Borderlands- Act 1 Read online

  He gives me a sideways glance and nods before responding. “Fair enough. Captain Doneir, please accept my sincerest apology for underestimating what a sneaky fox yeh can be.”

  “Accepted.”

  “Wherever did yeh get the idea of setting them against each other from?”

  “I read about it.”

  He lets out a toneless whistle. “Read it eh? Like in a book with written words and pages and stuff?”

  “Curtail your sarcasm, Haddar. It is not unheard of for a Captain of the Guard to be well educated. An old goat like you may have an aeon of experience to fall back on but some of us need to take short cuts.”

  “So, what else have yeh been reading about?”

  “More of the same. The higher I want to build the patrol up, the lower I have to break it down first. This morning was a first experiment in that.”

  “In mind games?”

  “Call it that if you wish. I forced them outside their abilities. Pushed them into a situation where they lost their path. Then I showed them the way home again. It made them grow. They are stronger now than before, a better team. Next session, I can push them even further.”

  “Is this all really necessary?”

  “It is if we are to achieve my goal.”

  “Yer doing all this to be number one on the Patrol Rankings?”

  “I have moved on from that. First place is now just the first step in a much larger plan.”

  “If I may be so bold, Captain. Occasionally, I question yer sanity.”

  “I make a point of regularly questioning it myself. It is the only way to ensure that one is in fact not mad after all.”

  It is an odd feeling to be about to meet my guards off duty. I have never done it before. It is even odder to be doing it out of uniform. I have become accustomed to my Aether Guard Issues and generally wear them in preference. When was I last outside in mufti?

  I shrug.

  What matters far more is my wavering resolution about entering the ale house before me. I glance up again at the painted sign swinging above the door. The Burnisher’s Wife. The vulgarity of the image does nothing to help combat the vestiges of snobbery left over from my upbringing. I would much prefer to watch the ebbing colours of a rosy dusk whilst savouring a good family vintage than be immersed in such hubbub and stench, but who wouldn’t?

  I shudder.

  The customers within are clearly answering that question. Despite the heavily shuttered windows and thick wooden door, a cacophony of untuned instruments and in-harmonic singing is leaking out onto the cobbles of the otherwise quiet alley. I growl at my own weakness. The men need to know they can trust me in word and action. An officer’s promise must be solid. I straighten my back and with one swift motion press open the weather grained door and step inside.

  Spirits preserve me!

  Inside it is everything I feared and worse. Even squinting in the dim light, the air, layered thick with smoky blue strata, smarts my eyes. Unprepared, I gasp. The reek of stale beer and other fluids forces me to double up with coughing. “Mercy of the Ancients!” My blundering entrance has the miraculous effect of silencing the whole establishment. Big eyes blink at me through the haze. The moment does not last long. The men explode into a crazed bedlam of cheering and applause. Trying to recover my dignity, I stand up straight and crack my head on a low beam. Wincing, I cradle the back of my head. Unbelievably, they get even louder.

  Fortunately, Haddar comes to my rescue. “This way, Captain!” His arm across my shoulders leads me to the large table in the centre of the room. “We‘ve saved yeh the seat of honour. Here yeh go, head of the table, as befits an officer and gentleman of yer stature,” he pauses poignantly, “and purse for that matter. Come on, lads, make way, the captain can’t be expected to pay for any drinks when he’s standing!”

  Lowering myself into the offered carver improves the air a little as I sink below the worst of the smoke. A glance down the table suggests that some of the men have already started to quench their thirst. I take a cautious breath. “All right, simmer down, you apes!” The shouting slowly ebbs. “You all know why I am here. You all did a great job today and I am here to deliver the reward.” My purse jangles as I dump it on the table in front of me. A few shouts and whistles come out of the darkness. “No, it is not so you can drink yourselves stupid. I promised you one drink each and that is what I shall pay for. Nothing more, nothing less.” Someone boos. “If you would prefer not to receive the prize….” I let the sentence hang as I fake a move to remove my purse from the table. The look of confusion on some faces is precious.

