"You're a better scout than anyone you sent out. You're a better lancer than anyone you command. You're a better company captain than the rest of us. But you're not sure that you're a better force commander. And you have to be the best." Feran shook his head. "Me… I just want to be good enough to survive in one piece. I'm happy to follow you because you don't do too many stupid things, and you won't put men in any danger you wouldn't face yourself, and you like to tilt the odds in your favor."
"You're so encouraging, Feran."
"Admit it… Majer."
Alucius laughed ironically. "You know me too well. I probably am a better scout. I'm a herder, and I have more experience than most scouts."
"More experience than just about all of them. You've fought and scouted for every land in the west of Corus."
Alucius knew that was true, but it was the Talent-abilities that made the difference. He still recalled Geran, the older scout he had worked with in the Iron Valley Militia. Geran had no Talent and yet could read the land as if it had been laid out in a book. Alucius still needed his Talent to do that.
"You have to remember one thing… Majer." Feran's voice was low.
"What's that?"
"No matter how good you are, you can't do everything. You can't scout and command at the same time, You can't always lead the charge and also hang back to see where you should move companies…"
"I suppose I needed that reminder." Alucius still wished he were out with the scouts. He grinned briefly. "Thank you."
"My pleasure, sir." Feran returned the grin.
As Alucius walked back toward the center of the camp, he had to wonder. How did a man ever know when he'd reached the limit of his abilities? The Lord-Protector had chosen Alucius because of what he'd done mostly as a company captain, and as an individual operating alone. Could he really command three companies effectively? He took a deep breath. All he could do was listen, learn, and do his best.
Light began to flood across the hilltop, and for a moment the sky overhead was white-silver before darkening into a bright and cloudless silver-green. There had been no rain at all since Alucius had left Dekhron, and that had been the longest time he had spent in Lanachrona without rain. Was that another sign that times were changing—or just coincidence? He laughed softly. Not everything was because of the ifrits and the soarers. At least, he didn't think so.
While he waited for the scouts to return, he ran through a set of drills with Twenty-eighth Company, then with Thirty-fifth Company.
Despite the drills and the debriefing of the captains, the morning passed slowly, without any sign of riders on the back roads near the encampment. Late morning arrived before the first scout returned—Jultyr's Rakalt.
Alucius hurried down from the hillcrest to meet the scout halfway up the south slope. He had the lancer—a rangy young man with a narrow face and deep-set and intent green eyes—dismount and have some water for the short time it took to summon the other officers. Then he looked at Rakalt. "Tell us what you found out, Rakalt."
"I followed the wider road west, like you said, sir." Rakalt met Alucius's eyes, then swallowed. "It keeps going west, like you thought. Two or three vingts from here, it crosses a dry creek, then turns northwest. Half a vingt farther, it splits. The road going north is rutted, but they're real old ruts. Doesn't look like anyone travels it. I didn't see any new tracks. The left fork goes southwest. Not many riders and wagons there, but some recent tracks in the dust. I followed it close to five vingts, like you said, sir. By then it was heading close to due south. There's nothing there, sir. Just bare hillsides. They've logged off everything. Gullies everywhere. Won't support more 'n rats and birds, maybe not that. Now… the tops of the hills on the east side of the road, they got some trees, same firs and junipers."
"What about the road itself?" asked Alucius. "Could you tell who was using it?"
"Mostly single riders, looked like. Might have been patrols, but the shoes weren't always the same, not like ours." Rakalt tilted his head. "Had to be patrols. Only one set of tracks at a time."
Alucius continued to ask questions, with Feran occasionally adding one or two of his own.
"How steep were the hills to the east of the road?"
"How sturdy were the bridges?"
"Did you see any dwellings or any smoke?"
"Did any of the hillsides look liked they'd been logged recently… ?"
After another quarter glass of questions—and answers from Rakalt—Alucius paused, wondering what he'd overlooked. He took a swallow from his water bottle, as much because he wasn't used to talking that much as that the day was warm. He looked to Feran. "Anything else you can think of?"
