"No," Skarmi said. "What point to that but getting us killed to no purpose?" He assumed that, if he ordered Raunu forward, he would have to try to advance, too. "This is what you warned me about before the attack began, isn't it?"
"Aye, sir. Good to see you can recognize it," Raunu said. "I only wish our commanders could." Skarmi started to reproach the sergeant for speaking too freely. He stopped with the words unspoken. How could Raunu have spoken too freely when all he did was tell the truth?
Leofsig still retained the tin mess kit he'd been issued when mustered into King Penga's levy. As captives went, that made him relatively lucky.
Forthwegian soldiers who'd lost their kits had to make do with bowls that held less. The Algarvians might have issued their own kits to men who lacked them, but that didn't seem to have entered their minds.
What had crossed their minds was carefully counting the captives in each barracks in the encampment before those captives got anything in their mess kits or bowls. Leofsig would not have bet that the Algarvian guards could count to ten, even using their fingers. The endless recounts to which the captives had to submit argued against it, at any rate.
Every so often, a captive or two really did turn up missing. That meant the redheads tore the encampment apart till they found out how the [.in.] had disappeared. It also meant a week of half rations for the escapee barracksmates. No one got fat on full rations. Half rations were slo starvation. Half rations were also an argument for betraying anyo thinking of getting away.
This morning, everything seemed to add up. "Powers above praised," Leofsig muttered. He was cold and tired and hungry; standi in formation in front of the barracks was not his idea of a good tim [..]
Standing in line and waiting for the meager breakfast the cooks would dole out didn't strike him as delightful, either. Eventually, though, he get sfood in his belly, which came close to making the wait worthwhile [..]
Plop! The sound of a large ladle of mush landing in his mess kit w about as appetizing as the stuff itself. The mush was mostly wheat porridge, with cabbage and occasional bits of salt fish or pork mixed in. The captives ate it breakfast, dinner, and supper. It was never very good. This morning, it smelled worse than usual.
Leofsig ate it anyhow. If it made him sick - and it did make people sick every so often - he'd go to the infirmary. And if anybody claimed he [.w.] malingering, he'd throw up in the wretch's lap.
The handful of Kaumans in his barracks ate in a small knot by the selves, as they usually did. He would sometimes join them. So would few of his fellow Forthwegians. Most, though, wanted nothing to d with the blonds. And a few, like Merwit, still stirred up trouble eve chance they got.
"Hey, you!" Merwit said now. Leofsig looked up from his mush. Sure enough, Merwit was staring his way with a smile that made him too neither friendly nor attractive. "Aye, you, yellow-hair lover," the [.bu.] captain went on. "You going on latrine duty after breakfast? That'd give you the chance to hang around with your pals?"
"You ought to try it yourself, Merwit," Leofsig answered. "There' nobody else I know who's half so full of shit."
Merwit's eyes went big and wide. He and Leofsig had quarreled Fefore but Leofsig hadn't given back insult for insult tin this moment. Carefu[..]
Merwit set down his own mess kit. "You're going to pay for that," he sa in matter-of-fact tones. He charged forward like a behemoth.
Leofsig kicked him in the belly. It was like kicking a plank. Me grunted, but he slammed one fist into Leofsig's nibs and the other into top of Leofsig's head. He'd meant to hit him in the face, but Leofsig ducked. Merwit howled then. With any luck at all, he'd broken a [..]
Being smaller and lighter, Leofsl knew he'd need all the help of tha sorthecould et. He tried to end the fight in a hurry by kneeingMerwi in the crotch, but Merwit twisted away and took the knee on the hip. H( seized Leofsig in a bearhug. Leofsig knocked his feet out from under him.
Thev went down toizether, each doina the other as much damage with [..]
"Halting! You halting!" somebody shouted in accented Forthwegian [..]
Leofsig did nothing of the kind, having a well-founded suspicion that Merwit wouldn't. "You halting!" This time, the command had teeth
That must have convinced Merwit because he stopped trying to work mayhem on Leofsig. Leofsig gave him one more inconspicuous elbow then pushed him away and got to his feet His nose was bleeding. A couple of his front teeth felt loose but they were all there. None was even broken - pure luck, and he knew it.
He looked over at Merwit. Merwit looked as if he'd been in a fight one of his eyes was swollen shut, and he had a big bruise on the othe cheek. Leofsig felt as if he'd been pummeled with boulders. He hopec[..]
The Algarvian guards who'd stopped the brawl were shaking thel heads. "Stupid, stupid Forthwegians," one of them said, more in sorrow
Now you seeing just how stupid you being Come!' themselves Sometimes without rhyme or reason Leofsig could see the chose to make examples of them. He eased a little when he saw they were taking him and Merwit to Brigadier Cynfrid, the senior Forthwegian officer in camp, rather than to their own commandant. Cynfrid had far
"What have we here?" the brigadier asked, looking up from some paperwork. With his gray hair and snowy mustache and beard he seemed more a kindly grandfather than a soldier. Had he been a better soldier - ha~ a lot of Forthwec~an commanders Ieen better soldiers - he miolt not have ended up in a captives' camp, but might instead have kept th going.
"These two, they fighting," one of the Algarvian guards said.
"Oh, aye, I can see that," Cynfrid said. "The question is, why they fighting?" The guard gave back an extravagant Algarvian shru that declared he not only didn't know but found beneath him the i wondering why Forthwegians did anything. The brigadier sighed dently having encountered that attitude before. He examined Leofsig [..] Merwit. "What have you men got to say for yourselves?"
"Sir, this stinking Kaunian-lover called me a filthy name," said, his voice dripping with righteous innocence and indignation. sick of it, so when he started the fight, I did my best to give him for."
"I didn't start the fight," Leofsig exclaimed. "He did! And he's, calling me names since we got here - youjust heard him do it again
I finally called him one back. He didn't like that so much. Most are better at giving it out than taking it."
"Conflicting stories," Cynfrid said with another sigh. He glance toward the guards. "I don't suppose you gentlemen know who di the fight?" The redheads laughed, not so much at the idea that should know, but at the notion that they might care. The Forthw brigadier sighed yet again. "Any chance of witnesses?"
Now Leofsig had all he could do not to start laughing himself. low captives wanted as little to do with the guards as they coul would make themselves scarce and deny seeing anything… or wo of them? Slowly, he said, "Sir, I think the Kaunians in my barracks tell the truth about what went on."
"They'd lick your arse for you, you mean, like you [..]
Merwit snarled, his eyes blazing.
Leofsig had succeeded in gaining the guards' attention. e nearly sure he wanted it. To Cynfrid, one of the Algarvians [..]
Kaunians, they is no to being trusted, eh?"
"No, probably not," the Forthwegian brigadier said, "altliOUI haven't done nearly so much to Forthweg as you Algarvians, xou you think?"
If the Algarvians thought any such thing, their faces didn't
With a dismissive gesture, the one who did most of the talking said.