Soarer's Choice

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  “You’re hot? It’s chilly here, far cooler than in Elcien.”

  “Pregnancy makes even alectresses a great deal warmer, dearest.”

  Dainyl eased his coach window down, and surreptitiously fastened his jacket.

  Behind the RA’s complex, to the east, Dainyl caught sight of the narrower gray eternastone aqueduct that ran northward, parallel to the paved yellowstone boulevard. He glanced farther north along the boulevard, catching sight of the gold eternastone building of the recorder, and the larger one to the north of it. Beyond both rose the green eternastone tower, and the aqueduct of the ancients that ran westward to the Upper Spine Mountains, paralleling the main eternastone high road, although the road had been built by alector engineers to follow the aqueduct.

  “Who uses the other ancient building?”

  “It’s used as a warehouse. No one really wants to live or work in it. Half is for grain and crop storage, and it does seem to preserve them better than most granaries.”

  Dainyl glanced past Lystrana to look at the shops on the west side of the boulevard, realizing that the boulevard was really three streets—the main one in the center, down which they drove, and narrower ones on each side for pedestrians and street merchants, separated from the wider center section boulevard by two yards of raised stone.

  The shops were of yellowstone, with roofs of split dark slate and narrow windows that required less wood for their shutters. As gray as Dereka often seemed, Dainyl couldn’t help but feel how dark the insides of those structures would be, especially for landers and indigens without an alector’s night sight.

  Ahead loomed the ancient aqueduct, but before the coach reached it, they crossed the eternastone high road that began in the west at Elcien and spanned the continent to end at Alustre in the east. To the north of the high road, the boulevard became eternastone as well.

  As they passed under the arch of the ancient aqueduct, Dainyl looked up, studying it with both eyes and Talent. There was indeed a faint Talent residue—an amber-green within the very stone—and he wondered how many thousands of years before it had been built.

  He shook his head.

  “What is it, dearest?” asked Lystrana.

  “Oh…just the aqueduct…and the goldenstone buildings. The ancients are small, tiny compared to us, yet they built all this who knows how long ago, and they still stand. They have at least one city with soaring towers on the Aerlal Plateau, where pteridons cannot even venture. Yet most of the High Alectors dismiss them as little threat at all.”

  “It isn’t just the aqueduct, is it?”

  “The ironworks and the dam that served it were totally destroyed this past week, by a directed flood and an earthquake. Earlier, the Vedra flooded and ripped out all the piers in Dekhron and Borlan. I’ve seen them destroy two pteridons. Noryan watched them destroy another pair. But they aren’t a threat.” Dainyl couldn’t keep the bitter irony out of his voice.

  Less than half a vingt north of the aqueduct, Dereka ended. There were no more dwellings or shops, only the high road heading north to Aelta, and off to the northeast some thousand yards, the gray walls of the Cadmian compound.

  “You can head back south now, Dunneta!” called Lystrana.

  The driver guided the team around the turnout and headed back southward.

  “How is Kytrana feeling?” asked Dainyl.

  “She’s settled down. The coach ride was a good idea.”

  “I do have some, you know,” Dainyl replied with a laugh. “Does Dereka seem to upset her? Or your headquarters?”

  “I haven’t noticed that. Not yet, anyway. I’ll watch for it, though, as I get nearer to term. If need be, I’ll have meetings and see people in the quarters.”

  “Good thought.” Dainyl cleared his throat, trying not to shiver.

  “You can close the window partway, dearest.”

  “I’m all right.”

  “I’m not so hot as I was.”

  Dainyl eased the window up a third of the way, ignoring his wife’s smile. As the coach neared the center of Dereka, he tried to get a better feel for the small city. It was as though a darkness lay beneath it. Not the darkness of horror or evil, but more the darkness that underlay the translation tubes…yet…it wasn’t quite the same.

  “You have that look. What are you thinking?”

  “There’s more here than meets the eye, or even Talent.”

  She nodded. “I’ve felt that as well, and it’s not just the Talent-dead areas. It’s like a presence…someone or something that departed, and yet hasn’t.”