"No, sir." Feran's smile was ragged. "Wish I could."
Alucius looked to Jultyr.
"Ah… yes, sir… just one."
"Go ahead," Alucius said.
"Rakalt… sounds funny… but did you smell anything strange… anywhere?" Jultyr's words were firm.
The scout squinted, cocking his head again. "Smells? No, sir… don't recall anything like that. No strange smells."
Alucius nodded. He'd have to remember that one. It made a lot of sense. As he turned back toward the scout, he heard a shout from the south hillside.
"Majer! Dust on the main road—lots of riders, sir!"
Alucius whirled and looked to the south. There were actually two clouds of dust—one a thin and barely visible plume, less than a vingt from the bottom of the slope leading to the camp, and the second a larger cloud perhaps half a vingt south of that—a scout pursued by a squad or more of the local lancers or armsmen. So much for surprise—the idea flashed through Alucius's thoughts even as he raised his voice.
"Twenty-eighth Company! Mount up and form on me! Fifth Company! Mount up. Flank Twenty-eighth Company to the west! Thirty-fifth Company, mount-up and flank Twenty-eighth Company to the east."
Alucius hurried toward the tieline that held his gray gelding. Even after running uphill on foot to get his mount, he was mounted and halfway back down the hillside before the first of Twenty-eighth Company's lancers began to form up. After scanning the hillside once again, he rode lower until he was only about a hundred fifty yards from the road, and with the slope as gentle as it was, only about six yards above the road's surface. The position, like everything, was a compromise. He wanted his men close enough to deliver withering fire, but in a location where the enemy would have to charge uphill.
"Form up here!" he called upslope.
Feran and Fifth Company had already formed up farther uphill, and the other two companies were moving into position east of Fifth Company.
"Forward, and form on a line with the majer!" ordered Feran.
Alucius glanced toward the road. The trailing cloud of dust was closing on the scout, but it looked as though the scout would reach the camp before his pursuers could attain a position to allow any accurate rifle shots—and any shots would be almost a matter of luck with the twisting of the road and its uneven surface.
"Fifth Company in position, sir!"
"Thirty-fifth Company, sir!"
"Twenty-eighth Company, sir!"
Alucius turned in the saddle toward Feran. "Stagger and angle them to get a clear line of fire from all files."
"Yes, sir."
Then he turned to Jultyr and repeated the command. By then, Deotyr had Twenty-eighth Company in even ranks.
Alucius addressed Deotyr. "Captain, put them in a staggered right oblique formation."
"Yes, sir." Deotyr turned in the saddle "Twenty-eighth Company! Staggered right oblique."
The senior squad leader echoed the command, and Twenty-eighth Company shifted into a mounted firing position. Alucius rode over closer to Deotyr. "If they turn or break, I'll order Twenty-eighth Company into pursuit. Be ready for that if it comes."
"Yes, sir."
Alucius eased the gray back to the west, reining up just at the point where Fifth and Twenty-eighth Companies joined. He looked westward, studying the empty
section of road below and waiting. He reminded himself that the Lanachronan rifles carried a ten-shot magazine and had a longer range than the Northern Guard's weapons. He continued to watch the road, even as he extended his Talent senses. There was no sign of any Talent, but the trailing riders were too far away for him to detect fainter Talent-usage.
Another quarter of a glass passed. Finally, a single rider emerged from the last turn of the road before the straight section that extended to the base of the hillside where Alucius's forces were arrayed.
"All companies!" Alucius ordered. "Rifles ready. Fire at my command."
"Rifles ready."
As the rider neared the encampment, less than a hundred yards from the base of the slope, Alucius recognized Waris, despite the dust-coated uniform. Behind him rode nearly two squads of lancers in loose-fitting maroon tunics.
The rebel lancers fired occasional shots at Waris, but all seemed to fall short or wide. But they were closing slowly on the scout so that, when Waris reached the foot of the slope, the oncoming rebel lancers were but three hundred yards behind him. The scout eased his mount uphill and toward the Guard companies.
