The Crimson Campaign

Taniel whirled as another Warden came at him from the side. Taniel ducked and thrust, putting the tip of his bayonet into the tender spot below the creature’s chin. He had to let go of his rifle and leap to one side to avoid the thrust of the first Warden’s sword. Taniel drew his own short sword and waited for the attack.

The Warden paused to throw a whole powder charge into his mouth. He gnashed at the powder with blackened teeth and spit the paper on the ground.

Taniel had never been all that good with a short sword. He was fast and competent, but if this creature had any amount of training, he’d cut right through Taniel.

Taniel caught one thrust and pushed the Warden’s sword to one side. The Warden bridged the gap with his other fist. Taniel was ready for it.

He caught the Warden’s fist and slammed his forehead against the Warden’s nose. He could feel the bone move back into the creature’s brain. That alone should have killed it, but Taniel still felt struggle in the Warden’s muscles. Taniel stepped back and slashed across the Warden’s throat. It gurgled and collapsed, clinging to life, but it wouldn’t be any more of a problem.

Taniel could feel the Warden’s black, sticky blood all across his face.

“Oi!” Someone called from the earthworks above him. “They’re coming!”

Taniel realized with a start that the rest of the Kez army was almost upon him. He snatched his rifle and scrambled up the earthworks, kicking dirt and swearing. The Warden had made it look easy. It most certainly wasn’t.

Several hands helped pull Taniel to the relative safety of the earthworks, then thumped him on the back.

“Back to the line!” someone shouted.

Taniel shook his head, resting for a moment on the earthworks barricade. He clutched his rifle to his chest to keep his hands from shaking, and wondered if going over the earthworks like that had been a mistake.

Someone smacked him across the face. He half expected it to be Ka-poel, but when he lifted his eyes, he recognized Major Doravir. She looked furious.

“Do you have a death wish, Captain?” She grabbed him by the collar, shaking him like an errant schoolboy. “Well, do you? No one goes over that embankment without orders. No one!”

“Piss on your orders!”

Taniel shoved her away. He might have put his bayonet through her chest if he’d had any less control over himself.

She stared at him, a cold rage in her eyes. “I’ll see you hanged, Captain.”

“Try it.”

“Load,” came an officer’s call. Taniel took a moment to orient himself. From the high earthworks he could see up and down the jagged line. Wardens were fighting behind the earthworks, clearing out whole groups of men, but the two he’d killed seemed to have tipped things in Adro’s favor in the immediate vicinity. Soldiers bent to reload their rifles, readying for the Kez onslaught.

Taniel turned away from Doravir and stuffed a bullet down his rifle. Out of the corner of his eye he watched her storm away, yelling orders.

“Careful, Captain,” a nearby soldier whispered. “If that one turns her eyes on you, she’ll sleep with you or see you dead. Or both.”

“She can go to the pit, for all I care.”

“She’s General Ket’s sister,” the soldier said. “She does what she wants. But she’s a damned good officer. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

Ket’s sister. That’s why he thought he’d seen Ket more recently. The resemblance was strong, even if Doravir had a thinner build. “A damned good officer would let me do my job,” Taniel said. He dropped a second bullet down his rifle and secured it with a scrap of cloth.

The soldier stared at him. “You feeling all right, Captain? You just loaded that twice, and without powder.”

“Ask yourself,” Taniel said with confidence he didn’t feel, “what type of a man would leap the earthworks and go fight two Wardens by himself, then load his rifle without powder.” He licked the powder off his fingers to keep the edge on his powder trance, and set the rifle against his shoulder. He sighted along the barrel. The Kez front line was still some two hundred yards distant. Well out of range of the muskets, while the Adran riflemen would open fire any moment.

Taniel found a pair of officers well back from the line and squeezed the trigger. He floated the two bullets simultaneously, pushing them toward their respective targets.

He caught one of the officers in the chest. The man clutched at the wound and slumped in his saddle, causing panic in his bodyguard. Taniel winced. The other bullet had missed the target. How could he be missing? Had the mala made him lose his edge?

“Kresimir be damned,” the soldier beside him said. “You’re Taniel Two-Shot. Hey” — he tapped the man beside him on the shoulder — “This is Taniel Two-Shot.”

“Yeah,” the other soldier responded, “and I’m a general.”

“He was just down in front of the barricade. Took on four Wardens all by himself.”

“Nah.”

“Saw it with my own eyes.”

“Sure you did.”