The Carpet People

who was sitting on the ground. One arm was in a sling, and his face was pale. He didn’t seem to be bothered about who Snibril actually was. He was feeling low enough to accept anyone who seemed to know what they were doing.
    ‘Sergeant Careus, Fifteenth Legion,’ he said. ‘Or what’s left of it. We were called back to Ware urgently from Ultima Marus, but when we were on the road—’
    ‘—there was a storm—’ said Snibril automatically.
    ‘And then afterwards—’
    ‘—you were attacked by mouls mounted on snargs,’ said Snibril.
    ‘Yes. Time and again. How did you know this?’
    ‘I’m good at guessing,’ said Snibril. ‘How many of you are there?’
    ‘About three hundred able-bodied, and a lot of wounded.’
    ‘I know a safe city where your wounded can be taken. It’s only two days’ easy march, if we spare some soldiers to escort them.’
    ‘We’ll need too many,’ said the sergeant. ‘There’ll be mouls everywhere.’
    ‘Not where we’ve been,’ said Snibril quietly. ‘Not any more. And the rest of us will go with you to Ware.’
    The sergeant looked down at the dust, thinking. ‘I won’t say we don’t need everyone we can get,’ he said. ‘Where’s this paradise, then?’
    ‘Jeopard,’ said Snibril.
    ‘You must be mad!’
    At that moment there was a roar from the road. Both of them hurried back, to where there was now a huge pushing crowd of Dumii and Deftmenes, with the Munrungs trying to keep them apart. Snibril pushed his way through and found a Deftmene and a soldier rollng over and over on the road, punching at one another.
    Snibril watched them for a moment, and then flung his spear on the ground.
    ‘Stop that!’ he shouted. ‘You’re soldiers! You’re not supposed to fight!’
    Even the two combatants stopped to work that one out.
    ‘I don’t understand you!’ Snibril shouted. His voice echoed off the hairs. ‘There’s enemies all around us, and you just attack each other! Why?’
    ‘They’re closer,’ said a voice from the Dumii ranks.
    ‘He called me dirty!’ said the Deftmene who had been fighting.
    ‘Well, you are,’ said Snibril. ‘So’s he. We all are. Now get up—’
    He stopped. All the Dumii were looking past him, to Athan and the wights, and Snibril heard the whispering start.
    ‘They’ve got wights with them . . . fighting!’
    He looked at Athan, who looked miserable. Snibril sidled over to him.
    ‘Don’t let them know you can’t remember this future,’ he said.
    ‘They know the future! And they’re on his side!’
    ‘Why should we fight for them if they treat us like that?’ said a Deftmene. Snibril spun around and picked up the astonished warrior by his collar.
    ‘You’re not fighting for them! You’re fighting for yourselves!’
    The Deftmene was shaken, but not afraid. ‘We’ve always fought for ourselves,’ he said. ‘And we were never Counted!’
    ‘No, but the Empire was all around you, wasn’t it, keeping you safe! The Dumii kept the peace over half the Carpet! All around you! Kept you safe!’
    ‘They never did!’
    ‘Think about it! There’s Dumii towns all around you! When they defended themselves, they weredefending you! They fought for real so that you could fight them for fun!’
    Snibril was shaking with anger.
    There was silence.
    He put the Deftmene down.
    ‘I’m going to Ware,’ he said. ‘Anyone else wants to come, it’s up to them ...’
    No one left, except for a small group who were going to accompany the wounded back to Jeopard. Two of the wights went with them. The Dumii felt a lot better with wights around. They seemed to think that wights only went where it was safe. That’s what they’d do . . .
    The rest of them marched on down the road. Snibril found that he was in command; the Munrungs wanted to follow him, the Deftmenes were beginning to think that anyone who could lose their temper that badly was probably a king, and the Dumii – well, the Dumii soldiers followed Sergeant Careus, and Sergeant Careus was riding alongside Snibril. Most armies are in fact run by their sergeants – the officers are there just to give things a bit of tone and prevent warfare becoming a mere lower-class brawl.
    The sergeant half turned in his saddle and looked back at the Deftmenes
    ‘Nice to have cavalry on our side again,’ he said.‘Even if they’re still shorter than infantry. I’ve fought against them a couple of times. Tough little ba . . . people. That was under Baneus. He