Things became even more crunched this week (and still are until I finish two assignments for publishers), so I haven’t answered everyone’s posts & emails.\u00a0 They’re not lost, I’m just out of time and brains.\u00a0 But…I did locate a new snippet for you.\u00a0 It needs a bit of introduction…actually it’s two snippets, the second one, in particular, pruned extensively.<\/p>\n
Place: Fox Company winter quarters, Valdaire<\/p>\n
Who:\u00a0 Captains Selfer and Burek, discussing a captain with a temporary contract whom Selfer hired while Burek was away in Andressat, recovering from his wound.\u00a0 Harnik is an older man, and…well, you’ll see.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That evening, Harnik was off duty.\u00a0 Burek and Selfer ate supper together.\u00a0 “What do you think of him?” Selfer asked, nodding to the empty place.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure,” Burek said.\u00a0 He was not sure how much to say.\u00a0 “Is he a little deaf, maybe?”<\/p>\n
“Maybe.\u00a0 I don’t know if I made the right choice–what Lord Arcolin will think.\u00a0 It’s clear to me that Harnik thinks he’s senior–he is older and more experienced, I don’t dispute that.\u00a0 But I feel as if he expects to be made senior captain when Arcolin comes.”<\/p>\n
“Captain Arcolin wouldn’t do that.”<\/p>\n
“No, but…Harnik’s always giving me advice, telling me what I should do.\u00a0 And he talks on and on about what they did in Clart Company.\u00a0 Clart’s a good cavalry company but they’re not infantry and it’s not the same.\u00a0 And Lord Arcolin’s Company has its own traditions already.”<\/p>\n
“And yet Harnik is one of us now, until Captain Arcolin comes down, so…”<\/p>\n
“So we must get along with him.\u00a0 Yes, you’re right.\u00a0 But I have orders directly from Lord Arcolin, and so do you, from before he went north.\u00a0 I worry that Harnik may step beyond those, present himself to merchants or even potential employers as having more authority than he does.”<\/p>\n
“Surely he wouldn’t–”<\/p>\n
“The day before you came, we got a load of fodder from a supplier this Company doesn’t use…Harnik had authorized it, rather than asking me who our suppliers are.\u00a0 I had some on order, and–that’s why the stable lofts are stuffed.\u00a0 Our usual supplier wasn’t happy; I hated to make Harnik look bad…I’m not sure what to do, Burek. This is the first time I’ve had a separate command down here.\u00a0 I was junior to Dorrin Verrakai.”<\/p>\n
“Did you tell Harnik not to do it again?”<\/p>\n
“Of course.\u00a0 He puffed up a bit but then apologized…only in a way that convinced me he thought my objection silly.”<\/p>\n
………………………………<\/p>\n
By the time Burek took over for the second watch, Harnik had not returned.\u00a0 Selfer shook his head.\u00a0 “I hope this won’t be a habit, now that you’re back.”<\/p>\n
Harnik reappeared while Burek was making rounds for the second time, his voice a little slurred.\u00a0 “Well, lad, it’s no night to be coming up that hill from the White Dragon into the face of the wind.\u00a0 I almost turned back and begged a bed there, but I knew you depended on me.\u00a0 Can’t leave you two young bravos without a graybeard to back you up.”<\/p>\n
So.\u00a0 This was near insubordination, but what could Selfer do with a half-drunken older man in the middle of the night?\u00a0 “Captain Selfer has tomorrow’s schedule posted in the guard room,” Burek said, in as neutral a voice as he could manage.\u00a0 “You’ll be taking both cohorts for a march after the morning chores.”<\/p>\n
“In a snowstorm?\u00a0 He can’t be serious.”<\/p>\n
“I believe, Captain Harnik, that Captain Selfer has done this before.”<\/p>\n
“We’ll see what the morning brings,” Harnik said, and stumped off to his quarters, muttering to himself.\u00a0 Burek could just hear a phrase or two…nothing flattering to Selfer.\u00a0 He continued his rounds without waking Selfer, making sure that the sentries had their sib in shelter every second turn of the glass.<\/p>\n
Selfer came into the guardroom before the end of the watch, carrying a pot of sib with him.\u00a0 “He’s snoring loud enough to hear in the courtyard,” he said.\u00a0 No need to give the name.\u00a0 “What time did he come in?”<\/p>\n
“My second round,” Burek said.\u00a0 “And he’d been drinking.\u00a0 Said he’d almost decided to spend the night at the inn.”<\/p>\n
“Um.”\u00a0 Selfer poured sib for both of them.\u00a0 “Anything else to report?”<\/p>\n
“No.\u00a0 I thought perhaps some enterprising thief might think we didn’t man the walls on such a night, but nothing happened.”\u00a0 Burek stretched.\u00a0 “I have one more round–better get to it.”<\/p>\n
“Go on, then.\u00a0 I must think what to do.”<\/p>\n
What to do about Harnik…Burek thought about that as he went from sentry to sentry.\u00a0 Did he and Selfer really need a third captain with both of them healthy?\u00a0 But Captain Arcolin had told Selfer to hire one for the winter.\u00a0 In those few days he couldn’t tell how much help Harnik actually was……<\/p>\n
Yet…if the man was a drunkard, if he could not do the work for which he’d been hired, if he continued to show disrespect of Selfer as his commander and Burek as a fellow officer…they would be better off without him. ….<\/p>\n
