The Clan of Outcasts [Season 3]

Part 6: "The Lion's Share"

Three Years Ago...

Edri Rodan breathed deeply and checked the straps of her armor again, trying to bide enough time for her nerves to relax so her hands would stop trembling. It wouldn't do to present herself as some kind of authority over these seasoned warriors if she was quaking like a distressed damsel!

She exited the Commander's office, attached to the garrison on the western side of the castle. Beckoning a runner, she gave her first order as Commander of the King's Guard: "Tell the men to fall in."

The runner nodded and took off around the parade grounds, darting in and out of the barracks and armory, shouting, "Fall in! Fall in! Commander's orders! Fall in!"

Edri stood at the front of the parade grounds, watching the soldiers--young, old, wiry, brawny, scarred, unscathed--shambling out to the field in front of her. Nearly every one of them managed to look around without even seeing her, searching for this new Commander that they would answer to, after the massive coup that had just been quashed. She watched them jostling against each other, laughing, chatting, and slouching in place, and her ire focused on the singular goal: establish her authority, and get these men on a regular regimen of training and patrol.

"ATTENTION!" she barked.

A few of the soldiers automatically flinched up straight at the command. Others didn't even stop conversing with their mates, and a few squinted at her in disbelief, more that this female was giving orders, than the fact that such a small person had such a big voice.

She motioned to a runner and he handed her the massive cone that enabled a man to be heard over the ranks of hundreds. There were barely fifty men before her now, but she needed the amplification to overcome the noise already in place, and shout, "I SAID, ATTENTION!"

Silence fell over the parade ground, as three straight rows of soldiers snapped straight and silent. All eyes focused on her.

Edri continued speaking through the megaphone, albeit with a more normal tone of voice, since in the silence she didn't actually have to shout.

"I am your new Commander," she announced. "And from here on out, you will refer to me as such."

"Yeah, right!" someone shouted back, and laughter unfolded about halfway through the regiment.

Edri's keen ears picked out exactly who had spoken, but for good measure, she indicated four or five others as well. "You six, I want you on the march around the perimeter. Do not cease until I give the command."

Some of the ones who laughed dared to gasp at this, and the group themselves hesitated, unsure if she really meant the strange order.

The longer Edri drew out the silence, the more the soldiers around them began subtly pulling away, distancing themselves from the troublemakers.

She stared right at them, holding onto her fury to keep from caving to their defiance. "Why do you stand there?" She raised her voice through the megaphone. "I said MARCH!"

The six soldiers grouped up in a double-row, and set off for the edge of the grounds. Their unison footsteps accompanied the rest of Edri's words.

"I know that some of you are not accustomed to seeing women as soldiers," she acknowledged as the ranks reformed to fill in the gaps left by the punished soldiers. "And still more of you are not at all comfortable with the idea of answering to one as your superior officer--although you had enough respect for yourselves not to let the idea slip out as that unfortunate detachment did." Her quick ears heard a chorus of laughter behind, and a distinct jumble in the rhythm of the steps. So! They thought that they could cheat their way out of a just punishment? She whirled around and put the megaphone to her lips. "KEEP MARCHING!" she bellowed, and the steady thump-thump, thump-thump resumed.