Corean Chronicles 3 - Scepters

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  Alucius waited at the door for Wendra and Alendra, then closed it behind them. It thudded shut with a heavy dullness.

  Dhaget had their mounts saddled and waiting, but after putting the saddlebags in place, Alucius took a moment to check everything before slipping the rifles into their cases. Wendra had already mounted by the time he finished. As the two squads began to form up in the darkness, Alucius and Wendra began to infuse the cartridges of first squad with lifeforce darkness.

  "That's not tiring you, is it?" he asked.

  "Dear… I'm fine."

  Alucius winced. Somehow, it was different with Wendra accompanying him. She was more capable than most of the lancers, if not all of them, and yet… he couldn't help worrying.

  "If I fussed over you," she whispered quietly, leaning toward him, "the way you are over me, you'd have removed my head a good glass ago."

  He flushed, glad that it was dim enough in the courtyard that she could not see. "I'm sorry," he finally replied, in a low voice.

  "You don't have to be sorry. Just don't do it anymore."

  Alucius couldn't help smiling.

  Faisyn reined up, less than three yards away. "First and second squads are present and ready, Colonel."

  "Thank you, Faisyn. I'd like to say a few words to them before we head out."

  "Yes, sir." Faisyn turned his mount. "Listen up. Colonel's got a few words for you!"

  Alucius urged the chestnut forward, then reined up, waiting for the last murmurs to die away before speaking, using a touch of Talent to boost his voice and project absolute conviction. "As some of you may know, I was on a mission for the Lord-Protector, trying to find out some things. What I discovered is that a trader here has Talent, just like the prophet. This trader was the one who trained the prophet, and he was the one who corrupted Colonel Weslyn, They've been working to weaken the Northern Guard so that the Regent can move into parts of the Iron Valleys. This morning, your job is simple. You're to make sure that no one escapes from the trader's stronghold. These people are like the prophet's lancers. They'll keep coming and try to kill you until they're dead. They're about as evil and as low as anyone can be, and they've done just about everything they can to weaken the Guard and get you and the other lancers killed off so that they could make a few golds. We're going to put a stop to it. When we get where we're going, senior squad leader Faisyn will deploy you so that you can cover all the entrances to the stronghold. Under no circumstances are you to leave your group. That's all." Alucius turned to Faisyn. "Let's head out."

  "Colonel's detail, form on the colonel."

  Four lancers rode forward, headed by Dhaget and Fewal, moving in behind Alucius and Wendra. Once they were in position, Alucius urged the big chestnut toward the gates. Wendra kept pace.

  "Squads, forward! Silent riding! Silent riding!"

  The small force rode through Dekhron, toward the River Vedra bridge. Outside of insects, and the occasional squalling of a stray cat, or the barking of a dog, the loudest sound was that of hoofs on the street, a clicking that sharpened once they turned onto the eternastone high road north of the bridge.

  Selena had set shortly after sunset, but the tiny green disc of Asterta was close to its zenith as Alucius reached the midpoint of the bridge. Was that a sign? With a wry smile, Alucius dismissed it as mere coincidence.

  Few as the lamps were in Dekhron, by comparison, Salaan was totally dark, and Alucius had to rely on both his Talent and his herder's night-sight to pick out the side road leading toward the Table building—and the scepters within. All the time, Asterta stood high in the predawn sky, symbol of the ancient goddess of war, a tiny, bright green disc shedding little light.

  As Alucius led his force away off the side road and westward along the lane toward the eastern end of the orchard that bordered the Table building, the faintest trace of gray had begun to appear above the eastern horizon. They had ridden only a few hundred yards down the lane when Alucius turned in the saddle and whispered, "Faisyn!"

  "Sir…"

  "Here's where we leave you. You know what to do. Don't let anyone get close to you and the men, and don't let them escape. If you shoot someone, leave them where they fall."

  "Yes, sir."

