn myself. As soon as I saw them, I struck them with the pommel of my dagger until the mirrors shattered and their chains broke. Then I asked for them to be thrown into the river which ran through Gold. I didn’t know if Warmont could do more than just speak through these mirrors and I didn’t have any desire to find out.

  For almost a week, I was busier than I would have liked at tasks which were an unwanted part of my captaincy. During this time, I established a certain amount of order over the town, and the information which reached me said that already things were returning to normal, whatever that meant. The capacity for humanity to recover from its wounds never ceased to amaze me.

  I saw little of our lady, though spoke to Ploster once or twice. He advised me that the Saviour spent much of her time walking through the town’s streets, even into the poorest areas at the outskirts. I knew this – I would have been entirely remiss in my duties had I not – and had arranged for Eyeball and Twist to be with her at all times, even if she wasn’t aware of their presence. I’d also assigned four of my best men as well as Lieutenant Faye to her company at all time, ignoring her protestations that she was safe amongst her people. I’d felt the resistance amongst the town’s poorest to her aura of hope. In order for her to magnify their hope, they had to have some of it in the first place. I’d seen enough to think that many of the denizens of Gold were bereft of any longing other than fulfilling their own bodily requirements. There’d be plenty of them who’d try and stick a knife into her if they thought her clothes would look better on them, or for nothing more than the infamy of having killed the Saviour. Still, Dag’Vosh had taken a lot of killing – it may have been that our lady would not be so easily dispatched, but I had no intention of finding out.

  Ploster also told me that he continued with her tuition. As he talked, he became enthused, his eyes lighting up in a way I had not seen since we first pledged ourselves to the Saviour in her village.

  “Her power...it’s unbelievable,” he said. “I have not seen the like before.”

  “How would she fare against Gagnol or Dag’Vosh if they still lived?” I asked. He’d not answered immediately, and when he did I could tell that he was being evasive.

  “Her power is different,” he told me. “There is nothing evil about it. It does not seek to bend others to her will through force or threat. It simply shows them what could be and invites them to join her. To join with all of us.”

  I nodded at this. “When she was faced by Bonecruncher inside the walls of Treads, she told me that she held off from using her magic. That it was more important that the men beside her were tested by struggle, rather than coming to rely on magic to win every battle. I have pondered this on the road, Jon. I do not think the Saviour is here to kill our enemies for us, more to unite us and show how we can do it ourselves.”

  I could tell that Ploster had thought similarly. “I am certain you are correct, Tyrus. One day there will be no more Saviour. If we accomplish what we need to with her magic as a crutch, underlying every victory, where is the worth in what we will have achieved? The triumph will not belong to everyone, it will belong to her, regardless of the men and women who died along the way. And what happens when she is gone? The people will be afraid to act without a Saviour or a figurehead. We will have learned nothing.”

  “It is a pity that Warmont or the Emperor are not possessed of such noble ideals,” I said drily. “They will not hesitate to throw the worst of their sorcery at our men.”

  “It can only be a test for us, Tyrus,” he said. “Our enemy exists to temper us in the flames of their hatred. We will come out of it stronger and these lands will know peace for a thousand years!”

  When Ploster referred to we, I knew that he talked about humanity as a whole, rather than just the men of the First Cohort. He sounded more driven and certain than I had ever found him – our lady’s cause was now more important to him than his loyalty to the First Cohort. After he’d left me, I sat in quiet contemplation of our conversation. After all these years where there had been nothing but our unit, with our loyalty only to ourselves, it was strange to imagine that it had been so quickly diminished in importance. Though I looked within myself, I could find no reason to be concerned that I felt the same as Ploster. Perhaps the only way to our redemption was to accept that we were but a tiny part of a much greater and more important whole.

  Some days after that meeting with Ploster, I saw our lady again. Time had already started to blur into a morass of duties and orders, blending together and taking up all of my days. It was fortunate that I needed little sleep and that my stamina remained unbowed by the pressures of responsibility.

  In the intervening days, we’d killed another forty of the Duke’s soldiers, half of whom had evaded detection since we’d entered the town, and another half who’d tried to filter back into Gold so that they could slip into anonymity. I hadn’t known if they intended anything malign, but they were quickly reported and identified. When I was told that they’d all been killed, I didn’t spare the matter much thought.

  I’d also managed to get a complete roster of the men who had defected from Captain Garg and there were eleven hundred and fifty-seven. I performed my due checks and was satisfied with their loyalty and their capability. I kept Lieutenant Trovis in command. He’d shown himself to be perfectly incisive after my initial misgivings and I liked his company when I got the opportunity.

  We had reached something of a wall in front of us and it was this which our lady came to speak to me about.

  “What do we do now, Captain Charing?” she asked. I didn’t doubt that she already had some ideas of her own and had come to see if mine tallied with hers. Even the Saviour liked the support of having someone else in agreement with her – occasionally, at least.

