Back when I was writing the original DEED, I often wrote extra bits from various POVs.\u00a0 Side stories, I called them.\u00a0 Didn’t have internet, didn’t have any place to put them, hadn’t been published yet.\u00a0 Some of those stories stuck to my mind and when, in time, I had misplaced printouts of them, and was back in Paksworld, I wrote newer versions in Word.\u00a0 Various times, some older, some newer.\u00a0 This is part of a group of incidents involving Kieri Phelan on his first independent contract for the Crown of Tsaia (he’d been a subordinate commander to other merc commanders or nobles who needed a small unit for some reason.)\u00a0\u00a0 Pargun had invaded Tsaia north of the Honnorgat; this army was combined of the feudal levy and one little bitty merc group: Kieri’s.\u00a0\u00a0 A single cohort, one hundred.\u00a0\u00a0 Siger (yes, the same Siger) was his sergeant.\u00a0 None of the captains you’ve seen before; not even Arcolin was there yet.\u00a0 For most of the people in that army, he was a complete unknown,\u00a0 with no family, no friends, no history.<\/p>\n
………………………………………………………………………………<\/p>\n
Kieri Phelan’s First Command<\/p>\n
As the Tsaian army marched out of V\u00e9rella, unit after unit swung into line.\u00a0 They were on the road to Pargun, to take back the land the Pargunese had invaded, and they were full of confidence and pride in their numbers.\u00a0 The Tsaian Royal Guard, in its rose and white uniforms led the way.\u00a0 Every feudal troop, under the small banner of its local lord, and the larger banner of its lord’s lord, and those highest lords–the dukes–following (and not exactly under) the banner of the royal house, the rose circlet of Tsaia.\u00a0 All the nobles accompanying their troops rode, though except for cavalry units the troops marched.<\/p>\n
All but one.\u00a0 One small group, one hundred and one strong, infantry with short swords and shields, marched under the pennant of no land-holder at all, but a mercenary captain.\u00a0 Maroon bars bordered the white center, and a small maroon fox mask smirked out at the world from the white.<\/p>\n
Its commander marched with his men, on foot, through the dust that hung over the the whole army.\u00a0 His clothes, maroon with white trim, like his troops, were coated with dust, gray or tan from whatever soil they marched over.\u00a0 His face was masked in dust, his fox-red hair dulled with dust.\u00a0 His armor coated with it.\u00a0 And this dusty, increasingly unkempt-looking unit marched directly behind the Crown Prince’s entourage, because this unit–holding a contract directly from the Crown–ranked equal in standing–according to the Crown Prince–with any other that had contracted directly with the Crown, and the Crown Prince himself had dictated the order of march.<\/p>\n
It was ridiculous, and many of the nobles or their sons had mentioned–with delicate courtesy–to the Crown Prince that it was perhaps injudicious to so honor a foreigner, a mere mercenary.\u00a0 “If I’d known you wanted a mercenary unit, I could have hired you one,” Duke Verrakai had said.\u00a0 “No need to deal with him yourself.”<\/p>\n
Young Marrakai, his father’s Kirgan, had said as much to the younger prince, two steps farther from the throne.\u00a0 “Any of us could have hired him.”<\/p>\n
“Yes, but Gerry wanted to.”<\/p>\n
“But why?”<\/p>\n
“I have no idea.\u00a0 I asked and he told me to figure it out for myself.\u00a0 He’s a bastard, no doubt of that–no family anyone heard of anywhere…”<\/p>\n
“Any history at all?”<\/p>\n
“Was in Halveric Company–”<\/p>\n
“Ahhh.\u00a0 Lyonya, then.\u00a0 A bastard from that<\/u> family?”<\/p>\n
“I heard it was not, but you know–bastards.\u00a0 Some people don’t claim them.”\u00a0 That with a sniff.\u00a0 The Mahierans, at least, acknowledged theirs, which made it fashionable to do so and less fashionable–honorable, they would say–not to do so.\u00a0 Kirgan Marrakai had often wondered if his father had sired any, but was afraid to ask, given the lectures he’d received as he grew into the ability.<\/p>\n
…………………………………………………………………………………….<\/p>\n
(Part One)<\/p>\n
……………………………………………………………………………………<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back when I was writing the original DEED, I often wrote extra bits from various POVs.\u00a0 Side stories, I called them.\u00a0 Didn’t have internet, didn’t have any place to put them, hadn’t been published yet.\u00a0 Some of those stories stuck to my mind and when, in time, I had misplaced printouts of them, and was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,73],"tags":[108,22],"class_list":["post-2871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-background","category-excerpt","tag-background","tag-characters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871"}],"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=2871"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2875,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871\/revisions\/2875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}