by Alex Avrio
“We thank you for your hospitality. To our shame we don’t even know the name of your village.” He coughed theatrically. “I myself received a mighty kick in the chest from those cursed robbers, so I’ll let my friend here do the talking.” His hand rested on Jaeger’s shoulder.
“This is Seaham village, too small to be on any maps,” Hanz said. “They remember us only when it’s time to collect taxes.” They all laughed.
Jaeger scratched his beard thoughtfully. “We were on our way to the Mother’s sisters’ shrine. Some of us to give belated thanks for surviving the war. Others to pray for boons of their own. We were ambushed by a gang of outlaws, the Mother knows why. Anyone can see we own nothing of value.”
“These are dark days, son,” Lena said bitterly. “Folk are murdered for a handful of coppers.”
“Where were you attacked?” Hanz asked.
“We were on the track from Border Town, the stretch that runs through the forest.”
“Border Town. An open sewer if ever I saw one,” Lena spat. “Thank the Mother we have the shrine of Tender Mercy to counterbalance their filth. Why didn’t you take the low road?”
“It runs past Hildenburg and some of us would rather not remember,” Jaeger muttered, with enough color in his face to convince Regina his was more than an act.
“Aye,” Lena said quietly. “One day the children of the village laughed and danced on the streets thinking it was snowing. We rarely see snow so close to the sea. It wasn’t snow. There were so many dead, the only way was to burn them. How many do you think there were, for the ashes to be so thick when they reached us on the wind?”
Jaeger looked sickened by the memories. Kyfer took over the narrative. When he mentioned that he’d heard the robbers call the leader the Black Fox, a few knowing nods came from the elders. They asked for more details. Jaeger had by now recovered his wits, and managed to answer all questions to the elders’ satisfaction. He explained Amanates as a sailor from the South Across the Water, eager to learn more of our faith. Lena offered her home as lodgings for them all, empty apart from herself and her granddaughter. Regina appreciated the trust she was showing strangers.
Hanz called for another round of drinks for all. “It is a miracle, you see,” he said. “Two days ago our boats went out to fish like every other day. The fish were jumping into our nets, even into the boats. By The Mother and Child, it will be a good winter. We shall smoke them and not go hungry like the years before. When your two friends came and asked for help, it was a sign from the Mother and Child themselves. To give help such as we received.”
The good people of Seaham brought what bedding they could spare and the team slept together on the floor of Lena’s house. Lena’s granddaughter threw some logs on the fire for the night and went upstairs. Regina found a corner and curled up under a few blankets. Jaeger came and snuggled up beside her. Regina had missed sleeping with him at her side. Being so close together felt rejuvenating, being apart physically painful.
“I’ve assigned the watches,” he whispered in her ear.
“What? Here? I thought these were your people,” she whispered back.
“Assuming gets you killed, Fitzwaters.” He put his hand around her waist. “Did you miss me?” he asked. Regina could hear the cheek in his voice.
“Of course,” she said. “You’re nice and warm. Very handy in this cold.”
He made a noise that could be laughing or snorting.
“Will you sleep? It’s a long day tomorrow,” she said. Regina fell asleep the second her eyes closed.
The following morning they woke to a breakfast of smoked fish and bread. There were also sausages, cheese, milk and beer. Regina ate until she thought she might explode and then tucked in some more. Charlie and Thomas sneaked bread into pockets for later. Regina cursed under her breath. Both princesses had woken with a fever. She had been hoping the team could leave after breakfast.
“How’s your throat?” she asked.
“I’ll live,” Jaeger said. “We shouldn’t stay this long.”
“If we force them to travel it might turn to pneumonia,” Regina observed. “We want to return them alive.”
Jaeger grudgingly agreed to two more days in Seaham. The chicken coop had to go into mourning: a loyal Eressian chicken giving up her life to become soup for the princesses. The team kept to themselves as much as they could with the exception of Eleven, who had no difficulty socializing with the fisher folk. Schaefer's arm was improving, the pus abating and the swelling subsiding. There would be impressive scars, but an arm left to display those scars on. Jaeger and Morgenstern had a few hushed conversations Regina couldn’t get close enough to eavesdrop on. The women of the village washed their clothes for them until they smelt only faintly of fish and looked only a little less shabby. Jaeger warned everyone not to scrub up too much. The men left their beards unshaven. They were all striving to pass for Eressians.
