Chapter 12

Kim

“Will you prove yourselves worthy!?”

For once, the old fart wasn’t barking at me, which was lucky. Instead, she had us all lined up in the courtyard, and she was pacing to and fro in front of us as if her stride would help drill her words into us. I knew it was a speech meant to stir the hearts, and my fellow Champions enjoyed it thoroughly, but I struggled not to let my thoughts stray.

“Are you worthy of this charge?!”

“Yes!”

We answered in unison. It wasn’t a question, after all. She stopped her march and gestured at the two soldiers standing to the side of her to empathise her conclusion,

“You, too, can become the finest soldiers the Queen’s army has seen.”

I lost the battle with my boredom, and my thoughts began to stray. It wasn’t the first speech of the day, but I knew the old grump wouldn’t lose her chance at drilling in her point now when she had the soldiers here. Apparently, they were from the finest regiment of the Queen’s army, sent to our Champion camp to rest from the frontline. At least, that’s what they said was the reason. I suspected they had been stationed here to carry out the Queen’s preaching and make us join the army. Tomorrow, one of the squads would even go on a minor assignment with them. All in all, it had been a dull day, but at least we hadn’t needed to clean the kitchen or run laps around the meadow.

“Cadet!”

This time, she did bark at me, and luckily, I heard it in time and stepped out from the line and saluted.

“Are you ready!?”

“Yes!”

I clicked my heels. They liked that kind of thing here at the Queen’s Champion camp.

“You will lead the squad on tomorrow’s assignment!”

Wait, what…? I almost dropped my hand from my forehead but realised in time that I would be without dinner if I did, and kept it up. Had she said I would command the unit? What had I done to deserve that fate? I stared into the air, and the moments became seconds as I fumbled for words, and the fart’s impatience grew. Just before I was sure she would snap at me, I blurted out,

“Yes!”

“Good.”

I lowered my hand and stepped back into the line. What was that all about? For a moment, I wondered if I should feign illness as the morning came, but it would be useless. She had set her eyes on me, and she wouldn’t let me go. She dismissed us, and we turned as one and marched back to the barracks.

I could hear the others grumbling behind me. More than a few of them would have wanted to get the chance to prove their worth to the Queen, even if the task was pointless. The old fart could have just chosen someone who wanted it, I thought. We halted at the barracks, and for once, I didn’t leave for the dinner hall but took off back to my quarter, leaving the others to mutter among themselves. I had better things to do than to hear them moan about how unfairly they were treated.

The barrack was empty as I stepped inside, and I slumped down on the bed. I thought I had stayed out of sight of the grump. This was not how my stay here should be. I should be at the farm with my little sister now, not leading a squad for a day of levy gathering. The old fart thought it would be good for us to watch and learn some of our duties. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a regular fealty dues among the neighbourhood farms, and it wasn’t even us who would do the collecting. But my promotion to commander wasn’t a good sign, and who knew what the old grump was planning. I sighed. Gone were the days when I could slip around the camp unnoticed.

I lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. My mother, father, little sister and brother were eating dinner now. Soup, maybe. My father would tell them about any news he’d heard from the neighbours, and my mother would chastise my brother for playing with his food. I wasn’t there. Instead, I was tax collecting for the Queen. At least it would only be over the day, and we would be back tomorrow evening, I told myself. I heard the door open, and I looked up to see Stina come in. She smiled as she saw me.

“I heard you got to lead the squad, she said as she sat down on her bed.”

“Yeah… Stupid fart.”

She giggled. I liked hearing her happy.

“We can enjoy a game of chance when you come back, we’re off duty tomorrow evening.”

We often did that when we were on leave, tabletop merriment to pass the time and forget about the camp for a while.

“Yeah, sure..”, I smiled.

I didn’t have time to say anything else because the first bell of the night called out.

“Time for bed”, I sighed.

That same bell woke me up before sunrise several hours later, and I stumbled out of bed. Whispering crowd or not, my stomach was grumbling, and I had to eat. I heard Stina stir as I slipped out the door.

The grounds were deserted, and I watched the stars as I walked to the dining hall. I sighed. It was only one day. Maybe the old grump would forget about me, I thought.

I took the table furthest away, as always, as I sat down with my bowl of porridge. A few people cast a glance at me, but I ignored them and ate as quickly as I could and left. Soon, we would gather in the courtyard, but I still had some time before the old fart would find me. I went to sit by the meadow, watching the stars slowly fading from the sky. If I had been home, I would have woken up next to my little sister now. We always slept in the same bed; her small body pushed against mine to shield each other from the chill. I wondered if she was cold when I wasn’t there.

The second bell chimed, as always sooner than I wanted, and I sighed, got up and walked the short distance to the grump’s office. It didn’t take long until the old fart herself stepped over the courtyard. She gave me a sour look as she passed, as if I had been the one to force her out of bed, opened the door and stepped inside. I wasn’t fast enough to move because she called out,

“What are you waiting for?”

I sighed, then followed her inside and halted before her desk. She gave me another foul look, handed me a set of papers and shushed me off. I saluted, left her office and went to stand out of reach to look at the papers she’d given me. There were writings on them, but I hadn’t learned to read yet, so I had no idea what it said. The soldiers would know, though, I knew. I stuffed them into my pocket. This would be a long day.

