Rulers of the Darkness

Again, Leudast thought of Sulingen. The Unkerlanters defending Braunau fought with the same determination their countrymen farther south had shown. Every hut, every barn, every well was defended as if it were the gateway to King Swemmel's palace in Cottbus. No one counted the cost. The determination was there: the Algarvians would not get past the village.

For their part, King Mezentio's soldiers remained stubborn and resourceful. No sooner would the defenders of Braunau chew up one brigade than another went into the fight. As always, the redheads were brave. Here, that ended up hurting them at least as much as it helped.

"They can't get at Braunau any other way than from straight ahead, do you see?" Recared said. "The ground won't let them try any of their fancy Algarvian tricks and come up our backside."

"That's the way it looks, anyhow," Leudast agreed. He wasn't so sure about what Mezentio's men could or couldn't do. He'd been wrong too many times.

Recared had fewer doubts- but then, he hadn't been in the fight as long as Leudast had. "Do they play the game called 'last man standing' in your village?" he asked.

"Aye, sir," Leudast answered. "They play it everywhere, I think. It helps if you're drunk." Two men stood toe to toe, taking turns hitting each other as hard as they could. Eventually, one of them wouldn't be able to get up any more, and the other fellow was the winner.

"Well, that's what we've got here," Recared said. "Either we end up on our feet here in Braunau, or the Algarvians do."

"Something to that," Leudast said. "But whether we're standing or the redheads are, Braunau won't be."

Not much of Braunau was standing at the moment. Leudast and Recared both peered out of a trench between a couple of ruined houses on the eastern edge of the village. A dead Algarvian lay in front of them; a couple more lay behind them. The redheads had twice got into Braunau, but they hadn't been able to stay. Their trenches, right this minute, lay a couple of hundred yards outside it.

From behind Leudast, Unkerlanter egg-tossers on the ridge in back of Braunau began pounding the Algarvian positions. Algarvian egg-tossers answered. Leudast said, "Better to have the redheads aiming at them than at us."

"Oh, they'll get to us, never fear," Recared said. "They always do." Leudast wished he thought the regimental commander were wrong.

Algarvian dragons flew by. They also dropped eggs on the Unkerlanter tossers. Some of them dropped eggs on Braunau, too. "Where are our dragons?" Leudast demanded. "Haven't seen many of them since this fight was new."

"Something went wrong," Recared answered. "I don't quite know what, but something did. We were supposed to hit the Algarvians a hard blow, but they did it to us instead."

Leudast sighed. "How many times have we heard that sort of story before?" he said. "How many of us are going to end up dead on account of it? They ought to blaze whoever fouled things up for us."

"Odds are, the Algarvians killed him, whoever he was," Recared said.

But Leudast said, "No. Somebody behind the line will have forgotten something or overlooked something. That's how it is with us. He's the one who deserves to get boiled alive."

"Maybe you're right," Recared said. "But even if you are, we can't do anything about it. All we can do is hold on here and not let the redheads through."

"No, sir." Leudast shook his head. "There's one other thing we can do. We can pay the price for that cursed fool's mistake. We can. And it looks like we will."

Lieutenant Recared scowled at him. "Sergeant, if you'd said something like that to me this past winter, I'd have given you up to the inspectors without a qualm."

He might not have had any qualms; the idea was plenty- more than plenty- to send a chill through Leudast. Leudast had the feeling that anybody turned over to the inspectors today would be sacrificed tomorrow, or the day after at the latest, and his life energy turned against the Algarvians. But Recared wasn't proposing to give him up now. Cautiously, he asked, "What makes you think different these days?"

"Well, a couple of things," the young regimental commander answered. "For one, I've seen that you're a brave man and a good soldier. And…" He sighed. "I've also seen that not all our higher officers are everything they might be."

With that, Recared had just put his own life in Leudast's hands. If Leudast chose to denounce him, the regiment would have a new leader immediately thereafter. That it was in the middle of a desperate battle, a battle where the future of Unkerlant hung in the balance, would not matter at all. After saluting, Leudast spoke with great solemnity: "Sir, I didn't hear a word you said there."

"No, eh?" Recared wasn't a fool. He knew what he'd done, too. "Well, that's probably for the best."

Leudast shrugged. "You never can tell. It might not have mattered any which way. I mean, what are the odds that either one of us is going to come out of Braunau in one piece? Let alone both of us?"