Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

The arrow had taken him just under the shoulder and gone clean through, snapped off when he hit the ground. She could see the splintered shaft under his arm. It had missed his lung, by the way he was talking. It would not kill him. Not right away, at least. Ferro could help him onto his horse and he would be gone, with a chance to live.

  The scout held up a trembling hand, a spatter of blood on his long thumb. 'Please… this is not my war I—'

  The sword carved a deep wound out of his face, through his mouth, splitting his lower jaw apart. He made a hissing moan. The next blow cut his head half off. He rolled over, dark blood pouring out into the dark earth, clutching at the stubble of the shorn crop. The sword broke the back of his skull open and he was still.

  It seemed that Ferro was not in a merciful mood that day.

  The butchered scout's horse stared dumbly at her. 'What?' she snapped. Perhaps she had changed, out there in the west, but no one changes that much. One less soldier in Uthman's army was a good thing, wherever he came from. She had no need to make excuses for herself. Especially not to a horse. She grabbed at its bridle and gave it a yank.

  Vallimir might have been a pink fool, but Ferro had to admit that he had managed the ambush well. Ten scouts lay dead in the village square, their torn clothes flapping in the breeze, their blood smeared across the dusty ground. The only Union casualty was the idiot who had been jerked over by his own rope, covered in dust and scratches.

  A good day's work, so far.

  A soldier poked at one of the corpses with his boot. 'So this is what the Gurkish look like, eh? Not so fearsome now.'

  'These are not Gurkish,' said Ferro. 'Kadiri scouts, pressed into service. They did not want to be here any more than you wanted them here.' The man stared back at her, puzzled and annoyed. 'Kanta is full of people. Not everyone with a brown face is Gurkish, or prays to their God, or bows to their Emperor.'

  'Most do.'

  'Most have no choice.'

  'They're still the enemy,' he sneered.

  'I did not say we should spare them.' She shouldered past, back through the door into the building with the bell tower. It seemed Vallimir had managed to take a prisoner after all. He and some others were clustered nervously around one of the scouts, on his knees with his arms bound tightly behind him. He had a bloody graze down one side of his face, staring up with that look that prisoners tend to have.

  Scared.

  'Where… is… your… main… body?' Vallimir was demanding.

  'He does not speak your tongue, pink,' snapped Ferro, 'and shouting it will not help.'

  Vallimir looked angrily round at her. 'Perhaps we should have brought someone with us who speaks Kantic,' he said with heavy irony.

  'Perhaps.'

  There was a long pause, while Vallimir waited for her to say more, but she said nothing. Eventually, he gave a long sigh. 'Do you speak Kantic?'

  'Of course.'

  'Then would you be so kind as to ask him some questions for us?'

  Ferro sucked her teeth. A waste of her time, but if it had to be done, it was best done quickly. 'What shall I ask him?'

  'Well… how far away the Gurkish army is, how many are in it, what route they are taking, you know—'

  'Huh.' Ferro squatted down in front of the prisoner and looked him squarely in the eyes. He stared back, helpless and frightened, no doubt wondering what she was doing with these pinks. She wondered herself.

  'Who are you?' he whispered.

  She drew her knife and held it up. 'You will answer my questions, or I will kill you with this knife. That is who I am. Where is the Gurkish army?'

  He licked his lips. 'Perhaps… two days march away, to the south.'

  'How many?'

  'More than I could count. Many thousands. People of the deserts, and the plains, and the—'

  'What route are they taking?'

  'I do not know. We were only told to ride to this village, and see whether it was empty.' He swallowed, the lump on the front of his sweaty throat bobbing up and down. 'Perhaps my Captain knows more—'

  'Ssss,' hissed Ferro. His Captain would be telling nobody anything now she had carved up his head. 'A lot of them,' she snapped at Vallimir, in common, 'and many more to come, two days' march behind. He does not know their route. What now?'

  Vallimir rubbed at the light stubble on his jaw. 'I suppose… we should take him back to the Agriont. Deliver him to the Inquisition.'

  'He knows nothing. He will only slow us down. We should kill him.'

  'He surrendered! To kill him would be no better than murder, war or no war.' Vallimir beckoned to one of the soldiers. 'I won't have that on my conscience.'

