I am Skaree, Kemes warrior and currently swordmaster and quartermaster of the Red Brigade. My good and gentle friend Broudzos died last night after having struggled to dictate to me the speech that I tried to set down as he wanted it said rather than as his mouth would permit him to express it. I am not a scholar or a priest and I don't think I will be making many entries in this journal but Broudzos' last request to me was that I make sure the history of the brigade is recorded and I promised him that I would.
We are in Cantik now and for what it is worth our deeds at the Twin Cities have guaranteed us immortality of a sort. We've become a byword for steadfastness in battle and sergeants the world over now shout at the recruits to "Fight like the Red Brigade on the plains of Makanan. I'm sure that noble brats the world over are also being taught never to hire us for we'll end up burning your cities and raping your cattle and all that sort of thing. At least it has had the practical upshot that we're not short of work up here- the merchants are falling over themselves to employ the famous soldiers to guard their petty little hoardings!
Believe it or not we are once more the scourge of the pirates as well, though how we've managed that with two leaky boats and precious few arrows is beyond me. We've only been on the one damned sea voyage since we landed at Cantik!
Anyway, poor Broudzos never did get around to telling you about the officers of the company in the aftermath of the \Plains of Makanan and it seems to be traditional to keep track of these things for some reason so here goes. Morfazo is our captain although he's really a jumped up sergeant and everybody knows it including him. Sadly we've got no real senior officer material left and I'm buggered if I'm taking the job (or the lieutenant's either in case you're thinking of it, Morfazo, you low-down worm). Tefra is the sergeant because she's got a really penetrating voice, I'm not supposed to get shouted at because I'm the swordmaster but Tefra doesn't seem to make distinctions. (You should hear how much contempt she can pack into the word "Ma'am" or Sir). I'm the quartermaster which is now quite a lot of work as well as being the sword-master. Treada has agreed to act as the chaplain although he is only a lay priest. Rekor is still the sorceror although he's muttering about retiring and has got a stroppy green recruit called Vreeo under his thumb as a trainee. I'm glad I'm just a grunt- some of the revolting gunk that Vreeo has to sweep out of Rekor's fetid labs make me shudder.
Anyway, the brigade is surprisingly at decent strength despite the heavy losses in the battle. We took on quite a few people in the aftermath of the Twin Cities- a few are probably disaffected troublemakers but most seem genuinely impressed by the way we handled ourselves and seem to take this oath and brotherhood bit almost as seriously as Broudzos did. (He went a bit weird about it sometimes if you ask me- three fingered men and pinnacles and stuff didn't do us much good when the shitstorm came down outside Kemih did it?)
Somehow I've got to whip these wimps into some sort of brigade order in the next few weeks because like I said the vultures can't wait to hire the infamous Red Brigade and we've got more offers than we can possibly fulfil. I wonder if obscurity was safer? I don't like this writing business much, I'm too busy because I've got to sort out that new order of uniforms as well as the new shipment of sabres that are due in today but I did promise. Don't know the date, sorry,
We've been kicking some serious pirate arse for the last year or so. We've killed hundreds of the little bastards and there was never a sorrier bunch of scum who deserved it more. Main trouble is that they seem to be running out and that might just leave us out of a job. If I was a cunning politician I'd probably go and burn down a few villages and drive the people to piracy just so I could go on fighting them but I think that's probably a bit extreme just to keep us in a job and I'm sure Broudzos is frowning on me from wherever you go when you die so I'd better be sensible.
We're not quite the talk of the town any more and the commissions are not quite so plentiful as when we were the great sensation but we're doing alright. We've even taken on some more recruits, a few from down South but mostly from the Twin Cities. Funny considering it was us that burnt their homes down but who can understand how anyone else thinks except when they‘ve got a sword in their hands?
I know I promised but i can't think of anything else to write. I know, I didn't promise to write it all myself. I'll get someone else to write the next one but |I think I'll wait until there's something important to write down or something. Maybe Tefra will write it, she's much cleverer than she looks.
Comments or Questions to:Hywel Phillips