  Was that it? Dainyl wasn’t certain, but he didn’t have a better description.

  Once they had passed the RA’s complex heading south, to the west Dainyl saw the next walled enclosure and the two-story structures within. “Have you visited the engineers?”

  “Once. Thuvryn was polite, but little else.”

  “Thuvryn? Is he related to—”

  “He’s Ruvryn’s nephew, and even less pleasant than his uncle.”

  “So far, I’ve found Ruvryn to be less unpleasant than Alseryl. I met with Alseryl yesterday, and he was thoroughly unpleasant. He’s also allied with Ruvryn.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me. A hungry grass snake has more sense and ethics.”

  “Matters could come to a head this week. Noryan should finally receive my orders to bring Third and Fourth Companies here to Dereka.”

  “Will he do it? Will Brekylt let him?”

  “That’s what we’ll find out.”

  “Does Khelaryt know?”

  “I never mentioned it to him, and he never asked directly.”

  “That’s probably for the best, since only you and Chembryt truly support him. What will you do if Noryan refuses?”

  “I don’t know that I can do anything, except tell Khelaryt. I thought it would be best to see if I could remove the Myrmidons from the east before Brekylt made an open break. If it doesn’t work, we’re no worse off than we are now.”

  “Until Samist and Brekylt order them against you.”

  “They might not. I don’t think any of us want Myrmidon to fight Myrmidon.”

  “That would mean that Brekylt will have neutralized the Myrmidons, and Khelaryt will lose.”

  Left unsaid was the implication that Dainyl would also lose.

  “I can hope we don’t have to fight, but…you’re right.”

  She nodded sadly.

  Neither spoke as the coach carried them along the yellowstone road that had replaced the boulevard once they had left the houses and buildings behind, since the Myrmidon compound was almost a full vingt south of Dereka.

  “It looks almost forlorn out here,” observed Lystrana. “Today, especially. Gray walls, gray buildings, gray skies…”

  “Maybe that’s why the ancients left.”

  “I don’t think so…but I doubt that we’ll ever know that.”

  Dainyl couldn’t help but agree. Yet there was something deeper about Dereka, and that bothered him, especially since he’d been the one to maneuver Lystrana into becoming RA. He hoped he didn’t regret it.

  77

  After an early breakfast with Lystrana on Londi, Dainyl used her coach to travel the short distance to the recorder’s building in Dereka. He would arrive in Elcien a good glass earlier than usual, but he could not help being apprehensive and wanting to be in the Hall of Justice, for all that he knew Noryan would likely not receive his orders until later in the day and decide well after that—if the orders reached him at all.

  For the first time since Dainyl could remember, Jonyst was not the one on duty in the Dereka Table chamber. Instead, a stocky alectress with violet eyes—but black wavy hair—stood there with a welcoming smile. Behind her were four guards, but after they took in his purple-trimmed greens, their eyes and concentration turned away.

  “Good morning, Highest.”

  “Good morning. You must be Whelyne. Are the Tables operating as they should be?”

  “At the moment,
yes, sir.”

  “Have you been seeing greater or fewer wild translations? Or unauthorized ones?”

  “The unauthorized ones have dropped off to almost nothing, sir. Wild translations are fewer, but not by that much.”

  “I see.” He nodded. “Thank you.” That confirmed for him that the Archon had clamped down on Table access, and that the majority of wild translations were authorized but undertaken by those without sufficient Talent control to reach Acorus safely. Then, it could be as simple as the fact that few alectors with Talent and knowledge enough to try the Tables were left on Ifryn.

  He stepped up onto the Table and concentrated, sliding down through the silvered surface.

  The translation tube was more like being in a purple-shaded early twilight than the near-total darkness he recalled from his first translations from Lyterna, less than a year before. Around him, in the mild chill, he could sense an intermittent streak of purple, and then another. The looming presence of amber-green energy was stronger and more distant, a combination that unsettled him.

