[Spring: The Year of Our Lords, 3964] 1 'The Seventh is the Fool, the Innocent.' - The Book of the World, ch.2, v.47. Command was situated in a school on the outskirts of the town and Bligh had to repeat his story several times before coming to wait in a deserted corridor. Eventually a door opened and Merc Domenech gestured for him to enter his small office. "We've met before," said Domenech. "On the plain. When I was in command of the 12th. You brought supplies." Now Bligh recalled his earlier feeling that his fate was somehow linked to that of Domenech. "I'm surprised you remember," he said defensively. "I was sick for three days afterwards." He felt uncomfortable under Domenech's scrutiny. He looked about the room and saw UPP posters on the walls. One, presumably for the illiterate, showed the Queen's Citadel burning, with drifts of black smoke taking the shape of the icons of the six Lords Elemental. Another urged the workers to unite in a holy cleansing of their nation. "We could find a place for you here at Command," said Domenech, surprising Bligh. "You would have to join the UPP, of course, but that could be arranged." Bligh felt suddenly angry. "I'm LA," he said. "I came for support by nightfall." Domenech shrugged. "That's all being arranged. The Landworkers' Alliance are no longer in favour," he continued. "They are seen as inefficient - this fragmentation of Cooperatives and Syndicates runs counter to the revolutionary current. The UPP is growing and before too long the LA will be integrated. Our seers have mapped it all out, you see. The only way to victory is through unification of forces - it is the only solution." "And where does all this come into it?" Bligh swept his hand to indicate the posters and the stacks of news-sheets. Domenech tipped his head to one side and fixed Bligh with a predator's stare. "Religion is a means of unification," he said. "It soothes the necessary pain, it inspires the necessary sacrifices, it convinces those who doubt." Bligh looked away, still reluctant to argue with an officer. "Belief is for the individual," said Domenech. "And who is to say that there is no truth in such an interpretation of the class struggle? Perhaps I am merely a tool of the Lords ... perhaps they speak through me." Bligh suppressed a shudder. Domenech was smiling as if at a joke, but his expression bore the look of a well-practised mask. With a heavy sense of sadness, Bligh wondered exactly what this revolution was becoming and whether he even had a place in it any more. "Now," said Domenech. "To the matter of reinforcements ... " As runner, he guided the advance Section of thirty UPP militia men along the road to Pigeon Ravine. Despite hurrying, it was still dark by the time they arrived. They bunched up at the bottleneck as Bligh explained the position to the officer in charge. When they arrived tonight the defences would be almost back to full strength and by morning the rest of the 182nd Company of the UPP would come to relieve what remained of the 34th LAs. They were as quiet as possible, but the passage of thirty men at night can never be completely silent. As they followed the road down past the crag and along the fringe of no-man's land, Bligh heard an indistinct 'phut' from nearby and seconds later a crimson flare lit up the valley. The Army must have posted listeners near to the road, knowing reinforcements would have to come this way. A distant thud was followed by the metal crash of a mortar bomb going off nearby. The reinforcements scattered as another landed in their midst and a clatter of rifles rose up. Bligh hit the ground and instantly his gun was at his shoulder and he let off two shots at where he thought the listeners might be concealed. Then, as the flare began to fade, he leapt to his feet and ran. The rough ground of the valley bottom was treacherous in the dark, but it would be safer than the road at the moment. In this respect he was fortunate, as the UPP soldiers would have to stick to the track, not knowing the territory. Another flare went up and the firing, which had abated slightly, came again with renewed vigour. Bligh ducked but continued to run. It was no good firing back: the Army were dug in and Bligh was exposed. All he could do was flee. It seemed to take forever, but it could only have been a minute or so before he was back on the road, slowing to a jog as it rose out of the valley. A group of soldiers was waiting a short distance up the road, hiding behind a cluster of boulders, not aware that they were safely out of range. "It's okay up here," said Bligh, struggling for breath. "How many are missing?" They waited for as long as they dared but when there were still seven men missing they assumed the worst. Gloomily, they continued on their way. They knew by the sound of gunfire when they were near to the LA sector. The Army must have signalled up the Line that reinforcements had passed through the bottleneck and their colleagues were attacking before they could get established. They spread out in the rough ground near the trench and directed their fire into no-man's land. Once, a bullet whistled off the rocks Bligh was using for cover and he feared someone had located him by his muzzle flash, but the shot was not repeated. Eventually, the fighting abated and with a weary sense of victory, Bligh led his reinforcements down into the trench and handed Domenech's orders over to Captain Elliam. As the rest of the 182nd Company of the UPP arrived in the early hours the survivors of the 34th LAs were told that their Company was to be broken up. After the fighting, Bligh's Guard of ten had been reduced to himself, Bernie Rayner, Wink Hawley, Sandy Brigg and Oori Campion. Along with three survivors of another Guard they were to be drafted in to reinforce the 16th LAs on the plain. "What do they do?" asked Wink. "Are they at the Front?" "I don't know," said Rayner. "Don't even have a precise location for them ... " A fine, dry snow hung in the air as they marched out and Bligh found breathing painful because of the cold. "I will not be missing this," said Sandy Brigg, waving a hand at the darkness. Bligh was not so certain. As the road fell away from the Ephedreal Hills, he began to feel exposed and vulnerable. He searched the dawn greyness to either side but could see no farther than a few yards. The snow had turned to a thick misty rain, and the road was topped with several inches of slippery mud. Before long his damp clothes began to chafe on his skin. At a junction, Rayner halted his seven men and they watched as the rest of the Company took the fork towards Comeras. Bligh thought of Madeleine and her little room and wished he was going with them. He had no more stomach for this war. The road they followed instead was a muddy track, wheel-ruts incised deeply into its soft surface, obscured pot-holes a frequent cause of cursing. Eventually, Rayner called them to a halt and suggested that they take shelter in a ruined barn that loomed darkly at the roadside. They waited until full daylight, with water dripping all around and the smell of damp faeces in their noses. The rain had stopped now and they emerged to the wet-earth smell of early Spring. Bligh looked around and saw fields with self-seeded corn sprouting inches high from the mud, a clump of cherry trees breaking into flower, tiny violets growing from the walls of the barn. Some kind of magpie was chattering from the cherry trees, sounding like a child's imitation of a machine gun. They marched in their ragged manner for three hours, stopping to question suppliers and a Land Party runner of the whereabouts of the 16th LAs. Eventually they were lucky. "The 16th?" said a tall Traian, at the head of a party of suppliers returning from the Line. "That's us." The 16th were covering the supplies runs for much of the Comeran Plain. Their base was an old farmhouse, complete with roof, window shutters, doors, floorboards. It seemed to Bligh to be slightly corrupt to have such comfortable accommodation so close to the Front. Their commander, Captain Ivoro, knew nothing of his reinforcements. "The orders were hurried," explained Rayner. "Our Company suffered heavy losses at Pigeon Ravine and we've been redeployed." "Pigeon Ravine, eh? I heard about that. You'd better settle yourselves then. You'll spread the load, I suppose." He grinned, suddenly. "I've even got a job for you tonight: you can take our lunatic back to Comeras and dump him on the healers at Command." Later, Bligh went to mix with his new Co...
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