Роберт Асприн - Forever After

“Fine, but I’ll tear limb from limb any who cross me on this matter…” Domino’s words trailed off. “What the hell?”

Beneath the gallows tree a motley puppy worried a cylindrical object. The puppy’s floppy ears kept getting underfoot and his brown-and-white spotted hindquarters were stuck in the air, his tail wagging furiously.

“That’s one of Vernon’s animals,” Mel offered, “very cute, but hardly…”

Domino ignored him, striding over to the puppy. Seeing her, the puppy yipped playfully, wagging, if possible, even harder. When Domino stooped to retrieve the scroll case, he snatched it up and ran a few steps before putting it down. Domino hurried after him and again the puppy grabbed the case and ran.

“Tne little bastard is playing with me!” she said incredulously. “Call his owner.”

“Ah, he’s dead,” Seth answered, “the camel sat on him.”

“It was his camel,” Mel said mournfully, “but she never liked him.”

“Great.” Domino hunkered down, trying hard to be unthreatening. “Here, puppy! Here, boy! Give me the stick.”

The puppy yapped, growling playfully. Crawling on her hands and knees, Domino got almost into grabbing range before the puppy seized the scroll and ran yet again.

“Damn it!” she cursed, sitting back on her heels. “Give that to me!”

The puppy ignored her command and her face grew hot as she heard smothered titters from behind her. She scowled back over her shoulder and the tittering stopped.

“Sir,” Seth said, “if I can get the scroll for you, can I keep the puppy?”

Domino glowered. “Soldiers do not barter for their services, Seth. You are in my Company, are you not?”

“Yes, sir,” Seth held her ground, “but they do get booty and I’ve never asked you for gold or horses or wenches or anything.”

“True.” Domino hid a satisfied smile. “Get me that scroll case and the puppy is yours, but you walk it and feed it and all the rest.”

“Yes, sir!”

The puppy watched her, tail wagging faster and faster as Seth skipped over, but when Seth closed in to grabbing range, it took the case and ran a few paces. Seth feigned indifference and picked up a stick which she tossed into the air and caught again.

After a few tosses, the puppy was watching in fascination. Seth ignored it until it was whining at her feet, then she threw the stick. The puppy ran after, tripping over its own ears and yelping in delight. Before it could turn around, Seth had scooped up the scroll tube and tossed it to Domino.

“Puppy spit!” Domino swore. “Well, the puppy is yours, Seth, but if it wets on my bedrolls, I’ll court-martial you.”

“Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!” Seth took off her belt and made a leash for the puppy. “What next, sir?”

“Well, we have executions to deal with and by then the Company should have rejoined us. So, let’s get away from this mess and start setting up camp.”

“Yes, sir.” Seth looked less happy than any kid with a new puppy should.

Domino studied her. “Do you have something to say?”

“Yes, sir,” She glanced over at Mel. “But not here.”

Domino sighed and motioned for Mel to go to the prison tent. When he was out of earshot, she looked at the kid.

“Speak, soldier.”

“Do you have to kill them, General? I mean, we know them and I think that they’re sorry.”

“War often means killing people you know, Seth,” Domino answered, “and being sorry isn’t enough.”

“Still, General,” Seth pleaded, “I really don’t like this.”

Domino bit back a growl. “I’ll take your advice under consideration. Now, get to your tasks. On the way, send the Colonel to me.”

Domino shoved the scroll case into her belt, annoyed that she should feel so untriumphant. Rafe arrived, the camel trailing him. This time the beast was hung with a variety of camp implements, including several items of Rafe’s personal gear.

“Damn, Rafe, can’t you go anywhere without that thing?”

“She follows me, so she might as well be useful, and I get seasick riding for too long.” He shrugged. “If I may say so, General, you look in a foul mood.”

“I am not in a foul mood,” she retorted sharply.

“As the General wishes,” Rafe said respectfully. Surely it was the camel that said “Humph,” but Domino gave the Colonel a narrow-eyed stare just in case.

“What are the General’s orders?”

“How many prisoners do we have?”

“Eight, if you don’t count assorted livestock. Four others assisted us including Herb, the goblin, and I’ve granted them conditional amnesty. The rest are dead — even Necrotica seems to be still dead, but Jord passed on a warning about her and we’ve been keeping a watch for anything strange.”

“The eight are well secured?” Domino asked, more hesitantly than she had intended.

“Yes, sir, and I’ve a chopping block and axman ready for your orders.” He studied her. “What are your orders?”

Domino ruffled her hands through her hair, disliking her indecision immensely.

“Rafe, should we execute them? They did act against us, but they’re so motley that they’re pathetic. I don’t feel right about killing them.”

Rafe tilted his head and considered. “I know what you mean. They didn’t even know what they had captured. Don’t worry, I won’t say anything, Domino, but you wouldn’t have been that worried about the scroll if Jord had just lost his poetry.”

She smiled gratefully. “We can’t just let them go unpunished. What can we do?‘

“Punishment for eight freelance mages,” Rafe mused. “We could send them on a quest, I suppose.”

“Or,” Domino said, a wicked glint greening her eyes, “we could enlist them into the Company with the responsibilities and restrictions attendant thereupon.”

Rafe grinned. “Yes, freelancers should hate that. I’ll go and offer them the opportunity to enlist — with your permission, sir.”

Domino stretched. “Yes, I like that solution. When Sergeant Colum arrives have the enlistees issued uniforms.”

That evening, when she and Jord were resting, Domino allowed herself to admit her final worries.

“Preserving the scroll of Gwykander isn’t enough,” she explained to Jord, “we need an opportunity to use it on Kalaran and somehow I don’t think it likely that he’s going to hold still while you incant over him.”

“You could pin him down,” Jord suggested, demonstrating, “and then I could read off the scroll.”

“I could,” Domino agreed, wriggling free, “Rango isn’t that strong. I doubt that we could get close enough to him when he’s alone. He usually has a guard or two in the vicinity these days.”

“We need an occasion when my reading aloud wouldn’t seem strange,” Jord said, “I could do a poetry reading.”

“In Ancient Thermaean?” Domino shook her head. “I don’t think so. Kalaran was never stupid.”

“Ancient Thermaean isn’t used very often, Domi, only for ceremonies and the like.”

“Ceremonies,” Domino said, “like weddings and coronations.”

“Smart idea, Domi.” He kissed her nose. “But I’m not likely to be asked to say the wedding. The Chief Priest is old, but he’s not so senile that he’d fail to notice if we switched texts on him. Do we dare take him into our confidence?”

“No,” Domino said decisively, “there may be corruption in the Temple. There are very few people I’d trust with this information — unfortunately, they’ve been scattered to the far corners of the Realm.”

“Probably not by accident,” Jord said, “and it’s going to be hard to reach them.”

“Hard,” she said with a smile, “but not impossible. Kalaran may have outdone himself by sending Piggon with us. We should be able to get him to pass the message for us. We’ll make it sound innocuous, like we’re setting up a surprise for the bride and bridegroom.”