I am Ipar of Safir. I joined the Exiled Red Brigade some five years ago and have recently been promoted to the office of Quartermaster by Trehatos, our new Captain. Tefra is now the lieutenant and is is she was has asked me to continue to write the history of our brotherhood as tradition states that the journals must not be kept by the captain or lieutenant. Montelo is our new sergeant and doesn't seem big enough to fill Tefra's boots- but perhaps his voice will grow. Vreeo remains as our sorceror, Treada as chaplain and Skaree as swordmistress though she keeps muttering about retiring. Having read through the whole of the journals I am not at all surprised: she has been with us over twenty years.
It is the Twelfth day of the Second moon of the reign of King Mapas of Galadiahos (I think- the news came in on the boats this morning that Queen Evnia had died abut a moon and a half ago, so I am guessing that the date is right). In any case it is the high Holy day of Ohros the Pale today, the dark of the moon of midwinter. Even though the majority of our brothers are actually from the North these days, pretty much everyone attended the sacrifice to Ohros today- the oath requires it and I think we all ought to learn about where the company came from. I read out some passages from previous journals after the sacrifice and many of the members who joined at the same time as me were fascinated! I think I should try to keep the traditions and ways of the old brigade alive even if we are in far wilderness. I would like to see the South one day, it sounds so exotic and strange. I can hardly imagine how it must be to ride a Kaval on the dusty plains to the far south of Stavrotos or to attend a prayer in the cold marble halls of Galadiahos!
I am already fed up with being quartermaster. I don't quite know why I was given that job, I suspect it is something that is supposed to be good for my development as a soldier or something like that. Tefra always yells at me for daydreaming and says that if only I could keep my mind on things I could be a great soldier. Perhaps dealing with the inventories of silver buttons and red thread is supposed to make me more attentive when I get to do something more exciting like lead a patrol or duel Skaree. (Even Tefra and Skaree admits that I have considerable talent as a swordsman). At the present time we are in the service of various drab and rather grubby merchants in the city of Perak at the end of the civilized stretch of the Sungai Baik. It is fairly grubby employ- there are a few river pirates around, but dealing with frightened rabble who have turned to theft isn't quite the same as battling the sorceror-king in the ruins of a mysterious island, is it? I think many of us are sad to have left the marine life behind. I know I am, even though the long stretches sailing along the coast looking for pirate ships could been very boring. One of the reasons I joined the company originally is that I was sick of following the caravans and river boats down from Safir to Cantik and the sea and wanted to see more of the world. Now I find myself even further up the trail from Safir, which although is a new bit of the world isn't exactly what I was planning on exploring. Still, looking at our history we have been to plenty of places so hopefully we will move on somewhere exciting before too long.
One constant peril that enlivens our routine patrols are clashes with the giant wasps. Company doctrine is to hide underneath your shield, but if you do that you are giving in and that can never be a winning strategy. I think it is better to stand up and fight- if you lean to the left when they come in, it seems to fool them and you can throw a quick horizontal cut towards their stingers which they aren't used to defending, and so long as your cut is really horizontal and your wrist is fairly straight, you will be able to sever the stinger entirely. A giant stingless wasp isn't so much of a threat to anyone, is it?
Captain Trehatos seems to have some long-term plan for us, judging by the sorts of stuff he has told me to acquire for our stores. I can understand weapons and armour, but why do we need to by metakeenos? We are warriors, not farmers, by Soulatsoro's long moustache! And as for all this stuff about picks and shovels and ropes I hope he isn't trying to turn us into labourers! I don't mind shifting the odd barrel but surely if we have got the money we can hire other people to do that for us?
Anyway, Trehatos is fairly close-mouthed (at least to us- I think he talks to his pet trees quite a lot) so we'll just have to wait and see what he has in store for us. It is almost six moons since I last write in this diary. Our lives have been damned boring, and mine in particularly has centered around the amazingly dull matters of grain rations and a six-month-long quest... to discover how to preserve metakeenos meat after it has been cooked.
I won't bore you with the details.
Some of the brigade have had some exciting times on missions. A few merchants want to trade even further up the Sungai Baik with tribes that can barely be described as barbarian they are so backwards and their personal habits would make you wince although I think Tefra exaggerates some of the things they do. (I hope so anyway). There are even tribes of primitive svika up there apparently, which I'd like to see, and maybe even challenge one to a duel although Tefra says that they don't duel for fun. I'm sure there must be one or two of them who duel for fun, surely?
There are lots of beasts up there too, an even a group of a dozen isn't safe from a charging Kejang! Even though it is colder up there in the mountains there are lots of strange snakes and scorpions and things. They all tease me with other stories so I don't think I'll set down too much more until I've seen them for myself. The two-headed women sound like one of hajat's fish stories to me, especially as I hear he's been boasting that they had two of something else too.
