Broken Throne (Red Queen #4.5)(22)

The Red soldiers gave me enough coin to buy my boat twice over to move them now and move them quick. Paid again at the border. Couldn’t resist. Took them up the Ohius, along the Nortan border. Dangurous Dangerous ground. Won’t risk that again. Still haven’t gotten their names, but there they’re heading north, judging by their gear. Far, far north.

The Lakelander smugglers tipped off the ferriers at the Fork. Sivlers Silvers will be cracking down on the border checks, and have orders to destroy our boats if we land on their banks. There’s been some trouble with Reds on the Lakes. Enough to keep an eye on the border. They’re hunting.





COL. FARLEY: Started slow, started small. Enough not to be noticed. A bridge collapse backs up transports and convoys for a few days. A citadel doesn’t get a weapons shipment on time. A troop march can’t go out. They have to double-time to keep a schedule, and the officers are frustrated, frazzled. Maybe one takes a bad step and cracks his head open. Maybe his children come to visit, and end up lost in the woods. That sort of thing.

JACOS: That sort of thing.

COL. FARLEY: You look a bit green, Jacos. I thought you studied this? Thought you’ve seen worse?

JACOS: Words on the page are very different from hearing it firsthand, sir. So you say this began in the army?

COL. FARLEY: That’s right. My unit wasn’t assigned to a Citadel or specific legion. We floated. We were good at war, good at killing. The Silvers sent us where we were needed. To the front—or somewhere else.

JACOS: Within the Lakelands?

COL. FARLEY: The border, mostly, but yes. We were dispatched all over.

JACOS: I believe it’s your turn to look a little green, Colonel.

COL. FARLEY: That’s what did it, in the end. Sending us after our own. Making us stop a riot any way we could. Pull a mother away from her child as the kid’s taken away to conscript. It didn’t sit well.

JACOS: I can imagine it didn’t.

COL. FARLEY: We had a Silver officer keeping us in check, but he liked to drink. Liked to eat. Liked life with the higher-ups at the Citadels. And so long as we showed up where we had to be, he didn’t mind what we did in the meantime.

JACOS: Blowing up bridges and killing officers.

COL. FARLEY: Right. We kept the circle small. Just my unit at first. We were all from the Hud, the north, a cold and barren place. You learn to hunt when you learn to walk up there. Sentry was with me from the beginning, and so was Crimson. He was our best contact with the Rivermen.

JACOS: The Rivermen?

COL. FARLEY: That’s what we call the ferriers and smugglers of the Disputed Lands. No one better at getting you over the border or moving along the river. We weren’t allowed to travel with weaponry, but they were good at keeping us armed when we needed to be.

JACOS: So the Command Generals code-named Sentry and Crimson were part of your unit. How did you meet the others?

COL. FARLEY: Crossed paths over the years. Most of them were doing the same thing we were. Sabotaging the Silvers without much plan beyond a week or two. It was Palace and Swan who really brought us together, gave us an objective. They knew the Silvers better than we did. Knew how they thought, how they acted. And they knew that, if we really wanted to make a difference, this had to be bigger than us.

JACOS: And it certainly is. Would you like to talk about the incident at the Hud? It’s referred to as the Drowning of the Northlands.

(Colonel Farley stares for a long time)

COL. FARLEY: No I fucking would not.



* * *



While the Disputed Lands keep a different calendar from Nortans, and the river ferrier is hardly a scholar, I can triangulate his entries to sometime after 300 NE. Based on my conversation with Colonel Farley, I suspect these Red soldiers moving along the border included himself, General Sentry, General Crimson, and the beginnings of the Scarlet Guard.



* * *



JACOS: Before Huntress, what was your code name within the Scarlet Guard?

GEN. FARLEY: I was Lamb. And my father is Ram.

JACOS: You were quite young when you joined.

GEN. FARLEY: Yes.

JACOS: And you aided your father with his missions throughout the Lakelands. Planting operatives in key positions, sabotaging Silver trade and transport, smuggling, intelligence gathering, assassinations, et cetera.

GEN. FARLEY: They were my missions as well.

JACOS: Of course. And you were hand-selected for the Nortan infiltration.

GEN. FARLEY: Yes.

JACOS: How old were you when your mother and sister died?

(General Farley does not respond)

JACOS: Would you like to talk about the incident at the Hud?

GEN. FARLEY: No I fucking would not.





* * *



FROM MILITARY RECORDS OF HORN MOUNTAIN AND THE MONTFORT DEFENSE CENTER:



* * *



Our spies in the Lakelands have reported a major event in the north, on the shores of the Bay of Hud. Based on our intelligence, several attacks and acts of sabotage throughout the kingdom have been traced to a small group based out of a remote village. The King of the Lakelands retaliated with force, and moved the waters of the bay to quite literally extinguish the first embers of rebellion. We’re still waiting on casualty counts, but preliminary reports place it in the hundreds. I’ve put in a request to send an operative to investigate properly and report back. I’m most interested in this so-called group, their organization, and their size. They seem to be well coordinated and able to move. Not to mention smart. Several have been captured but have given nothing under interrogation. It seems they operate on a need-to-know basis, very militaristic. No one knows the whole picture. Will see how they respond.