Darkness Descending

Istvan kept his face straight, though it wasn’t easy. Kun looked about as little like a warrior as anything under the stars. He was skinny--weedy, when you got down to it--bespectacled, and had been a mage’s apprentice before finding himself joined to the host of Ekrekek Arpad, the sovereign of Gyongyos. Even his tawny beard came in by clumps and patches, as if he needed some nostrum for mange.

Being thick-shouldered and furry himself, Istvan tended to look down his beaky nose at anyone who wasn’t. But Kun, even if he did complain and split hairs whenever he got the chance, had fought well on Obuda out in the Bothnian Ocean, and he’d fought well here in the frozen, mountainous wasteland of western Unkerlant, too. And the little bits of magic he’d learned from his master had served his squad mates well.

“There is a village up ahead,” Istvan said. “It is supposed to have Unkerlanter soldiers in it. Captain Tivadar says there aren’t supposed to be too many of the goat-eating buggers in there. Stars grant he’s right. However many there are, though, the company is going to clean them out.”

“Unless we don’t,” Szonyi said. Istvan remembered when the hulking private had been as raw a recruit as Kun. It hadn’t been so long before. Now Szonyi might have been an old veteran. He wasn’t old, but he certainly was a veteran.

“We are a warrior race,” Istvan repeated. “If the captain orders us to take this village, take it we shall, and he will lead us while we do it.” Szonyi’s big head bobbed up and down in agreement. Tivadar was an officer fit to command warriors, for he never asked his men to do anything he would not do and did not do himself.

“Onward!” Kun said. As a private, he would have been better pleased to hang back. Rank made hanging back embarrassing for him. It worked the same magic on Istvan. He wondered if it worked the same magic on Tivadar, too.

That didn’t matter, and he had no time to worry about it, anyhow. Other sergeants were haranguing their squads. Back when Istvan had been a simple soldier, he’d listened to sergeants as little as he could get away with. His own men listened to him that way, except when they listened closely so they could argue afterwards. But he heard his fellow sergeants, and even officers, with new ears these days. He had to get the troopers in his squad to do as he said. Any tricks he could pick up, he would.

Here came Captain Tivadar, who was only a few years older than Istvan. “Is your squad ready?” the company commander asked, glaring as if he intended to tear Istvan limb from limb if the answer was no.

But Istvan nodded and said, “Aye, sir.”

“The Unkerlanters aren’t supposed to have more than a section holding this miserable little place,” Tivadar said. “They can’t afford to fight out here in the middle of nowhere any better than we can--worse, in fact, because they’re fighting the Algarvians, too, a quarter of the way around the world east of here.”

“Aye, sir,” Istvan repeated, and then added, “A quarter of the way around the world is too far for me to think about. All I know is, I’m too cursed far from my home valley.”

Tivadar nodded. “A man can’t be farther away than too far from home. But I’m glad we’ve got you with us, Sergeant. Even if the Unkerlanters have a regiment in there, you’ll make ‘em think we’ve got a brigade, and out they’ll come with their hands up high.”

Despite the flaps on his fur cap, Istvan’s ears had been chilly. Now they heated in embarrassment; he wasn’t used to praise from officers. “Sir,” he said, “if my bluff--and Kun’s little magic--hadn’t worked back there, we’d have had to yield ourselves to the Unkerlanters instead of the other way round. The stars shone kindly on me that day.”

“They shine on those who deserve it.” Tivadar slapped him on the back with a mittened hand. “Kun got promoted. Can’t very well promote you--you haven’t the blood for it, of course--but the bravery bonus will be added to your pay once all the clerks are done playing with their counting boards.”

“Unless I die of old age first,” Istvan said with a wry chuckle he quickly choked off. He could die of a lot of other things besides old age. The Unkerlanters were going to get the chance to find some of them, too.

Reading his thoughts, Captain Tivadar said, “If the stars wink, your clan still gets the bonus; it won’t be lost. And remember, your squad is on the left flank. If you can, lead them around behind the village while the main attack goes in from the front. Then, when the cursed Unkerlanters are all hot and bothered, you can hit ‘em from the rear--easy as buggering a goat.”

Istvan’s lip curled. “Sir, that’s disgusting.” After a moment, though, he laughed. “It’s pretty funny, too, isn’t it?”

“Of all my sergeants, you’re the one I want in back of the Unkerlanters.” Tivadar slapped him again, a good, solid blow. “Let’s get going.”