"Mickey Zucker Reichert - Flanking Maneuver" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reichert Mickey Zucker)

Flanking Maneuver
Mickey Zucker Reichert
Mickey Zucker Reichert is a pediatrician whose fantasy and science fiction novels include The
Legend of Nightfall, The Bifrost Guardians series, The Last of the Renshai trilogy, The Renshai
Chronicles trilogy, Flightless Falcon, The Beasts of Barakhai, The Lost Dragons of Barakhai, and The
Unknown Soldier, all available from DAW Books. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous
anthologies, including Assassin Fantastic, Knight Fantastic, and Vengeance Fantastic. Her claims to
fame: she has performed brain surgery, and her parents really are rocket scientists.

AN icy breeze glided through the woods, rattling the branches of the tightly packed aldona trees
and sending the dying weeds into a strange, bowing dance. Dressed in homespun worn into rags, Umbert
shivered and tried to focus on the words of his commander. The sweet spices of his fourteenth birthday
bread were still haunting his tongue when the army demanded his apprenticeship a full year before the
one prearranged with the blacksmith. The same naturally muscular thighs and upper arms that had
attracted Horton Blacksmith had drawn the attention of the troop's commander as well, and the drafting
age had drifted downward through the years.
Umbert ran a hand through his thick black hair, glancing around at the other Arsie soldiers. None
had uniforms, and many wore clothing as tattered as his own. Though dozens strong, the unit bore little
resemblance to the proud ranks he thought he remembered from his childhood, marching off to war in
rigid lines with spear points gleaming and songs of victory wafting to the heavens. He wondered whether
the innocence and relative smallness of youth had only made things seem so much huger, so much more
glamorous than reality.
The commander stopped speaking, and the men broke off into groups. Umbert remained in place,
feeling empty and chilled, realizing he had missed most of the instructions. The youngest by at least three
years, he felt out of place, confused, and uncertain. The soldiers knew one another like brothers, had
risked their lives together and rescued each other with desperately grim matter-of-factness. He was the
newcomer, untried and untrained, dragged into a part of something too enormous for him to understand
and desperately wishing for a different life for himself. He did not want to kill, did not seek the excitement
of worrying for his own life or others, saw no future here.
The clusters of soldiers prepared themselves and their weapons, built fires, and shared their scant
but welcome evening meal. The tribe had become urgently small, yet Umbert knew very few of these
warriors. His world consisted of men and women too old, too wounded, or too feeble to fight, children,
and the captured Hurrdu females who helped bear the tribe's babies, including his own mother.
An older man with ivory skin and a shock of white hair gestured at Umbert, and he gratefully
accepted the invitation. The boy trotted over to where the man sat cross-legged in front of a cheery,
orange campfire. "Hello," he said, motioning for Umbert to sit. "My name is Oslan."
Umbert sat. "I'm Umbert. This is my first day."
Oslan smiled kindly. "I know. We all know the new recruits."
Umbert nodded, gaze straying to the fire. They all might know, but none of the others had made the
effort to acknowledge his presence in any way.
As if reading Umbert's mind, Oslan responded to the thought. "Everyone's afraid to get too close to
the new guy, especially one as young as you. The inexperienced don't tend to last long. They'll get a lot
friendlier once you've proved yourself."
Umbert did not understand. He rolled his gaze to Oslan's blue eyes. "Proved myself what?"
"Competent. Reliable." Oslan poked a stick into the fire and rolled something from the ashes. "A
survivor."
Umbert shivered. "What if I'm none of those?"
 Oslan replied without emotion. "Then you won't last long, and there's no reason to get to know
you." Attention still locked on the campfire, he explained further. "It's dangerous to associate with new
recruits. They make more mistakes, and in war, mistakes are fatal. You freeze up, it might mean the