Chapter 12 Watching

The rumours reached the yard before breakfast.

Nobody knew exactly what had happened beyond the eastern gate four nights earlier, but everyone seemed to know something. One recruit insisted Valorn scouts had crossed the border in force. Another claimed Captain Rhett had killed six men alone before returning before dawn. By the time the morning whistle sounded, the stories had become so exaggerated that Bram was openly enjoying them.

"I heard he fought twelve men," he said as they formed into ranks.

Corin adjusted the strap on his practice pack.

"Yesterday it was four."

"The story's improving."

"That's not usually how truth works."

"It should."

Corin looked across the yard.

"You're impossible."

"So I've been told."

Dane stood beside them, listening without joining in. He knew more than anyone around him, but only a little more. He had seen four scouts and a narrow escape. He hadn't seen the wider picture. Rhett hadn't explained it, and Dane hadn't asked.

He had learned that questions were only useful when someone intended to answer them.

Aldric strode into the yard, bringing the conversations to an abrupt end.

"If you've finished inventing stories," he called, "perhaps you'd like to become useful."

The yard fell silent.

Training began as it always did, but something changed before the first formation drill.

Instead of arranging the recruits into their usual companies, Aldric began moving men from one group to another.

"Bram."

Bram stepped forward.

"Third company."

Corin frowned as his own name followed.

"First company."

The friends exchanged puzzled looks before separating.

"Dane."

He looked up.

"Second company."

The groups continued shifting until almost every familiar arrangement had been broken apart.

Bram found himself beside strangers.

Corin was placed with recruits he barely recognised.

Dane stood among men from three different villages, none of whom he had trained with before.

When the reshuffling was complete, Aldric stepped back.

"You've become comfortable."

Nobody argued.

"I dislike comfortable."

A few tired smiles appeared.

"You don't fight beside the same men every day. You fight beside whoever's still standing."

He nodded once.

"Begin."

The first drill was one they all knew well.

Advance.

Hold.

Withdraw.

Repeat.

Yet almost immediately the rhythm fell apart.

Men who had trained together instinctively anticipated one another's movements.

Strangers didn't.

Small gaps appeared in the line.

Commands arrived half a heartbeat too late.

One section drifted too far forward while another hesitated.

Aldric stopped the exercise.

"Again."

They reset.

The mistakes changed.

The result did not.

From the edge of the yard, Rhett watched without speaking.

His arms were folded loosely across his chest, his expression unreadable.

To anyone else he seemed to be observing the companies.

He wasn't.

He was watching one man.

Every time Dane entered a new formation, something happened.

Not immediately.

Gradually.

The men nearest him began matching his pace.

When confusion spread, they unconsciously looked towards him.

He never gave an order.

He simply adjusted his own position, and others followed without realising they had done it.

Rhett noticed.

So did Aldric.

The drills continued throughout the morning.

Every hour Aldric changed the companies again.

By the fourth formation Dane had trained with almost sixty different recruits.

Each time the pattern repeated.

The first few minutes were uncertain.

Then the line settled.

Not because Dane spoke.

Because he observed.

He noticed the recruit drifting too wide and quietly closed the gap himself.

Another man copied the movement.

Then another.

Soon the whole formation had corrected itself.

Across the yard, Bram was having considerably less success.

"I'm over here," he called to the recruit meant to be covering his left side.

"I know."

"Then why are you over there?"

"Because Aldric put me here."

"I think he was testing us."

"I think you're standing in the wrong place."

Bram looked down.

He was.

Corin watched the exchange from another company and shook his head with quiet amusement.

At midday the recruits were given water before the afternoon exercises.

Bram appeared beside Dane almost immediately.

"You've noticed something."

"No."

"You have."

"I haven't."

"You've got your thinking face."

"I always have this face."

"No," Bram said. "Usually you have your quieter thinking face."

Dane looked at him.

"There's more than one?"

"At least three."

Corin arrived carrying his water flask.

"Leave him alone."

"I'm trying to understand him."

Corin glanced at Dane.

"So is he."

Dane almost smiled.

Almost.

The afternoon brought a different exercise.

Instead of marching as companies, the recruits were paired off and ordered to cross the obstacle field carrying supplies.

Every twenty minutes Aldric changed the pairs.

Again.

And again.

By sunset Dane had worked alongside more than a dozen different men.

He noticed something himself now.

Each new partner struggled at first.

Within minutes they became steadier.

Their breathing settled.

Their movements became cleaner.

He assumed they were simply learning the course.

He never considered that he might be part of the reason.

High above the training yard, Rhett and Aldric watched from the balcony outside the command room.

"You've changed him twelve times," Aldric said.

"Fourteen."

"And?"

Rhett kept his eyes on the yard below.

"The result's the same."

"He calms them."

"Yes."

Aldric leaned on the railing.

"He doesn't know he's doing it."

"No."

"You going to tell him?"

Rhett was quiet for a moment.

"Not yet."

"Why?"

"Because the moment he starts trying..." Rhett said, "...he'll stop doing it naturally."

Aldric nodded slowly.

He understood.

Some gifts disappeared the moment their owner became aware of them.

That evening the barracks were louder than usual.

The constant changes had left everyone comparing stories.

Bram dropped onto his cot with an exaggerated groan.

"I've decided I dislike meeting new people."

Corin looked up from polishing his boots.

"You've spent two weeks trying to meet everyone."

"I was wrong."

"What changed?"

"They're exhausting."

"You've only just realised?"

"I thought it was me."

Corin smiled faintly.

"It is."

Bram sighed dramatically.

"I liked life better when I believed everyone else was the problem."

Across the room Dane lay on his cot staring at the ceiling.

He replayed the day's exercises in his mind, trying to understand why Aldric had kept moving him.

Nothing about it made sense.

The formations had become harder, not easier.

The constant changes had prevented anyone from settling.

He eventually decided there probably wasn't a reason beyond making training more difficult.

He closed his eyes.

Across the compound, Rhett was still awake.

A sheet of paper lay open on the desk before him.

It contained nothing more than a list of names.

Beside each name was a short observation.

When he reached Dane's, he paused before writing a single line.

Others become steadier around him. He doesn't know why.

Rhett read it once, then closed the notebook.

Outside, the compound settled into silence.

Tomorrow he would begin finding out whether that quality could be taught.

Or whether some men were simply born carrying it.