All Expenses Paid

It was just after midnight when they woke us.

I knew I’d hate today, I knew as soon as I rose from my bedroll and looked up in the sky to see the red moon lighting a cloud in the shape of a boat at sea. Bad omen to start the day.

My gear felt heavy as I put it on, the metal weighing me down more than usual.

It didn’t get better on the chow line.

Meat stew for breakfast was never a good sign. Warm meat stew when you could tell the meat wasn’t from any kind of rat, that just made a bad thing worse.

The cooks didn’t even put that much sawdust into the pot. Giving us peasants a treat.

Somebody up top had passed the word, and if the officers hadn’t bothered to prepare us for the orders they’d be given soon, well, the rankers who weren’t going to put their lives on the line knew what to do for the lucky souls who had to throw their bodies into the grinder.

I ate it like it was my last meal, savoring every rich spoonful.

Might be me who wouldn’t return. Worth enjoying this one, as little as I could.

Sargeants didn’t bother with close inspection, just counted the numbers to make sure all fifty-seven of us were hale and breathing.

“Hey, hey, Zels,” whispered another dog standing next to me while the stripes were double-checking their roster, “you want to share an hour in the flower-tent tonight?”

“What, you’re asking that today?” I growled at Kiff, who probably needed to soak for a good two hours just to make a dent in the dirt crusting his uniform.

“Guy’s got to have hope, that the day will end well.” he responded with half a smile, all he could do with the scars on his face.

I didn’t feel like disappointing him today, despite my own misgivings.

“Fine, but I get the first soak, and the last rinse. And you spring for a scrubdown.”

“You saying I’m not pretty enough for you? I thought you were sweet on me after I pulled your bacon out of that last fire.”

“Kiff, you ain’t pretty enough for a blind pig to lick if you were covered with butter. No matter what it owes you. But if your gods or mine bring us both back today, I’ll be charitable and make the sacrifice. Least I could do for you.”

He laughed at that.

“That’s a deal, then Zels, I swear it by the Spider and the Sea-Father.” he said before spitting on the ground, “And if one of us doesn’t make it, well, witness that they pay for the other’s fun.”

I had to shake my head at that, “Oh, you expect me to pay for your bath? After I die? By the sea and waves, if I don’t return, I’ll spring for you to get a full night in the flower-tent then. Not that you’d be doing anything except sleeping for most of it.”

I spat on the ground myself, “Sworn by the Spider and the Sea-Father, it’s a deal, split an hour, or a whole night for you on me.”

Might as well, I had enough saved up in my account, it wasn't like the money would do me any good on the other side.

They put us in the wagons after that, rather than making our tender feet march through what was left of the night. Took till almost dawn, and I spent most of it trying to find sleep again.

We rolled to a stop behind a line of trees that fronted right on an open field with a tower standing on top of a short till. One the enemy had taken recently, too recently to properly reinforce. Or so the Lord General hoped.

The Captain put us in the places he wanted us for the assault. I was in the first wave, Kiff was in the fourth. Must be his lucky day.

I fingered my shark-tooth necklace. Let the sharp edges draw a trickle of blood.

“Salt of the Sea, Foam of the Wave, Breath of the Storm, carry me safe today.” I prayed before coming to the edge of the woods with the others who drew the short straw. Some of them were reciting their own prayers, to their own gods, or maybe to any who would listen.

Wasn’t more than a few dozen steps out of the cover before a fireball blasted out of the tower and crashed into the woods, I didn’t turn back to look, but I heard the crackle of a bolt of lightning as one of our wizards tossed a spell back at them. Then another, and another, arcing across the field, matched with the incendiaries still coming from ahead.

An arrow bounced off my helm as I ran forward. Then another glanced off my knee, slowing me down a bit. I kept running though.

Some archer must be cursing, but apparently, they weren’t going to be the one to kill me today. Not with their bow anyway. I let myself work up a frenzy as I ran, maybe I’d get a chance to pay their dues.

I wasn’t the first at the base at the tower, but I wasn’t the last to jump over the trench dug around it. The battered gate stood open, our wizard had blasted right through it, and stunned the few guards, giving us a short fight before we rushed up the stairs.

That was tougher, I wet my blade twice. Saw a few comrades fall. That made my rage grow. Red fury giving me strength. Letting me jump over the defenders, rush up to one of the levels where their archers had been stationed. Two men and a woman.

The two men fell to my swings before noticing my arrival, but the third was alert enough to put up a fight, pulling a short blade of her own, spitting black hexes out of her mouth that came for me like tiny wasps.

I lurched forward, stung by her efforts, but not enough to keep me from my business.

My sword battered hers aside, knocking it out of her hands to clatter on the stone floor.

I dropped my own in a fit of madness, wanting to wrestle her down, to grab her with my own hands, and I did, pressing her to the ground.

“How, how did you survive? I’ve never failed to kill any man I set my eye on!” she yelled at me in anguished despair.

I laughed. Then I pounded my forehead into her face.

“Too bad I’m no man.” I told her. Not that she heard me.

Kiff paid for my hour in the flower-tent that night. Poor bastard didn’t even make it out of the trees.