Harry Turtledove: Into the Darkness

“Ah.” Orosio nodded. He looked west. “You had better get used to it, my dear comrade. Not even the powers above, I shouldn’t think, can keep us from smashing the Unkerlanters once for all. You can watch them crumble as we hit them.”

“They’re trying hard to fight back,” Sabrino said, giving credit where he thought it due. “They may even be fighting back harder than the Kaunian kingdoms did in the east. The Jelgavans just quit once we got the jump on them; they had no use for their own officers. The Valmierans did a little better, but they still haven’t figured out what hit them.”

“Do you think the Unkerlanters have, sir?” Orosio asked, his eyes wide.

Sabrino considered the day’s action, the column flamed on the road and the dragon farm caught with its animals still chained to the ground. A slow smile stole across his face. “Now that you mention it, no,” he said.

Orosio and Domiziano both laughed and clapped their hands. Domiziano said, “We’ll be in Cottbus, burning King Swemmel’s palace down around his crazy ears, before harvest time.”

“Aye.” Captain Orosio nodded again. “He’s going to have a lesson in what efficiency really means.” He paraded around very stiffly, as if he were afraid to make any movement not prescribed for him by some higher authority.

“You look like you’ve got a poker up your arse,” Sabrino said.

“Feels that way, too.” Orosio relaxed into a more natural posture. “But go ahead and tell me it’s not how Unkerlanters are.”

“I can’t do that,” Sabrino admitted. “Can’t even come close. “They’re the sort of people who wait for permission to come through on a crystal before they blow their noses.”

“And they haven’t got enough crystals to go around, either,” Domiziano added.

“Makes things easier for us,” Orosio said. “I’m in favor of whatever makes things easier for us.”

“What I’d be in favor of right now is some wine and some food,”

Sabrino said. “Our dragons are stuffing themselves”—he glanced back to where the keepers tossed more gobbets of meat to the great beasts—“and I want to do the same.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but brimstone and cinnabar give me heartburn,” Domiziano said with a grin.

“What would the back of my hand give you?” the wing commander asked, but he also grinned. Aye, grins were easy to come by in an army moving forward. Sabrino looked toward the west again. Faces would be long in the Unkerlanter encampments. He hoped they would get longer, too, in the days ahead. In a low voice, he murmured, “The tide is flowing our way.”

“Aye, it is,” Captain Orosio said. For his part, he looked toward the tents set to one side of the dragon farm. He was grinning, too. “And it looks like supper is finally flowing our way.”

Supper, plainly, had been foraged from the Forthwegian countryside. Sabrino gorged himself on crumbly white cheese, almost preserved with salt and garlic, olives even saltier than the almonds, and breads with wheat and barley flour dusted with sesame seeds. Had anyone back at his estate presumed to serve him such a rough red wine, he would have bitten the luckless fellow’s head off. Here in the field, he drank it without complaint. It might even have gone better with his simple fare than a more subtle vintage would have done.

As he ate, the stars came out. The Gyongyosians made them into powers, powers that could control a man’s destiny. Foolishness, as far as Sabrino was concerned. Powers or not, though, they were beautiful. He watched them for a while, till he caught himself yawning.

He sought his bed without the least embarrassment or the least desire for company. If young Domiziano had the energy to look for a companion and to do something with her once he found her, that was his affair. Sabrino needed sleep.

Some time in the middle of the night, Unkerlanter dragons dropped eggs not too far from the dragon farm. Sabrino woke up, cursed the Unkerlanters in a blurry voice, and fell asleep again. The next morning, the attack went on.

AlardoDuke of Ban

AlcinaGardener in Tricarico

BalastroMarquis; Algarvian minister to Zuwayza

BalozioMan of Kaunian blood in Tricarico

Bembo*Constable in Tricarico

BorsoCommandant of dragon farm outside Trapani

CilandroColonel of footsoldiers near Tricarico

CorbeoDragonflier in Sabrino’s wing

DalindaGardener in Tricarico

DomizianoCaptain-squadron commander in Sabrino’s wing

DudoneKing Mezentio’s predecessor

ElioLieutenant in Tealdo’s regiment

EvadneKaunian woman in Tricarico; Falsirone’s wife

FalsironeKaunian hair stylist in Tricarico; Evadne’s husband

FiamettaCourtesan in Tricarico

FrontinoWarder in Tricarico

GabrinaSlattern in Tricarico

GalafroneCaptain replacing Larbino

IppalcaAlgarvian noblewoman

IvoneGrand duke commanding Algarvian forces in Valmiera

LarbinoCaptain in Tealdo’s regiment

LurcanioCount and colonel occupying Prickule

MainardoMezentio’s brother, named King of Jelgava

MartusinoThief in Tricarico

MezentioKing of Algarve

MoscoCaptain; Colonel Lurcanio’s adjutant

OmbrunoColonel commanding officer of Tealdo’s regiment

OrasteConstable in Tricarico

OrosioSenior lieutenant in Sabrino’s wing

PanfiloSergeant in Tealdo’s regiment

PesaroConstabulary sergeant in Tricarico

ProclaGardener in Tricarico

Sabrino*Count and colonel of dragonfliers

SaffaConstabulary sketch artist in Tricarico

SassoConstabulary captain in Tricarico

SpinelloMajor commanding occupiers in Oyngestun

Tealdo*Common soldier

TrasoneCommon soldier; Tealdo’s friend

AgmundMaster of Algarvian, Gromheort

ArnulfFirstman in village in eastern Forthweg

BedeMaster of classical Kaunian, Gromheort

BeoccaLeofsig’s squadmate

BrivibasVanai’s grandfather

BrordaCount of Gromheort

BurgredLaborer in Leofsig’s gang

CeolnothMagecraft master at Ealstan and Sidroc’s academy

ConbergeEalstan and Leofsig’s sister

CynfridBrigadier; senior officer in captives’ camp

Ealstan*Student in Gromheort; Leofsig’s younger brother

ElfrythEalstan and Leofsig, and Conberge’s mother

ElfsigFelgilde’s father

FelgildeLeofsig’s girlfriend

FrithstanProfessor of ancient history

GutauskasKaunian war captive

HengistSidroc’s father; Hestan’s brother

HestanEalstan, Leofsig, and Conberge’s father—a bookkeeper

Leofsig*Soldier in King Penda’s levy; Ealstan’s older brother

MerwitWar captive

OddaOne of Ealstan’s classmates