  He concentrated on the white locator that was Elcien, and extended a Talent probe, trying to ignore the fact that it was more green than purple in the translation tube. Before he could fully finish that thought, he was flashing through the white-silver barrier and…

  …standing on the Elcien Table, his shields strong and firm.

  Chastyl stood in one corner of the chamber. “Sir.”

  “Good morning, Recorder.” Dainyl stepped off the Table. “Are you still getting wild translations from Ifryn?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “How many compared to a few weeks ago?”

  “It’s hard to say, sir…”

  Dainyl looked hard at the recorder.

  “A few less.”

  “And how many authorized translations?”

  “None, sir…except some of the wild ones. One had a document. It looked genuine.”

  Dainyl smiled and projected both warmth and reassurance. “Thank you, Chastyl. I appreciate your keeping track of those.”

  On his way down the corridor to the small private study, he paused at the open door to Adya’s even smaller space and peered in.

  The chief assistant bolted to her feet. “Sir, you’re here early this morning.”

  “There’s quite a bit to do.” He offered a smile. “Adya…I’d like to see any dispatches or messages dealing with Alustre or the Myrmidons—immediately.”

  “Yes, sir. I haven’t seen any this morning yet.”

  “Whenever you do, bring them immediately.”

  Adya nodded.

  Dainyl was grateful that he did not have to receive petitions again until Duadi. He could use the time to get a better grasp on the Justice operations. So far he’d found little beyond intimations that Zelyert had been maintaining communications with the High Alectors under Samist. Still, the fact that Zelyert had quietly pressed Dainyl to reveal the fact that the Master Scepter would be going to Efra suggested that Zelyert had truly wanted Khelaryt’s shadowmatch, and his artificially enhanced Talent, removed. In hindsight, it was equally likely that Zelyert had not expected Dainyl to survive that revelation.

  Once in his study, he began to look through the older ledgers. He had not found anything more than suggestive when Alcyna arrived, slightly past midmorning.

  She stepped into the small study, closed the door, and inclined her head in respect. “I thought you’d like to know that the guards were transferred successfully to Blackstear, and that all of First Company’s squads are now at headquarters—except for the dispatch fliers, of course.”

  “That’s good to know. Thank you.” Dainyl gestured to the chairs.

  “We have another problem, and it’s one for the High Alector.” Alcyna seated herself.

  Dainyl didn’t like that at all. “Which is?”

  “Majer Sevasya sent a message noting that she is not receiving equipment and resupply either by sandox or by ship. Currently, the situation is not critical, but she felt I should know and requested I inform you.”

  Sevasya had to have learned of his elevation to High Alector through the Tables—and that probably meant from Delari or her father. Dainyl looked across the study table at Alcyna.

  “How soon do you think we’ll know about Noryan?”

  “Not until Tridi at the earliest.”

  “I’ll have to suggest that Alseryl include a special shipment on the next of the Duarches’ vessels to make the south run to the west. We may even have to supply Myrmidon guards.”

  “Do you think that’s their purpose…to weaken us more by diluting our forces?”

  “It could be, but we could half the time required for the Myrmidons we send.”

  “By flying a messenger the last legs? They’d be over the east.”

  “They could stop in small towns where there aren’t any alectors, or few of them.”

  She nodded. “Let me see what I can work out.”

  “I’ll bring it up before the Duarch when we meet tomorrow. Alseryl will try to find a way out, but if I’m firm, he’ll have to agree, because he won’t want to openly defy Khelaryt.”

  “That doesn’t mean it will happen.”

  “No. But it means that if he disobeys the Duarch or stalls and delays too much, I can act. Then, that might be what they want, as another example of Khelaryt being unreasonable, or having unreasonable High Alectors.”

  “He’ll stall and try to have Ruvryn or one of the others remove you in the meantime.”

  “That’s likely. I’d be surprised if anything happened immediately.”

  She nodded slowly. “But when it does…”

  “We’ll need to be ready.” Dainyl offered a smile he wasn’t certain he felt. “Is there anything else?”

