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.Bo Biogna was not good at what he wanted to do.Else suspected Biogna never was much good at anything, but he was mostly honest and he tried as long as somebody was watching."It's your life, Bo.I'm just reminding you that you have options."Their guide took them directly to the tail of the chow line, where he said of Just Plain Joe's mule, "Hey, you can't take this critter with you.""How come?" Just Plain Joe's friends wanted to know.Pig Iron was the most popular member of the company.He was like no other mule that ever lived.He was friendly and mostly cooperative.And Just Plain Joe insisted that Pig Iron wanted to join the cavalry.“This here horse is a born destrier."The guide had no sense of humor.Which might have been why he had been assigned his particular job.He led the future cavalry steed away.Else was impressed.This was a well-organized camp.And some thought had been invested in this recruiting scheme.Hot food, and plenty of it, was guaranteed to get potential recruits thinking kindly of you.Severe hunger was commonplace for the poor.Else asked the nearest unfamiliar face, "Whose camp is this? What kind of campaign are they getting ready for?"The guide showed up in time to hear the question, without Pig Iron."This camp is commanded by Captain Veld Arnvolker.He hasn't told us what we're going to do, only that we'll have the Patriarch's blessing and there'll be plenty of booty.Talk is, it might have something to do with what's been going on in Sonsa.""Where's Pig Iron? He doesn't usually like to be away from Joe.""He's hobbled beside the tent you'll be sharing.He has hay and a ration of oats.""He's turned traitor that cheap?" Joe grumbled."Plenty of booty?" Else queried."I'll tell you, that doesn't sound promising.Not in Firaldia." Unless this was the Brotherhood preparing to punish Sonsa for having run it out by engineering the sacking of Sonsa and the Three Families.He found the possibility that he might go back to Sonsa in Brotherhood employ ironic."Then you're in for something new and marvelous, aren't you?"Else had to restrain powerful urges springing from a lifetime of Sha-lug training.He understood the western approach to warfare philosophically but could not make a connection in his heart.When westerners decided to make war they swept up the dregs and leavings of their societies, handed out old and poor quality weapons, added a few hereditary warriors as leaders, then turned the mob loose.Such armies were as dangerous to friend as foe.Either they would indulge in outrageous slaughter or they would break at the first threat of combat.But they were cheap during peacetime.It was not necessary to feed, house, clothe, or train them.And they were never the threat always presented by a standing army.The evanescent loyalties of its frontier armies had been one cause of the breakdown of the Old Brothen Empire.Else would have been willing to bet gold.And he would have won.The meat being served so generously, to the members of the company and prospective recruits, was pork.Else was beginning to develop a taste for the unclean flesh."You guys sure picked your time," the one-armed cook in charge told Else.The other, who, up close, looked enough like him to be a twin, still had both of his arms."Eh?""Pranced in here just late enough so you'll get you a free breakfast, too, didn't you?" He did not seem to mind, though.All of Else's band were baffled.The one-armed cook said, "The wizard does him a whole show on why you should praise God and sign up to the serve the Brotherhood.It's mostly a crock a shit but you get yourself a meal for sitting through it.Two meals, if you're just clever enough to wander in here too late for him to do his buck and wing tonight.For a wizard he sure likes to hit the sack early." The implication being that any wizard would be on intimate and extended terms with the Instrumentalities of the Night."Wizard?" Else had another bad feeling."I didn't stutter.Move along.It's time for the changing of the guard.And those assholes don't like to be kept waiting at chow time.""And who could blame them?"The youngster assigned as guide showed them where they were supposed to eat, then where they were supposed to clean up the wooden plates and cups and utensils they had been issued at the head of the line.That much order could not last, Else was confidentThey were shown to a large tent where they were supposed to bed down with another half-dozen potential recruits.Pig Iron was hobbled alongside, outside.The mule seemed to think that he had elevated to mule heaven.Else had spent much of his life in worse quarters than that tent.He told Bo Biogna, “They're sure trying to seduce us here."Biogna grunted."You seen, they got an actual, real shithouse?"Else had not overlooked that fact.It was an improvement on the traditional Praman field latrine.Which, Else felt, proved that the Brotherhood of War was in charge here.And it proved that the warrior monks were not so narrow of vision as to remain incapable of learning from their enemies.Traditionally, more crusaders perished of dysentery, cholera, and typhoid than they did of the most violent efforts of Indala al-Sul Halaladin and other defenders of the Holy Lands.And the main reason that diseases got them was because they failed to recognize any possibility of a connection between illness and the presence of their own ordure.Even here, though, there was a problem with the by-product of the animal population, especially horses and dogs."THIS ALL SEEMS NICE SO FAR," GOFIT ASPEL OBSERVED AS THE band ate breakfast.Else agreed."They're doing everything they can to make us want to sign on.Things won't be nearly as nice once we take an oath."Bo Biogna grumbled, "Let's hope that don't mean they figure it will all to go to shit whenever they get to wherever they're going.""You fibbed.You've done this before.""No.Only stands to reason that it might.""So just keep expecting the worst.Then you'll be ready for it"Their guide materialized."You need to hurry.They want to get started early.Something important happened somewhere."That something was all over camp in fifteen minutes, a secret out strutting its stuff in a dozen different dresses, none of them more than one quarter accurate."Somebody tried to kill the anti-Patriarch!""The killers were all wiped out by his guards!""I heard the assassins were ambushed!"Before it was over Else could have put together a version where God himself had sent down an archangel with a warning while, in Viscesment, an army of elite Patriarchal troops was destroyed to the last man by invulnerable shadow knights magically whisked in from Hansel's capital in the New Brothen Empire.Which was a sufficiently delicious rumor that everyone played it up despite it being common knowledge that Johannes Blackboots and his daughters had taken up permanent residence at the Dimmel Palace in Plemenza, declaring an end to any interest in Firaldia, with the Emperor saying he was taking a vacation from politics.Rumor and speculation simmered all morning.Else found the camp command's reaction to the news interesting.He told his group, "I think the Brotherhood is recruiting for a foray into the Connec, not Sonsa.""They're starting to pack up," Just Plain Joe observed.He was right.Men were striking tents, breaking down the kitchen facility, loading all that into wagons.Horses were being gotten into harness.Dogs were running around, being confused.The only thing missing was a train of women and children.A grizzled old Brother named Redfearn arrived to take the potential recruits in hand.In addition to Else's group, four more would-be soldiers had come in since the last recruiting speech.Redfearn did not have much to say."We're moving out." He had a strong accent that suggested an origin somewhere deep inside the New Brothen Empire."You have until we begin movement to decide if you're with us.Pay will be regular.It will be on time.Food will be provided [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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