  “The men you asked me to send out to Septic, Bunsen and Demox have not yet returned. I would not expect them to get back for at least another ten days. Whether they will bring us good news or not, I wouldn’t like to guess,” I told her.

  “All the world is waiting and holding its breath,” she said.

  “It is a romantic notion,” I replied with a smile. “In reality, the Duke will be marshalling as many of his men as he dares, and conscripting thousands more.”

  “Will winter slow him down?” she asked.

  “I doubt he will wait. Did you get much snow at your village? We aren’t so far south that the climate will be much different.”

  “We had snow, but not so much that it lasted all the winter. There was rain, mostly. Lots and lots of rain.”

  “It will be mostly rain we see here as well, my lady. There will be chill, some of it bitter, but nothing that will give a determined commander any pause.”

  “If you were a gambling man, would you say that we will see any reinforcements from the coastal towns?”

  “If they declare themselves against the Duke, then I would expect to them to help. Whether it will be enough, I don’t know. What they need is to see the Saviour walk amongst them, so that the rumours they will hear of you become incontrovertible.”

  “I’m glad that you think so, Ca
ptain Charing. That is why I shall be leaving in the morning in order that I can see to it personally.”

  My mouth opened and then closed. “I understand,” I told her. “You will take fifty of my men with you, as well as Jon Ploster. Lieutenant Faye will also go, as well as five hundred of the Bunsen Regiment. They’ll be happy to see their homes and will march all the quicker for it.”

  “Thank you Captain Charing. We will complete the journey as quickly as we can. I have already spoken to Lieutenant Craddock about it and he estimates it will take as much as forty days for me to visit each of Septic, Bunsen and Demox and then return to Gold. Will Duke Warmont reach here before I have time to return?”

  I sighed, something I’d found myself doing too much of recently. It only happened when I’d been away from action too long. “He may do, my lady. It depends how he chooses to act.”

  “What about his dragon?” she asked. “Will he send that to ravage Gold as it has done to Treads and Farthest?” Word had reached us only two days before about the destruction that Xoj-Fal the Wyrm had wrought upon those two towns. If the reports were true, the names of Treads and Farthest could be scratched off any maps upon which they appeared.

  “I know some things about the beast, my lady, but I have only seen it a handful of times” I told her. “It is a vicious creature, mindless in its destruction, but cunning. It is why Warmont has kept it slumbering for so long. As a tool, it is brutally effective, but I think that the Duke worries about his control over it. He calls it his First to placate its pride, but he cannot use it for anything meaningful beyond sending it out to destroy.”

  “If he has roused it now, then the Duke must be fearful of the events he imagines will come.”

  “Do not take it as a sign of weakness, my lady. Everyone has resources they can call upon. The appearance of the Wyrm does not mean that the Duke is hard-pressed, simply that he takes your threat seriously. Warmont was never a man to conquer with a thousand men when he could send in ten thousand instead. He likes the violence.”

  “Where will his First be now?” she asked.

  “It may have flown back to Spite, to await further instructions, assuming it deigns to follow the path which Warmont sends it on. I have heard that it is as capricious as it is dangerous and that only its fear of the Emperor keeps it in check. If it has returned to its cave, then we may have some time. It does not fly quickly, and is ponderous in the air.”

  “Can your men kill it, Captain Charing?”

  “I hope not to fight it, my lady, though it now seems certain that we will do so. I would prefer if you returned with a thousand longbowmen so that we could fill it with arrows and kill it before it lands.”

  “I would prefer that too,” she said, not pressing the matter any further. “What happens if we repulse Warmont’s attack on us?” We both knew it was inevitable that the attack would come. “Might he appear in battle himself so that we can cut the head from his shoulders?”

  “There are many cards yet to be played from his hand before we find out the answer to that one, my lady. And you can be certain that the Emperor is looking over the Duke’s shoulder, peering at the events here as they unfold. The war ahead of you is a long one, but a lengthy campaign is the best you can hope for.”

  “Because if it is short, it will mean that we have been defeated,” she said softly.

  Twenty-One

  The next morning, events moved rapidly. I’d arranged for the requisite number of soldiers to be mustered to form our lady’s bodyguard on her travels to the coastal towns to our west. I’d summoned Ploster to my office in the early hours, knowing that he’d be awake already. I didn’t delay in giving him the bad news.

  “I’m afraid I’m promoting you, Jon,” I told him, with barely-suppressed glee. I shouldn’t have felt so happy at the news, but I couldn’t help it.

  “What?” he’d asked in shock.

  “The First Cohort hasn’t got enough corporals. I’ve let this situation persist for longer than I should have, so today I am taking steps to correct the matter.” I waved a hand over my desk in a nondescript gesture to indicate that it was something that had been bothering me.

  “We’ve been doing fine up till now,” he replied, almost spluttering.

