65th Day of Summer, Year 9132 of the Unick MeasureNear Patarum, Alhallo

  Hunchback was in a foul mood. Nothing was going as planned. After killing Toady, he was supposed to become master and ruler of the rest. He was meant to loot and murder, enjoy himself, and pay for nothing. Everything was supposed to be easy, pleasant. Instead, he sat in a stinking cave with a band of half-washed idiots, reeking, filthy, freezing, and hungry. That last part irritated him most. He had joined the Company so he would never be hungry again, and now he was stuck in this godforsaken hole wondering whether he would starve first or end up killing the others. If they had been even slightly cleaner, perhaps he could have roasted them and…

  “Hunchback, what now?” Scraper asked. “We’re out of food and water, and around here…”

  “Shut up,” Hunchback snarled, ready to silence him permanently.

  “Then think faster,” Scraper muttered under his breath.

  They had all feared the Commander’s revenge so intensely that none of them had considered the other dangers of desertion. Such as the lack of regular pay with which to buy food. Hunchback would never admit it, not even to himself, but he was beginning to regret his decision. Toady had been what he had been, yet his presence had guaranteed a relatively comfortable life. For a while, they had been able to exploit the Company’s name and terrorize others with it, but now no one believed them anymore. They were just another band of starving fools, the kind this world had no shortage of. Too dirty, too foul-smelling, too stupid to keep pretending they still served under the Commander.

  Of course, Hunchback understood all of this. What he could not do was blame himself. In his mind, everyone else was at fault. If only they had listened from the beginning. If only they had obeyed. If only…

  “We’re going to die here,” Sack muttered.

  He said nothing more. Before he could open his mouth again, Hunchback’s fist smashed into his face.

  “Watch your mouth,” Hunchback hissed.

  No one spoke after that. Their situation was already bad enough.

  ***

  65th Day of Summer, Year 9132 of the Unick MeasureNear Patarum, Alhallo

  Warm walked just behind Noisy, who was leading them. For a man of his size, Warm moved with unsettling efficiency: fast, controlled, silent. Darling could hardly believe it. Back in camp, their commander sometimes seemed almost sluggish, his steps heavy, his movements careless. Now he resembled a predator. Something wild. Something impossible to kill.

  They halted.

  Darling sensed they were close, if not already there. Warm made a series of quick gestures with his right hand. Darling hoped he interpreted them correctly. Sign language had been one of the first things he had begun learning in the Company. A useful skill, he had to admit.

  He stepped aside. The others shifted smoothly into position. Warm moved ahead of them and advanced, leading his soldiers with absolute certainty. Only then did it strike Darling what they were about to do, or rather what they had to do. His stomach tightened. Until now, he had been a whore, not a killer. For a brief moment, he considered staying where he was, refusing to move. Warm would not notice immediately. Later, perhaps… No. He was no longer a whore. He was a sworn soldier of the Nameless Company. Warm would never forgive hesitation. No matter what Darling said. No matter how he begged.

  He moved forward, heart heavy. Some situations offered no good choices. One simply chose the lesser evil.

  ***

  65th Day of Summer, Year 9132 of the Unick MeasureNear Patarum, Alhallo

  Hunchback was about to tell his men exactly what he thought of them when he realized someone was standing at the cave entrance. He did not hesitate. He grabbed his weapon and lunged. He was not a fool who wasted time asking questions and granting an enemy the chance to react. Surprise was the most valuable element in a fight.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Surprise…

  Oh, how thoroughly he surprised himself when he found himself on the ground, a boot crushing his wrist. He dropped the sword. He tried to rise, but a savage kick drove the air from his lungs. If he had harbored any doubt about whether his stomach still contained anything at all, he received immediate proof. He vomited water. Nothing else.

  “And to think I had to travel this far for a few scraps of half-starved cattle.”

  “Who the fuck are you?” Hunchback rasped.

  He did not need to look at the others to know they stood frozen in terror.

  “Funny you don’t recognize me,” Warm said, smiling broadly. “Everyone in this Company knows who I am.”

  “I don’t,” Hunchback spat.

  “You will.” Warm drew a knife. “You will very well.”

