Ashes of a Black Frost

from a bobbin slung from his belt. A continuous line now led all the way back to the secret entrance they had come through just a short twenty minutes before.

Konowa ignored the view from below as Yimt’s caerna blew in the wind, and instead marveled that he could move so nimbly after having been shot in the chest. Dwarves had a reputation for toughness, but just how tough Konowa had never fully appreciated. It was truly impressive.

“That’s how I feel,” Konowa said, letting gravity pull him the next few yards before digging his boot heels into the snow to slow himself down as another pile of rocks loomed before him.

“Think low and wide, Major,” Yimt whispered back over his shoulder. “The idea is to spread yourself out over a bigger area, and keep your body close to the ground. Makes a fellow more stable, especially a lanky one like you.”

“I’ll be low and wide and splattered all over these rocks if you don’t slow down,” Konowa grumbled. He finally gave in to his heaving lungs and stopped at the next boulder. Unlike the slow, tense climb up to the fort of a few hours ago, this descent was barely controlled chaos. Konowa’s body was now bruise on top of bruise. If he ever lay down he seriously wondered if he could haul himself back up again.

Yimt turned and trotted back up to where Konowa had halted. “Your orders, if you recall, sir, were to, and I quote, ‘get down the damn hill as fast as you can bloody well move.’ “

“Yes, you’re right,” Konowa managed, bending over double. His face was flushed and he’d already undone the top four buttons on his jacket despite the cold. He straightened back up and started to move off, but Yimt placed a strong hand on his arm and held him in place.

“If you don’t mind my saying, Major,” Yimt said, steering Konowa toward a small rock where he could sit down, “you haven’t really conquered the whole patience is a virtue thing.”

“They’re surrounded by rakkes out there,” Konowa said, struggling to get up from the rock and reluctantly giving into this body and allowing himself to rest for a moment. “Patience won’t do them any good if they’re dead.”

Yimt lowered his chin to his chest for a moment as if in deep thought. When he lifted it again he gave Konowa a look he’d never seen before. Konowa wasn’t looking at a sergeant in his regiment-it was the disgusted and disapproving face of a father.

“Then go, charge out there like a mad, brave fool and see what it gets you. You’re as worn out as a butterfly in a windstorm right now. You’re no good to anyone like this, least of all your missus.”

Missus. .? Konowa stood up though it was no easy feat. His thighs screamed and he almost tipped over. “You’re not out in the desert with two elves too far out on a branch. I’ll check the regs, but I’m fairly certain I’m still your commanding officer.” It was surreal to hear those words coming from his lips. It sounded precisely like something the Prince said, but maybe he was allowing his feeling for the troops to breed too much familiarity. He was their commanding officer, but the comradeship and friendship he felt with them, especially Yimt, blurred the lines.

“And while you’re at it, you can check my paybook. Do you know why I’ve been busted back down to private more times than a unicorn has virgins lining up to ride it?” Yimt asked, his voice taking on a hard edge. “I mean, besides the drinking and brawling and general disregard for military rules and discipline?”

Konowa said nothing, deciding a smart remark wasn’t needed at this juncture.

“Because I’ve saved more bloody officers from themselves than deserved it. Most of ’em didn’t even have the decency to give thanks. No, their egos were a little too bruised for that, so when I stopped a lieutenant from leading his company across the path of another regiment about to fire a volley I was brought up on charges of insubordination. And when I fired at a shrubbery that was hiding a band of archers and sprung an ambush before we walked into it, a captain busted me for not maintaining fire discipline.”

“I’m not like that,” Konowa said, his feelings hurt that Yimt would lump him in with these other incompetent officers.

“No, Major,” Yimt said, “you’re worse. You really do care about the men, and yet you still charge hither, yon, and beyond, saber flashing, hair flowing, and setting an altogether bad example.”

“Bad example?” Konowa wasn’t standing for that. “The hell, you say! I lead from the front. I’ve never backed down from a fight.”

“Aye, and that’s an admirable quality in a soldier, but an officer also has to use his brain once in a while. What do you think all those young impressionable lads get in their heads when they see their officer deep in the thick of every fight? I’ll tell you what,” Yimt said, cutting off Konowa’s response. “They think they have to live up to your example, and so they start charging around like mad hatters, too. But here’s the thing-they ain’t you. Let’s face it, you ain’t you either. You’re banged up more than a round-heel on payday. But you’ve got the knack, same as me. The two of us get into trouble all on our own, but we figure a way to get back out again. We’ve both been shot at and hit, missed, and learned a few tricks. A lot of these lads, they don’t have what we have. They can get themselves into trouble, but getting out ain’t going to be as easy for them.”

This was something Konowa had never really thought about before. “But I can’t just sit back and watch. I’m not the Prince.”

Yimt shook his beard and snow fluttered to the ground. “A few weeks ago I would have said that was a good thing, but you know, that royal pain in the arse does use his gray matter. Oh sure, he’s got lofty plans, but I’ll be buggered if he hasn’t put a hell of a lot thought into each one. He thinks about what comes next. Probably learned it from his mum. You could learn from him. Think more than one step ahead. Remember, when you charge there are a lot of soldiers that are going to follow in your footsteps. Know where you’re leading them, and for that matter, know what you’re going to do when you get there.”

The nearby howl of rakkes reminded Konowa of the urgency of their task, but he held the urge to simply charge forward in check. “You know, for a loudmouthed, highly opinionated, rule-breaking malcontent, you offer some damn good advice.”

Yimt’s metal-stained teeth flashed in the night. “And you’re not the dandiest, wouldn’t-know-his-arse-from- a-hole-in-the-ground officer I’ve ever met. . though you do vie for that distinction at times.”

“Let’s just pretend that was a compliment and get on with it.”

Yimt motioned with his thumb. “Just waiting for you to catch your breath, Major. Got three more of the sorry things right here.”

Konowa looked and saw three rakke bodies now half covered in snow. “They piled the things everywhere.” He stood up and walked over to the bodies, using his boot to kick off the snow from each one. Grunting with the effort, he then propped each frozen corpse into as close to a standing position as he could manage as Yimt piled some rocks around them to keep them in place. His hands stung as he handled the snow-crusted rakkes, but there was nothing for it. An uneasy feeling washed over him as he realized he was doing something very similar with the bodies of the rakkes that his elves had done.

“This ain’t the same thing,” Yimt said as if reading his thoughts. “We’re just trying to save some lives.” He took the twine and wrapped it around the nearest arm of each rakke. When he was done, they were all tied together. Without pausing, he lifted the flap on the haversack he had slung over one shoulder, reached a hand inside and came out with a dollop of axle grease used for wagon wheels.

“There’s a part of me that says this is desecration,” Konowa said, not feeling sympathy for the rakkes, but something dangerously close to it.

“Part of you is right,” Yimt replied, quickly smearing grease on the rakkes’ chest and head, if they still had a head. “But the way I see it, for all the evil they did in their short, brutish lives, they get to make amends by helping us now. Makes what we’re doing here almost noble.” He took some of the fur on top of a rakke’s head and used the grease to pull it up into a spike then stood back to admire his work.

“You think this is something you’d tell the grandchildren one day?” Konowa asked, opening the haversack he was carrying and scooping out a small handful of copper shavings. He sprinkled some on each body, making sure to trickle a small pile on the grease-coated twine as well. The copper shavings stuck to the grease despite the wind.

“There are things I won’t tell myself,” Yimt said. “As for the rest of it, I imagine I’ll wind up being a plucky warrior saving poor benighted officers left, right, and center. Yup, they’ll think their gramps was a real hero.”