Alucius waved Waris past. "Go on." He waited until the oncoming lancers were within fifty yards of the base of the hill. Then he ordered, "Fire at will!"
"Fire at will!"
A series of rapid cracks came from Twenty-eighth Company, then from Thirty-fifth Company. The deeper-sounding reports from the heavier Northern Guard rifles were more deliberate.
Only a handful of shots from the first volley struck. Alucius saw one rebel lurch in the saddle and another pitch sideways. He lifted his own rifle and fired carefully. His first shot struck a man in the shoulder. His second took another rebel out of his saddle.
A squad leader rode first among the maroon-clad lancers, flourishing a blade half again as long as a lancer sabre. Despite the continuing fire from the Lanachronan forces, he charged to the end of the road, then upslope toward Alucius.
Alucius targeted the man, and his first shot slammed through the man's left shoulder. The rebel remained in the saddle, still brandishing his long blade. Alucius paused only for a moment before putting a second shot into the man's chest, slightly to the left of his breastbone. Still clutching the blade, the man was less than fifty yards from Alucius before the majer's last shot smashed a gaping hole in the attacker's forehead.
As quickly as he could, Alucius switched rifles. He took slightly longer with each shot, trying for head shots as much as possible. He knew what he was seeing couldn't be happening, but it looked like almost nothing besides a head shot, one through the heart, or enough fire to dismember one of the rebel lancers was enough to stop one.
He felt as though he were fumbling every time he reloaded, but he had the rifle up quickly enough and continued to fire. He kept reloading and firing, watching rebel lancers fall. In time, he got only one shot off after reloading when he realized that there was no one moving downslope.
"Hold your fire!" he ordered.
"Hold your fire!"
As the last rifle reports died away, Alucius glanced downhill. From what he could see, only a handful of his force had been killed or wounded. Then, he looked at the thirty-odd bodies strewn on the hillside. There were several loose and riderless mounts, but not one rebel had slowed or turned back.
After a moment, Alucius rode slowly downhill, shaking his head, seeing the gaping wounds in every body. Yet he could sense only the faintest touch of Talent—certainly not enough to have kept men who were dying or already dead moving forward in an attack.
Feran had been generous earlier, because this time Alucius had been stupid. He'd been lucky to lose so few men. He should have had them in trenches or embankments, or behind trees. He'd thought that the attackers would have turned and retreated, given their far fewer numbers, and he'd wanted to be able to pursue them. Then again, the ground was so hard it would have been impossible to have dug effective trenches… but his tactics had still been stupid.
Near the bottom of the hill, he turned the gray and started back upslope. "Overcaptain, captains, report as you can!"
He continued toward Feran and Fifth Company, reining up short of the overcaptain.
Feran offered a ragged smile.
Alucius shrugged, adding in a voice low enough that only Feran could hear, "We were lucky this time. I've never seen anything like that."
"Haven't either. They using Talent?"
"Just the littlest trace of it. Shouldn't have made any difference."
"That's scary," Feran murmured.
Alucius had to agree, if silently. It had taken the mass fire of three companies for almost half a glass.
Egyl reined up, waiting. Both officers looked to him.
"Two dead, sirs, three wounded."
"Thank you, Egyl," Alucius replied.
"Yes, sir." Egyl turned his mount.
While Egyl hadn't felt or expressed reproach, Alucius knew that the senior squad leader had every right to do so.
"Any captives?" Alucius asked.
"No, sir."
Alucius looked down at the fallen rebels, then at Feran. "Can you take care of the dead? Have them checked for anything that would tell us something. Just two burial pits for the rebels, one for mounts, the other for men. Draw some men from each of the companies."
"I'll take care of it."
"Thank you. We'll meet later," Alucius told Feran, before turning his mount eastward toward the center of Twenty-eighth Company. Deotyr and Jultyr had drawn up their mounts side by side.
"Three dead, four wounded. Only one seriously, sir," reported Deotyr.
"Two wounded. Not serious. We weren't in their line of fire," offered Jultyr.
For that Alucius was grateful.
"Were there any survivors? Any captives?"