On the third day, Emilia and Rosamynd were both sufficiently better to attend the service at the small Mother and Child’s Temple, and the following morning the group was ready to leave, despite protests from the villagers. The elders refused all payment for their hospitality. Regardless, Regina noticed Emilia sneak into the temple with a pearl necklace in her hand. Whoever opened the offerings box was in for a surprise. Lena took Jaeger aside.
“Son, I know you were there. Don’t go past that place. It drank too much blood. It has gone bad. I lost both grandsons there. Take the other road, through Border Town.”
After the sun had melted the night frost, they departed, the Merchant Blades carrying their leather travel bags and swords. The others’ only possessions were the supplies the people of Seaham had given them.
“Are we still going past Hildenburg?” Regina asked with a faint shudder.
“I fear we can’t avoid it,” Jaeger replied.
58 NO MERCY
THE air was crisp and cold in the morning, the road thankfully dry: their boots and shoes wouldn’t deal with mud any more.
“We’ll have to buy some animals at one of the villages,” Regina said as they walked briskly.
“Donkeys or mules if we’re lucky. They’ll hang onto any horses they have for the post coaches. I doubt we’ll get enough for all of us,” Jaeger replied. Regina bit her lip, suppressing a giggle.
“What’s funny?”
“Eressian cavalry on donkeys,” she said, and burst into a fit of laughter. Morgenstern turned to see why Regina was laughing, which only set her off again.
“How the mighty have fallen,” Jaeger agreed.
They reached the next village around six hours later and bought a few apples, bread, salted beef and beer. Though there was no inn, Jaeger negotiated with the priest for all to stay overnight at the temple. The priest directed them to a farm where they might buy animals. They arrived to find a pair of elderly donkeys in a small paddock.
“What!” Morgenstern shouted when he heard the asking price. “These two are good for only hide and glue!”
The old peasant shrugged. “After the war,” he said, and spat on the floor, “barely any four-legged beasts left. Went through horses faster’n a whore through soldiers. It’s a wonder there’s any left for the post - them aren’t like they used to be, neither. If you find a good ‘un, Merrovigians'll take it, most likely. Be years till we see a good horse round here again.”
Morgenstern checked the animals’ hooves and mouths.
“You’re not buying a cavalry horse, friend,” the old man said. “Do you want ‘em or not?”
Jaeger rubbed the muzzle of the nearest one and smiled. “Jack Glue and Jenny Hide. We put Emilia and Rosamynd on them and we’ll move faster.”
Morgenstern complained a bit more, haggled hard with the old man, and finally paid up.
During the third day on the road at around midday the snow came, first in small flakes, dancing down; soon larger, like petals being thrown down from a sword-gray sky. Jaeger pressed his lips tightly. They were going slowe
r than he’d like and now they'd be even slower. He took out his timepiece compass, silently thanking the Mother that the pirates had dumped all their belongings with them in the boat, thinking each and every item might be cursed. His face darkened.
“What is it?” Regina asked.
“First day of full moon.”
“No need to tell me,” she said smiling. “What else?”
“Do you know where we are?” Jaeger asked, voice dry as parchment, expression stone-cold. Regina shook her head.
“Hildenburg’s over that crest,” he said. “With this weather we’ll have to make camp here. We could walk till nightfall and at this pace we wouldn't get all the way across. The battlefield was vast.”
“At least we can’t die during full moon,” she said.
“At full moon, the creatures of night are attracted to us,” he said in a low voice.
“Ah,” was all Regina said.
A couple of hours later, when the snowfall made traveling impossible, they made camp, finding the best shelter they could. They lit a fire and dined on bread, cheese and salt beef with an apple each for dessert. A thin fog was creeping from the fields, slowly obscuring the road. Jaeger had made everyone gather firewood, as much as possible. Short of chopping down trees they’d brought back every wooden thing they’d found. He threw logs on the hissing fire sending sparks upwards, determined to keep it roaring all night. Regina arranged the watches.
