Soldier at the Door (51 page)

“That I am,” Heth said, stabbing his steak.

Chapter 17 ~ “That’s part of his

unpredictability.”

F
ifty new soldiers and their commander rode to Edge, only three days before the first Strongest Soldier race. Lieutenant Walickiah, a slender and gangly man with reddish-blonde hair and a crooked nose that had experienced too many fights, saw the southernmost tower long before they approached. He shook his head in wonder.

“He
has
been a busy bear, hasn’t he?” he murmured to himself.

“Sir,” called one of the soldiers behind him. “What
is
that?”

“Major Shin’s newest strategy to improve the security of the vi
llages. According to the High General, he calls it a tower station.”

“Well I could have guessed
that
,” said another soldier.

Walickiah smirked, but since he was at the head of the line, no soldiers could see it. “Show respect, soldiers! This is your new commander you’re referring to, and many of you will be stationed at the tops of those towers.”

“You can see for miles from that,” said a sergeant next to him, his voice full of awe as they neared. “Brilliant! Guarders will never be able to take the army by surprise again.”

“Yes,” Walickiah said ponderously. “Should be interesting to see how they deal with these obstacles.”

The soldiers’ banter picked up as they closed in on the tower, and Walickiah stopped his division so they could inspect it.

“Bit of a climb up there,” said one portly, middle-aged master sergeant, furrowing his brow. “About the height of a three or four level building, I’d guess. Think they’ll use towers everywhere in the world?”

Walickiah shrugged. “If Shin finds them successful here, and the High General agrees, I assume every village will be building these. So if you’re thinking of putting in for a transfer to somewhere less grueling, think again.”

The soldiers laughed as the sergeant turned pink. “I can get up that tower, sir! I’ll prove it right now.”

“No, you won’t,” Walickiah said.

“Yes, I will!”

“How? Jump?” He gestured to the workers over in the field assembling long poles, obviously for the ladder that was not yet installed.

The sergeant cleared his throat. “Guess I’ll have to prove my prowess at another time, Lieutenant. Now, I imagine the major is waiting for us?”

Walickiah rolled his eyes. “You knew the ladder wasn’t there yet. But I’m sure I can find you a tower that
is
ready. Onward, men. We have a new home to get to.”

---

When Walickiah arrived with his fifty that afternoon, he slipped easily into character. After Karna showed him to his new quarters, he took the captain by the arm. In a sufficiently worried manner, paling lighter than his already fair skin, he said, “Off record, Captain—what’s he like? The major?”

Karna smiled at the apprehension of the newest officer. “You’ve experienced High General Shin, right?”

Walickiah sighed. “Oh yes. And he was an
experience
. Twice my last year! He taught two courses in command. I wasn’t sure I’d survive his one-on-one final exams.”

Karna winced knowingly. “Well, I’ve seen Major Shin be as d
etermined, regimented, and fierce as the general. For the first few weeks after the Guarder attack, he was a real bear. No one in the command tower dared smile until we got his plans for securing the village finalized.”

Walickiah pulled a pained face.

“But
,” Karna added, “whereas the general can’t seem to quit, Major Shin will suddenly surprise you. He’s unpredictable. You never know what he’s going to do, or allow, or insist on next. Makes this quite an interesting assignment. You’ll never be bored. Now that we’ve got the village towers in place, he’s been a little less fierce, but still I recommend watching your step.”

“I heard he’s married, even has
two
children?” Walickiah shook his head in sympathy. “I couldn’t imagine having a Shin for a father.”

Karna laughed. “That’s part of his unpredictability. Just wait. You’ll see.”

Walickiah did see, the very next day. Early in the morning he reported for duty at the command tower and
experienced
the major. For the next fifteen minutes the major questioned, challenged, and intimidated him. Shin was most definitely a bear.

Then, abruptly, the major changed completely as he smiled, shook Walickiah’s hand warmly, and said, “Welcome to Edge! You’re going to enjoy your posting, I promise.”

It was going to take time to fully understand the major and his moods. The rest of the day Walickiah could see by their faces which of his new men had just descended from the tower. They wore looks that were a mixture of shock, worry, and outright confusion.  

That evening after the major had gone home, Walickiah and Karna sat at the large desk in the forward command office going over the records of the new soldiers. Heavy footsteps coming up the stairs startled them both.

“Captain!” a familiar voice called before it reached the top.

Walickiah stiffened in anticipation, wondering which mood was about to appear—the bear or something else.

“I know you and the lieutenant are still here,” Shin’s voice carried. “Let’s take a look at the tower station map again. I was thinking we need to redraw the lines for the granary district, and it would be good for the lieutenant to see our plans . . . what?”

As he appeared at the top of the stairs both officers were staring at him. Or rather, staring at what he was carrying.

The major beamed. “Since Peto here is fifteen moons old now, I thought it was time to show him where I go every day.”

The brown haired boy with pale gray eyes wore a small dark blue jacket in the same style as his father’s uniform. He seemed smaller than a normal child, probably because his father was much larger than a normal man.

Walickiah memorized the child’s features instantly. While his hair and eye coloring were nothing like his father’s, the shape of his face—nose, eyes, mouth, ears—was all Major Shin, in miniature.

The baby waved cheerfully at the two officers.

They felt obligated to wave back, albeit hesitantly.