I left to stand by the assembly point. My unit would soon come from the dining hall, and not long after, we’d leave. If I hadn’t been at risk of being caught, I would have sat down, but that might earn me a lap around the meadow before we left, so I opted to keep standing. It didn’t take long before I heard my squad come chattering over the courtyard. They quieted as they saw me, formed a line in front of me and saluted. Grumble or not, they would treat me as their commander and follow my orders, if nothing else because they wanted to stay in the favour of the grump. I saluted in turn and straightened my back, just to be sure the old fart would have nothing to complain about when she came by.

My hunch had been right because moments later, I heard footsteps behind me, and as I turned, I saw the old grump and the two soldiers coming towards us with a horse and a wagon. I saluted as they passed; they did belong to the Queen’s army, after all, and then followed them as they took a stand out of earshot of my unit. I heard the old fart mention the farms we were expected to visit, and I knew I should have listened to what she talked about, but I was already getting bored, and my thoughts wandered. Luckily, they didn’t stray too far because she never noticed my daydreaming as she barked,

“Cadet, are you ready!?”

I saluted.

“Yes!”

She exchanged a few last words with the soldiers, glanced at me as if to say that my behaviour today would wear off on her good name, and left.

The soldiers gestured for us, and one of my squad members hurried to take the reins of the horse. We followed them out of the camp, marching behind them like the obedient Champions we were. They were the finest soldiers, which meant they were the roughest, I’d heard. The frontline wasn’t for the weak, or at least that’s what the old grump had tried to tell us yesterday. I wondered what they thought about being on tax collection duty instead of in the midst of battle. Fairly uneventful, I would have thought.

We passed the gates of the camp, and once we were out of sight, they broke formation, and one of them took out a flask to pass around. Maybe they weren’t as rough as they said, I thought, but the day seemed better already. I broke rank as well, but my unit refused to follow suit, probably hoping to keep the honour of the Queen intact. Bores… One of the soldiers turned to me.

“You keep quiet around the farmers, understood?”

“Yes.”

He turned back to his fellow soldier and went on to ignore us. We followed the path through the camp’s forest and soon came out on a road. I was already getting bored, so I glanced at the drainage trenches running along the road, trying to pick out the plants growing there. My father had taught me to recognise the species to stop the goats from eating treacherous seeds, but the camp must have been further from home than I’d thought because none of them were similar to the ones I knew.

“Halt!”

I looked up. We were already standing in front of the first farm. The soldiers gestured for us to stay behind, walked over to the farmhouse, and knocked on the door. I could see an old lady opening, and after a few exchanged words, they followed her inside. I glanced at the others. Did they really believe this was worth doing for the Queen? I wasn’t sure what I preferred, this or running laps under the scrutiny of the grump. Different, but in many ways equally boring. The soldiers came out with a sack of what must be wheat, and my obedient squad ran over to them with the horse, loaded the wheat on the wagon, and we set off again.

It didn’t take us long until we halted again. We were closer to the house this time, and I could hear the soldiers chatting as they walked up to the man standing outside the house.

“Oi, old man, the Queen’s tithe is due.”

The man looked up at them.

“Tithe?”

“You deaf, old fool? The Queen’s tithe.”

“But… I didn’t think you would come before the winter. The soil hasn’t given us much this year, we barely have enough for our own use.”

A small child stuck her head out the door.

“What is it, father?”

“Nothing, go back with your mother”, he waved at her.

She closed the door behind her as the man turned back to the soldiers.

“Please give us a bit more time. I can slaughter a goat for you, we just don’t have enough.”

“You will give what's demanded.”

The soldier took a step toward him, putting his hand on his knife. I froze. What was he doing?

“Please, I beg you.”

“You defy the Queen’s order?”

“No, I…”

The soldier took his knife from his holster, and I didn’t dare to move. This was not how it was supposed to be. We were supposed to have a boring day collecting levies. Were the soldiers really as rough as they said they were, after all?

“Please, no, I will get you something”, the man begged.

He backed away and when he was out of reach of the soldiers, turned and ran to the barn. I heard them muttering. Did the old grump know about this?, I wondered. She would never have sent them if she thought they would threaten the farmers.

“This is all that is left.”

The man ran back with a sack of wheat.

“That’s not what is asked of you”, the soldier said.

“That’s all we have.”

The soldier raised his arm, and it all went so fast. The man lay bleeding on the ground before we had time to react. I wanted to scream, but the soldier picked up the wheat bag and gestured for us to come.

“We’re leaving.”

We had no other choice than to pass the bleeding man on the ground on our way. I stared at the soldiers walking ahead of us. Is that how you became when you were in the Queen’s highest regiment? I felt my anger rise, but I didn’t dare to say anything and just glanced at the others as we continued down the road.

When I look back, those actions crossed a line I didn’t know I had. I always knew I didn’t want to be in the Queen’s army, but seeing what they did to the farmer did something to me. It didn’t matter any longer that I was far from home or that the hounds might catch me. As we rounded a bend in the road, I slacked behind, pretending something had stung me. When the others were out of view, I turned and ran.