Regina wrapped her blanket round her shoulders like a cape and poured steaming hot herbal tea into two tin cups. She found Jaeger at the edge of the circle of light cast by the fire. If he was trying to see anything it was in vain, the thick clouds not letting the light of the moon through, the mist impenetrable as the mystery of death itself. She handed him the cup. He took it, his fingers brushing hers, and took a sip.
“By the Mother, this tastes like piss!” he said, wincing. He shot her a suspicious look.
“Though sorely tempted,” Regina replied, “no.”
Regina had never known a night so still, as if the place was taking their measure. The only audible sound was Briggs snoring like a bear.
“Forty thousand killed in battle,” Jaeger muttered. “Forty thousand dead.” Regina remained silent. The figures she knew were different.
“Then another sixty thousand, after,” she said. His face was a stone mask. “And I’m not counting those who died of their injuries.” Regina took a deep breath. Eressians had glossed over Hildenburg. Merrovigians had never forgotten the atrocity that galvanized them to win the war.
“Sixty thousand people,” she repeated. “Slaughtered after surrendering.”
“Not our proudest moment,” Jaeger said, looking at the bottom of his empty mug, as if answers lay there.
“That’s all you have to say?” She felt outrage rising. Faraway leaves rustled. The wind picked up.
“There’s not much to say. It’s standard practice, if unspoken, to mop up after a battle, not leave loose ends. Your people did it too.”
Regina was red in the face. “Not on this scale, we didn’t. Sixty thousand people. By the Mother, that’s a whole city!”
The wind whistled as it passed, freezing their faces.
“This anger,” Jaeger observed, “is not ours.”
Regina took a breath. She’d been outraged, as any Merrovigian officer would be. But he was right. The wrath boiling in her veins, when she should be keeping a clear head, was not hers.
A faint tune carried on the wind. It took Regina a few moments to recognize it, even though she’d heard it from the age of fourteen. A fragile little fife, far away, signaled the march before battle. Another sound joined: a drumroll instructing the regiment to form a column. Fife and drum keeping soldiers in step. The hairs stood high on the back of her neck.
“Can there be a Merrovigian regiment here?” she whispered.
Jaeger was ghostly white, the scar under his right eye standing out. “Not marching, not at this time of night.” His hand went to the hilt of his saber. He didn’t draw. The rest of the company stirred from their slumber, the Merchant Blades jumping to their feet, sabers in hands.
“What in the Mother and Child’s names is going on?” Morgenstern asked. The unmistakable sound of marching feet neared closer.
“That’s one of ours,” Briggs said, a curious expression on his face.
“Why are Merrovigians on the march at this hour?” Morgenstern demanded. He looked at Regina. “Can it be an attack? Nassay-Bedden is a gateway to Eressia, Eraden especially. It makes sense.”
“Why would we attack Eressia?” Regina burst out.
“The only way Merrovigia would attack Eressia at this point in time,” Schaefer intervened, “is if our dear Emperor throttled the Merrovigian Empress with his own bare hands.”
“We’ve been gone so long,” Morgenstern argued, “who knows what’s happened. How the princesses’ absence has been interpreted.”
“I don’t think it’s that.” Jaeger’s voice was barely audible. “How would they move guns in the night, through snow? There’s a handful of us, and the snow’s so deep we couldn’t make any progress.”
The sound of a marching regiment was close now. The fife and the drum played on.
“The sounds are all wrong,” Jackson whispered. “It shouldn’t sound like this in the snow.”
Emilia came up to Jaeger. “What is happening?” she asked. Through the mist the first soldiers could be seen, their officers on horseback.
“Our sins have found us out,” Jaeger whispered.
“Blades, defensive formation,” Regina said. For the first time none of her team moved except Amanates. They remained, sabers in hand, staring into the mist.
“Blades,” Regina said more loudly, “defensive formation. Now!” Yet still Briggs, Summers, Jackson and Eleven didn’t stir, glazed expressions on their faces.
