Page 21 of The Malevolent Seven

To her credit, the lieutenant barely shifted an inch. She picked up her helm and gestured at her squad, who instantly raised their weapons in preparation for skewering us.

‘The Ascendant’sdead,’ Corrigan snapped, ignoring the sword blades getting perilously close to our necks. ‘Now you can either join him in the afterlife to explain your disobedience, or you can go back to doing your jobs.’

‘Our. . . jobs?’ one of the soldiers asked. He sounded doubtful.

Now that the dust was settling, I was uncomfortably aware of just how young they were. I haven’t seen thirty summers myself, yet I felt like an old man in their company.

The lieutenant gave the boy who’d spoken up a withering glance, but even she looked taken aback by Corrigan’s effortless intimidation.

‘Yourjobs,’ he repeated, not allowing the lieutenant to speak. He swung an arm wide and they all cringed before swiftly recovering their soldierly posture. ‘This whole camp is falling apart, in case you haven’t noticed! A rogue wonderist murdered the Ascendant and you can bet your cursed arses that even now Archon Belleda– unless she’s even dumber than you lot– is preparing to launch a full counteroffensive against this camp.’ He leaned closer to the woman in charge and whispered, outrageously loudly, ‘She’s got wonderists too, you know.’

The soldiers started twisting their heads this way and that in search of the vile and deadly war mages who might even now be stalking them.

‘Now,’ Corrigan went on, ‘as General– oh, what’s his fucking name again? Sounds like a genital disease.’

‘Kin Vahj?’ another soldier offered.

Corrigan pushed the man’s sword aside so he could clap him on the shoulder approvingly. ‘Right. Kin Vahj. The general’s ordered the entire camp be secured, both to keep Belleda’s people out and, more importantly, to keep those fucking wonderistsin. We don’t want the assassin escaping now, do we?’

The lieutenant tried to reassert her authority. ‘That’s what we’re—’

Corrigan cut her off by spinning on his heel to face me. ‘Mage-Captain Ombra, these pissants are in full dereliction of duty. Take every one of their names down so that when General Kin. . .’

‘Vahj,’ I offered.

‘I know that, you idiot. I was pausing for dramatic effect, in the obviously vain hope of prompting some of these pissants to save their own lives and fulfil the general’s orders before he makes us use spells weshouldbe using against the wonderist assassin. Do youwant to see us wasteall that power on separating the heads of these deserters from their necks in the most unpleasant ways possible?’

‘Deserters?’ another of the young soldiers asked. He looked uncertainly at his lieutenant, who wasn’t offering much in the way of help right now.

Corrigan would have made a great con artist – or at least, he would have if he didn’t enjoy burning conmen alive quite so much. He turned on the soldier who’d spoken and poked a finger in the man’s breastplate as if he could burn his way through. ‘Your orders are to secure the camp and challenge any wonderist who isn’t already under guard.’

‘But sir, that’s what we—’

Corrigan gave him a push. ‘So go anddothat! Find anyone who evenlookslike an arse-sniffing wonderist and take them into custody.’

‘What should we do if we find one?’ the lieutenant asked, apparently having given up trying to understand what was going on, never mind regaining control of the situation.

‘Bring them to us for interrogation,’ Corrigan replied. ‘And then pray to whatever gods or devils you pray to that we’re able to get this mess sorted before the Glorians get here and turn all our lives into a living hell.’

The commander mumbled something incoherent.

Actually, it was probably a lot more coherent than the horseshit Corrigan was spouting, but he just went on bellowing right over her, ‘The words you’re looking for, soldier, are, “As commanded, so obeyed!”’

She hesitated, but I think there must be something in the nature of soldiers that they really like being yelled at. ‘As commanded. . . so obeyed,’ she said at last.

Corrigan stepped back a few feet, forcing the soldiers behind him to scamper out of the way. He stood there until they instinctively got into formation in front of him. He looked as if he were a general himself, ready to inspect their uniforms and weapons.

‘Say it,’ he directed them all.

‘As commanded, so obeyed!’

He put a hand to his ear. ‘Hard to hear over the sounds of other soldiers out there doing their jobs and getting ready to be promoted for their diligence.’

‘As commanded, so obeyed!’ the squad bellowed as one.

Still, Corrigan held them frozen in his glare. The seconds ticked by uncomfortably until at last, his jaw stuck out a little further, he gave them a single approving smile and saluted them.

They saluted back, and I swear the lot of them– their lieutenant included– had big, dumb grins on their faces, the look of soldiers who would, once this was all done, rush back to their tents and write letters home describing how fabulous it was to be in the army.

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