Location from The Black Company by Glen Cook
The last free company of Khatovar — four hundred years old, always for hire, never for sale. They've served tyrants, they've fought gods, and they write it all down.
The Black Company is the central character of the series — not a person but an institution, a mercenary company that has existed for over four centuries, marching from contract to contract, recording its history in the Annals, and losing members to war, age, and the occasional employer who decides they're inconvenient. The Company's traditions are its identity: the Annals are kept by a designated Annalist, who records the truth as he sees it. The Captain commands. The standard-bearer carries the banner. Brothers are brothers regardless of how they joined. These traditions have persisted across centuries and continents, maintained by soldiers who'll be dead before the next Annalist picks up the pen. What makes the Company unique in fantasy is that it's not heroic. It takes contracts from whoever pays, including people like the Lady. Its soldiers aren't noble — they're competent, professional, and loyal to each other. The moral compromise is the point: in Cook's world, you serve bad people because the alternative is dying for good ones, and dead mercenaries don't get to write anything down.
The Black Company looks like what it is: a mercenary outfit that's been doing this too long to care about appearances. Mismatched armor, practical weapons, no uniforms to speak of. The banner is the only consistently maintained thing — a black flag that Croaker describes with more care than he describes most people. The Company is recognizable not by what they wear but by how they move: professional, coordinated, and slightly too comfortable with violence.
Also known as: The Black Company, The Company, The Last Free Company of Khatovar