  Alucius turned the chestnut to the south, leading the way across the meadow toward the dip in the hillside. Tarolt's Table building was almost a vingt to the southwest from the point he and Wendra had picked out. When they reached the base of the low hills, Alucius guided the chestnut up the swale, extending his Talent sense, trying to seek out the ley lines beneath the clay and rock of the hillside.

  Halfway up, he reined the chestnut to a halt. "This is as close as we can ride."

  "Yes, sir."

  After he dismounted, Alucius handed the chestnut's reins to Dhaget, while Wendra handed those of her roan to Fewal. Alucius took both his rifles from their cases, then looked up at Dhaget. "This could be over in a glass, or it could take half a day. If you see anyone coming from the building to the west, shoot them. Otherwise, just wait."

  "Yes, sir." Dhaget's voice held a slight question.

  "We're going to try to enter through a hidden underground entrance. You can't do it unless you're a herder or have Talent."

  "Yes, sir."

  Alucius looked to Wendra and Alendra. Their daughter was awake, peering through the predawn dimness, but making only slight gurgling sounds.

  "We'll walk up a ways."

  Wendra nodded.

  After about thirty yards, Alucius stopped. "Can you feel them?" He hooked the second rifle to the makeshift clip on his belt.

  "I think we're close enough."

  "We'll try to come out on the east end of the Table room, and you'll have to be ready to fire the moment you can… If we don't have time to reload, we drop under and come back here."

  "I'm taking whichever side I'm on, and you're taking the other?"

  "That's right."

  Alucius concentrated on letting a Talent-probe weave through the ground beneath him, seeking a firm contact with the misty blackness of the ley lines beneath. As he probed, he was ever more aware of Wendra's presence. He brought up the rifle into a firing position, knowing that he would emerge in that same position. Wendra followed his example.

  Alendra gurgled happily.

  "There…" he murmured, as his probe touched and linked to the darkness below.

  "Me too."

  Alucius felt himself merging with the blackness beneath and with the hillside as he dropped down toward the ley line. He could sense Wendra and Alendra as well, even as they reached the chill darkness that they would travel such a short distance. Above them was the purpled hard blackness of the ifrit's translation tube, and ahead were the maroon and green of the Table and the purple pinkness of the scepter and the portal it created. The silvery barrier wavered before him, and he could make out two ifrits beyond the Table.

  Silver splashed away from him…

  His finger tightened on the trigger, but he had to take a half step to steady himself.

  Crack! Crack! Wendra had gotten there first and was already firing.

  Crack! Alucius's first shot took the ifrit on the left, for he was to the left of his wife, squarely in the chest. The ifrit man staggered.

  The second shot went through the broad forehead.

  The other ifrit dropped.

  Another figure in purple and maroon scrambled down the steps—and dropped as both Alucius and Wendra fired together.

  A fourth ifrit appeared, and a line of blue flame flared toward Alucius.

  Wendra's shot knocked the ifrit off balance, and Alucius jabbed a Talent-probe toward the weapon. The weapon flared purple, and Wendra's second shot dropped the ifrit.

  "Reload now!" Alucius said.

  Wendra deftly slipped the cartridges from her belt into the magazine while Alucius covered the steps, probing with his Talent to find how many other ifrits remained. He hadn't thought that Tarolt had been among those who had rushed them.

  "Yo
u now," Wendra said.

  Alucius reloaded quickly, but the stairwell remained empty, although he could sense five other ifrits somewhere on the upper levels. He edged forward around the left side of the Table while Wendra took the right side.

  "The Table…" murmured Wendra.

  Alucius didn't have to look. He could sense a well of force rising from the oblong beside him, force linking to an ifrit.

  Pinkish purple filled the stairwell, a shimmering crystalline curtain.

  "Don't shoot," Alucius murmured. "Not at the pink. It'll throw the bullet back at us."

  "What…?"

  "Darkness. Lifeforce darkness… we need to surround it."

  The purple-pink shield bulged into the Table chamber. Behind it came an ifrit, a male figure taller and broader than any Alucius had seen, an ifrit almost as large as the oversized statue in the Table chamber in Dulka.

