Kared's Children - Chapter 18

"I was out there and I was in here and I didn’t want anyone to be afraid of me. I wouldn’t eat them. I wanted to warn them. I wanted to remember who I was." He looked at each of them. "But I know who I am. I know who I am."

"You do," Karec said. "You know who you are."

"This doesn’t make sense." After a moment, as though realizing what he’d said, Shaerden smiled reassuringly at Piskin. "You were right."

"I was there," Piskin said. "I knew everything he’d done. I knew his confusion. His loneliness. I knew-" His voice cracked. "I knew what had happened to him. What he’d gone through."

"Who?" Shaerden asked. "What who had gone through?"

"It was my Captain," Ned Jain said. In the corner, by the hammock, he was standing, the blanket clutched absently in a hand. He dropped it onto the hammock’s thick mesh and came and sat beside them. "Somehow that pitiful creature was my Captain."

. . .

He explained to them what had happened, as he remembered it: the delays, the call for discussion between the Chief Officers, and then the attacks that had come almost as soon as the sun had set. He explained how so many had died, torn to bits by the twisted shapes and ravenous appetites, dragged into the darkness to who knew, at least until now, what fates. As he was finishing, a knock came at the door.

The four of them looked at each other.

"Enter!" Ned barked.

The Sergeant climbed into the wagon. A burly man, his droopy mustache and dripping cloak made his wet face look even paler, particularly in the flickering light of the lantern. "Begging your pardon, Sir." He looked inquisitively from Ned to the other men. "I came to see if you were up and about."

"I’m fine, Dern," Ned said. "As well as can be expected."

"It’s good to hear that, sir. The men will be glad to know."

"We need to get underway," Ned said. "As soon as possible. At once."

"Yes, sir," Dern said. "I was just coming to tell you-or the distinguished gentlemen, sir-that we were ready."

"We have to get out of here, Dern," Jain said. "We can’t be here past nightfall."

"It’s already nightfall, sir."

"Get us moving. Immediately. All walkers double up on wagons. No stopping until we make the Reach."

"At once, Captain." Dern turned to go, then hesitated.

"Yes?"

"It is good to see you’re all right, sir."

"Thank you, Sergeant." Ned waited until Dern had shut the door. "He’s a good soldier."

"He took charge immediately while you were struggling," Shaerden said.

Ned said nothing.

"I’m sorry. I tend to say what’s on my mind. Sometimes."

"Given what you’ve told us," Karec said, "Anyone would have reacted the same way."

"Even not knowing what you knew," Shaerden said. "That poor wretch was a nightmare."

Ned’s jaw worked. "You don’t need to try to make me feel better." He looked up at them. "I just don’t understand it. What could have made him into something like that? I saw the other things, animals, twisted beyond recognition, savage, brutal. They were horrors, but I thought at least they were . . . well, they weren’t like us. Victims of this accursed place. Something. But the Captain, Captain Redrot, he’d been a man. Healthy, strong. Intelligent. And I’d seen him taken down by one of those monsters! I’d thought he was dead!"