A Malazan Book of the Fallen Collection 1

ask why?'
    'You may.' Lorn turned to watch the soldiers cleaning up the road. 'I need a list of recent recruits. Within the last two days. Forget the ones born in the city, just the outlying ones. And only the women and/or old men.'
    The captain grunted again. 'Should be a short list, Adjunct.'
    'I hope so, Captain.'
    'You figured out what's behind all this?'
    Still following the activity on the road below, Lorn said, 'No idea.'
    Yes, the captain thought, and I'm the Emperor reincarnated. 'Too bad,' he muttered.
    'Oh.' The Adjunct faced him. 'Lieutenant Paran is now on my staff. I trust you'll make the necessary adjustments.'
    'As you wish, Adjunct. I love paperwork.'
    That earned him a slight smile. Then it was gone. 'Lieutenant Paran will be leaving now.'
    The captain looked at the young noble and smiled, letting the smile say everything. Working for the Adjunct was like being the worm on the hook. The Adjunct was the hook, and at the other end of the line was the Empress. Let him squirm.
    A sour expression flitted across Paran's face. 'Yes, Adjunct.' He climbed back into the saddle, saluted, then rode off down the road.
    The captain watched him leave, then said, 'Anything else, Adjunct?'
    'Yes.'
    Her tone brought him around.
    'I would like to hear a soldier's opinion of the nobility's present inroads on the Imperial command structure.'
    The captain stared hard at her. 'It ain't pretty, Adjunct.'
    'Go on.'
    The captain talked.
     
    It was the eighth day of recruiting and Staff Sergeant Aragan sat bleary-eyed behind his desk as yet another whelp was prodded forward by the corporal. They'd had some luck here in Kan. Fishing's best in the backwaters, Kan's Fist had said. All they get around here is stories. Stories don't make you bleed. Stories don't make you go hungry, don't give you sore feet. When you're young and smelling of pigshit and convinced there ain't a weapon in all the damn world that's going to hurt you, all stories do is make you want to be part of them.
    The old woman was right. As usual. These people had been under the boot so long they actually liked it. Well, Aragan thought, the education begins here.
    It had been a bad day, with the local captain roaring off with three companies and leaving not one solid rumour in their wake about what was going on. And if that wasn't bad enough, Laseen's Adjunct arrived from Unta not ten minutes later, using one of those eerie magical Warrens to get here. Though he'd never seen her, just her name on the hot, dry wind was enough to give him the shakes. Mage killer, the scorpion in the Imperial pocket.
    Aragan scowled down at the writing tablet and waited until the corporal cleared his throat. Then he looked up.
    The recruit standing before him took the staff sergeant aback. He opened his mouth, on his tongue a lashing tirade designed to send the young ones scampering. A second later he shut it again, the words unspoken. Kan's Fist had made her instructions abundantly clear: if they had two arms, two legs and a head, take them. The Genabackis campaign was a mess. Fresh bodies were needed.
    He grinned at the girl. She matched the Fist's description perfectly. Still. 'All right, lass, you understand you're in line to join the Malazan Marines, right?'
    The girl nodded, her gaze steady and cool and fixed on Aragan.
    The recruiter's expression tightened. Damn, she can't be more than twelve or thirteen. If this was my daughter ...
    What's got her eyes looking so bloody old? The last time he'd seen anything like them had been outside Mott Forest, on Genabackis – he'd been marching through farmland hit by five years' drought and a war twice as long. Those old eyes were brought by hunger, or death. He scowled. 'What's your name, girl?'
    'Am I in, then?' she asked quietly.
    Aragan nodded, a sudden headache pounding against the inside of his skull. 'You'll get your assignment in a week's time, unless you got a preference.'
    'Genabackan campaign,' the girl answered immediately. 'Under the command of High Fist Dujek Onearm. Onearm's Host.'
    Aragan blinked. 'I'll make a note,' he said softly. 'Your name, soldier?'
    'Sorry. My name is Sorry.'
    Aragan jotted the name down on his tablet. 'Dismissed, soldier. The corporal will tell you where to go.' He looked up as she was near the door. 'And wash all that mud off your feet.' Aragan continued writing for a moment, then stopped. It hadn't rained in weeks. And the mud around here was half-way between green and grey, not dark red. He