Keep on the Borderlands

It was still very dark out, and the trees seemed to loom over them. Eddis’ hands were trembling once more, making it hard to get her lanternlit.

I’d forgotten how much I dislike woods at night, she thought.Sensible people don’t belong out here. I’ll fight just about anything that comesat me, but it helps if I can see it coming!

Lantern in one hand, sword in the other, she drew a deep breath and tried to relax. Too much had happened in too short a span. Still, she’d made a fool of herself just now, snapping at Jerdren. Good leaders weren’tsupposed to act that way, and these Keep men didn’t know either her orJers well. No doubt they’d both lost face.

They moved out moments later. It was slow going at first, even with the lanterns and the elves’ keen eyes to lead them around trees andsnags. Near the base of the hill, they came across a game trail heading roughly southeast. Jerdren wanted to follow it, but Eddis was firmly against using it, and both Blorys and M’Baddah backed her up.

“If deer use it,” Eddis said flatly, “so do the things thathunt them.”

They went on through the woods, but she could hear her co-captain grumbling to himself for some time after.

The moon rose just as they came back into the area of reasonably flat ground and wide-spaced trees. Willow set a better pace here, and before long, the moon rose. Eddis could tell by the shadows that they were heading east and a little south.

Mead once asked a for brief halt so he and Willow could check their back-trail.

“There is no hint of anything or anyone following us,” themage said as he came back. “And there is no one anywhere near us just now.”

“Good,” Jerdren said. “Then, if no one objects, we’ll find aclearing and set up camp for what’s left of the night.”

No one objected.

Eddis bit back a sharp retort. “I agree. Let’s go.”Fortunately for her temper, they found a decent clearing a very short distance on. She took first watch, and by the time she’d made a full circuit of the camp,Jerdren was rolled in his blanket and presumably asleep.

Morning came cool and cloudy, with a stiff breeze that blewsmoke and ash everywhere. Eddis woke to the smell of burned porridge and the sounds of men moving quietly about. Nearby, M’Baddah and his son were talkingquietly. She yawned, stretched and sat up, shoving loose hair out of her eyes and behind her ears.

“There’s Eddis!” Jerdren’s cheerful voice smote her ears.“Pleasant dreams last night? No lions?”

She gave him a cold look from under her lashes, finally shook her head. “What about your watch?”

“Dead quiet the whole time,” he replied. “Mead didn’t sleepat all, and he said the brute wasn’t anywhere about.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Eddis said. She took porridgeand a mug of hot tea from the cook as her co- captain moved on. Thanks to the wind, the honey-sweetened porridge was covered with fine ash. She shrugged, stirred it in, and began to eat.

“We need to talk, you and I,” Jerdren was back, map in hand.“Not while you’re eating. I know.”

“Thank you.”

“I think we need to move out as soon as we can, Eddis. Maybeeven cross the road and keep going south, since it doesn’t seem that-”

“We need to talk,” Eddis said levelly, “but not while I’meating. Not unless there’s an emergency. Finding that camp of robbers isimportant but not an emergency.”

“But, I-”

“You’re still talking. Go away, Jerdren,” she said and bentover her bowl.

Silence. The man sighed and went away. M’Baddah came over tosit next to her. She gave him a smile and went back to her breakfast. M’Whan andone of the guards came in with an armful of dry branches and went out for more. Eddis finished her food while it was still warm and sat, eyes closed. She could hear branches snapping off to her left and M’Whan’s low voice, then the Keepman’s response. They were too far away for her to hear what they said. Somewherecloser, she could hear Blorys talking to Jerdren. He sounded rather exasperated.

“Jers, relax, can’t you? The last watch needs to eat still,and we need the fire because that mush won’t be edible if it isn’t kept hot, youknow that. We can’t break camp yet, anyway. Mead needs a little quiet time todevote to his spellbook, remember? So there’s no use you prodding Eddis thisearly.”

Jerdren sighed heavily. “I know that, but if we don’t-”

“It’ll all get done, trust me. Meantime, there’s a couple menhere who can probably help you figure out where we are better than Eddis can. Remember what someone said a while ago about lizard men and boggy ground? We don’t want to stumble headlong into fens and monsters. And you don’t reallywant to fight lizard men again, do you?”

“I remember someone talking about lizard men, Brother, but Idon’t remember anything about bogs.”

“Maybe that was something I heard back in the Keep, then,”Blorys broke in. “I don’t remember. Doesn’t matter. Not finding lizardmen is important to me. You and I are the only ones here who’ve fought thembefore. We were part of a full company, with experienced officers, and it was still a nasty battle! That’s not why we’re out here, anyway. We’re supposedto find bandits, and deal with them. Remember?”

Silence. Eddis sipped her tea, eyes closed, aware of M’Baddahat her elbow. She wondered briefly if Blorys meant her to overhear their conversation, then decided it wasn’t worth worrying about.

M’Whan’s warning shout brought her to her feet, the emptybowl sliding from her lap, her empty cup going the other way.

“Yrik!” he bellowed in his own tongue.

The Keep man’s voice topped the outland youth’s. “Orcs,coming right at us. Between us and the camp. Twenty or more!”

“Up the tree! Do it now, man!” M’Whan yelled at him. “Father!They’re coming at you from north and south!”

Eddis dove for her bow, slipped the string in place, and grabbed the three arrows she’d left next to her blanket the night before.

“Got it!” Jerdren shouted. “All right, people! Half of usover here, and Eddis, you take the north! Three lines deep, just like we practiced!”

“Got it!” she yelled back and grabbed two of the spearmen asshe strode around the fire. Thank the gods they had practiced this maneuver, she thought as she knelt and dropped the sword belt between her knees, so she could fit an arrow to the string. Archers in front, spearmen behind, sword at the rear. It was all they had time for as several massive, ill-clad creatures burst into the clearing. Some carried short stabbing swords and round shields, one a mace, and two of them heavy clubs. She heard Jerdren yelling a challenge as her first arrow soared across open ground to bounce harmlessly off a hardened leather jerkin. You didn’t factor for the wind, she told herself andsighted down her second arrow. At her right, M’Baddah was steadily firingarrows, and to her left, Willow had already brought down two of the monsters.

“Aim for the eyes and the throat!” the elf shouted.

Eddis shot again, aiming just at the massive chin of the nearest orc. The wind sent it a little offside and down, but she’d correctedproperly this time. With a howl of agony, the brute went down, nothing of her arrow visible in its throat but the fletching. With her third arrow gone-itwounded the orc who was trying to avoid tripping over his dying companion-shelet one of the spearmen draw her back through their line and caught her breath. Keep men jabbed at the oncoming brutes, and two of the men fell.

Remember what you learned the one time you fought orcs, Eddis told herself grimly.

The man right in front of her brought down his enemy with a mighty thrust to the eye and lost his grip on the weapon. Eddis eased aside for him to retreat from the next orc that was charging straight at them, club swinging.

“Break-now!” she shouted. The same cry echoed from behind herhalf a breath later-so Jerdren was still on his feet and fighting. Orcs chargedinto them, but the humans and elf were no longer a compact fighting group, splitting off by ones and twos. Eddis leaped aside as one orc stumbled over the stones edging the fire pit and fell.