Best Served Cold

“He plans no such thing, and neither do you. The pair of you have been making fools of your employers for the past two years. I do not care to be made a fool of. I can see fake battles in the theatre at a fraction of the cost. That is why I will pay you twice to fight him in earnest.”

Monza had not been expecting this. “I…”

“You have loyalty to him, I know. I respect that. Everyone must stick at something in their lives. But Cosca is the past, and I have decided that you are the future. Your brother agrees with me.”

Monza had certainly not been expecting that. She stared at Benna, and he grinned back. “It’s better like this. You deserve to lead.”

“I can’t… the other captains will never-”

“I spoke to them already,” said Benna. “All except Faithful, and that old dog will follow along when he sees how the wind’s blowing. They’re sick of Cosca, and his drinking, and his foolishness. They want a long contract and a leader they can be proud of. They want you.”

The Duke of Talins was watching. She could not afford to seem reluctant. “Then I accept, of course. You had me at paid twice,” she lied.

Orso smiled. “I have a feeling you and I will do well for one another, General Murcatto. I will look forward to news of your victory tomorrow.” And he left.

When the tent flap dropped Monza cuffed her brother across the face and knocked him to the ground. “What have you done, Benna? What have you done?”

He looked sullenly up at her, one hand to his bloody mouth. “I thought you’d be pleased.”

“No you fucking didn’t! You thought you’d be. I hope you are.”

But there was nothing she could do but forgive him, and make the best of it. He was her brother. The only one who really knew her. And Sesaria, Victus, Andiche and most of the other captains had agreed. They were tired of Nicomo Cosca. So there could be no turning back. The next day, as dawn slunk out of the east and they prepared for the coming battle, Monza ordered her men to charge in earnest. What else could she do?

By evening she was sitting in Cosca’s chair, with Benna grinning beside her and her newly enriched captains drinking to her first victory. Everyone laughed but her. She was thinking of Cosca, and all he had given her, what she had owed him and how she had paid him back. She was in no mood to celebrate.

Besides, she was captain general of the Thousand Swords. She could not afford to laugh.

Sixes

T he dice came up a pair of sixes.

In the Union they call that score suns, like the sun on their flag. In Baol they call it twice won, because the house pays double on it. In Gurkhul they call it the Prophet or the Emperor, depending where a man’s loyalty lies. In Thond it is the golden dozen. In the Thousand Isles, twelve winds. In Safety they call two sixes the jailer, because the jailer always wins. All across the Circle of the World men cheer for that score, but to Friendly it was no better than any other. It won him nothing. He turned his attention back to the great bridge of Puranti, and the men crossing it.

The faces of the statues on their tall columns might have worn to pitted blobs, the roadway might have cracked with age and the parapet crumbled, but the six arches still soared tall and graceful, scornful of the dizzy drop below. The great piers of rock from which they sprang, six times six strides high, still defied the battering waters. Six hundred years old and more, but the Imperial bridge was still the only way across the Pura’s deep gorge at this time of year. The only way to Ospria by land.

The army of Grand Duke Rogont marched across it in good order, six men abreast. The regular tramp, tramp of their boots was like a mighty heartbeat, accompanied by the jingle and clatter of arms and harness, the occasional calls of officers, the steady murmur of the watching crowd, the rushing throb of the river far below. They had been marching across it all morning, now, by company, by battalion, by regiment. Moving forests of spear tips, gleaming metal and studded leather. Dusty, dirty, determined faces. Proud flags hanging limp on the still air. Their six-hundredth rank had passed not long before. Some four thousand men across already and at least as many more to follow. Six, by six, by six, they came.

“Good order. For a retreat.” Shivers’ voice had withered to a throaty whisper in Visserine.

Vitari snorted. “If there’s one thing Rogont knows how to manage it’s a retreat. He’s had enough practice.”

“One must appreciate the irony,” observed Morveer, watching the soldiers pass with a look of faint scorn. “Today’s proud legions march over the last vestiges of yesterday’s fallen empire. So it always is with military splendour. Hubris made flesh.”

“How incredibly profound.” Murcatto curled her lip. “Why, travelling with the great Morveer is both pleasure and education.”

“I am philosopher and poisoner all in one. I pray you not to worry, though, my fee covers both. Remunerate me for my bottomless insights, the poison comes free of charge.”

“Does our luck have no end?” she grated back.