  Haddar steps in again. “The whole patrol is very pleased you’re here in person for the handout.” He scowls in the direction the booing came from. “We’re all happy to accept the prize as promised. Aren’t we lads?” There is another modest cheer as he turns in the direction of the barrels. “Taps? One beer each for everyone, please. Captain Doneir here is stumping up.”

  Another wag calls out. “And be quick about it, wench!”

  I find this a bit too much. “Watch your tongue, soldier. That is no way for an Aether Guard to address a lady!”

  “That’s alright, Captain.” Hops and jasmine waft over me as the barmaid sets my jug of spuming ale down. “I’ve never been much of a lady.” She eyes my bulging purse and loops a curl of sun-bleached hair behind her ear. She bends even lower. The deep cut of her overflowing bodice reminds me of the image hung outside the door. “But I could always give it a go for you later, if that’s how the captain prefers it.” My jaw drops as the bar erupts into another gale of whooping laughter. She gives a yelp of surprise as Haddar smacks her soundly on the arse.

  “Drinks first! You’ll have no fun harassing my commanding officer until everyone’s been wetted.”

  Taps gives the sergeant a vile look. “You’ll be getting yours last of all for that”. She gives her buttock a cautious rub. “And I’ll be spitting in it too!” She walks off making sure I get a view of her swinging hips before she disappears into the crowd.

  Eventually, everyone is served with a fresh tankard. Last of all comes Haddar’s. Taps sticks out her tongue as she hands it over but manages to skip out of reach of another threatened smack. I take a first cautious sip at mine before holding it up and making a show of wincing. “You consider this a reward? I have a good mind to have it all tipped away and organise a wine tasting for you instead.” I never thought I’d witness terror on the faces of these men, but the look of horror as they cradle their jugs is priceless. I laugh. “Go on, get it down your necks you thugs!” A tide of relieved smiles washes briefly across the tavern only to be drowned as they hastily gulp down their brew. Somewhere, the band starts up another cacophonic attempt at what I can only assume should be some kind of music. Gradually the banter swells and things return to as they were before my entrance.

  I take another mouthful of my beer. The coarse tang is beginning to grow on me. Haddar is still standing, distractedly sipping his beer whilst watching the room. I look up at him. “Sergeant, I cannot have you standing over me all night. It is like the Bear herself is at my shoulder.” His cheek briefly puckers in a one-sided smile, but his eye continues to roam the room. I pat the table next to me. “Sit down and relax. Direct order.” Grudgingly he straddles the end of the bench next to my chair. “If you cannot trust the men to handle their ale, why on earth did you pick a hole like this for the celebratory drink?”

  He gives a snort. “Pick it? Not me! This is their locale. Yeh won’t catch’em anywhere else.” Despite being sat, he still keeps up his surveillance of the room.

  Intrigued, I point to the far side of the room where two guards have started a shoving match. “Is that what you are worried about, violence? Do you feel you need to police them?”

  He shrugs. “That? No need to get involved unless it escalates to drawn blades.” Other guards have already begun separating their colleagues before it gets out of hand.

  “So, what is the problem?”
<
br />   “The problem is, some recover well, others struggle.”

  My eyebrows lift. “Is my new training regime really that tough?”

  “Training be damned! It’s the real thing I’m talking about.” I tilt my head and he continues. “Not everyone is gung-ho and born to slaughter monsters like yeh.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Some aren’t doing it for the glory. They are doing it because they have commitments. Yeh know, mouths to feed, debts to clear.”

  “Surely, there are better career choices for that? No two ways about it, the Aether Guard is not exactly a low risk option.”

  “Yeh’d be surprised.” He points out one of the guards quietly nursing his first beer in a corner. “Yeh know Guardsman Elcas there for instance?”

  “Of course, absolutely fearless, consistently high scorer.”

  Haddar shakes his head. “His real trade is wood working. I’ve helped him collect some extra cash doing small jobs around the Guard House. When I saw what he was capable of, I was stunned. The man isn’t a soldier, he’s an artist. By all rights, he should be running a carpentry shop, not collecting trophy heads.”

