The Orphan and the Queen by D.J. Molles

Author:D.J. Molles [Molles, D.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

“Happens more often than you think,” Longfoot said.

They were picking through the rubble. Rony was trapped in a strange place where everything was mummery, and yet deadly serious. Unfeeling, and yet deeply affected.

“What’s that?” she said, kicking a bit of wood out of the way. Beneath, a leg. She hooked it with her toe and tried to budge it. It was still attached to something.

“Sergeants trying to go soft on the Tickers,” Longfoot replied.

Rony straightened and cast a glance about them, worried at the direction this might take, and who might overhear. But the others were off on their own hunts. Taer and Guro working together. Wink not doing much at all, but sitting on a mound of rubble and drinking heavily from his water skin. Klannoc hadn’t produced a single body part to add to the growing pile near the village well. He was hunting for trinkets.

She looked back down at the leg, suddenly exhausted. But the work had to be done. So she stooped and cleared more rubble, excavating the body—or whatever was left of it.

“Not just the sergeants,” Longfoot continued. “Sometimes the men, too. Either way, according to our martial laws, it’s cowardice to go soft on Tickers. And cowards are put to death.” He bent at the waist and snatched something up. He staggered a bit coming up, like he’d expected it to have more heft. But it was just a hand, broken off at the wrist. “Fah,” he said, then hurled it sidelong at the well. Paused to take a drink from his flask.

Rony did the same.

“So,” Longfoot said, smacking his lips. “If you’re one of the men, you don’t want to go down with a sergeant that’s too soft. Better to take care of him before he gets you all hung for cowardice. And that’s the trick of it, you see. Because technically, that’s mutiny, but if the sergeant was being a coward, then it’s justified, right? The commanders understand it’s sticky, so they don’t hang men that kill their sergeants for cowardice. So long as all the men swear that they saw him spare a Ticker’s life.”

Rony’d taken a second swig of drips, and stood there, holding the hot liquid on her tongue while she stoppered her flask again. She swallowed. “That your way of telling me I’m in danger of getting an axe in the back of my head, Longfoot?”

Longfoot gave her an odd look. “No, hef. Not precisely. Course, that’s a danger for anyone while on Crusade. But I was telling you so’s you’d understand why I’ll never be a sergeant. Nor Klannoc.”

A pair of flies buzzed hungrily around Rony’s head. She shooed them, but didn’t take her eyes off Longfoot. “That what happened to the sergeant before me?”

“Him?” Longfoot shook his head and continued poking through the rubble. “No. He died in Halun’s Landing is all. Ticker done brought half a building down on top of him while we was chasing them down that main road through the city.” He stopped.

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