Echoes of Betrayal (23 page)

“Did you tell Harnik not to do it again?”

“Of course. He puffed up a bit but then apologized … only in a way that convinced me he thought my objection silly.”

“What do you want me to do?” Burek asked.

“What you did yesterday—just make it clear that you’re in charge of your cohort. They like you, it’s clear. Mine will come to know you—they’ve heard good things from yours already. I made a copy of the muster for you, with some notes, today; it’s in your quarters.”

“Thanks,” Burek said. “That will help. By the way, who are the older veterans—one bald with gray eyes and a scar from brow to jaw and the other with graying dark hair, dark eyes, and a big scar on his right forearm?”

“Bald Laris and Gannin,” Selfer said. “They’re old friends—same recruit cohort. Never made corporal, either one of them, but good soldiers in their place. They haven’t given you trouble, have they?”

“Not at all,” Burek said.

“Good. I was a little surprised that they stayed with me after Duke Verrakai left the Company. We lost three hands who were senior enough to make that choice. I think they’re the oldest who stayed.”

“What is Duke Verrakai like?” Burek asked. “You know I had a year with Golden Company—was she like Aesil M’dierra?”

Selfer shook his head. “I’m not sure. I saw M’dierra only from a distance, back when I was the Duke’s senior squire. Dorrin Verrakai was the next senior captain to Lord Arcolin. To look at, tall, dark. A better fencer than Lord Arcolin—almost as good as Kieri Phelan was, if not as good. She’s a Knight of Falk—absolutely honest, strict but fair. I didn’t know she was a Verrakai at first—she never used the name, and the family had repudiated her. As her junior captain, I learned so much—but that was in the north, not on campaign. You’re actually more experienced than I am at that, Burek. I was here last as a squire.”

“But I never fought in Siniava’s War,” Burek said. “Even as a squire.”

“Well … she’s a noble now. The king attainted her whole family for treason, except her, and gave her the family title and lands to administer, with the assignment to capture her fugitive relatives and turn them in.”

Burek shivered.

“She hired her former cohort—and me, as acting captain—from then until after the Fall Evener, when Lord Arcolin was confirmed Count and wanted us back with the Company. We trained her people as much as we could in a half-year or so, and I thought we would go back to the stronghold in the north, but Lord Arcolin sent word
to Vérella that we were to go south. So we came, escorting Count Andressat … and you know the rest.”

“It was late to come through the pass,” Burek said.

“So the gnomes said,” Selfer said. “But they knew the Duke’s Company and let us through.”

T
hey passed the rest of the evening planning exercises for the next few days, assuming the snow held. Selfer had the early watch and came back from each round to report that snow still fell. “The first really big snow of the winter,” he said. By the time Burek took over for the second watch, Harnik had not returned. Selfer shook his head. “I hope this won’t be a habit now that you’re back.”

Harnik reappeared while Burek was making rounds for the second time, his voice a little slurred. “Well, lad, it’s no night to be coming up that hill from the White Dragon into the face of the wind. I almost turned back and begged a bed there, but I knew you depended on me. Can’t leave you two young bravos without a graybeard to back you up.”

So. This was near insubordination, but what could Selfer do with a half-drunken older man in the middle of the night? “Captain Selfer has tomorrow’s schedule posted in the guardroom,” Burek said, in as neutral a voice as he could manage. “You’ll be taking both cohorts for a march after the morning chores.”

“In a snowstorm? He can’t be serious.”

“I believe, Captain Harnik, that Captain Selfer has done this before.”

“We’ll see what the morning brings,” Harnik said, and stumped off to his quarters, muttering to himself. Burek could just hear a phrase or two … nothing flattering to Selfer. He continued his rounds without waking Selfer, making sure that the sentries had their sib in shelter every second turn of the glass.

Selfer came into the guardroom before the end of the watch, carrying a pot of sib with him. “He’s snoring loud enough to hear in the courtyard,” he said. No need to give the name. “What time did he come in?”

“My second round,” Burek said. “And he’d been drinking. Said he’d almost decided to spend the night at the inn.”

“Um.” Selfer poured sib for both of them. “Anything else to report?”

“No. I thought perhaps some enterprising thief might think we didn’t man the walls on such a night, but nothing happened.” Burek stretched. “I have one more round—better get to it.”

“Go on, then. I must think what to do.”

What to do about Harnik … Burek thought about that as he went from sentry to sentry. Did he and Selfer really need a third captain with both of them healthy? But Captain Arcolin had told Selfer to hire one for the winter. In those few days he couldn’t tell how much help Harnik actually was. For himself, the older man’s condescending attitude was not a problem. Harnik was Selfer’s second and Selfer’s hire; he himself, having sworn his oath to Arcolin and clearly second to him, did not care how Harnik treated him. He would have command only over Selfer’s cohort.

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 for Selfer as his commander and Burek as a fellow officer, they would be better off without him. He wondered what kind of contract Harnik had signed. His own had been provisional, as he’d expected, but Arcolin had confirmed him as a permanent hire, with an initial two-year contract, at summer’s end.

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. 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. Then, laughing at himself, he turned his back to the slight breeze, blinked the snow away, and looked down into the courtyard. 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!”

“Relieve the posts, Corporal,” Burek called back. 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 led those relieved down the steps by the front gate.

He expected to find Harnik and Selfer at breakfast in the mess hall, but only Selfer was there; he waved Burek over. “Guard changed, Captain Selfer,” Burek said. “Nothing to report on my last round, either.”