  “So why is he here then?”

  “His old man was a drinker. When he died, the family business was tied over in debts. The lenders foreclosed. With a wife and children to feed he needed coin quick. He joined this patrol exactly because it has a reputation for high trophy earnings. Once he has paid everything off and saved a small pot, he’ll be off back to his family.”

  It is my turn to shake my head now. “So, the bravado is all a show then?”

  Haddar scoffs. “He’s the bravest man I know. Throws himself at absolutely everything the Realm pukes out knowing full well that if one day he doesn’t come back his wife will be on the street eating garbage and his little ones will have it even worse.” Haddar shudders. “Probably get sold off or something.”

  The thought chills me too. “Can we not give him less dangerous duties? Make sure he makes it home.”

  “What? In the reserves or something? He’ll not be earning much stirring porridge for Daul Shis.”

  The reality of the situation catches me and I slouch back in my chair. “Shit!”

  “Aye, yeh have that one right. He has a smart head on him so, the best we can do is give him a good team to lead. He’ll keep them motivated and, hopefully, they’ll keep the worst from happening to him.”

  I nod but do not reply. Elcas’s story has got me thinking. I look around the room. I spend so much of every day with this crew. I ask so much of each one of them. Do I really know any of them? I shake my head in wonder. Usually, I only ever see them on duty, either training or on patrol, neat, ordered, ranked, obedient. I treat them like unbreakable meckanyms, efficient, focused and utterly reliable.

  How wrong I have been.

  Out of uniform, I begin to see them in a new light. Far from emotionless and featureless, these are people with hopes and dreams and whole lives of their own. Is it right for me to ride them for my own purposes? Draining the dregs of my second beer, I lean towards Haddar and poke him in the shoulder with the empty mug. “Sergeant, I have a very important task for you to complete for me.” He raises an eyebrow but says nothing. “Before accepting this mission, I must warn you, it is quite fearful and the odds are not in your favour.”

  He eyes me suspiciously before taking a swig of his drink. “Do I have any choice?”

  I have to think about it for a bit. “Choice in what?”

  He seems to find my question amusing. “In accepting yer mission.”

  “Ah! I see.” I set my mug down emphatically but before I can continue Taps curves into view and swaps it for a full one. I blink at the beer and then at her. “Taps, you appear to have a good sense of what a man wants, perhaps even before he does.”

  She eyes my coin bag, before running a hand across my shoulder with a smile. “What a man wants, what he needs. The captain might be surprised about all the things I know before he does.” No sooner do I realise how uncommonly lovely her smile actually is, I cannot see it anymore. She is behind me, rubbing both my shoulders with her warm hands. It does feel rather good.

  I blink at Haddar. He has that weird smile on his beaten-up old face again. “What is the matter with you?”

  He shakes his head. “I was asking if I had a choice in accepting the challenge.”

  “Ah! None whatsoever.” I grin. “As my sergeant, you have to do exactly as you are told!”

  “A mission?” Taps’ question washes hot across my ear. I turn. Up close, candle flames dance in the depths of her pupils. She presses her palm against my breast. “Is it terribly dangerous, bloody and violent, Captain?”

  The taste of her words makes me lick my lips before answering. “No, not so much, he has to tell me if I am a good officer or not.”

  Her fingers on my chest mimic the way her teeth drag across her lower lip. “I think you’re a wonderful officer, Captain.” Her lips stay parted as if she wants to say something more and I just gaze at them.

  “Ahem!” Haddar presses his empty tankard between us. “Go get this filled.” Taps stands and snatches the jug from him.

  “That’s earned you two gobs in this one.”

  “Aye, whatever lassie. Take as long as yeh need and make ‘em really big’n’juicy, if that’s what yeh want. The captain and I need to have a chat without any disturbances, understood?” She pouts and pats my shoulder. “You should send him on a suicide mission, get rid of the grumpy old cuss!”

  I watch her serpentine path through the crowd. “Do you think she spits in my beer too?”