  “We did receive a report from Cadmian Colonel Herolt, noting ‘great damage’ to the ironworks in Iron Stem. The remnants of Fifth Battalion are regrouping in Northa, but the colonel pleads difficulty in recruiting to bring the battalion up to full strength. The Sixth Battalion in Soupat is having much greater success, and casualties are now minimal—”

  “Does that suggest something?” asked Dainyl.

  “Unfortunately, it does.” Alcyna’s words were dry.

  “Perhaps you should visit the colonel. I question whether he might be partly shadowmatched.”

  “If he is, then what?”

  “Can you remove it?”

  “If it’s not one of the complex ones.”

  “If it is, let me know. What about Seventh Company? Do we have any reports from Second Company?”

  “Captain Lyzetta has managed to obtain two replacement pteridons from Lyterna, which brings her closer to full strength.”

  Dainyl wondered how she had managed that, since he’d been told earlier that Captain Elysara had been under orders from Asulet not to release any of the pteridons sealed in timeless sleep in Lyterna.

  “I understand that Lyzetta once served under Elysara,” volunteered Alcyna.

  “That might explain a few things.” But only a few, since Elysara would still have to have gotten permission from Asulet, and the de facto Duarch of Lyterna had very firm ideas.

  Dainyl frowned. He needed to visit Asulet, and he should have done so earlier. He could use the Table after Alcyna left. “Second Company?”

  “As always, all is well with Second Company, except that they’re useless save for carrying dispatches.”

  “And as a personal guard for the Duarch Samist,” noted Dainyl. “What about Majer Sevasya? Have we heard anything about how she is handling Josaryk?”

  “No. Not yet.” Alcyna’s words were guarded.

  “I take it that Josaryk doesn’t care much for the majer.”

  “They have a different view of the world. Sevasya is older than you are, you know?”

  Dainyl hadn’t known, but it didn’t surprise him. “Is it fair to say that Captain Josaryk is somewhat more impressed with himself than he should be?”

  Alcyna laughed. “Norya
n was always telling him not to take himself so seriously.” The laughter vanished. “That was hard when Brekylt invited him to sail on the sound with him.”

  “So Josaryk is on friendly terms with the Alector of the East.”

  “He thinks so.”

  Dainyl understood. Josaryk might pose as great a problem as Noryan. “Is there anything else I should know, or any questions you have?”

  “Is there any hint about when the Archon might act?”

  Dainyl shook his head. “I can’t believe it will be that long, but I’ve thought that for weeks.” He stood.

  So did Alcyna.

  After she left, Dainyl made his way to the Table chamber.

  Diordyn glanced at the High Alector.

  “You can tell Chastyl I’m going to Lyterna. I might be back in a glass.” Dainyl stepped up onto the Table, then concentrated, feeling himself drop through the silvered surface and…

  …into the purplish half-light of the translation tunnel. A purpled explosion flashed past him, so close that he could sense the death-agony. In the blackish green that underlay the tube, streaks of amber-green flashed, far more than he had ever sensed.

  He extended a Talent probe to the pink of Lyterna, and almost as soon as he was linked, he was through the silvered-pink barrier.

  Myenfel looked up from where he stood beside the outer door to the Table chamber. “Highest…what a surprise!”

  As he stepped off the Table, Dainyl could sense that while the six guards—all older alectors and alectresses with hair either pure white or black streaked with white—might have been surprised, the recorder was not, although he did appear pleased. “Matters have been rather confused in Elcien, and I came to pay my respects to Asulet as soon as I could.”

  “I am certain he will be as pleased as I am. It has been decades since the High Alector of Justice has been here.”

  That did surprise Dainyl.

  “Viora? The Highest should have an escort. Would you?”

  Viora led him out of the Table chamber and along the narrow corridor to the steps carved out of stone that rose to the main gallery east of the Council Hall and past the grand pteridon battle scene mural that had become more and more prophetic in the past months. After two more turns, Viora and Dainyl were in the gallery with the niches that held ancient specimens of life—and the spare pteridons.