Heir to the Raven_Book 1 of The Pierced Veil by J. Wesley Bush

Author:J. Wesley Bush [Bush, J. Wesley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sabot Books
Published: 2018-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 34

M irko Bowback grunted as one of Rotamir’s serjeants kicked him awake. He sat up, squinting in the sickly light of early dawn. From the looks of it, the rest of his tithe had received the same treatment, most struggling to their feet, while Yosip the Woodsman dabbed at a bloody lip with his sleeve. They herded out to the woods to piss and then ate a quick breakfast of trail bread. Encouraged by cuffs and curses from the serjeants, they were on the road within ten minutes. Now that they were close to the border, Mirko noted, Priest-King Leax was driving the army faster.

At noon they halted for lunch and kitchen slaves passed out wooden bowls of cold buckwheat and cabbage. The trees were thin here, and ahead he could see a vast stretch of grass and red dirt, as wide as the night sky. Uncle Luka and Vasik One-Hand had spoken of it, but this went beyond anything he imagined. It terrified him that they would soon be marching through those lands. To be so exposed, without the sheltering trees above, must be how the dormouse felt when an owl swooped down upon it.

Each tithe ate alone. Mirko had come to know his mates and liked most of them. Kirilo the Tanner was half-deaf and rarely spoke, but when he did, he used wisdom. Dusek the Butcher’s Boy trained in the evenings with the camp surgeons. Yosip the Woodsman was the strongest. Pisspot, who called himself Endri of Kryvoriv, was a latrine cleaner who came from a real town.

The only one Mirko disliked was the Magpie, a young man with hungry eyes and sunken cheeks. He was a thief. Occasionally he stole extra rations for the tithe, but Mirko knew he stole other things as well, and they would all take the lashings or worse if the Magpie was caught. Cousin Stepan had spoken to him about it but got only a snarl in return. Uncle Luka had just shrugged. “There’s no law for fools.”

It took only a few moments to wolf down the meager meal. “What are they doing?” Dusek asked, motioning down the line. The various tithes sat along the road, devouring their rations. Mirko caught sight of what Dusek meant; a lord and two serjeants were passing from tithe to tithe, a Belgorshan peasant interpreting for them. Occasionally they would pull a man from his group and inspect him like a horse at market. Some got sent to the rear.

“They’re looking for poleaxemen,” Uncle Luka said, picking at his teeth with a splinter of wood. “Happened during the last war as well.”

Vasik One-Hand nodded agreement. “It’s the Belgorshan way. Lacking heavy cavalry, we use heavy poleaxes to break the enemy line. Before a fight they pull out strong lads and all the woodsmen to put in special tithes.”

“That don’t sound too bad,” Yosip said cheerily. “Though I would miss you lot, of course.”

Uncle Luka scowled, spitting his toothpick into the bushes. “Poleaxemen are like boar hounds, meant to wear down the prey until the noble hunter arrives to finish it off.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.