Into The Darkness

Cornelu shook his fist at them again, then waited for the Lagoan warship to approach. "Who might you be?" an officer called from the deck in what might have been intended for either Sibian or Algarvian.

Cornelu gave his name, his rank, and his kingdom. To his surprise, the Lagoans burst into cheers. "Well met, friend!" several of them said.

"Friend?" he echoed in surprise.

"Friend, aye," the officer answered in his accented Sibian. "Lagoas wars with Algarve now. Had you no heard? When Mezentio your country invaded, King Vitor declares war. We all friends together now, aye?"

"Aye," Cornelu said wearily.

Skarmi stood up before his company and said the words that had to be said: "Men, the redheads have gone and invaded Sibiu. You'll have heard that already, I suppose." He waited for nods, and got them. "You ask me," he went on, "they were fools. Lagoas is a bigger danger to them than Sibiu ever could have been. But if the Algarvians weren't fools, they wouldn't be Algarvians, eh?"

He got more nods, and even a couple of smiles. He would have been gladder of those smiles had they come from the best soldiers in the company, not the happy-go-lucky handful who in the morning refused to worry about the afternoon, let alone tomorrow.

"We can't swim over to Sibiu to help the islanders," he said, "so we have to do the next best thing. King Mezentio must have pulled a lot of e his soldiers out of the line here when he invaded Sibiu. That means there t won't be enough men left in the redheads' works to hold us back when we hit them. We are going to break through, and we are going to go rampaging right into the Algarvian rear."

Some of the men who'd smiled before clapped their hands and cheered. So did a few others - youngsters, mostly. Most of the soldiers just stood silently. Skarmi had studied the Algarvian fortifications himself, studied them till he knew the ones in front of him like the lines on his palm. As long as they held any men at all, they would be hard to break out through. He knew it. Most of the men knew it, too. But he had his orders and about what to tell them.

He also had his pride. He said, "Remember, men, you won't be going in anywhere. I haven't gone myself, because I'll be out in front of you every ship step of the way. We'll do all we can for our king and kingdom." He raised k in his voice to a shout: "King Gainibu and victory!"

"King Gainibu!" the men echoed. "Victory!" They cheered enthusiastically. Why not? Cheering cost them nothing and exposed them to no danger.

Seeing that Skarmi had finished, Sergeant Raunu strode out in front of goas the company. He glanced at Skarmi for permission to speak. Skarmi nodded. The company would have got on fine without him, but he now, couldn't have run it without Raunu. The veteran underofficer affected not to know that. Skarmi understood perfectly well that the pose was an affectation. He wondered how many company officers really believed to be heard ou ask their sergeants thought them indispensable. Too many, odds were.

Raunu said, "Boys, we're lucky. You know it, and I know it. A lot of officcrs would send us forward but stay in a hole themselves. If we won, th y'd take the credit. If we lost, we'd get the blame - only we'd be dead and they'd try again with another company. The captain's not like that

We've all seen as much. Let's give him a cheer now, and let's fight like madmen for him tomorrow."

"Captain Skarmi!" the men shouted. Skarmi waved to them, feeling foolish. He was used to accepting the deference of commoners because of his blood. Like his sister Krasta, he'd taken it for granted. The defer ence he got here in the field was different. He'd earned it. It made him proud and embarrassed at the same time.

"Whatever we can do, sir, we'll do tomorrow," Raunu said.

"I'm sure of it," Skarmi said. That was a polite commonplace. He started to add something to it, then stopped. Sometimes Raunu, if given the chance to talk, came out with things he wouldn't have otherwise, things an officer would have had trouble learning any other way.

This proved to be one of those times. "Do you really think we'll break the Algarvian line tomorrow, sir?" the sergeant said.

"We've been ordered to do it," Skarmi said. "I hope we can do it."

He went no further than that.

"Mm." Raunu's wrinkles refolded themselves into an expression less forbidding than the one he usually wore. "Sir, I hope we can do it, too

But if there's not much chance… Sir, I saw a lot of officers with a lot of courage get themselves killed for nothing during the Six Years' War.

It'd be a shame if that happenedto you before you figured out what wa what. "

"I see." Skarmi nodded brightly. "After I figure out what's what, will be all right for me to get myself killed for nothing."

"No, sir." Raunu shook his head. "After you know what' s w you'll know better than to go rushing ahead and get yourself killed nothing. "

Skarmi quoted doctrine: "The only way to make an attack to go into it confident of success."