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Back Bleak Seasons Save as PDF
Chapters (102)
  1. Title page
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You take after your mother. And if you dont do something about that hair pretty soon youre going to wind up in somebodys harem.

This was a side of these guys I had not seen before. But I had not spent much time loafing with them. They were not Company. I kept my mouth shut and concentrated on my cards and let them tell me about who they used to be before the wander-dust settled on their shoes and set them roving against all odds. What about you, Murgen? Swan asked after he noticed that I was winning more than my share of hands. Where did you come from?

I told them about growing up on a farm. There wasnt anything exciting about my life until I decided that farming wasnt what I wanted to do. I joined one of Ladys armies, found out I didnt like the way things were done there, deserted and joined up with the Black Company, which was the only place I could hide with the provost after me.

Mather asked, You ever regret leaving home?

Every goddamned day, Mather. Every goddamned day. It was boring raising potatoes but not one time did I ever did have a spud try to stick a knife in me. I was hardly ever hungry and almost never cold and the landlord was all right. He made sure his tenants had enough before he took his share. He didnt live much better than we did. Oh, and the only magic we ever saw was the kind your wandering conjurers perform at town fairs.

So why not go home?

Cant.

If youre careful and dont look prosperous and dont go around pissing people off you can travel almost anywhere safely. We did.

I cant go home because home aint there no more. A Rebel army came through a couple years after I left. The Company passed through later still, marching from somewhere unpleasant to somewhere where we would be unhappy. The whole country had been turned desert in the name of freedom from the tyranny of the Ladys empire.

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61

Lady sent for me after six days. I had shaken the runs and had eaten well enough to regain a few of the pounds I lost in the pen. I still looked like a refugee from hell. And I was. I was indeed.

Lady did not look good. Tired, pale, under severe pressure, apparently still fighting the sickness that had her puking the other day. She wasted no time on small talk. Im sending you back to Dejagore, Murgen. Were getting disturbing reports about Mogaba.

I nodded. I had heard some of them. Every night more rafts crossed the lake. The deserters and refugees always were astonished to learn that Shadowspinner was dead and Lady controlled his army though that was evaporating through desertion, too.