The whipweeds are quite nasty though, I've even seen some. It is all kind of springy and like a mantrap and if you put your foot in the wrong place it'll grab hold and won't let you go. The thorns are really sharp and if you're not careful they can sever the lower leg. That happened to Rasa, which is how I know. He's got a wooden leg now. Uck. The plants drink your blood apparently.
Well, we've finally found out what Trehatos' great plan is. It is the Third day of the second moon of the third year of King Mapas of Galadiahos (who sounds like he's a tyrant so I'm glad we aren't going down south just yet even though I would like to see the great palace where the brigade was first exiled and stand where the great thracie did when the god came down and slew the evil king and prince).
The master plan is that Trehatos has got a cartel of the major merchant houses in Perak principally backed by Dimana who is called Mendabung because he files his teeth to points for some reason I can't fathom, Pesero, Karangan and Cetakan to pay us to go on a major mission of exploration in the Northern Sungai Baik. This means we get to be our own men, wander and explore and see if we can't find the great treasure stores that legend says lies in the mountains at the head of the Sungai Baik.
I'm glad we are finally going to go from Perak. I've had enough of packing winter hides and looking after wagons- maybe in the wilderness I'll get to kill a Kejang or two and have the horns made into daggers like Omong has got.
The whole company is moving out- two hundred and fifty of us, plus about twenty-five non-combatant servants which is a lot less that we have travelled with before although I can see that we don't want to have to feed useless mouths. It does mean that everyone gets to be a carpenter and a labourer and a metakeenos herder as well as a soldier but I suppose I can put up with that since I've hardly been on a mission in the last year.
I think Trehatos probably has some extra information about what lies up ahead but he's not telling.
I am sorry I have not written anything in a while. We have been in the wilderness north of Perak for over a year now and as Quartermaster I have had my hands absolutely full trying to keep the company alive, healthy and on the road. The officers might have to keep the men from killing themselves in battle but I'm the one who has to make sure we don't all starve or get killed by the shits. We've lost about thirty men since we set off, and half of them have been to the shits. Salt seems to help, if you can find it, as does boiling the water before drinking it. Some of the men like drinking animal's blood as well, but they tend to come down with worms and other diseases so I'd recommend you only do that if you have to. It will keep you alive though, and might even help with the shits sometimes.
The wilderness is a pretty dangerous place and I take back what I said about the wasps before. It might be OK when you're facing six of them but when you're facing a hundred it is just too risky. The Kemes can just about cope but even then it isn't too sure a thing.We only have the one Kemes now, I never said that Skaree decided not to follow us into the wilderness, she left us just before we departed. Sheeda is the new swordmistress now, she's a bit younger and an awful lot quicker than Skaree was- I've only beaten her twice. (For some reason Skaree could always beat her, and beat Skaree many times).
We've run into all sorts of other problems- vipers are pretty bad, and even worse are cobras which spit poison into your eyes. Apparently everyone was surprised to find so many of them around here as they associated them with the Southern heat. It is pretty dry though so maybe the reason there aren't so many around the coast is that it is too wet for them there.
There are lots of strange ruins about as well, but we tend to avoid taking the whole company near those. Trehatos seems to have some way of knowing which ones are worth looking at, and we have made a decent haul of loot but haven't found the big score that we are supposedly looking for. We've had to fight some pretty strange demons in the ruins, like the one with a dozen eyes that made a horrible keening noise like a wounded kedros and rupture the eardrums of about ten of the brothers. The closest, Korek, was so badly hurt that he bled through his ears and eyes and mouth and died the next day. Yuch. We're running. Lost a few of my pages I think but I think the old volumes are intact- I'm so glad I gave them to Sheeda to protect before we got back. I had this bad feeling. Hide these journals well and a keep a copy somewhere safe.
It is the thirteenth day of the seventh moon of the seventh year of King Mapas the Butcher of Galadiahos. We found our hidden treasure but it didn't do us any good because Dimana ambushed us on our way back to Perak and stole it all. Damned near killed us all too. There are only seventy-five left of the hundred and eight that came out of th wilderness.
I think there was a curse on that treasure.
I think Trehatos knew there was.
I haven't told anyone else that.
We're fleeing, licking our wounds. No-one escaped unscathed. Dimana's spend his time productively while we away all those years, spreading stories about how we boil children and worship devils. There's no-one will sell us anything, we have to steal for food. Perak is certainly closed to us and I think Safir is as well. I hope my mother doesn't think this of me too. funny, I haven't thought about them in years even when we went past. I don't want to die with my family thinking I'm a child murder. We're badly split up and I don't know that we'll ever all get back together again.
Tefra seems extremely grim, even for her. I think she and Vreeo might have some inkling that Trehatos has been following certain ideas of his own and I think they might have caught on that there might have been a curse.
I know there was, really. I was there when Trehatos picked up that silver globe with the strange patterns on it, I heard the whispers of dark gods from behind that strange gate in the ruins that didn't lead anywhere.
Comments and suggestions to:
Hywel Phillips:H.T.Phillips@rl.ac.uk