Stan Nicholls - Army of Shadows

But she was calm. "How?"

"That's what's extraordinary, my lady. We had them in sight, in the woods. Then they… somehow they… vanished. Or not quite vanished. They… I have no words to describe it, m'lady."

She didn't seem surprised. "Then don't try. It's obviously beyond you."

"There's more, ma'am, if it pleases you."

"We'll have to see, won't we? What is it?"

"Ours wasn't the only force out there. There was some other group. Small, but possessing powerful magic. They seemed to be after the orc band, too, ma'am. And once the orcs… went, we were anxious this group might have turned their magic on us."

"How was this group made up?"

"That's another strange thing, ma'am."

"It has been an unsettling night for you, hasn't it, Major?"

"We didn't get too close a look at them, my lady, but many of the men swear they weren't human. Not like orcs or — " He was about to say you, and thanked the gods he checked himself. "Not like orcs. These were many different kinds of creatures, unlike anything we've ever seen before."

"If you're to thrive in my service you'll learn to take strange things in your stride. Is that all?"

He was surprised, if not shocked, that she took what seemed to him bad news so evenly. "We've also had reports that bands of liberated… that's to say rebellious orcs are roaming this area. We're not in the most secure of positions, ma'am."

"We won't be here long."

"What are your orders, my lady?"

"My intention is to follow them."

"My lady?"

"The band of orcs. The Wolverines."

He was baffled. "Begging your pardon, my lady, but… how? By ship?"

"No, you fool. There never was a ship expected. And no vessel could follow where they went."

"Then, my lady, how…?"

"I have the means. Though I warn you that you might find the journey a little… exhilarating. What's the matter, Major? You look uneasy." She was poking fun, not inquiring after his well-being.

"Nothing's wrong, thank you, ma'am."

"Good. Because if I thought that you or any other of my followers might baulk at the manner of our going from this place… Well, perhaps an illustration will serve." She reached for a small silver bell standing on the arm of her couch. It tinkled lightly.

In response, the tent flaps rustled and were clumsily pulled aside. A figure lumbered in. It was another of her zombie slaves. Superficially, it looked like all the others the major had encountered. Its eyes were glassy, and lacked any hint of compassion. The skin that could be seen, on the face and hands, had the sickly pallor of a long-mummified corpse.

The being lurched forward a few steps, then halted, adopting a grotesque parody of standing to attention. And the major couldn't help but notice that it gave off the vile odour of decomposing flesh.

"The latest of my attendants," Jennesta explained. "Study him closely. I think you may have been acquainted, albeit loosely."

He stared at the swaying abomination.

"Come on, Major!" she urged. "There's enough of the original features left for you to make out who this is, surely? He was a man of some distinction, for a while."

Realisation began to dawn. The major's face took on an appalled expression.

"Ah, I see you do recognise our visitor. But let me formally introduce you. Say hello to General Kapple Hacher, late governor of this province."

The creature that had been Hacher was drooling.

"Consider him closely," Jennesta said, icy now. "Because in him you see the destiny of any who would seek to thwart me or disregard my wishes. Make no mistake, Major; I could as easily command an army of his kind as a rabble of free-thinkers. Make sure you and your comrades give me no reason to do so."

He nodded, words being hard for him to summon.

"Prepare for our departure," she ordered. "Oh, and do spread the word about the general's new status, won't you? Now leave me."

He bowed and turned to go.

"And Major."

"Ma'am?"

"See to it that I'm not disturbed."

The officer gave another quick bow and departed, ashen-faced.

Ignoring the undead Hacher and her other flesh puppets, she stooped and pulled a small chest from under the couch. It was steel-banded and had an elaborate lock, but its real protection lay in the enchantment Jennesta had cast upon it: a spell only she could negate without fatal consequences. Inside the chest was another, slightly smaller, fashioned from pure silver. This, too, was bound with a charm. Once it was opened, she gazed at her greatest treasure.

The instrumentalities were identical to the ones she had purloined from the Wolverines: sandy-coloured, green, dark blue, grey, red; each with varying numbers of projecting spikes. Knowing that even her magic wasn't powerful or subtle enough to create a set from scratch, she had studied and laboured for years to perfect a way of duplicating them. The faultless copies she now ran loving fingers over vindicated her efforts. She knew they would do everything the set the doltish orcs possessed could do. They could do more, given she was so much better versed in their potential.

She looked forward with relish to pursuing the warband. But first she had somewhere else to go.

Beyond the vale of the worlds, the Wolverines' two sturdy boats sailed on.

They were lucky with the weather: the sea was calm and the sky clear, which meant the pair of craft could travel within a short hailing distance of each other. That was useful for Pepperdyne, who was able to bawl instructions to the second vessel when it was doubtfully handled. Coilla, in charge of the second boat, was grateful for the guidance. Haskeer was less enamoured of a human bellowing orders at them.

Stryke, Jup and Dallog were the high-rankers on the boat Pepperdyne skippered. Standeven was aboard too, typically seated as far from the others as possible, and looking bilious despite the millpond sea.

Pepperdyne had been navigating by the Sun and, earlier, by the fast-fading stars as dawn broke, using a basic star chart he had got from the elder. It was a crude method, and he was anxious for some kind of landmark to confirm their position. At around noon, he got it.

Jup pointed. "There!"

Far off, they could just make out three or four dark bumps rising from the sea's otherwise featureless surface.

"You've good eyesight," Pepperdyne complimented.

"But they are islands, right?"

"Have to be," Stryke replied. He had the chart spread on a bench, and tapped a particular spot. "These, I reckon."

Pepperdyne leaned in for a look. "I think you're right."

"So we're on course?"

The human nodded. "More or less."

"But how much can we trust the map?" Jup wondered.

"It seems true so far. Though my hunch is that it covers just the immediate area."

"Is that a problem?"

"Only if we have to go outside what the map shows, for any reason. Into what would be, for us, uncharted seas. If this world's all ocean there are probably a damn sight more islands than on here."

"I heard one of those dwarf children come out with an old saying," Dallog informed them. "It was about there being as many islands as there are stars in the sky."

"Poetic, but not very helpful if we have to travel further than this chart."

"I don't see the need to," Stryke said. "The map tells us where we started and where we need to get to. Anything else happens, we'll deal with it."

"Hope you're right," Jup remarked. "For Spurral's sake."

They had seen the chain of islands on the second boat too.

Wheam was particularly excited at their first sight of landfall. "This is an important moment. It should be celebrated. It will be, in the epic ballad I'm going to make out of this voyage."

"Oh joy," Haskeer intoned flatly.

"If only I had my lute. I always found it so much easier to word-weave with that in my hands. It was such a blow losing it."