Chapitre Dix-Neuf

Chanson des Soldats

Magnus

"My dear marquis-"

"Magnus, Gilles," said the young marquis. "Those who have not bled with me will call me Marquis Forbin, but you will always call me Magnus."

"If that's what you wish..."

Magnus sat in the living room of his late father's mansion with twenty of his fellow soldiers. Each of them were reclined on settees and sofas, each with a mug of beer or a glass of whiskey in his hand. The room was dark, illuminated only by the fire under the hearth.

"And, if you don't mind," Magnus said, "I would like to speak for the time being."

"Of course, brother."

All of them leaned forward, waiting for his word. Each knew that he'd recently lost both his brother and his father, and had even spent time in prison on suspicion of treason.

"You all knew my father, Marquis Maxemilien Forbin," said Magnus, gesturing to his portrait on the wall. "I don't think there's a man here who didn't know him personally, and love him like a father."

"It's true." Gilles patted Magnus on the shoulder. "Your father was a great man. A brilliant commander too."

"I always imagined..." Lamont, another of the soldiers, began, "That when Marquis Forbin died it would be a soldier's death, right beside us on the battlefield."

Another of the soldiers smacked Lamont on the back of the head. "Real sensitive there! Magnus just lost his father, idiot!"

"It's alright." Magnus raised his hands to calm them. "It's a fair point, actually, that you bring up the way he died. The servants told me he choked on his dinner. Obviously, we all know that's connerie."

"No doubt," said Gilles, downing another shot.

Lamont sneered. "Some rival nobleman sent his left hand to do the deed, I'm sure."

"Yes," said Magnus. "And it's no mystery which one. I'm certain that Duke Lucien Renart is the lord responsible. The son of the same man who accused me of cavorting with a barbarian whore so I'd be thrown into prison."

Gilles raised his hand. "Hold on... hold on... didn't you say he wrote a letter to the judge explaining that was a misunderstanding?"

"Yes," said Magnus, clenching his fists. "Which means he did it purely to humiliate me! You can't trust these blue-blooded aristocrats! They have no honor at all! All they care about is the damn Jeu Fatal!"

Another of the soldiers, Legrand, chuckled and said, "That's true. Salian nobility. They embrace you with the right hand and stab you with the left."

"Here here!" the soldiers around the room all raised their glasses and drank to that statement, cliché as it was.

Magnus was the only one who didn't raise his glass. "The Renart family has taken everything from me. Leon killed my brother. Lucien had my father murdered." Magnus ran his palm along his forehead and winced. "I have nothing anymore... my family is all gone..."

"You have us!" said Gilles, giving him another firm pat on the back.

"At least I can take some comfort in that," said Magnus. "We shed blood together, both our own and that of our enemies. That makes us close as brothers. I thought Leon was a friend to me as much as you were. Oh, how mistaken I was! Please forgive me!"

"Of course, Magnus!" said Gilles.

Magnus could tell from some of the uncomfortable looks they exchanged that each of them had already heard that it was he who betrayed Leon first, not the other way around. None of them dared say anything though. Magnus wasn't sure if it was because they didn't want to upset him while he mourned or if they were afraid of what the others would do if they did.

Magnus continued. "The only thing within me that burns worse than my grief is my hate. I hate the Renarts! I want to make them all pay for what they've done to me!"

"Well, you have the agents for it now," said Lamont.

Magnus scoffed at the suggestion. "Engage Duke Renart in his own game? Please! That slimy connard is far too slippery to be caught that way."

"What are you suggesting?" asked Gilles. "Would you challenge him to a duel? I don't think you have legal grounds for that..."

"Duke Renart had his father killed," said Legrand.

"But he can't prove it," said Grenier. "He needs more than just suspicion for the duel to be legal."

"No, no duels," said Magnus. "I'm not going to play the way he wants. He's a master of the game, and he'll win. No, you know what I'm tired of?" Magnus stood from his chair and paced the room between the sofas. "I'm tired of the way the nobility treats us! We're soldiers. It's by our blood that the barbarians are kept at bay. And how do the aristocrats treat us? What's the phrase we so often hear? 'Brutish but necessary?' Oh, how they flatter us!" Magnus picked up the poker and aggressively stabbed at the fire under the hearth. "It's disgusting, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," said Grenier. "But what can we do about it? Would you suggest we stop repelling barbarians? Those savages would rape and pillage the whole empire!"

"No," said Magnus, still attacking the embers. "I suggest we make a statement!" Clang! He threw the poker down on the ground hard. "The Renart family will be the example we make. We grab whatever arms we can and we go to the Renart home and show them the way soldiers settle a blood debt!"

