(eng) L. E. Modesitt - Corean Chronicles 01 by Legacies

Author:Legacies [Legacies]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Alucius looked down at the breakfast platter he had been handed. Two large slices of something batter-fried rested beside some sort of eggs, with two golden-brown flat biscuits, partly covered with a whitish sauce or gravy. On the edge of the platter were fried sliced potatoes and a healthy pile of dried fruit, and half a lemon. He also had a mug of weak ale, and cutlery, which made a certain sense, because he’d long since been relieved of his belt knife.

Slowly, he carried his breakfast to one of the empty tables in the stone-walled and well-lighted mess, and seated himself on the bench. Shortly, he was joined by Sazium, a squarish militia trooper who he had seen but in passing at Pyret.

‘Better food than I’ve seen in more than a year,” offered Sazium.

‘Since I left home,” Alucius agreed.

‘They must do a lot of fighting,” the older trooper suggested. “Otherwise, why would”they feed us like this?”

‘Make us feel grateful over time, maybe.” Alucius took several bites of ham and egg toast.

‘Don’t know as I ever will.” Sazium paused to drink some of his ale. “Can’t figure out how they took so much land. We fought better.”

Alucius cocked his head. He’d thought about that. “A bunch of things. They have more people, and more golds, and more troopers. You saw what they sent past us. They also have machines like that spear-thrower thing. Their commanders have more experience.”

‘But we kept killing more of them,” protested the other man.

‘We were fighting on our land, and we used every trick we knew. Not one worked more than once. You really think Dysar is that good?”

Sazium laughed, if hollowly. “You’re not going over… are you?”

Alucius shook his head. “I’ll do what I have to, and I’ll learn everything I can.” He shrugged. “What else can we do?” He tried not to think about his mother, his grandparents—and Wendra. There was no way that he knew of to send them word, and he wished that he’d taken the time to dash off a letter or two. But he had always felt rushed and tired at Soulend. He wondered if he really had been.

‘You all right?” asked Sazium.

‘Just thinking. No way to let anyone know.”

‘You’re right about that.”

Alucius ate as much as he could, first, because it was good, even the fried fish, and, second, because he didn’t know when they’d eat again. Then he stood and looked for somewhere to put the platter, cutlery, and tumbler.

‘Over there, in the window,” called the single Matrite trooper watching the mess area.

Alucius slipped both into the space that looked like a window without glass and watched as a white-haired man with one of the ubiquitous silver torques took both. Then he turned and walked back to the barracks where he washed up again and sat down on the end of the bunk to wait.

He waited less than half a glass before one of the junior squad leaders appeared, opening the locked door to the inner main corridor.

‘Time to go.

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