The Crippled God

his head. ‘You’re too stupid to know what’s been beating you on the heads ever since Y’Ghatan. Wide-eyed stupid.’
    Cuttle spoke up. ‘We’re the walking dead.’
    ‘Thanks for the good news, Fid,’ someone said, his voice muffled.
    A few laughs, but they were bitter.
    Fiddler continued. ‘Those lizards took a nasty bite out of us. In fact, they pretty much did us in. Look around. We’re what’s left. The smoke over Pale’s thinning, and here we are. Aye, it’s my past pulling me rightround till I’m facing the wrong way. You think you feel like shits – try standing in my boots, boys and girls.’
    ‘Thought we were going to decide what to do.’
    Fiddler found Gaunt-Eye in the crowd. ‘Is that what you thought, Sergeant? Is that really what you thought we’d be doing here? What, we gonna vote on something? We gonna stick up our little hands after arguing ourselves blue? After digging our little holes and crouching in ’em like mummy’s womb? Tell me, Sergeant, exactly what have we got to argue about?’
    ‘Pulling out.’
    ‘Someone rustle up a burial detail, we got us a sergeant to plant.’
    ‘You called this damned meeting, Captain—’
    ‘Aye, I did. But not to hold hands. The Adjunct wants something special from us. Once we get t’other side of the Glass Desert. And here I am letting you know, we’re going to be our own little army. Nobody wanders off, is that understood? On the march, you all stay tight. Keep your weapons, keep sharp, and wait for my word.’
    ‘You call this an army, Captain?’
    ‘It’ll have to do, won’t it?’
    ‘So what is it we’re supposed to do?’
    ‘You’ll find out, I’m sure.’
    A few more laughs.
    ‘More lizards waiting for us, Cap’n?’
    ‘No, Reliko, we took care of them already, remember?’
    ‘Damn me, I miss something?’
    ‘No lizards,’ Fiddler said. ‘Something even uglier and nastier, in fact.’
    ‘All right then,’ said Reliko, ‘s’long as it’s not lizards.’
    ‘Hold on,’ said Corporal Rib. ‘Captain, y’had us sitting here all afternoon? Just to tell us that?’
    ‘Not my fault we had stragglers, Corporal. I need some lessons from Sort, or maybe Kindly. A captain orders, soldiers obey. At least it’s supposed to work that way. But then, you’re all different now … special cases, right? You’ll follow an order only if you feel like it. You earned that, or something. How? By living when your buddies died. Why’d they die? Right. They were following orders – whether they liked ’em or not. Fancy that. Deciding whether or not to show up here, what was that? Must’ve been honouring your fallen comrades, I suppose, the ones who died in your place.’
    ‘Maybe we’re broken.’
    Again, that voice he couldn’t quite place. Fiddler scratched his beard and shook his head. ‘You’re not broken. The walking dead don’t break. Still waiting for that to clunk home, are ya? We’re going to be the Adjunct’s little army. But too little – anyone can see that. Now, it’snot that she wants us dead. She doesn’t. In fact, it might even be that she’s trying to save our lives – after all, where’s she taking the regulars? Chances are, wherever that is, you don’t want to be there.
    ‘So maybe she thinks we’ve earned a break. Or maybe not. Who knows what the Adjunct thinks, about anything. She wants what’s left of the heavies and the marines in one company. Simple enough.’
    ‘You know more than you’re saying, Fiddler.’
    ‘Do I, Koryk?’
    ‘Aye. You’ve got the Deck of Dragons.’
    ‘What I know is this. Next time I give you all an order, I don’t expect to have to wait all day to see you follow it. Next soldier tries that with me gets tossed to the regulars. Outa the special club, for good.’
    ‘We dismissed, Captain?’
    ‘I ain’t decided yet. In fact, I’m tempted to make you sit here all night. Just to make a point, right? The one about discipline, the one your friends died for.’
    ‘We took that point the first time, Captain.’
    ‘Maybe you did, Cuttle. Ready to say the same for the rest of ’em?’
    ‘No.’
    Fiddler sat down on a boulder at the edge of the basin and settled until he was comfortable. He looked into the night sky. ‘Ain’t that jade light pretty?’
    Things were simple, really. There’s only so much a soldier can do, only so much a soldier needs to think about at any one time. Pile on too much and their knees start shaking, their eyes glaze over,