Soldiers Live

11

An Abode of Ravens: Exercise Session

As soon as I healed enough I asked Uncle Doj to let me resume the martial arts exercises I had given up many years ago. "Why are you interested now?" he asked. Sometimes I think he is more suspicious of me than I am of him.

"Because I have time. And the need. I'm as weak as a puppy. I want to get my strength back."

"You chased me away when I offered."

"I didn't have time then. And you were so much more abrasive."

"Ha." He smiled. "You're too kind."

"You're right. But I'm a prince."

"A Prince of Darkness, Stone Soldier." He knew that would get my goat. "But a lucky prince." The old fart indulged in a smirk. "Several of your contemporaries have approached me recently, also motivated by anticipation of those hardships that can no longer be that far ahead."

"Good." Did he know something I did not? Probably a lot. "When and where?"

His grin became evil, revealing bad teeth. Which made me wonder if Sleepy had found anybody to fill the dentistry vacancy left by One-Eye's passing. The old fool had not bothered taking on apprentices.

"When" was the crack of dawn and "where" was the unpaved street outside Doj's small house, which he shared with Tobo's uncle Thai Dei and several bachelor officers of local origin. My fellow victims were Willow Swan, the brothers Loftus and Cletus, who remain the Company's principal architects and engineers, and the exiled ruling prince and princess of Taglios, the Prahbrindrah Drah and his sister the Radisha Drah. Those are not names, they are titles. Even after decades I do not know their personal designations. And they show no inclination to share.

"Where's your pal Blade?" I asked Swan. For a while Blade had been Sleepy's military envoy to the File of Nine, but I had heard that he had been recalled after One-Eye's death. I had not seen him around, though.

"Old Blade's got too much on his plate for anything like this."

Loftus and Cletus both grumbled under their breaths but did not clarify. I had not seen much of them lately, either. I supposed they were working themselves to death building a city from scratch. Suvrin, who arrived just in time to hear what they mumbled, nodded vigorously. "She's going to work us all till there's nothing but grease spots left." I am not sure about Suvrin. I have no trouble imagining him going around endlessly repeating the silent mantra, "Every day in every way I am going to become a better soldier."

"Well, old Blade never was real ambitious," Swan replied. "Except when it came to carving up priests." He seemed to know what he was talking about even if it was not obvious to me.

Clete said, "If we're getting the straight shit from Shivetya there'll be a whole new crop in need of culling when we get home."

The Prahbrindrah Drah and his sister edged closer, eager for hard news from home. Sleepy took no trouble to keep them posted. She did not have much of a diplomatic streak. I had best remind her that she will need their amity once we are back across the plain.

They were not handsome, those two. And the Radisha looked more like the Prince's mother than his sister. But he had been under the ground with me while she rode the Taglian tiger and tried not to lose its reins to Soulcatcher. They strove to remain unobtrusive here, the Prince because he had been our active enemy in the field, the Princess because she had turned on us at the very last moment of our victory over the last Shadowmasters.

Sleepy fixed her for that.

Technically, the Radisha was our prisoner. Sleepy had abducted her. She and her brother will become tools of the Company once Sleepy stages our return. Everyone agrees. But I suspect that the royals have reservations.

"Rajadharma." I said, bowing slightly. I could not resist the taunt, reminding them both that by attempting to betray us they had ended up failing to fulfill their duty to their subjects.

"Liberator." The Radisha returned a tiny bow. I swear, the woman gets homelier by the month. "You appear to be healing well."

"I've got a knack for coming back. But my bounce sure ain't as fast or as high as it used to be. Guess it's old age creeping up." I lied and told her, "You're looking well yourself. You both are. What have you been doing? I haven't seen you for a while."

The Prahbrindrah Drah said nothing. He remained inscrutable. He had been quiet and unexpressive since our resurrection. We had gotten along well, once. But times change. Neither of us were the men we had been during the Shadowmaster wars.

"You're lying like a snake's belly," the Radisha told me. "I'm old and I'm ugly and I'm still ashamed of myself... But you're telling the lie my soul wants to hear. Forget rajadharma, though. That accusation has no power to hurt me anymore. From outside. I still crucify myself. I know what I did. At the time I thought it was the right thing. The Protector manipulated me using my sense of rajadharma. Once we get back there you'll see us in a different light."

Rajadharma means the ruler's obligation to serve the ruled. When the word is thrown into a ruler's face, or is used as an epithet, it is a savage accusation of failure.

The Radisha is a hard, stubborn little woman. Unfortunately, she will have to get the better of a hard, stubborn, crazy, almost supremely powerful sorceress if she wants to fulfill her expectations for herself.

I glanced at her brother. The Prince's expression had not changed but I sensed that he thought he appreciated the difficulties more fully than his sister did.

Uncle Doj whacked something with a practice sword. The loud crack ended our chatter. "Your canes, please. On the count, commence the Crane Kada." He did not bother to explain what that was to the new guy.

Maybe two decades ago I had observed and briefly joined the Nyueng Bao exercises. Murgen was Annalist then. He had had Gota, Doj and his wife Sahra's brother, Thai Dei, living with him. Doj expected me to remember.

About all I recalled of the Crane Kada was that it constituted the first and simplest of a dozen slow-motion dances incorporating all the formal steps and strokes of Doj's school of fencing. The old priest led from up front, his back to his pupils. Although he was the eldest of us all, he moved with a precision and grace that verged on beauty. But when Thai Dei and Tobo joined us briefly, later, both outshone the old man. It was hard not to stop just to appreciate Tobo's mastery.

The boy made me feel clumsy and inept just standing still.

Everything came so easily for him.

He had all the talents and skills he could possibly need. If any question remained, it concerned his character. A lot of good people had worked hard to make sure that he became a virtuous and upright man. Which he did appear to be. But he was a blade not yet tested. True temptation had not yet whispered in his ear.

I missed a step badly, stumbled. Uncle Doj laid his cane across the seat of my trousers as vigorously as if I had been an adolescent. His face remained bland but I suspected that he had wanted to do that for a long time.

I tried to concentrate.