The proud major grinned. “Pretty good, huh? Jaytsy couldn’t wave properly until she was a year and a half. She kept doing more of a slap. Could get rather dangerous if you were holding her in the wrong way. Of course, now at nearly two and a half she
can
wave, and also talks up a storm. Can’t understand half of it, but my wife usually can. It’ll be easier once she learns to make an ‘s’ sound. Fortunately yesterday I decoded ‘Fodder, watch—I gream!’ and covered my ears just in time. She’s going to be as loud as her mother. But Peto’s my good little boy, usually. Only has a habit of climbing everything. He made it to the top shelf of a bookshelf earlier this evening, so I decided to get him out of the house so my wife could clean it up without his help. Because as the saying goes, ‘There’s no job too tedious that can’t turn terrifying when a toddler tries to help.’ So, the map? Since I’ll be in Moorland tomorrow inspecting their new fort, I wanted to make sure we get this done tonight.”

Walickiah blinked.

Then he blinked again, trying to figure out what the monologue was about and still puzzling out the meaning of “I gream!” It was if he was staring at a completely different man. The terrifying major from the morning was replaced with this proud papa that was . . .

Well, certainly
no one
would actually apply the term to Major Shin, but if he were any other man it wouldn’t be a stretch to say he was actually
babbling
. The bear had turned into a veritable puppy dog as he spoke about his children.

That was very good to know.

Another reason, Walickiah realized later, that he was staring so hard that Karna had to elbow him three times was that he’d never seen an officer holding a child, at least not voluntarily. But Major Shin, running his fingers through his son’s thick hair to smooth it to the side, couldn’t have looked happier.

The captain retrieved the map and brought it into the major’s o
ffice, and Walickiah followed. In his office Shin leaned over the map, but his son tried to grab it.

“No, no, no Peto. Not this.
Here.” He placed the little boy on the floor. “You can have . . .”

He looked around, then picked up a message from the Admini
strators and grinned.

“You can have
this
. Nicko Mal signed it himself. You know what to do with it.”

Walickiah watched in horror as the major’s son put the official message in his mouth and tore it with his tiny teeth.

“Don’t worry, Lieutenant,” the major told him upon seeing his expression. “I know what it said. Peto’s more effective at destroying paper than my dog. And he doesn’t choke on the bits anymore, he just usually spits them out. He’s
fine.
Now, what I was thinking over here was . . .”

It took Walickiah another minute to focus on the map over the sound of disrespectful ripping underneath him. Since the major whipped between subjects so quickly, Walickiah found himself fee
ling a little light-headed. The three men pored over the map for about ten minutes, redoing station reporting territories and explaining the system to Walickiah.

Suddenly Major Shin looked up in surprise, then down at the floor. The message from Mal was scattered in wet shreds, but the boy was nowhere to be seen.

The major looked at his officers in alarm. “Uh, I think my son’s absent without permission. The stairs!” he cried and ran out of his office, with Karna right behind him.

Walickiah knew enough to join them.

There was no baby in the forward office, or going down the stairs. The major groaned.

“Need help, sir?” Karna asked.

“Yes! He could be anywhere! He knows how to do stairs,” the major called as he ran down them. “And I gave Mahrree such a hard time when she lost him at the . . .”

But they didn’t hear the rest because the major was already gone, his heavy footsteps sounding like thunder as he ran. Karna and Walickiah followed him.

At the bottom of the stairs, the large main receiving area was quiet as it usually was this time of day. Most of the soldiers were either eating dinner or getting ready for their night shifts. Major Shin stood at the main door anxiously looking out into the darkening compound. A soldier saluted as he walked past.

“Private! Did you see a little boy?”

“Today, sir?”

The major groaned again and turned around. “Karna, check the hallway to the barracks. Walickiah, go to the mess hall. I’ll look out here.”

Walickiah looked at Karna who raised his eyebrows in a ‘Get moving!’ manner. Walickiah rushed out the side door down the corridor to the mess hall, not sure what he would do with the baby if he saw it.

This was most telling, Walickiah considered. The major was nearly hysterical simply because his little boy was missing. How weak and easily panicked Shin was. He may be as large as a bear, but he was as wretched as a butterfly.

All kinds of scenarios played out in the lieutenant’s mind. He hadn’t been told specifically what to do in Edge, because he was to take advantage of any situation that presented itself. Walickiah didn’t understand why he was told his assignment would be difficult. On the contrary, it would be quite easy. So many situations were presenting themselves he would have thought it was his birthday. And if they didn’t like the results that happened with one child, there was another at his disposal.

What kinds of chances would a small child have in the forest, should it happen to get ‘lost’? That would make for a most interes
ting study . . .

And what if
two
vanished, in different parts, without a trace, and their mother was also—

Walickiah was startled out of his contemplation when he saw a strapping corporal carrying the little boy and walking towards him. The soldier appeared to be exceptionally young, but was surprising large in build. Perhaps it was the extreme innocence of his face that gave him such a youthful look.

Such a carefully
practiced
look.

“Sir,” the corporal nodded to him. “I’m assuming the major lost something?”

Walickiah slipped back into character and sighed exaggeratedly in relief. “Yes! I think he’s about to rip apart the fort.”

The corporal chuckled. “Do you want to bring him Peto, or shall I?”

Walickiah held up his hands. “I wouldn’t know how to hold him.”

The corporal smiled and continued walking down the hallway, Walickiah behind him. The young soldier seemed quite capable of holding the child. The baby started making an odd grunting noise that sounded like “Unk! Unk!” He wasn’t in the least bit upset or wailing.

Walickiah took note at how the corporal held him, so that he could copy the position.