  'I will.' Ferro's knife slid smoothly into the scout's heart, and out. His mouth and his eyes opened up very wide. Blood bubbled through the split cloth on his chest, spread out quickly in a dark ring. He gawped at it, making a long sucking sound.

  'Glugh…' His head dropped back, his body sagged. She turned to see the soldiers staring at her, pale faces puffed up with shock. A busy day for them, maybe. A lot to learn, but they would soon get used to it.

  That, or the Gurkish would kill them.

  'They want to burn your farms, and your towns, and your cities. They want to make slaves of your children. They want everyone in the world to pray to God in the same way they do, with the same words they use, and for your land to be a province of their Empire. I know this.' Ferro wiped the blade of her knife on the sleeve of the dead man's tunic. 'The only difference between war and murder is the number of the dead.'

  Vallimir stared down at the corpse of his prisoner for a moment, his lips thoughtfully pursed. Ferro wondered if he had more backbone than she had given him credit for. Finally, he turned towards her. 'What do you suggest?'

  'We could wait for more here. Perhaps even get some real Gurkish this time. But that might mean too many for we few.'

  'So?'

  'East, or north, and set another trap like this one.'

  'And defeat the Emperor's army a dozen men at a time? Small steps.'

  Ferro shrugged. 'Small steps in the right direction. Unless you've seen enough, and want to go back to your walls.'

  Vallimir gave her a long frown, then he turned to one of his men, a heavy-built veteran with a scar on his cheek. 'There is a village just east of here, is there not, Sergeant Forest?'

  'Yes, sir. Marlhof is no more than ten miles distant.'

  'Will that suit you?' asked Vallimir, raising one eyebrow at Ferro.

  'Dead Gurkish suit me. That is all.'

  * * *

  Leaves on the Water

  « ^ »

  'Carleon,' said Logen. 'Aye,' said Dogman. It squatted there, in the fork of the river, under the brooding clouds. Hard shapes of tall walls and towers on the sheer bluff above the fast-flowing water, up where Skarling's hall used to stand. Slate roofs and stone buildings squashed in tight on the long downward slope, clustered in round the foot of the hill and with another wall outside, everything leant a cold, sharp shine from the rain just finished falling. Dogman couldn't say he was glad to see the place again. Every visit yet had turned out badly.

  'It's changed some, since the battle, all them years ago.' Logen was looking down at his spread-out hand, waggling the stump of his missing finger.

  'There weren't no walls like that round it then.'

  'No. But there weren't no Union army round it neither.'

  Dogman couldn't deny it was a comforting fact. The Union pickets worked their way through the empty fields about the city, a wobbly line of earthworks, and stakes, and fences, with men moving behind 'em, dull sunlight catching metal now and then. Thousands of men, well-armed and vengeful, keeping Bethod penned up.

  'You sure he's in there?'

  'Don't see where else he's got to go. He lost most of his best boys up in the mountains. No friends left, I reckon.'

  'We've all got less than we used to,' Dogman muttered. 'I guess we just sit here. We got time, after all. Lots of it. We sit here and wa
tch the grass grow, and we wait for Bethod to give up.'

  'Aye.' But Logen didn't look like he believed it.

  'Aye,' said Dogman. But just giving up didn't sound much like the Bethod he knew.

  He turned his head at the sound of hooves fast on the road, saw one of those messengers with a helmet like an angry chicken race from the trees and towards West's tent, horse well-lathered from hard riding. He reined up in a fumbling hurry, near fell out of his saddle in his rush to get down, wobbled past a few staring officers and in through the flap. Dogman felt that familiar weight of worry in his gut. 'That's got the taste o' bad news.'

  'What other kind is there?'

  There was some flutter down there now, soldiers shouting, throwing their arms around. 'Best go and see what's happened,' muttered Dogman, though he'd much rather have walked the other way. Crummock was stood near the tent, frowning at the commotion.

  'Something's up,' said the hillman. 'But I don't understand a thing these Southerners say or do. I swear, they're all mad.'

  Mad chatter came surging out of that tent alright, when Dogman pushed back the flap. There were Union officers all around the place and in a bastard of a muddle. West was in the midst of it, face pale as fresh milk, his fists clenched tight around nothing.

  'Furious!' Dogman grabbed him by the arm. 'What the hell's happening?'

  'The Gurkish have invaded Midderland.' West pulled his arm free and took to shouting.

