Millennial Mage novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Count Me In

By dusk on my first day as quartermaster, I had counted nine thousand men and fed them.

It took twelve borrowed Dust-rank clerks, a table, forty cooks and the Marshal's permission to shout.

I stood at the head of the line with a ladle and my legal pad.

I could feel every sack in the camp, because I had touched every one.

It sat in my head, and when a cook asked for flour I knew which barn and which row.

The first soldier through the line held out his tin cup.

"Is that all?" he asked, then caught himself. "Sorry, ma'am."

"It's a full ration," I said. "It's what they sent you. It's what they should have sent you every day."

He looked into the cup, and his eyes went red.

"Thank you," he said. "I don't know what you are. Thank you."

"I'm a temp," I said, and gave him extra.

By the time the last man was fed, I could hardly lift my arm.

The Marshal clapped me on the shoulder hard enough to bruise.

"Sleep," she said. "Tomorrow you can open the Hall's old rolls."

I did not sleep.

I walked in the dark along the line of Isaura's tents.

At the far end stood a small canvas shelter where a lantern burned low.

Teo was sitting on his bedroll with a whetstone in his hands.

He stood up when he saw me, and the stone slid off his knee.

"Hana."

"I fed nine thousand people today," I said.

"I heard."

"Nobody has ever thanked me for anything at work."

"I'd like to," Teo said.

"How?"

"With my mouth, if you will let me."

My whole body flushed hot.

I stepped inside and let the flap fall, and he came across the tiny space in one stride and took my face in his hands.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Millennial Mage from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.