Rulers of the Darkness

Recared pounded Leudast on the back. "Well done, Sergeant, by the powers above!" he shouted. "Let's see the redheads make their cursed magic now. If we live, you'll get a decoration for this."

All Leudast said was, "I feel like a murderer." He'd caused his own countrymen- for all he knew, maybe his own kinsmen- to die so their life energy could go into killing Kaunians so the Algarvians couldn't kill the Kaunians to kill him. That wasn't war, or it shouldn't have been. He stared east, toward the Algarvian trenches. If he knew Mezentio's men, they wouldn't let a setback stop them for long. They never had yet.

***

Colonel Sabrino had rarely seen an army brigadier so furious. The Algarvian officer looked about ready to leap out of the crystal and strangle somebody- King Swemmel by choice, no doubt, but Sabrino thought he might do himself at a pinch.

"Do you know what those fornicating Unkerlanters did?" the brigadier howled. "Have you got any idea?"

"No, sir," Sabrino said around a yawn- he grabbed what sleep he could between flight, and didn't take kindly to interruptions. "But you're going to tell me, I expect."

The brigadier went on as if he hadn't spoken, which might have been lucky for him: "We had our Kaunians all ready to slay, to rout Swemmel's buggers out of that stinking Braunau place, and the Unkerlanter whoresons killed most of 'em by magic before we got to use their life energy. The attack went in anyhow, and we got thrown back again. We've got to get past there if we're ever going to join hands with our men on the other side of the enemy salient."

"Aye, sir, I know that," Sabrino said, wondering if the Algarvians on the western flank of the bulge were doing any better than the eastern army to which he was attached. He wished his countrymen hadn't started using murder-powered magecraft. Now both sides used it ever more freely, which added to the death toll without changing much else. He also suspected the brigadier shouldn't have attacked Braunau once the sorcerous backing for the assault collapsed. Suggesting such things to a superior was a tricky business. He didn't try; he knew he was too worn to be tactful. Instead, he asked, "What would you have me do, sir?"

"If we can't knock Braunau out from under those buggers with dead Kaunians, next best thing is to pound it flat- flatter- with dragons," the brigadier answered. "You've got the edge on 'em there in this side of the salient."

"For now, anyway," Sabrino said. "They've put more dragons in the air today than they did yesterday, and still more than the day before. They've got more dragons than we thought they did."

"They've got more of everything than we thought they did," the brigadier said. "But we can still lick 'em. We can, curse it." He sounded as if Sabrino were arguing with him.

"We'd better," was all Sabrino did say about that. He went on, "Tell me when you want us there, sir, and we'll be there." Colonel Ambaldo is probably sleeping, too, he thought. That means I get to wake him up. There were prospects he might have enjoyed less. Ambaldo, after all, had spent a lot of the war in the comfortable east. He hadn't had his full share of the delights of Unkerlant- or any share at all in the different delights of the land of the Ice People.

"An hour," the brigadier said. When Sabrino nodded, the army officer's image vanished from the crystal. It flared, then went back to being a simple globe of glass.

Sabrino strode out of his tent and shouted for dragon handlers. The men came running, their kilts flapping at each long stride. He said, "Get the dragons ready, and start kicking the men awake. We're going after Braunau again."

"Just your wing, sir, or both of them at this farm?" a handler asked.

"Both," Sabrino answered. "But I'll wake Ambaldo myself." His face must have worn an evil grin, because several of the handlers snickered.

Colonel Ambaldo awoke with several loud, fervent curses. He also woke grabbing for the stick by his cot. Sabrino got it first. Grabbing and missing seemed to restore something like reason to Ambaldo. He glowered at Sabrino and asked, "All right, your Excellency, who's gone and pissed in the soup pot this time?"

"King Swemmel's little friends, who else?" Sabrino said. "Not that it doesn't sound like some hamfisted generalship from us went into the mix, too." He quickly explained what had gone wrong in front of Braunau.

Ambaldo grunted and rubbed his eyes. "This whole business of killing Kaunians is filthy, if anybody wants to know what I think," he said as he sat up. He looked defiance at Sabrino. "And I don't care what you may believe about it."

"No?" Sabrino said mildly. "I told King Mezentio the same thing before we really started doing it. His Majesty didn't care what I believed about it."

"Really? You said that to Mezentio? To his face?" Ambaldo asked. Sabrino nodded. Ambaldo let out a soft whistle. "I will be dipped in dung. I knew you for a brave man, your Excellency, but still, you surprise me."