  'The who have done what now?' muttered Crummock.

  'The Gurkish.' Logen was frowning deep. 'Brown folk, from way down south. Hard folk, by all accounts.'

  Pike had come up now, his burned face grim. 'They landed an army by sea. They might have reached Adua already.'

  'Hold on, now.' Dogman didn't know a thing about Gurkish, or Adua, or Midderland, but his bad feeling was getting worse every moment. 'What're you telling us, exactly?'

  'We've been ordered home. Now.'

  Dogman stared. He should've known all along it couldn't be this simple. He grabbed West by the arm again, stabbing down towards Carleon with his dirty finger. 'We've nothing like the men we need to carry on a siege o' this place without you!'

  'I know,' said West, 'and I'm sorry. But there's nothing I can do. Get over to General Poulder!' he snapped at a young lad with a squint. 'Tell him to get his division ready to march for the coast at once!'

  Dogman blinked, feeling sick to his stomach. 'So we fought seven days in the High Places for nothing? Tul died, and the dead know how many more, for nothing?' It always took him by surprise, how fast something could fall apart once you were leaning on it. 'That's it, then. Back to woods, and cold, and running, and killing. No end to it.'

  'Might be another way,' said Crummock.

  'What way?'

  The chief of the hillmen had a sly grin. 'You know, don't you Bloody-Nine?'

  'Aye. I know.' Logen had a look like a man who knows he's about to hang, and he's staring at the tree they're going to do it from. 'When have you got to leave, Furious?'

  West frowned. 'We have a lot of men and not a lot of road. Poulder's division tomorrow, I imagine, and Kroy's the day after.'

  Crummock's grin got a shade wider. 'So all day tomorrow, there'll be piles o' men sat here, dug in round Bethod, looking like they're never going nowhere, eh?'

  'I suppose there could be.'

  'Give me tomorrow,' said Logen. 'Give me just that and maybe I can settle things. Then I'll come south with you if I'm still alive, and bring who I can. That's my word. We'll help you with the Gurkish.'

  'What difference can one day make?' asked West.

  'Aye,' muttered Dogman, 'what's one day?' Trouble was, he could already guess the answer.

  Water trickled under the old bridge, past the trees and off down the green hillside. Down towards Carleon. Logen watched a few yellow leaves carried on it, turning round and round, dragged past the mossy stones. He wished that he could just float away, but it didn't seem likely.

  'We fought here,' said the Dogman. 'Threetrees and Tul, Dow and Grim, and me. Forley's buried in them woods somewhere.'

  'You want to go up there?' asked Logen. 'Give him a visit, see if—'

  'What for? I doubt a visit'll do me any good, and I'm damn sure it won't do him any. Nothing will. That's what it is to be dead. You sure about this, Logen?'

  'You see another way? The Union won't stick. Might be our last chance to finish with Bethod. Not that much to lose, is there?'

  'There's your life.'

  Logen took a long breath. 'Can't think of too many people who place much value on that. You coming down?'

  Dogman shook his head. 'Reckon I'll stay up here. I had a belly full o' Bethod.'

  'Alright then. Alright.' It was as if all the moments of Logen's life, things said and things done, choices he hardly remembered making, had led him to this. Now there was no choice at all. Maybe there never had been. He was like the leaves on the water—carried along, down towards Carleon, and nothing he could do about it. He gave his heels to his horse and off down the slope alone, down the dirt track, beside the gurgling stream.

  Everything seemed picked out clearer than usual, as the day wore down. He rode past trees, damp leaves getting ready to fall— golden yellow, burning orange, vivid purple, all the colours of fire. Down towards the valley bottom through the heavy air, just a trace of autumn mist to it, sharp in his throat. The sounds of saddle creaking, harness rattling, hoofbeats in the soft ground all came muffled. He trotted through the empty fields, turned mud pocked with weeds, past the Union pickets, a ditch and a line of sharpened stakes, three times bowshot from the walls. Soldiers there, in studded jackets and steel caps, watched him pass with frowns on their faces.

