03 - Call to Arms by Mitchel Scanlon - (ebook by Undead)

above himself.”
    Krug took a step forward. He stared at Dieter menacingly.
    “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stand off—right now. I was in the
army when you were still sucking greedy at your bitch-mother’s teat. You don’t
want to make me an enemy, boy.”
    “I killed at least six beastmen yesterday,” Dieter told him. “Not one of them
was as ugly as you are. They smelled better, too.”
    Without realising it, he had swapped his sword over to his right hand. Now,
he saw Krug unsheath his own sword.
    “I warned you, boy,” Krug said. “Looks like I’ll have to teach you a lesson.”
    Seeing Krug take up a fighting stance, Dieter went into his own stance. Some
small part of him said he had let things spiral out of control. He had been a
Scarlet for barely a day, yet he was about to fight one of his fellow soldiers.
Part of his mind told him he should withdraw, report the matter to Sergeant
Bohlen and let military justice deal with Krug and Febel for their looting.
Still, pride would not let him back down.
    Febel had retreated to the side of the hut, but Dieter knew he should keep an
eye on him. He didn’t trust Febel not to stab him in the back while he was
dealing with Krug.
    Krug took another step forward. Already, matters had gone too far for a
peaceful solution. There would be blood.
    Suddenly, Dieter heard a low, mournful sound from out in the forest. He
recognised it at once.
    It was clear Krug and Febel had recognised it as well. Embarrassed, Krug
lowered his sword. For a moment they stood in silence, listening to the sound,
trying to work out its direction.
    It was the sound of a hunting horn—the one Captain Harkner carried with
him. It was a prearranged signal, a call to arms.
    Somewhere, out in the mists, the Scarlets had met the enemy.

 
 
CHAPTER FOUR
RISING SUN
     
     
    “The horn,” Febel said as the last notes of it died. “The others are in
trouble.”
    Their conflict abruptly put aside, the three men rushed to the door of the
hut and pushed outside.
    “Don’t think I’ve forgiven you, Lanz,” Krug said as they stood in front of
the hut and attempted to find their bearings. “We will settle things later, you
and I.”
    “You can count on it,” Dieter replied. “Now, shut up. I’m trying to
listen.”
    The horn sounded again. Its tone seemed eerie in the haze. Listening to its
elongated, keening cry, Dieter was reminded of one of the tales Helmut Schau had
told him as a child. It was said the daemons of the Ruinous Powers sometimes
hunted in the forests, driving a pack of monstrous hounds before them. Dieter
was not sure whether he believed the tale, but he suspected the horn used by the
huntmaster of the damned when he summoned his hounds sounded something like the
noise they could hear in the mists. He suppressed a shiver.
    “It’s coming from over there,” Febel said, pointing in an approximate
direction.
    Hurrying as fast as was possible given the conditions, the three men raced
off in the direction of the sound. As he ran with the others, Dieter was careful
to keep his senses sharp. The fog was so thick, it would be all too easy to
blunder directly into the enemy.
    For a second, Dieter wondered whether the mist was entirely natural in
character. He had heard the shamans and sorcerers of the Empire’s enemies were
capable of every manner of trick: spells that could conjure storms, plagues of
insects, pestilences and other miseries. Surely an impenetrable wall of fog, to
better be able to ambush their human opponents, would not be beyond them?
    As swiftly as the idea occurred to Dieter, he rejected it. He told himself
the haze around them was simply a natural phenomenon, typical of the season. It
was an early morning mist, nothing more.
    Suddenly, three brutish shapes reared up out of the mists. Catching sight of
them just in time, Krug and Febel raised their shields and made ready to meet
their new opponents. Falling in beside them,