  "Most ingenious… especially for Talent-poor steers. Use your weapons…"

  Alucius flung a web of blackness across the purple shield, blocking the ifrit from view, but that blackness began to fade, and the purpleness began to shine through the blackness, slowly dissolving it.

  "The scepter!" Wendra pointed toward the side of the table. "He's drawing on it."

  "Can you use blackness against it?" Alucius asked.

  Wendra's face tightened. Alendra whimpered.

  A line of purple flame flared toward Wendra.

  Both Alucius and Wendra raised green black shields, stopping the jolt of power, but Alucius ended up taking a step backward, so great was the pressure. He glanced sideways to see that Wendra also had been forced back.

  Before the ifrit could direct another flare of purple at them, Alucius aimed a black Talent javelin at the ifrit's shield, flinging it with all the force possible. The shield shivered… contracted, and then expanded to fling the blackness away from it, back toward Alucius, thrusting him against the wall.

  Even wearing nightsilk, Alucius could feel the impact of stone against his back.

  "Link to… the ley lines," suggested Wendra. "Not to the world, but… lifeforce. Draw directly…" The words were forced out, as if against great pressure.

  Another purple spear flared toward them. Alucius managed to parry it, and the energy slammed into the wall beside him. Droplets of molten stone splattered around him. One burned the back of his hand.

  The purple pink shield grew brighter, and hot like a summer sun, then even hotter. Waves of heat surged toward Wendra and Alucius.

  Alucius linked to the blackness beneath them, the blackness of the ley lines, with all his Talent, letting the lifeforce flow through him, and around the scepter beside Wendra. He could feel her linking into the lifeforce—all the lifeforce of Corus.

  Darkness welled out and through them, creating a wall of blackness that blocked the sunlike blaze that had heated the air in the Table chamber so much that each breath burned.

  Alucius found himself coughing while still trying to channel the dark lifeforce of Corns itself from the ley lines and the world into the wall of greenish blackness that he and Wendra had built—a wall of lifeforce that had finally halted the progress of the blazing purple shield. Even so, the air in the Table chamber remained stifling.

  The purple shield pulsed.

  Alucius and Wendra pressed back.

  "We… can't let him… get to the Table," Wendra panted.

  "He's strong."

  Alucius pressed more darkness against the shield, and around the unshielded scepter, trying to deny its force to the ifrit. Wendra followed his example.

  Sweat poured from Alucius's forehead, and he felt as though he had been carrying chests filled with lead.

  Abruptly, the purpleness shivered.

  Alucius lifted his rifle, waiting, adding more darkness to the cartridge in the chamber and those in the magazine.

  Dark purpleness exploded away from the stairwell and the entry to the Table chamber, revealing the looming purple figure who held a light-cutter.

  Alucius fired first, one shot right after the other. Both slammed into the ifrit's suddenly revealed forehead, and he toppled forward. Flame filled the stairwell with such intensity that the stone walls glowed for a moment.

  Holding his rifle ready, and ignoring the other rifle's impact against his knees, Alucius charged past the table and over the bodies of the ifrits. The heat from the stone walls of the staircase was so great that the sweat on Alucius's forehead and neck evaporated instantly before he was halfway up the steps.

  As he neared the top of the stairs he saw another figure and fired. Once more, the ifrit's garments stopped the bullet, but the impact staggered the woman. Alucius used the last two shots in the rifle to stop her.

  Wendra, following him up the stairs, fired past his shoulder, and yet another ifrit dropped.

  There were words in another tongue, coming from the foyer beyond the conference room. Alucius thought he understood them, not knowing how or why. He edged up beside the archway into the foyer, less than three yards from the ifrits, but protected by the internal stone walls of the building.

  "The ancient ones!"

  "Do something!"

  "They can't stand against the light-cutters…"

  Alucius leaned the empty first rifle against the wall and wrenched the second from its clip, cocking it as he did, and extending his Talent to the foyer, where three ifrits had raised weapons—the ones that used light to cut through everything.

  Wendra eased against the wall beside him.

