The Broken Isles (Legends of the Red Sun 4) Read Free

used to people’s reaction. He was an albino and his eyes were the colour of the sun.
He was lean, with day-old stubble and a few inches of silvery white hair. His coal-black uniform, without armour, was immaculately clean and a sabre hung by his side. ‘I’m sorry,
commander,’ Beale spluttered. ‘I swear I didn’t hear a thing. In fact, I haven’t for days. And I don’t drink on the job – honestly. Well, just enough to keep
warm, sir, since I’m not getting much exercise.’
    Brynd reached down, sniffed the flask, then screwed the cap back on before tossing it back to Beale. ‘A waste of good vodka.’ He looked around the forest, before staring intently at
her. ‘So you say you’ve seen nothing at all, sergeant?’
    ‘No, sir.’ Beale looked scruffy after five days in the mud and snow with little access to clean water. ‘A garuda whizzed by during yesterday afternoon, and I’ve circuited
this part of the forest every hour, but all I’ve located is some ruins, sir.’
    Brynd strode casually over to her shelter and tapped the rope holding it between the trees. ‘That’s good work, putting this together. It’s held up well enough considering
there’s little canopy cover.’
    Beale said nothing, simply nodded.
    Brynd continued to assess his surroundings, each individual trunk, clearings, the skeletal tree line, as if hoping to discern something. ‘Five days and absolutely nothing, you
say?’
    ‘No, sir.’
    ‘Good,’ he replied mysteriously.
    She frowned. ‘Does this mean that I am to be relieved, sir?’
    ‘No,’ he replied. ‘Not yet. A small unit of soldiers will be arriving within the hour with . . . someone who might cause alarm upon first sight.’
    ‘I’ve heard of a giant in the ranks,’ Beale offered.
    ‘She’s not that big, if that’s what you’re thinking, but yes, it’s her. What you may or may not see is to remain strictly within this forest, do you
understand?’
    Beale gave a quick nod, and that was that.
    ‘How is the rebuilding of Villiren?’ she enquired.
    Brynd once again scrutinized their surroundings, like a paranoid man. ‘It has begun, but you’re better off out here.’ He indicated the wilderness. ‘This is where the real
world is to be found, with trees and earth, not searching the veiled comments of businessmen for a kernel of truth.’
    Brynd reached into his pocket, then unfolded a map, his breath clouding in the late afternoon chill. The sun was sliding over the horizon; the sky turning to the colour of dried blood.
    ‘Do you, uh, have any duties you require of me, commander?’ Beale asked, impatient and nervous in his presence.
    ‘Do you mean,’ he replied light-heartedly, ‘what am I, the commander of your army, still doing here so late in the day?’
    ‘I wouldn’t presume—’
    ‘It would be a fair question,’ Brynd said. ‘This is an issue of utmost secrecy and I can trust few people these days. However, a better question would have been why you were sent here in the first place.’
    Beale remained silently annoyed with herself.
    ‘It’s all right – you just take orders and get on with it, I know. There’s a lot to be said for soldiers like you, and that spirit will get you far in the
army.’
    Beale nodded.
    ‘In an hour’s time, about fifty soldiers will descend on this woodland. They’ll take the main track through to those ruins you mentioned.’
    ‘Sir.’
    ‘You’ll say nothing about what you may witness, nothing about what occurs here.’
    ‘Indeed, sir. Though . . . what will be occurring, so I know not to look?’
    ‘You can look,’ he said, ‘though I’m not entirely sure what to expect myself.’
    ‘Bleak times,’ Beale said.
    ‘You don’t know the half of it. Were you there in Villiren from the start?’
    ‘I’m afraid to say I was.’
    ‘You’re a brave woman.’
    ‘Lucky, I’d say,’ Beale added.
    ‘Lucky?’ Brynd gave a short laugh that emitted a cloud of his breath. Beale visibly