  “Fine isn’t good enough, Corporal Ploster,” I told him, rolling the last two words slowly from my tongue. “The First Cohort is changing and we must change with it. We will be tested soon – perhaps to a greater extent than we have ever been.”

  “Why me?” he asked, though he knew the answer anyway. He should have considered himself lucky to have escaped for so long.

  “As the First Cohort’s sorcerer, it seems practical that you are given a formal rank. To distinguish you from the men.”

  “What’s this all about, Tyrus? Why now?”

  There’d been plenty of whats and whys from him so far, but I continued my barrage. “And you’ll be pleased to know that you have your first command. This very morning, as it happens.”

  Ploster’s mouth formed a shape that suggested another what or why would come forth, but it did not and he said nothing.

  “You’re to accompany our lady on an important trip to the nearest coastal towns to our west, Corporal Ploster. Fifty men from the First Cohort will travel with her, under your direct command. You will report to Lieutenant Faye, who will be in command of the overall contingent - after our lady, of course.”

  “Tyrus, you bastard!” he said. I pretended that I hadn’t heard.

  “That will be all, Corporal Ploster. Please locate Lieutenant Faye and inform her about your new rank. You’ll be moving out shortly.”

  I savoured the look of shock on Ploster’s face for a few moments longer and then he turned to go. I waited until he was almost out of the door before I spoke again. “Jon? Keep her safe, won’t you?”

  “Of course I will, Tyrus,” he said.

  Our lady left the town with her contingent, and with very little fanfare. There could be no positive outcome if the townsfolk knew she had gone, and I hoped that there would be no negative one. As it happened, we’d more or less restored full order to the town and I doubted there’d be any major outcry at our lady’s departure. Still, I was not in the least surprised when the news of her departure became the talk of the streets within two hours of her leaving. I had men out on patrol – keeping the peace as it was known – and had asked them to keep their ears open for any seditious talk. I need not have worried and I cast my mind back to our recent occupation of Nightingale, where the town had quickly returned to a semblance of normality, even with the hated First Cohort posted on every street corner. Warmont’s people were used to war, used to soldiers and used to making the best of a situation.

  Even so, there were incidents, aimed mostly at my men. It was the little things – a stone thrown from an alleyway, a bucket of slops dropped accidentally from above, or shouted insults from drunks or those who thought their bravado would intimidate a trained soldier. I passed along instructions for my men to handle these incidents with tact. You may think the word tact to have been a foreign concept to us, but we were all old, old men and few of us were bothered by the actions of a minority.

  Of more concern, was how the men who had defected from Captain Garg would treat not only the First Cohort, but the Treads Regiment as well. We were all meant to be on the same side, but a number of Garg’s men had fought within the walls of Treads and seen their comrades fall to us. To the young and hot-headed I knew there’d be feelings that scores needed to be settled. I spoke to Lieutenant Trovis about it and he agreed to watch his men closely. Regardless of his actions, there’d definitely be a confrontation at some point – it was inevitable.

  The soldiers who weren’t on patrol either slept, or spent their time on the training grounds. The town barracks may have burned down, but the training areas which surrounded them had not. I kept all of my lieutenants busy there, drilling the men and putting them into mixed teams as they trained. The idea was for them to integra
te more, but also to engender a rivalry that we could exploit when it came to battle. I had the First Cohort play a full part in this. I thought that the Treads Regiment had already begun to accept us, having seen our whole-hearted commitment to the defence of their town, but we still had much work to do before the others would see us as comrades. They feared us still, but I didn’t mind that for now. If our own men feared us for what we were, it would bolster them when they saw us clash with the enemy – after all, we were on the same side in the end.

  I would have dearly liked to have taken a much greater role in this training. Nothing would have given me more pleasure than to have stood on the training ground, day after day, imparting my own skills and knowledge, and also witnessing the strengths and weaknesses of the men under my command. It was to my annoyance that I was denied the opportunity by the mundanity of overseeing a town which was effectively under martial law. Whoever had kept the civic machinery ticking over before our arrival I didn’t know, and they appeared to have taken the opportunity to abrogate their responsibilities.

  As well as the exercises to keep the men fresh and to improve their skills, I had a number of chosen veterans - drawn from all parts of our lady’s army - head out into the local taverns at evening time. Here, they were instructed to fill the hearts and minds of the townsfolk with tales of valour and the glory of the battlefield. How those who served in the Saviour’s army would play a part in freeing these lands and songs would be sung about them for an eternity. There was an underlying truth in it all but we needed to bolster our ranks, so I was happy for my recruiters to concentrate on the glory, and gloss over the pain and screaming agony of gangrenous wounds or metal piercing flesh.

  The tactics worked – every soldier likes to tell the uninitiated about their heroism – and the training grounds saw a steady stream of new recruits, eager to sign up for combat and to fight for our lady. I let Lieutenant Sinnar loose on them, feeling hardly any guilt at the order.