  Haddar gives a snort. “I’m beginning to suspect she’s been putting something quite different in yours.” I do not understand what he means but I cannot formulate a question either. He slaps me hard on the shoulder. “Captain Banak Doneir, I think you need a lungful of air before we continue this conversation.”

  Thumping.

  A tangle of thunder rolls around the inside of my head. It takes an age for me to separate it into distinct internal and external hammering. Somewhere outside my head, someone is banging on a door and shouting. Spirits preserve me! Why must they be so loud? Sitting up on the edge of the cot, I wince as the thunder turns to lightning. I take a slow breath and brace myself for what I must now do.

  “Enter!” My shout lances my brain and I must grip the edge of the bed to steady myself. Beyond my leaden eyelids, a door creaks open and clicks shut. I hazard one watery eye open. Before me, the vague yet familiar form of Daul Shis my patrol Senior Reserve swims in an ocean of stabbing light shards. I clamp my eye closed again. “What?”

  “Sergeant Haddar asked me to ask you, if it would be at all convenient, for you to attend training today, if you’re not too busy doing more important things right now that is?”

  Despite the sarcasm, I actually find his low rumbling voice quite soothing. “Yes, Of course.” Failing to brave the stabbing light again, I wave in the direction of my window. “But close the shutters for me first, will you, Shis?”

  “They are closed.”

  “Shit!”

  “Well said, Captain, because, if I may be so bold as to suggest, even in this dim light, that is exactly the right word to describe how you look right now.” Unable to formulate a rebuff, I have to accept he is probably right. “How much did you drink last night? On second thoughts, don’t bother answering. From what I gather, just one would have probably been enough to cause this.” A glass clinks as something is stirred. “The sergeant warned me that Taps was giving you some special attention. She had you lined up for all sorts of extra income, by all accounts. She got in a real foul tantrum when you disappeared early. Started cracking heads and chucking us all out.”

  “Sorry to have ruined your favourite drinking hole.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. Taps has her moods. It’s how she is. She’ll be all smiles again this evening. All we need to do is pay for all the beer we drink. Now, get this down your neck.” He
presses a beaker into my hand. I take a sip, gritty but cool and soothing. “Come on now. No half measures. All of it or you won’t get the proper effect.” Once I have gulped the rest down, he presses his palm against my forehead. “Strova yegarsh na’bopoojae!”

  An icy tingle spreads from my gut, pushing back the shakes and banishing the aching in my head. I feel strong again and open my eyes with determination. “Shis, if for no other reason than what you just gave me, you have justified your place as Senior in my Patrol.”

  “Ah, feeling better now are we, Captain?”

  “I feel fantastic! My whole body is buzzing. You might need to give me that more often. In fact, we might all benefit from a dose of that on patrol. Keep us alert and ready for action.”

  “Firstly, it is not the cheapest of invocations. Not sure the patrol budget would stretch to its daily use on everyone. Secondly, wouldn’t advise messing about with anything this powerful anywhere near the Borderlands let alone right up close to the Realm. Thirdly, can’t say it’ll work the same way ever again. I had to do a bit of guessing about which spirits Taps might have invoked in your drink. As luck would have it, I appear to have got the mix of anti-dotes and reversals just perfect on this occasion.”

  “I would say so.” I leap to my feet but almost overbalance.

  Shis grabs me in his chubby arms and lowers me back to the mattress. He pulls back my eyelids and checks my pulse. “Hmm, perhaps I got it a little too perfect. Just sit there a bit longer until that buzzing eases off, Captain.”

  “Plain and simple, yer pushing them too hard.” As frustrating as it is, the facts certainly back Haddar up.

  Gazing across the exercise yard, it is clear that a week of my new high intensity training regime has borne fruit but also generated wastage. On the one side, the team has grown a hard core that is now capable of dealing with the most ridiculously gruelling challenges I can concoct with barely a flinch. Conversely, we have shed a lot of people. Good people. People I need. “Sergeant, we have to stem this shrinkage.”