A cook’s helper came over with bowls of porridge and a basket of hot bread. The captains’ table already had a pitcher of honey and box of salt. “Here, Captains. Ham next.”

Burek poured a stream of honey into his porridge and sprinkled salt on it. “I thought Golden Company’s mess was good, but this is better.”

“Wait until you rotate up to the north,” Selfer said. “There’s a pastry cook at the stronghold as good as any you’d find in a Valdaire inn.”

“I’ve never seen the north at all,” Burek said. He ate rapidly, glancing now and then at the door, expecting to see Harnik.

“He’s still snoring,” Selfer said. “I banged on his door, and he grunted; I thought he was awake. But then, when I got my boots on and walked past his room on the way out, he was snoring again.”

Burek grinned. “We could give him a snow bath.”

Selfer thought about it, then shook his head. “Bad for discipline for the troops to see a captain dumped in the snow. But we could take a bucket in if he’s not up by the end of breakfast.”

“I can take care of the morning chore details,” Burek said. “The jacks detail is all out of my cohort anyway.” A server arrived with a platter of ham steaks; Burek stabbed one and pulled it onto his plate.

“You’ve been up all night,” Selfer said, cutting his own. “He should do it.”

“Yes, but if you need time to settle things with him, I can be out of the way and ensure the others are.” Burek wondered what was holding Selfer back. They really did not need a third captain, and if Harnik was going to cause trouble, better to let him go now.

“I wish I’d at least seen Arcolin before coming down here,” Selfer said. He ate two bites of ham steak before saying more; Burek finished his own and took another, raising his brows in question. “It’s complicated,” Selfer said. “This is the first time I’ve been on detached duty like this. I know I had Arcolin’s permission to hire someone
temporarily, but I’ve never—I don’t know how to dismiss an officer. What if Harnik considers I do not have authority?”

“You hired him,” Burek said through a mouthful of bread. “Surely that proves your authority.”

“It should, but … Harnik has hinted that he thinks he should be senior—you’ve seen that, I’m sure.”

“Yes,” Burek said, thinking of what Harnik had said when he came in. “Insubordination?”

“Well, it may be. But if it comes to a court—down here—”

“It will not come to a court,” Burek said. “Have you talked to Count Arcolin’s banker or man of business?”

“Not about this, no. I didn’t think of it.”

“He accepted Count Arcolin’s letter, giving you authority to draw funds, didn’t he?”

“Yes, but—”

“Here, Guild League laws prevail … What you must show is the authority to make a contract, the contract itself, and nonfulfillment of a contract. You did have Harnik sign a contract, didn’t you?”

“Yes, of course. But he didn’t swear an oath.” Selfer sliced open a small loaf and pushed a slab of ham in it, then tucked it into his tunic. “Without that oath, the contract isn’t valid if Harnik challenges me.”

“That’s not Guild League law,” Burek said again. “If the banker has accepted Count Arcolin’s letter, then your right to make a contract is clear.”

“Is that really—? I thought, because the Company was oath-bound—”

“That matters to Count Arcolin and to you. But not to the merchants and courts of Valdaire. What do they care of the laws of another kingdom except when trading there?”

Burek remembered something Andressat had said in one of their long talks before he left. “If it worries you, why not talk to Count Arcolin’s banker? He will be discreet; bankers do not gossip. He can advise you on the law.”

Selfer nodded. “That is well, Burek; that is very well.”

They started out of the mess hall only to meet Harnik coming in. “Sorry I’m late, lads,” he said. “Something wrong with the ale last night, I think. Burek, can you take the work details this morning?
I’ve got to get ready for the main exercise.” Without waiting for an answer, he went in to breakfast.

“Take a patrol into the city; I can stay up longer,” Burek said.

Selfer gripped his arm. “I will.”

Burek walked the rounds for a glass, checking each work detail, but as usual the sergeants had all in order. He could not help yawning now and then and wondered when Harnik would come out and relieve him. He assembled the troops in the courtyard, ready to march. Finally, he went to Harnik’s quarters and knocked. “They’re ready, Captain Harnik.”

The door opened; Harnik’s face was even more flushed, and Burek could smell the drink. “Is my horse ready?”

“Your horse?”

“Of course. I’m not going to slog through the snow like a—” He stopped and peered past Burek. “It’s snowing too hard. We can’t go out in this.” He shut the door in Burek’s face.

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. He turned to face the troops.

“Change of plan,” he said to Devlin. “Captain Harnik thinks it’s snowing too hard to go out on a march. So: weapons practice, here in the courtyard. Hauks instead of swords, though, in this wet snow.”

Between hauk drills in formation and close-order drill, Burek kept them busy until Selfer returned. Harnik did not reappear. Selfer arrived near midday with four other riders. 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. Selfer, when he dismounted, had an expression Burek recognized with relief: the senior captain had come to a firm decision.

“Captain Burek,” Selfer said. “Would you dismiss the troops to lunch, please. And then come to the Company offices.”

“Yes, Captain,” Burek said. By the time he turned around, the sergeants had their troops back in formation, and the dismissal took only a moment. Then he followed Selfer and the others into the large room where the Company records and maps were kept. The others
stood in a row; Burek wondered why they were there and what Selfer planned. Selfer introduced the visitors—Marshal Steralt was the only one Burek had not met. They nodded at him but said nothing.