Book 1 - The Black Company by Glen Cook Page B

guilt-ridden descendants battled the Lady.
    Southern Forsberg remained deceptively peaceful. The peasantry
greeted us without enthusiasm, but willingly took our money.
    "That's because seeing the Lady's soldiers pay is such a
novelty," Raven claimed. "The Taken just grab whatever strikes
their fancy."
    The Captain grunted. We would have done so ourselves had we not
had instructions to the contrary. Soulcatcher had directed us to be
gentlemen. He had given the Captain a plump war chest. The Captain
was willing. No point making enemies needlessly.
     
     
    We had been travelling two months. A thousand miles lay behind
us. We were exhausted. The Captain decided to rest us at the edge
of the war zone. Maybe he was having second thoughts about serving
the Lady.
    Anyway, there is no point hunting trouble. Not when not fighting
pays the same.
    The Captain directed us into a forest. While we pitched camp, he
talked with Raven. I watched.
    Curious. There was a bond developing there. I could not
understand it because I did not know enough about either man. Raven
was a new enigma, the Captain an old one.
    In all the years I have known the Captain I have learned almost
nothing about him. Just a hint here and there, fleshed out by
speculation.
    He was born in one of the Jewel Cities. He was a professional
soldier. Something overturned his personal life. Possibly a woman.
He abandoned commission and titles and became a wanderer.
Eventually he hooked up with our band of spiritual exiles.
    We all have our pasts. I suspect we keep them nebulous not
because we are hiding from our yesterdays but because we think we
will cut more romantic figures if we roll our eyes and dispense
delicate hints about beautiful women forever beyond our reaches.
Those men whose stories I have uprooted are running from the law,
not a tragic love affair.
    The Captain and Raven, though, obviously found one another
kindred souls.
    The camp was set. The pickets were out. We settled in to rest.
Though that was busy country, neither contending force noticed us
immediately.
     
     
    Silent was using his skills to augment the watchfulness of our
sentries. He detected spies hidden inside our outer picket line and
warned One-Eye. One-Eye reported to the Captain.
    The Captain spread a map atop a stump we had turned into a card
table, after evicting me, One-Eye, Goblin, and several others.
"Where are they?"
    "Two here. Two more over there. One here."
    "Somebody go tell the pickets to disappear. We'll sneak out,
Goblin. Where's Goblin? Tell Goblin to get with the illusions." The
Captain had decided not to start anything. A laudable decision, I
thought.
    A few minutes later, he asked, "Where's Raven?"
    I said, "I think he went after the spies."
    "What? Is he an idiot?" His face darkened. "What the hell do you
want?"
    Goblin squeaked like a stomped rat. He squeaks at the best of
times. The Captain's outburst had him sounding like a baby bird.
"You called for me."
    The Captain stamped in a circle, growling and scowling. Had he
the talent of a Goblin or a One-Eye, smoke would have poured from
his ears.
    I winked at Goblin, who grinned like a big toad. This shambling
little war dance was just a warning not to trifle with him. He
shuffled maps. He cast dark looks. He wheeled on me. "I don't like
it. Did you put him up to it?"
    "Hell no." I do not try to create Company history. I just record
it.
    Then Raven showed up. He dumped a body at the Captain's feet,
proffered a string of grisly trophies.
    "What the hell?"
    "Thumbs. They count coup in these parts."
    The Captain turned green around the gills. "What's the body
for?"
    "Stick his feet in the fire. Leave him. They won't waste time
wondering how we knew they were out there."
     
     
    One-Eye, Goblin, and Silent cast a glamour over the Company. We
slipped away, slick as a fish through the fingers of a clumsy
fisherman. An enemy battalion, which had been sneaking up, never
caught a whiff of us. We headed straight north. The Captain