Kared's Children - Chapter 17

He hadn’t known what anyone else had thought, but he’d known what he’d thought: there was a reason why no one went there, and they should find out what that reason was before testing it. His was a strategic and a moral error, and they’d paid for it with their lives and the lives of many innocent people. His punishment for his pride, his fear of what the others would think, was the irony: he’d been the highest-ranking officer to survive.

He liked to tell himself now that, given the chance again, he would speak. But he wasn’t sure. He knew only that the one time he’d been given the chance, he had failed. And it had taken only that one time for everyone to learn again why they never should cross the Harshland at night. Night was when the monsters came-the things that made everyone pay for mistakes.

The only peace he’d managed to create for himself about it lay in his promise to himself that never again would he fail to say what he thought when it needed to be said. And he also had made special efforts throughout his career to ensure that his subordinates knew that what they thought mattered to him. It was a small peace, a barely effective one, but it was all he knew to do.

That, and never to cross the Harshland at night.

. . .

Karec nodded to the guard keeping watch behind the headmaster’s wagon. Now that they’d topped the blunt edge of the Harshland’s plateau, the soldier seemed to have little to do other than stay out of the way of the quartermaster’s horses, who were plodding, their heads bowed to the rain. His head, too, was bowed, but he snapped to attention as they’d approached.

"A more pathetic day we couldn’t have, could we, Guard?" Piskin asked.

"Not at all, sir," the soldier said. The edges of a floppy cap stuck out from beneath his chain-mail helmet.

"You looked soaked and disgusting," Piskin said.

"Thank you, sir."

Piskin laughed, not without sympathy.

"Never mind my friend," Karec said. "He’s just glad to find someone as wet as he."

"Of course, sir."

"Could you let Mr. Jain know that we’re here? The Chairman’s party."

"Of course, sir." He rapped on the small back door of the wagon, and when Jain’s muffled voice answered, opened and entered. Karec, Shaerden, and Piskin trudged behind the wagon for a few steps and then the door opened again.

"Please, sirs," the soldier said. Light, not warm, spilled from the doorway around him. "Enter."

Karec climbed up through the door, and the others followed.

The Captain was sitting alone at his table. He rose when they entered. "Mr. Chairman. Shaerden. And-"

"Piskin," Piskin said.

"Ah yes. Piskin."

The wet soldier left, shutting the door behind him.

Ned extended a welcoming arm. "Please, come. Sit. Dry off a bit. Leave your cloaks by the door. On that hook there." They took off their outer garments while he moved around the table. "Would you like some tea?"

"Tea would be excellent," Karec said.

"I feel bad for the fellow outside," Piskin said.

"Rusk? Don’t worry about him." Ned lit a lantern near his hammock. "He’s a good soldier. Trained in the elements."