“I don’t think so, Captain,” Jackson said. “They’re coming for what is theirs. I wouldn’t get in their way.”
“What?” Regina demanded.
“Let them get their just desserts, Captain,” Briggs said tonelessly. “Reap what they’ve sown.”
The soldiers moved relentlessly forward. Rosamynd hugged Emilia and broke into sobs. Morgenstern, Schaefer and Kyfer stood protectively in front of them, sabers drawn.
The colors of the regiment were flapping in the wind. A huge wave of fear swallowed Regina, the sound of their march–
–suddenly she was fourteen again. On her birthday, her father asking her, “What do you what to be?”
“A soldier, Daddy,” she’d answered without hesitation. “A captain.” Now, her insides turned to water. She wished she’d said: “A scientist, Daddy, a scientist,” like her sister had a few years later. A soldier, daddy, can die in a ditch and no one will know where my bones are. A soldier, daddy, can get her bones ground into fertilizer, her blood watering the fields. A soldier, daddy, never die in her bed but walk the earth alone. Always alone. And when gone no one knows, cares, or sheds a tear. For a soldier, daddy.
But I am a soldier now, Regina rallied, and a soldier I shall stay. The life I chose is to stand and die; if to die, then bravely with honor. Regina breathed, and was mistress of herself again. She crossed the distance between her and Briggs in a few strides and smacked him across the face.
“Snap out of it, Sergeant, right now!” Briggs looked at her in surprise, his eyes refocusing on her. The hypnotic spell broken, the Merchant Blades quickly fell in line.
“Jaeger, in the rear,” Regina shouted. Jaeger fell back, shoulder to shoulder with Morgenstern and Schaefer. Charlie and Thomas cowered at the back with Emilia and Rosamynd. The mist parted sufficiently to see a second column, and maybe a third in the distance.
“Mother and Child,” Briggs exclaimed, catching sight of the colors of the closest one. “That’s the Thirty-fifth. They died here - to a man.”
A murmur rose from the soldiers, a low grumble at first, growing stronger with every step. Now words, wo
rds repeated like a chant, over and over.
“No Mercy. No Mercy. No Mercy.”
Jaeger’s hand shook so badly, he almost dropped his saber.
“I hope you’re not afraid, brother,” Morgenstern said.
“That was written on the orders,” Jaeger said hoarsely. “When we asked High Command what to do with so many prisoners, they sent a messenger on horseback, with a piece of paper. Just two words. ‘No mercy.’”
The clouds parted and the moonlight illuminated the small fifer and the drummer boys, then the faces of the first soldiers. Regina raised her saber.
“Soldiers of the Thirty-fifth,” she shouted, “stop!” She barred their way with her saber, but the blade passed through the soldiers’ bodies like smoke. They came on, softly pushing her aside as they passed. Their touch showed no desire to harm her but firmly swept her aside into the sea of soldiers. Briggs was caught too, holding out his saber without conviction. The soldiers’ sheer numbers pushed them backwards, unable to resist the passing tide. The chant grew louder. “No Mercy.” The front ranks were almost on the Eressians.
Regina tried in vain to force her way clear of the relentless current of the march. Suddenly Jaeger sheathed his saber and stepped forward, arms outstretched to shield the others.
“No Mercy, No Mercy,” the echo came from the soldiers.
“Merrovigians,” he shouted. “A great injustice was done here. By us. But these people were not here. The women behind me are not soldiers. Upon my honor, they were but children.”
The drummer boys were only feet away and lifted their eyes. They looked at him sadly, wordlessly. We were children too.
“No Mercy. No Mercy. No Mercy”
“Listen to me. You don’t want them. I was here. You want me. Take me.”
The hands of the first soldiers reached Jaeger, their touch burning him. More and more hands were on him, the sound of his coat ripping, trying to drag him, kicking and screaming, to hell. A faint murmur rippled across the soldiers, as those swarming around Jaeger passed report to those behind. Hands on his cheeks, his throat, his shoulders, grabbed, ready to pull his arms and body apart. But the soldiers hesitated. Their chant rose again through the night air.