Both captains exchanged glances, then looked at Alucius. No, sir.
Alucius managed not to frown. "Thank you. Overcaptain Feran will be drawing some men from each of you for a burial and disposal detail."
"Yes, sir."
"Take care of what you need to handle. Dismissed." Alucius raised his voice. "All companies, stand down, except for burial and disposal detail."
The first skirmish of the campaign was over, and he should have felt relieved. His force had killed more than thirty attackers and lost only five men. But… he'd misjudged the situation, and had there been twice as many attackers, the results would have been far different. The faint touch of Talent indicated something besides ifrit involvement, but what? He pursed his lips. There had been no survivors, and none of the attackers had tried to retreat. There was so much he didn't know.
He looked around, searching for Waris, to find out what the scout might have discovered, only to see the scout standing grooming his mount less than fifty yards away.
"Officers forward! Without your mounts."
Alucius eased the gray up to Waris. "We'll need your report, Waris."
Waris was still covered in dust, and his mount had clearly been pushed earlier, although the scout had brushed out the dust from the roan's coat, but there were still traces of sweat. Waris looked at Alucius. "Had to push him hard to get clear, sir. Saved my ass, he did." After a pause, he added, "Looks like you had a little trouble here, too."
"We did," Alucius replied. "That's why we need to hear what you found out. We'll be down there by the cedar."
"Yes, sir."
Alucius rode his gray back to the tieline, where he tethered the gelding. Then he walked partway downhill to an area shaded by the low but broad cedar he had pointed out to Waris and waited for the others to join him. His eyes looked downhill, taking in the fallen men and the lancers searching and dragging bodies to the west, where part of the hill had slumped, leaving an easier disposal site.
He looked up as the two captains and Feran rejoined him. "Waris will be here in a moment."
"Elbard and Chorat are still missing," Feran said.
Alucius could only hope they had been delaye
d.
Waris walked downhill and stopped short of the half circle of officers. After a moment, he began. "They sent three lancers after me, sir, and I took out all three. Didn't change anything. Hadn't gotten a vingt away when they had another three after me. Almost half a squad after one scout? Don't understand that, sir."
Alucius gestured to the slope below them. "They sent a squad and a half against three companies. Not one turned back."
Waris shook his head slowly.
"If they had so many after you," asked Alucius, "how did you escape?"
Waris grinned. "Figured if we got far enough away from their camp, they wouldn't know to send more. I shot 'em, one after the other. They can't shoot as well as my one-armed grandmother."
"Before you got rousted out, what did you find?"
"Took the narrow dirt road, sir, like you told me. Three vingts south of here, it forks. One fork goes mostly south, maybe a little east, and the other heads due west. Tracks on both, but, well, couldn't tell you, except I thought I ought to see about the west fork first. Follows the bottom of a ridgeline little less than two vingts through trees sort of spaced like the ones here. Goes pretty straight, though. Ends in an open space. Lucky I stopped in the trees. Was trying to see what was there, and saw some smoke ahead. So I circled around the clearing and eased up the hillside. Couldn't get too close 'cause the whole slope is covered in that spiky thorn stuff. But… got high enough to get a pretty good view. It's almost like a lancer post, sir. They got long sheds like barracks, and even stables. They're on a flat. Behind them, there's something dug or carved into the rock of the hillside."
"Are there any places from where you could mount an attack? " asked Alucius.
"In two places," the scout added. "There's a lower meadow to the east of whatever's dug into the cliff, and there's an upper meadow to the southwest. You might be able to come over the top of the hill, but then it's like a cliff coming down… have to do that on foot. They've also got a perimeter cleared on the west side of the hill, posts every hundred yards or so. That was where I got seen."
"Do they have any walls or palisades?"
"Not much. They don't need them. They've got a gate across the road to Hyalt—think it must be the road to Hyalt, anyway. It's a good, wide, packed road… got walls on each side of the gate for maybe a hundred yards. Beyond that, you've got those thorn thickets and rough ground. If one doesn't get you or your mount, seems like the other would."
Corean Chronicles 3 - Scepters Page 21