All of Magnus' friends went silent. Most of them looked down at their drinks.

Finally, Gilles said. "Maggie, my friend... you do remember the Treaty of Fausspaix?" He licked his lips and swallowed hard. "Every noble house in the Empire will rise up against you. You'll be crushed!"

"I don't care," said Magnus. "I've nothing more to lose. What can they take from me now? My life? We're soldiers. We all learned to meet our deaths with honor a long time ago."

Legrand stood from his sofa, crossed his arms, and scowled. "If you want to throw your life away because you can't move on from your grief by all means, but it sounds to me like you mean to ask us to do the same."

Grenier grabbed a throw pillow and chucked it at Legrand's head. Legrand snatched it out of the air and threw it back, smacking Grenier in the face with it.

"I would never ask you to risk your lives for something as trivial as my revenge," said Magnus. "That's something the damn aristocrats do."

There was a murmur of agreement from the soldiers there, and Legrand resumed his seat.

"But consider this," said Magnus. He stood with his back to the fireplace, surrounded by the fire's glow but his face shrouded in shadow. "The aristocrats will continue to disrespect us. So long as we can only play their game they will never take us seriously. Have you not heard that the Empress is considering a new law which will cut all of your salaries?" The soldiers all groaned in disgust. Yes, they'd certainly heard of that little scandal. Everyone had heard about this newest slight from Senon. "Do they seriously not understand the sacrifices we make? The dangers we protect them from? And that doesn't even touch on the disrespect we face everywhere we go. Gilles, what was it that Baron Corbeau said of you when you attended his soiree last fall?"

"He..." Gilles paused and took a deep breath. "He told his daughter 'stay away from him. He's a soldier All he knows is killing people.' For the rest of the night she looked on me with horror in her eyes. Like I was some sort of monster."

"Disgusting." Magnus spat into the fireplace. "Grenier, what was that story you told me about what Countess Aimon asked you?"

"At the grand tourney?" asked Grenier. "Oh... I don't think I should talk about that..."

"Spill it!" Magnus pounded his fist on the wall. "I am your lord, and I command you tell us!"

Grenier hung his head in shame. "She asked me... 'Is it true that sometimes you soldiers are away from a woman's gentle touch so long that you turn to buggery with your fellows in arms?' And when I stared at her in stunned silence both she and all around her broke into mocking laughter."

Magnus turned to Lamont. "And wasn't there an aristocrat who said you were an idiot because you'd only ever learned to solve your problems through violence."

Lamont hung his head. "I couldn't believe it... I actually tried to prove myself to that moron too. I tried to strike up a conversation about some of the books I'd read while abroad... he just... wrote me off as stupid and wouldn't talk to me..."

Magnus nodded. "Didn't he say, 'Not smart enough to be a merchant, so you became a soldier?' Weren't those his words?"

"He did say that..." Lamont groaned and ran his fingers over his face.

Magnus spread his arms wide. "Let's face it, no one respects us! We suffer, and bleed, and fight, and die... all so that those lazy, fat fools can eat their caviar, sip their wine, and call us all brutish savages. The Empire needs to change, and I say that change starts now!"

Magnus opened the drawer of one of the end-tables in the living room and produced a stack of papers. "I have already written a manifesto. Tomorrow morning I will have my right hand, Magali, send this off to Marquis Macon, along with instructions that he should read it to his troops." Magnus slammed the stack of papers down on top of the end table. "It suggests that we start a revolution. We have the treaty against us if any house stands individually, but if every marquis and every soldier under his command stood together we could easily take control of Salia and change it all! Soldiers will be respected! Soldiers will be taken seriously! We will get our dues!"

Again, a murmur of agreement from the crowd.

Magnus smiled. "And it all starts with the destruction of the Renart family home. Teach the aristocracy to fear us! They wish to declare themselves our enemies?" Magnus pounded his fist on his manifesto. "Then let them learn what we do to our enemies! We aren't going to endure this abuse any longer! We are sick of the disrespect! We've had enough of the insults!"

Magnus pointed his finger at each of them. "Take your pistol, take your sword, and ride with me to the Renart home! There we will show all of Salia the might of the Empire's soldiers! By God, we will put an end to their ignorance! They will know what war is, what we deal with every day of our lives!"

The soldiers throughout the room roared with applause and approval as Magnus finished his speech. Some smashed their liquor bottles on the ground.

"This is our revolution!" Magnus shouted.

"Down with the aristocracy!" shouted one of the soldiers.

"Death to those who hate us!"

"We'll finally get what we deserve!"