Steven Brust - Dragon

"Me? Oh, no. If I'm killed in battle, it'll be on the way up the Tanks."

"And what about Napper?"

"Him? You know, I think he's every bit as contented with his life as Dortmond."

"What about her?" I asked, gesturing toward a slim lady who had just walked up to Dortmond. "She looks, oh, I don't know. Peaceful. Nice. Friendly. Something like that."

"Neera e'Lanya. She is. As sweet a girl as you'd ever meet. She's the peacemaker whenever two people in the squad start getting on each other's nerves."

"And now you're going to say that, in battle, she turns into a berserker, right? Dragon rage, spitting, killing with her bare hands?"

"You got it."

"She's really like that?"

"She really is."

"Dragons are weird," I said.

After the evening meal, such as it was, I was called to the Captain's tent once more, and once more the Captain seemed a bit nervous, and once more Morrolan was there.

"Well, Vlad," he said. "Are you prepared to strike another blow for freedom?"

"Is that what we're doing?"

"No, but it sounds better than helping a wealthy and powerful aristocrat maintain his wealth and power."

"Have you been listening in on my conversations?"

"No, why?"

"Never mind. What do you want me to do?"

"Fornia," said Morrolan, "likes to send troops into battle with a full belly. It—"

"The dastard," I said.

"—would be to our advantage, then, if that proved to be impossible."

"I imagine. You're expecting them to attack?"

"It seems likely. They've brought up a number of units, and ours are still arriving. The longer they wait, the stronger we are. Mill's brigade should be arriving sometime tomorrow morning between the eighth hour and the ninth; if they're here before the action begins, we should be able to mount a nice counterattack."

I nodded and didn't express my thought about how "nice" a counterattack was likely to be. I said, "All right. Yeah, I'll interfere with their breakfast. You have something specific in mind?"

He did. I laughed, though it wouldn't be all that funny to the soldiers on the other side. I said, "Won't that just put them in a bad mood?"

"Yes. No doubt their officers will blame it on us and give them good rousing speeches. But it'll also disorganize them and delay their attack. And, of course, it won't help their morale to realize that we can get in and out of their camp any time we like."

"Well, that's what I signed on for," I said. "Where are they?"

"Downriver about half a mile."

"Right along the river?"

"Yes. For the same reason we are."

"We could make use of that, you know. We could mess with their drinking water or—"

"There are traditions involved, Vlad; we don't do that. Officially."

"Officially?"

"I mean nothing organized. But I've never heard of a unit that was upriver of the enemy who could resist a few pranks, at least."

"You must tell me about them."

"Another time."

"All right. In any case, it should be easy enough, with them right next to the river. How many of them are there?"

"More than there are of us," he said. "But then, we're dug in pretty good. Why do you need to know?"

"I have to know how much I'm after, don't I?"

"Oh. Yes." He did some calculation. "More than one wagon, probably more than two, fewer than six."

"Ah. An exact science, I see."

"Plus, of course, whatever they've already taken off the wagons."

"Right. Plus that."

"They won't have unloaded much; they won't know exactly when they'll be moving out. Of course, your target will be toward the rear."

"Okay," I said. I did some calculating, trying to figure out the best way to go about it; difficult, without complete information. "It'll be easier if I have some help. A lot easier."

The Captain spoke for the first time: "How much help?"

"Two should do it. Just extra hands to speed matters up."

"I don't want to lose valuable troops."

"Glad to hear it. I doubt they want to be lost. I know I don't."

He started to respond, glanced at Morrolan, cleared his throat, and said, "Perhaps some of your tent-mates, to keep the gossip down."

"They'd do."

"Who's your corporal?"

"Rascha."

"Very well, I'll speak with her."

"Good enough," I said. "I'll set off around midnight."

He nodded. Loiosh said, "This should be fun, Boss."

"Sure, Loiosh. Maybe you'll get a promotion out of it."

I went back to my tent and pulled my cloak out of my satchel. Virt and Napper were sitting in front of the fire, sharpening their weapons. Aelburr was inside, catching a nap. He opened one eye and said, "Not going to sleep like a sane person?"

"A sane person wouldn't be here."

A corner of his mouth twitched and he went back to sleep. I stepped out of the tent and sat down next to the others.

"Nice night," said Virt.

It was, actually. I hadn't noticed. I realized that I didn't notice the weather unless it was bad. Napper, however, said, "She means she doesn't have picket duty tonight."

"How 'bout you?" I said.

"No. Probably tomorrow, though."

"Tomorrow," said Virt, "we'll be somewhere else. Either up-river or downriver."

"There will still be picket duty, though. And, most likely, worse weather."

"True enough," I said, because I agreed with him. I checked the various goodies in my cloak, then checked the time and found that I had a few hours to wait, so I set about sharpening my blade.

A little later Rascha came by. She gave me a funny look, worked her mouth a couple of times like she was having trouble talking, then she said, "Aelburr! Virt!"

Virt said, "I'm right here, you know."

Aelburr poked his head out and said, "Yeah?"

"You're both assigned to Taltos here for tonight."

I felt them looking at me while I studied the top of the tent in front of me, just to see if it was straight.

"What is it?" said Virt.

"He'll explain," said Rascha with distaste, and moved along quickly.

They both gave me inquiring looks. So did Napper. The top of the tent was reasonably straight. I said, "It's nothing much. I've been asked to cook tomorrow."

Napper made a grimace. Virt said, "There's something you're not telling us."

"Yeah, well. I'll explain later."

"How much later?" said Aelburr. "Is this going to interfere with my sleep schedule?"

"Think of it as picket duty. Sort of."

The three of them exchanged glances. "All right," said Virt. "When are you going to explain?"

"Around midnight, we're going to take a walk. We'll go past our own pickets. Then I'll explain."

"Ah," said Aelburr. "An adventure." He didn't look pleased.

Virt said, "I don't know how good I'd be at sneaking around."

"You don't have to be either silent or invisible; you just have to not be heard sneaking or seen skulking."

"Excuse me?"

"Once we get to, uh, where we're going—"

"I like the sound of that."

"—you hide behind any handy objects, but in getting to them you just walk. Don't crawl, and don't try to walk silently. If there's any of that to be done, I'll do it. And you'll be going without your swords."

"How did we get so lucky?" said Virt.

I shrugged. "You have the good fortune to bunk with me. Not only do you get to listen to me snore, you also get to go and get killed with me."

Napper cleared his throat and looked at me with narrowed eyes.

"Sure," I said. "You can come, too."

He nodded.

Soon after midnight we set out, creeping along the river. At roughly the halfway point between the pickets, I stopped and sketched out the plan in a whisper; then I motioned them to follow me before they could ask questions I didn't want to answer or, more important, think about what we were doing. Having them thinking would do no one any good.