  From where Darling stood, everything unfolded with terrifying speed. As if at some silent signal, the soldiers moved. Darling could not describe what happened. Only that each man reached a target, and moments later it was over. All five deserters lay restrained on the ground.

  “Rope, tie them,” Warm said. “I’ll decide what to do with them.”

  “Is quick execution and an evening off an option?” Believer asked hopefully.

  “Are you fucking serious?” Warm growled. “If they were ordinary deserters, I’d carve the mark of betrayal into their foreheads and hang them from the nearest tree. But this wasn’t ordinary.”

  “So what more do you want to do to them?” Hungry asked, folding his arms. “Sing them a lullaby?”

  “Tied up nicely,” Rope announced.

  “We could cut their heads off and dump the bodies along the road,” Sensitive suggested.

  “Not bad, but not enough. Anyone got something better?”

  “Skin them?” Believer ventured.

  “Do you even know how to do that? Because I don’t. Do I fucking look like Skin to you?”

  “Well… no,” the soldier admitted, visibly unsettled.

  Darling looked at the men lying on the ground, and something inside him shifted. They looked like his clients. The worst ones. The repulsive, brutal ones. Back then, when they beat him and humiliated him, he could do nothing. But now… now he could make them pay for every wrong done to him. He could finally do what he had always dreamed of and inflict the kind of pain they deserved.

  “All right. Anyone else got a decent idea?” Warm asked, irritation clear in his voice. When no one answered, he turned his gaze to Darling. “You. Try.”

  Darling felt the others’ eyes on him. A strange sensation crept over him, the uneasy certainty that a trap had just been set, one he did not fully understand. He drew a slow breath. Fine. Whatever was going to happen would happen anyway.

  “I’d cut off their arms and legs. Gouge out their eyes. Rip out their tongues. You said there’s a special mark you carve into deserters. I’d carve it into their foreheads, then hang them on hooks driven between the ribs somewhere everyone could see them.”

  Perfect silence filled the cave.

  Rope let out a low whistle of admiration.

  “Well, well,” Warm said, straightening proudly, arms folding across his massive chest. “Now that’s a fucking good idea. And from whom? Our newest. I’m impressed. Almost touched.”

  “Where the hell did that come from?” Sensitive asked.

  “That’s what they did to whores who almost managed to escape,” Darling replied quietly. “Except for the amputations. No one wanted them dying too fast, so…”

  “Jesus fucking Christ…” Believer whispered.

  “Warm, I’m not surprised the boy adjusted so well to your tent,” Hungry said gravely. “Must feel just like home.”

  Warm’s voice turned dangerously calm.

  “Have I ever done anything like that to any of you?”

  “You asking seriously, or should I shut up?”

  “I’m asking seriously.”

  Hungry exhaled slowly.

  “Well. You gouged out Hazel’s eyes after that comment of his. You impaled Crap on a fence. You cut out half of Drudgery’s tongue, and only because we stopped you…”

  Warm’s stare hardened.

  “Have I ever done all of it at once?”

  Hungry hesitated.

  “No.”

  “Then it doesn’t count,” Warm growled.

  They could have argued, but none of them were foolish enough. Heads nodded. The matter was closed. Warm smiled with satisfaction, then looked back at Darling.

  “Your idea wins. Congratulations. You can begin.”

  “What?” Darling asked.

  He had heard the order clearly, understood it without the slightest difficulty, yet he could not grasp that it had been meant for him. Him? He was supposed to do it? He looked from face to face in horror, searching for some trace of support. He found only silent approval.

  So that was the trap.

  They had known. Which was why none of them had bothered offering a single creative thought. Lesson learned. Darling realized he should have kept his mouth shut when everyone else had done exactly that.

  “I was perfectly clear,” Warm said coldly. “Your idea. You do it.”

  The bound and gagged men began thrashing in panic, desperate, muffled screams tearing from their throats. Darling swallowed hard. Took several deep breaths. Then stepped toward them. Just work, he thought, a strange numbness settling over his mind. Funny. That was exactly what he had told himself when he accepted his second client. Only back then, he had not been calm. Back then, he had still been a child, crying silently, praying for rescue.

  Now he was no longer a child.

  Now he was an adult.

  Now he stood at the very top of the food chain. And he intended to do whatever it took to stay there.