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Arkansas, spring of the forty-second year of the Kurian Order: Valentine spent the winter ent pursuit of his co about interior lines and maneuver in the face of the enemy in the classroom, he became acquainted with the idiosyncrasies of oxen and pack mules in the field He would wheedle six different calibers of a the day and construe Clausewitz at night He finished a thesis on the arguoras and Gorgias after earlier arguing about the quality of the latest barrel of flour with the de camp wives
An astute observer with a detailed memory, Valentine molded his conduct after the officers he respected He ad of every conment so well the captain would often issue just two orders in a day of march: "strike the tents" at dawn and "make camp" at dusk The company functioned as a well-tuned machine from the moment its commander hit the on switch He appreciated Lieutenant Mallow&039;s role as senior in a up on his commander&039;s orders, and copied Brostojf&039;s devotion to histheir every want If he also avoided Mallow&039;s indecisiveness in the absence of clear and specific orders fro, it showed that he could learn how not to behave, as well His men liked him and, as more, respected him for the simple reason that he showed the the Officer&039;s TrainingCollege chided hi and his shyness He avoided the boisterous weekend outings, a fixture of college life since education began, and kept quiet in class unless called on He remained silent about his experiences even with the other Wolves who dropped in occasionally as students and lecturers He grew to know the scholars of Miskatonic Hall, read so the Kurians, and listened more than he talked These traits, but especially the last, proved rare a Wolves
Still, he felt lonely and fell into the trap of pretending to prefer being alone, thus leading to further loneliness in a vicious circle of solitude that young men of a certain temperament build for themselves and then inhabit But apart fro-lieutenantelse in his life up to that point The constant challenges, physical and mental, stimulated him
Zulu Co to his studies and lack of experience, Valentine remained back at the reserve ca a squad of equally discouraged Wolves and being responsible for guarding the cue MarksWolves provided comic relief for the led a woman into an isolated tepee, he pretended not to notice By the first silent green explosion of spring, Zulu Company moved fro to active duty
"Sorry, Valentine, you&039;re staying behind again" Captain LeHavre put down his piece of chalk The slanted rays of the falling sun gave his features a warolden cast
Behind hih map of southeastern Arkansas and the Louisiana borderlands Dotted circles traced locations the other two platoons would explore on the long-range patrol consu Wolf, Brostoff and Mallow exchanged coentle Val, sir?" Brostoff asked
"His whole platoon Just because he&039;s staying doesn&039;t mean he&039;ll be unoccupied In a sense, while we&039;re out, he&039;s the first line of defense of Southern Co colu their trail, let alone sighting the, too He needs i these border far for rice, too, Valentine," Mallow said "We&039;ll all be sick of the stuff by fall"
"Beats going hungry Time was there wasn&039;t much more than trappers out here," LeHavre added "Now there are soanized, we ht count the land out to the Mississippi ours It would take a couple thousand h, and unless they provide so to happen You&039;re a good talker, Valentine Sound out a few of these locals and see if they&039;ll accept arms and ammunition for a patrol service"
Valentine and his platoon saw the other two thirds of Zulu Coards to the gators," one of Valentine&039;s platoon japed
"Leaste&039;ll be doin&039; more with our blades than whittlin&039;," countered one of thesunflower seed shells
Valentine&039;s platoon worked the lines of the ferry the co Within weeks, the river would be wadable at a nu the southern borders with the Kurian Zone now
Bloo river Valentine rode across the river with the supply mules and surveyed the campsite from the opposite bank Zulu Company&039;s tepees and tents were hidden, set well back fros sent armed patrol boats up the river, they wouldn&039;t know the Wolves were there once the raft and lines were hidden
"You ot the easy duty, but it&039;s a serious responsibility," a voice said froed frohed down by map cases, a telescope, and the coun The clouds had thickened, and the forest was a canopy of shadow
"This is a tricky corner you&039;re in, Valentine The Kurians could float up the Ouachita, raid in froarrison at Vicksburg and the barges to float the out for that kind of thing If they coiment double-quick Cause trouble for &039;e conscripts, so et cornered I&039;ve left you here for a reason, not because you&039;re the junior Fact is, another time I&039;d stay myself"
"Yes, sir Hopefully it&039;ll be a quiet summer"
A third eant Patel "Everything&039;s across, sir Scouts are out and the colueant I&039;ll be along in a moment" He turned back to Valentine
"Count on us being gone six weeks I&039;ll send you on a short patrol e get back, so you can get so to leave Brostoff out all su the rivers, but I&039;ll be back with Mallow and his platoon"
"The chickens will be fat by then, and I&039;ood-size water, and you already kno old soldiers think Take care, Mr Valentine," LeHavre said, returning Valentine&039;s salute with his usual grace "Don&039;t let anything happen to Southern Coone"
Valentine forced a confident s Wolves departing and the day fleeing, Valentine supervised the tea the ferry They floated the lines and stakes back to the caht
"There&039;s a new occupied fareant Quist reported "Will we be paying them a visit?"
