The Company of Shadows (Wellington Undead Book 3) by Richard Estep Read Free Book Online Page A

army as an effective fighting force. You are therefore directed to lead such survivors as you can find to a rendezvous with Colonel Stephenson’s army, which should be encamped on a plain somewhere to the southwest of our current position.
    Save such personnel as you possibly can. Abandon supplies, materiel, and any artifact of war that is not imminently necessary to effect your rendezvous. This also includes the vampire officer corps. Once night has fallen, you are to return to Assaye in force. You will then dispatch or drive off such undead as may still be found upon the field, and exhume us from our graves.
    A.W.
     
    “You will hand this to whichever officer you have located,” Arthur instructed, re-folding the paper as neatly as possible and pressing it into the Corporal’s hands. Solomon nodded vigorously.
    “Yes, General. I understand, sir.”
    “Good man. Now, best be about it. The enemy is upon us.”
    Solomon looked up to follow the General’s gaze. A trio of Maratha infantrymen, one of whom was trailing purple ropes of gizzard from a rent in his belly, was shuffling toward the tent opening. With practiced ease, one of the four Shadows that were serving as doorkeepers brought his primed musket into the ‘present’ position. He waited until the closest creature, who from the grand feather in his turban must have been an officer or NCO of some sort, had gotten close enough for him to see the whites of its eyes, and then let loose. The Brown Bess discharged with a percussive thump, slamming it back hard into the Shadow Private’s shoulder. He was rewarded with gobs of sticky black ichor exploding from the ragged new hole, square in the middle of the thing’s face, where its nose and upper lip had once been. The thing dropped like a stone sinking beneath the surface of a pond.
    The remaining three kept coming.
    Satisfied that the men set to guarding the entrance would keep up the fine work, Wellesley walked back toward the Shadows who were digging, dumping shovelfuls of earth on top of the last few coffins. Colonel Harness stood patiently in the shadows, his red eyes glowing as he watched Wellesley in silence. Whatever his thoughts were, he was keeping them to himself.
    “Colonel,” Arthur acknowledged, inclining his head.
    “General Wellesley.” There was silence between the two men for a moment. There was little to be done now but wait for his grave to be completed. Before it had stretched out into awkwardness, Harness broke it. “A difficult night.”
    “Indeed it was. But also a successful one, I think.”
    “I would concur, General. We’ll not see the Marathas stand and fight for a good few days yet.” The Colonel spoke calmly, with just the trace of a faint Scottish burr. “I could not help but overhear your orders to Corporal Solomon.”
    “Let me guess. You are curious as to the nature of the orders that he is to convey to whichever mortal officer he finds?” Wellesley cocked a quizzical eyebrow.
    “More than a little curious,” Harness admitted, the ghost of a smile playing across his lips.
    “Then pray let me enlighten you.” Arthur went on to outline his strategy, pausing here and there to fill in a detail or two. While he was not accustomed to seeking the approval of his subordinates before issuing instructions, as a professional soldier, he was also not averse to soliciting the feedback of his officers when the mood took him.
    “A fine plan, if I may make so bold.”
    “You do not feel that it places our senior officers at excessive risk?” Arthur glanced down meaningfully at the two remaining graves, where his own coffin and that of Colonel Harness were now being lowered by the grunting and straining Shadows.
    Harness shook his head. “I do not, sir. We have little to fear from these mindless creatures” – as if to prove his point, two muskets barked in quick succession from the entryway, followed by the heavy thud of two bodies collapsing to the ground – “and with the