It was light enough now to see the steady fall of the snow, the smoke from the kitchens disappearing into it, the shapes of the buildings and the piles of snow covering roofs and ground.\u00a0 Burek loved the silence of snow and the smell, so clean and pure; he stood a moment in the middle of the north wall parapet and let the snowflakes land on his face until they caught in his eyebrows and chilled his eyelids.\u00a0 Then, laughing at himself, he turned his back to the slight breeze, blinked the snow away and looked down into the courtyard.\u00a0 One of Selfer’s corporals for the first round of daytime sentries out of the mess, looked up, spotted him and called “Relief ready, captain!”<\/p>\n
“Relieve the posts, corporal,” Burek called back.\u00a0 He retraced his steps to the first post and waited until the corporal and his little troop were up on the parapet, then walked along with them as each post changed shifts, and down the steps by the front gate.<\/p>\n
He expected to find Harnik and Selfer at breakfast in the mess hall, but only Selfer was there; he waved Burek over.\u00a0 “Guard changed, Captain Selfer,” Burek said. “Nothing to report on my last round, either.”<\/p>\n
A cook’s helper came over with bowls of porridge and a basket of hot bread.\u00a0 The captains’ table already had a pitcher of honey and box of salt.\u00a0 “Here, Captains. Ham next.”<\/p>\n
Burek poured a stream of honey into his porridge and sprinkled salt on it.\u00a0 “I thought Golden Company’s mess was good, but this is better.”<\/p>\n
“Wait until you rotate up to the north,” Selfer said.\u00a0 “There’s a pastry cook at the stronghold as good as any you’d find in a Valdaire inn.”<\/p>\n
“I’ve never seen the north at all,” Burek said.\u00a0 He ate rapidly, glancing now and then at the door, expecting to see Harnik.<\/p>\n
“He’s still snoring,” Selfer said.\u00a0 “I banged on his door, and he grunted; I thought he was awake.\u00a0 But then when I got my boots on, and walked past his room on the way out, he was snoring again.”<\/p>\n
Burek grinned.\u00a0 “We could give him a snow bath.”<\/p>\n
Selfer thought about it, then shook his head.\u00a0 “Bad for discipline, for the troops to see a captain dumped in the snow.\u00a0 But…we could take a bucket in, if he’s not up by the end of breakfast.”<\/p>\n
“I can take care of the morning chore details,” Burek said.\u00a0 “The jacks detail is all out of my cohort anyway.”\u00a0 A server arrived with a platter of ham steaks; Burek stabbed one and pulled it onto his plate.<\/p>\n
“You’ve been up all night,” Selfer said, cutting his own.\u00a0 “He should do it.”<\/p>\n
“Yes, but if you need time to settle things with him, I can be out of the way and ensure the others are.”\u00a0 Burek wondered what was holding Selfer back.\u00a0 They really did not need a third captain, and if Harnik was going to cause trouble, better let him go now.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
They started out of the mess hall only to meet Harnik coming in.\u00a0 “Sorry I’m late, lads,” he said.\u00a0 “Something wrong with the ale last night, I think.\u00a0 Burek, can you take the work details this morning? I’ve got to get ready for the main exercise.”\u00a0 Without waiting for an answer, he went in to breakfast.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
He assembled the troops in the courtyard, ready to march.\u00a0 Finally, he went to Harnik’s quarters and knocked.\u00a0 “They’re ready, Captain Harnik.”<\/p>\n
The door opened; Harnik’s face was even more flushed, and Burek could smell the drink.\u00a0 “Is my horse ready?”<\/p>\n
“Your horse?”<\/p>\n
“Of course. I’m not going to slog through the snow like a–”\u00a0 He stopped, peered past Burek.\u00a0 “It’s snowing too hard.\u00a0 We can’t go out in this.”\u00a0 He shut the door in Burek’s face.<\/p>\n
Burek stared at the wooden planks for a moment, trying to think how to handle this–he did not want to leave Harnik alone in the compound, not after what Selfer had told him. …<\/p>\n
Selfer arrived near midday, with four other riders.\u00a0 Burek stared: Aesil M’dierra of Golden Company, Nasimir Clart of Clart Company, a Gird’s Marshal, and the hard-faced, one-armed man he remembered as head of the mercenaries’ hiring hall.\u00a0 Selfer, when he dismounted, had an expression Burek recognized with relief: the senior captain had come to a firm decision.<\/p>\n
……………………………………………..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Things became even more crunched this week (and still are until I finish two assignments for publishers), so I haven’t answered everyone’s posts & emails.\u00a0 They’re not lost, I’m just out of time and brains.\u00a0 But…I did locate a new snippet for you.\u00a0 It needs a bit of introduction…actually it’s two snippets, the second one, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-1337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-snippet","tag-snippet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1338,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions\/1338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}