"Keep the men out of the henhouse, if you value your rank, Quist You kno the captain feels about that sort of thing," Valentine said, clouding over like the sky above
"Didn&039;t mean that, sir They know better I ht foot We&039;ll be ut full of buckshot by accident He rub, too"
"I see I&039; conclusion I&039;llI&039;ll take Bozich; having a wo Michaels is the senior Aspirant now, right? I&039;ll take hione, Sergeant"
It began to rain, and Valentine walked the peri of privacy it afforded He smelled the sentries&039; tobacco s an order against s on duty, then rejected the idea The veterans knehen it was safe to sht Shelter, food, firewood, and security occupied his h the drizzle, an ear always cocked for sounds in the ca which way cooking s winds There were Grogs who could hear and smell better than the Wolves He would have to set still-watches on the river, build soe for safe storage of a in the overhead treeshis encounter with the Harpies in Weening That ood ar in the rain
The farle well-built barn, still under repair Only a foundation remained where there had once been a house The barn stood above a wet inlet from the Ouachita, and rice paddies flourished in the cleared land
Valentine led Bozich and Michaels up the path from the river Bozich had a hard face but wareant She was the most diminutive of the Valentine&039;s Wolves, but had stamina in inverse proportion to her size and carried a carbine with a telescopic sight Michaels still had pimples and wheezed sometimes, but a little asthma would not necessarily disqualify him from future service More important, he took his duties as senior Aspirant seriously
The Wolves ss It appeared that the fars were not ideal livestock for sharing accoirl in the yard scra "Mo siren A hairy face appeared at one of the los, and the Wolves stopped
"It&039;s sojers," somebody yelled Valentine&039;s ears picked up at the sound of a shotgun breech being closed
Two rizzled than the other The elder held the shotgun Valentine had heard Both wore faded rags, patched and clean but obviously pre-Kur salvage
"Y&039;all out upcountry? Co distance of the barn door
"Course they is," the armed one said "Wearin&039; skins an&039; deer-booties"
"We&039;re caht we&039;d pay a call," Valentine said, hand well away fros decided nothing interesting was going to happen and flopped on its side with a sudden motion, almost as if it had been shot Bozich and the Aspirant snickered, and the dog&039;s owners exchanged a look
"That dog beat all Goes to sleep like he&039;s droppin&039; de-yad," the unarap-toothed smile
The ice was broken, and the men called out their families Concrete Barn Farm, as the occupants styled it, consisted of two brothers, Rob and Cub Kelly Their fastreams
"We-uns think what&039;s ours is ours," Rob Kelly, the younger of the brothers, said later, as the men and their wives sat with Valentine&039;s team on the foundation of the house Perhaps it had once been a front porch
Cub nodded in agreeulations Law stopping by with empty bellies Don&039;t plant, don&039;t pitch, but want it all the same Paw took we-uns outer there"
Bozich opened her mouth, but Valentine shook his head
"You&039;re on your on here, that&039;s for sure Lonely country, though, should the others cohtened her er Kelly said "We-uns too small fer them to bother with We-uns jes&039; tell Steiner and his Beasts if&039;n anythin&039; dangerous shows up"
"Who&039;s this Steiner?"
"His-uns got a few places in country Half day&039;s hard walk"
"I&039;ve got a box of shells for that twelve-gauge if one of your sons will take me to him Looks like you could use soht be able to find some"
Cub Kelly looked suspicious Of course Valentine had seen only two expressions on his face, suspicious and taciturn He made up his ot a deal, sojer-man"
Cub Kelly&039;s scarecrow-lean, half-naked son Patrick spoke as little as his father All tan skin and searching eyes, he guided Valentine through a series of swa of rocks the whole way Valentine watched the youth kill a watchful hawk atop an old utility pole He retrieved the li, "Sumpin&039; fer the boilin&039; pot"
Bozich whistled at the sight of the Steiner place A cluster of buildings sat on a mound in the center of ood repair, with aluminum-covered roofs surrounded by walls, and the walls in turn surrounded by a wide moat
The Wolves observed it fro the end of the trail and the beginning of the paddies A small cemetery filled the hill, neat little crosses in rows, interspersed with rock cairns So the usual tale of high infantnext to cross after cross with died in childbed burned into the wood After a moment&039;s study of the co
"Have you heard about this?" he asked Bozich
"We knew there were so plantations out here, but this beats all These aren&039;t border squatters-this is years of work, sir"
"Wonder how you get in? Drawbridge?" Valentine said
"A boat on a line, sojer," Master Kelly said
"Thanks, son You can take your hawk ho, we&039;re always ready to trade"
"Sure, sojer," the boy said, tying his sling around the legs of the hawk and trotting back into the brush
"There&039;s the boat," Michaels said "Under where the wall goes down to the water"
Valentine surveyed the walls with his binoculars The stone for theether with no small skill He saw another head, binoculars held to the eyes, staring back at hi ti"
The three Wolves zigzagged across the earthen dikes separating the rice fields It occurred to Valentine that anyone attacking the compound would have to take a circuitous route to rush the walls if they did not want to flounder through the mud
"Think these folks&039;ll feed us?" Bozich asked "The Kellys weren&039;t too hospitable"
"We&039;ll learn soon enough," Valentine said "Michaels, you stay outside of rifle range There&039;s a funny smell to this place"
Bozich sniffed the air "Ss I hope, Mr Valentine Really clean ones?"
"Ss to ht But be ready for anything If night comes, Michaels, and you don&039;t hear fro, you skedaddle Understand?"
"Yes, sir I&039;ll bring help"
"You&039;ll tell Quist to alert Southern Cos barked as they approached, not just the yips ofof hounds A man appeared at the wall He looked at theers Whatever you&039;re selling, we don&039;t need any"