  He pulled on the reins and slowed his horse to a walk. He clattered over a wooden bridge, one of Bethod's new ones, the river underneath surging with the autumn rain. Up the gentle rise, the wall looming over him. High, sheer, dark and solid looking. A threatening piece of wall if ever there'd been one. He couldn't see men at the slots in the battlements, but he guessed they had to be there. He swallowed, spit moving awkward in his throat, then made himself sit up tall, pretending he wasn't cut and aching all over from seven days of battle in the mountains. He wondered if he was about to hear a flatbow click, feel the stab of pain then drop into the mud, dead. Some kind of an embarrassing song that would make.

  'Well, well, well!' came a deep voice, and Logen knew it right away. Who else would it be but Bethod?

  The strange thing was that he was glad to hear it, for the quickest moment. Until he remembered all the blood between them. Until he remembered they hated each other. You can have enemies you never really meet, Logen had plenty. You can kill men you don't know, he'd done it often. But you can't truly hate a man without loving him first, and there's always a trace of that love left over.

  'I'm taking a look down from my gates and who should ride up out of the past?' Bethod called to him. 'The Bloody-Nine! Would you believe it? I'd organise a feast, but we've no food to spare in here!' He stood there, at the parapet, high up above the doors, fists on the stone. He didn't sneer. He didn't smile. He didn't do much of anything.

  'If it ain't the King o' the Northmen!' Logen shouted up. 'Still got your golden hat, then?'

  Bethod touched the ring round his head, the big jewel on his brow glittering with the setting sun. 'Why wouldn't I have?'

  'Let me see…' Logen looked left and right, up and down the bare walls. 'Just that you've got shit all left to be King of, far as I can tell.'

  'Huh. I reckon we're both feeling lonely. Where are your friends, Bloody-Nine? Those killers you liked around you. Where's the Thunderhead, and Grim, and the Dogman, and that bastard Black Dow?'

  'All done with, Bethod. Dead, up in the mountains. Dead as Skarling. Them and Littlebone, and Goring, and Whitesides, and plenty more besides.'

  Bethod looked grim at that. 'Not much to cheer about, if you're asking me. That's some useful men gone back to the mud, one way or a
nother. Some friends of mine, and some of yours. There never is a happy outcome with we two, is there? Bad as friends, and worse as enemies. What did you come here for, Ninefingers?'

  Logen sat there, for a moment, thinking of all the other times he'd done what he had to do now. The challenges he'd made, and their outcomes, and there were no happy memories among that lot. Say one thing for Logen Ninefingers, say he's reluctant. But there was no other way. 'I'm here to make a challenge!' he bellowed, and the sound of it echoed back from the damp, dark walls and died a slow death in the misty air.

  Bethod tipped back his head and laughed. A laugh without much joy in it, Logen reckoned. 'By the dead, Ninefingers, but you never change. You're like some old dog no one can stop from barking. Challenge? What have we got left to fight over?'

  'I win, you open the gates and belong to me. My prisoner. I lose, the Union pack up and sail for home, and you're free.'

  Bethod's smile slowly faded and his eyes narrowed, suspicious. Logen knew that look from way back. Turning over the chances, sorting through the reasons why. 'That sounds like a golden offer, considering the fix I'm in. Hard to believe it. What's in it for your Southern friends up there?'

  Logen snorted. 'They'll wait, if they have to, but they don't much care about you, Bethod. You're nothing to them, for all your bluster. They kicked your arse across the North already and they reckon you'll not be bothering them again either way. If I win, they get your head. If I lose, they can go home early.'

  'I'm nothing to them, eh?' Bethod split a sad smile. 'Is that what it's come to, after all my work, and sweat, and pain? Are you happy, Ninefingers? To see all I've fought for put in the dust?'

  'Why shouldn't I be? You've no one but yourself to blame for it. It was you brought us to this. Take my challenge, Bethod, then maybe one of us can have peace!'

  The King of the Northmen gaped down, eyes wide. 'No one else to blame? Me? How soon we all forget!' He grabbed the chain round his shoulders and rattled it. 'You think I wanted this? You think I asked for any of it? All I wanted was a strip more land to feed my people, to stop the big clans squeezing me. All I wanted was to win a few victories to be proud of, to pass on something better to my sons than I got from my father.' He leaned forward, his hands clutching at the battlements. 'Who was it always had to push a step further? Who was it would never let me stop? Who was it had to taste blood, and once he'd tasted it got drunk on it, went mad with it, could never get enough?' His finger stabbed down. 'Who else but the Bloody-Nine?'