Chapter 9 – Part 4

The colonel was already up when the tap came from outside of his tent. He’d been up for a good ten minutes, and he’d spent the last two lathering his neck in front of the mirror balanced carefully on the wooden stand. The colonel shaved everyday, twice a day. He had when he’d first been made an officer. Even when he was standing hip-deep in mud and blood on the Cyran front, he’d shaved.

It was important to look like you have your act together. No matter what was going on, your men needed to see that you had to have your act together.

His first commanding officer had told him that. He’d last seen the old man on leave in Sharn. Some walking Karrn corpse had shattered the old man’s mind, and even House Jorasco was unable to put the man’s mind back together.

But the man’s nurses kept him cleanly shaven. It was part of being an officer in the Brelish forces.

Even if the officer was halfway across the world in an overgrown, dirt-encrusted, savage forest that no sane man would want to live in.

“Come,” he sighed, beginning to shave his upper neck.

The flap opened, and he saw his personal guard salute. “Colonel,” the young man said. He was human, and only nineteen years of age, but what was in his eyes could age a dwarf. “He’s back again.”

There was no need to say who the guard was talking about. Only one man had been constantly demanding an audience with the commander of the Brelish expedition in the northern Eldeen. Only one man could do that and not get court-martialed.

And not just because he was the oldest infantryman anyone knew. The colonel’s staff knew that their boss blamed himself for the deaths of Henry’s sons.

“Let him in,” the colonel said.

“Sir?”

“Let him in,” the colonel said again.

He continued to shave as his guard went out. He scraped the razor as he heard his man talk briefly to Henry. Then the canvas rustled and Henry stepped in.

The colonel continued to shave, but he regarded the man in the mirror. Henry stood, weariness evident on his face, his cold weather cap twisted between his hands, his shoulders thrown back in proper parade rest. The man’s uniform was worn, but his weapons were clean and ready.

Life on the front left its marks.

“You want me to order an incursion across the border,” the colonel said. It wasn’t a question.

“Permission to speak freely, sir,” Henry said. He locked gazes through the mirror with the field commander.

“For you,” the colonel said. “Always.” He began shaving his cheeks.

“We left a man out there,” Henry said. His eyes accused.

“We have orders to defend the Reachers,” the colonel said. “Defend, not attack Aundair. We’re to help the Eldeen forces hold the line, not go on the offensive against their former masters.” He finished the cheek and started on the other. “I sent not one, but two requests to my commanders. We’re part of an overall strategic plan. A plan that does not allow for crossing the river.”

“We crossed it once,” Henry said.

“Failure of chain of command,” the colonel said, finishing up. He began to wipe his face with a towel. “You’ll recall I got this position a few weeks ago, after an Aundairian sniper took out my commanding officer. In the gap of command, some people got overzealous.” He set his thinks in the basin, then turned to face Henry. “We’re buffering the Eldeen border to keep Aundair busy so that we can advance on other fronts. We have to keep the Reachers happy, but only to a point. They don’t exactly want us here.”

“The Karrns were in the field,” Henry said. “One of their cursed corpse-things took him. Alive.”

“War is a horrible thing,” the colonel said. He suddenly felt weird that he was in a sleeping robe rather than a uniform, or better, armor. “I have only so much in the way of resources.”

“Don’t hand me the official line,” Henry said. His voice had suddenly gone up, and the pretense that he was addressing a subordinate officer was now gone. “The Karrns took Carl alive. Do you know what they’re likely to do? Karrns.”

“Infantryman, I have cut you some slack over this matter,” the colonel said, feeling the heat rush into his voice. “But you had best watch your tone, because –”

“Carl was like my son,” Henry growled. “Given that I have no others living.”

The colonel looked down, biting his lip. Logically it hadn’t been his fault, but he still blamed himself. “Henry…Henry, I can’t. I have orders. I mean the fact that Karrnath is bolstering Aundair’s western front so that Aundair will have more of a free hand to deal with Thrane, which frees up Karrnath elsewhere, and we’re doing the same thing –”

“I’m not stupid,” Henry cut in. “I know that something major is coming, and it’s either Cyre or Karrnath, but that doesn’t matter to me. We have a missing man. We followed Carl ever since the battle of Chubat’s Stand. Carl held us together until we rejoined the rest of our people. Carl rallied us when we hit the lines, again and again. Now he’s being held by a Karrn expeditionary force. Unless he’s become food for one of their monsters.” Henry paused, and waited until the colonel met his eyes. “We. Can’t. Leave. Him.”

The colonel sighed. “Ten men, volunteers only. No uniforms. No other official marking. Not even Brelish weapons. If caught you will be disavowed. One day there, one back.”

“Understood, sir,” Henry said, stress melting from his posture. “Thank you, sir.”

The old infantryman saluted. The young colonel saluted back. They would not see each other again.