  With a cold smile, Alucius extended a Talent-probe, quickly unlinking the crystalline linkages within each weapon. "Can you reload?" he whispered.

  "Just a moment."

  Even before she had slipped the magazine back into place, Alucius had determined where the three stood.

  "We'll try unraveling them…"

  Two Talent-probes snaked around the edge of the archway, then arrowed toward the three remaining ifrits.

  Alucius could feel the jolt as his probe struck the Talent-armor of the ifrit. He just slipped around that and arrowed toward the ifrit's main node. Purple light flared, and the edge of the archway boiled away, rock and glass droplets clinking like rain on the stone entry foyer flooring.

  Wendra was far more deft than Alucius, and in instants, one of the ifrits shuddered and toppled forward. Moments later, the second shuddered and fell.

  The third turned, and started to wrench the doorway open.

  Alucius leapt clear of the archway, lifted his rifle and fired. It took three shots before the last ifrit lay on the floor.

  He continued to study the building with eyes, ears, and Talent.

  "There's no one left," Wendra said dully.

  "We need to move the scepters out of sight. There's a hidden room."

  "Like the others off the Table chambers?"

  "Yes." Alucius paused. "Are you all right? Is Alendra…"

  "We're all right. I think… she's a little… awed… stunned… something… she senses Talent already, I think, but she doesn't know what it is."

  Alucius waited.

  "You're used to this. With people, I mean. I've killed sandwolves, and sanders…" She shook her head. "It was all so fast. There were ten ifrits… people… and they're dead. I know we had to… but… they are dead, and they thought they were doing what was right for them."

  "They probably thought that." Alucius nodded back toward the staircase back to the Table chamber. Absently, he blotted his sweating forehead. He hadn't noticed it before, but the rooms were hot, almost stifling, and the stove in the conference room was pouring forth heat.

  "It is hot."

  "The soarers said that their world was warmer." Alucius moved past the circular table, where several crystal mugs remained, half full with a clear liquid. He started down the steps, avoiding the two bodies, and then reentered the Table chamber, moving past the other bodies.

  As Wendra had indicated, there were two boxes against the northern side of the Table. One was metallic bla
ck and silver—a match to the empty casket still embedded in the rock in Dereka—and the second was a simple wooden case, through which Alucius could sense the purple-pink pulsing power of the scepter that had been the basis of the powers of the Matrial and the Regent.

  "Can you open that door?" Alucius asked. "The hidden one?"

  Wendra moved to the light-torch bracket and twisted it. Nothing happened. She frowned, then concentrated.

  "There's some sort of Talent-lock on this," she finally said. "They've wrapped Talent around it."

  "Can you undo it? Dissolve it with darkness?"

  "I think so… I've got it." The section of stone wall silently slid open.

  "Wait a moment." Alucius used his Talent to check the passageway and the chamber beyond, but he detected no one.

  The two eased into the two-yard-wide corridor and followed it to the single chamber at the end. A weapons rack, holding a single light-cutter and brackets for twelve more, was the only thing affixed to the walls. A sturdy long table, holding five chests, was set against the wall to the left.

  Wendra opened one of the chests, then stepped back. "It's filled… with golds."

  "I thought there might be something like this." Alucius set his rifle against the wall. "I'll carry the chests out, and the scepters in, then we'll close this up." He looked at Wendra. "Once I do, could you put Talent around it, in the way that the ifrits or the soarers did? A Talent-lock of sorts?"

  "I can try."

  Alucius lifted the first chest, carrying it out, then returning with the black and silver scepter casket, far heavier than it looked. He was sweating profusely by the time he had finished moving chests and scepters. After that, he reclaimed one of his rifles and watched with his Talent as Wendra closed the secret stone door and Talent-locked it, so that merely turning the light-torch bracket would not open the hidden door.

  "Now… we'll have to tell the others."

  Wendra started for the steps.

  "No. We'll have to go back the way we came."

  "That's right." Wendra offered a wan smile. "You left orders to shoot anyone who left the building." She took a deep breath.

  Alucius started to link with the ley blackness before realizing that he was still linked.