“Let’s get out of here,” said Loaf.
“Which way?” asked Umbo.
“Back to the boardinghouse,” said Loaf.
“Why? What’s there that we need?”
“A change of clothes,” said Loaf. “And food from the widow.”
“But if those soldiers are after us . . .”
“Then we’ll have an easier time getting away from them in the crowds. If we see them and take off into the woods, they’ll know we’re fugitives and they’ll chase us.” Umbo looked doubtful, but Loaf reached out and took his hand forcibly, like a brutal father; he made his face into a mask of rage.
Umbo looked genuinely frightened.
“Do what I tell you, when I tell you. Understand me?” Loaf made himself sound savagely angry, and Umbo shrank away.
“That’s right,” said a soldier. “Take a stick to him.”
“You’ve got to beat the brains into them when they’re still young,” said the other soldier, and then laughed.
“Really,” said Loaf to the soldiers, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Did your fathers beat brains into you?”
“Every cursed day,” said one of them, as the other nodded.
“Then you’re living proof that it doesn’t work,” said Loaf. “My son is my business, not yours.”
The soldiers looked angry, and might have taken matters further—after all, they had authority and Loaf was flouting it—but Loaf got into a stance of readiness, pushing Umbo behind him. “I fought in three border wars, you young clowns, and you’re nothing but city soldiers. All you’ve ever fought are drunks and fools, not a man who’s killed his dozens in open combat. I’ll knock your heads together so hard you’ll see out of each other’s eyes for a week. Come on, let’s have at it.”
One of them was willing enough, but the smarter one drew him back. “They’re breaking no law back here,” he said, “and we don’t need to spend the afternoon dragging him to the jail and making our reports.”
“Won’t have to make reports if he’s dead,” said the dumb one.
“If we kill every man who calls us stupid,” said the smarter one, “we’ll only be proving them right.”
The soldiers drew off and then watched as Loaf led Umbo past them. Loaf nodded respectfully at the smarter soldier. “It’s a good soldier that doesn’t take on a fight that isn’t forced on him,” he said.
The smarter one nodded back, while the stupid one glared sullenly.
Back among the crowds, Umbo said, “Don’t ever take hold of me like that again.”
“I was giving them a reason for us to be behind the latrine, since lunch was long since over.”
“I left my father for treating me that way.”
“Leave me, too, if you like,” said Loaf.
“I will, if you ever do that again.”
“Does it help you to forgive me if I point out that I’m giving in to you on the matter of giving those messages?”
“I wasn’t going to do it no matter what you said,” Umbo replied.
“Oh, the boy’s pouting. Just like that soldier, the stupid one who thought his pride was worth dying for.”
“I am a boy!” said Umbo. “I have a right to act childish if I want to!”
“Well, lad, you usually don’t, so you can forgive me for expecting you to have a man’s understanding.”