The Lord-Protector offered a lopsided smile. "I have my doubts, Colonel, but you've more than fulfilled my request. Will you need an escort… to return?"
"That won't be necessary," Alucius replied. "Not this time." With a smile, he bowed and turned, walking toward the archway and the foyer beyond. He stepped to one side, where neither the Lord-Protector nor his consort could see him, and extended his Talent-probe toward the darkness below. Then he entered it.
The ley line's dark chill was welcome, and he could find the former Table building in Salaan with even less difficulty. He stepped through the silver veil almost directly in front of Wendra and Alendra.
He found he was hovering a span or so above the floor, and let himself down before releasing the Talent-link to the ley line.
"That was quick," Wendra observed. "But you don't look like much of a soarer, even soaring."
"I'll have to work on that. I'm an inexperienced soarer." Alucius grinned. "Have you finished feeding her? We need to see Feran."
"And then what?"
"I write out my resignation and make him commander, and then we ride home to the stead."
Wendra nodded. "That might be best. Alendra… she's beginning to sense too much, I think."
"I wouldn't mind spending some time just riding and talking to you."
"You'll have that." Wendra stood.
Alucius walked toward the doorway to let the lancers know they had returned.
Chapter 161
Tempre, Lanachrona
« ^ »
Talryn paced back and forth in front of the sideboard, refusing to look at Alerya. She remained sitting on the loveseat. Her expression was pleasantly composed.
The Lord-Protector stopped, then looked at his consort and wife. "You think it's amusing, don't you?"
Alerya tried to maintain her composure before breaking into a wide smile. "It is, if you think about it, Talryn."
"That man—if he even is a man—has more Talent-power than the rest of the world. He can appear without notice and leave the same way. He radiates power. I'm sure you sensed that. He really didn't give me any choices at all. None at all, and I've been more than kind to him from the beginning."
"You're upset because he told you, very politely, that you were on your own, that you'd have to solve your problems without him. After what he's been through, do you blame him? Would you have wanted to do what he's done?" She raised her eyebrows.
Talryn glared at his consort. "I'm glad you think it's amusing."
"It is. You're behaving like a little boy who's had his favorite toy taken away. Or like a child who's discovered that his once-little friend has grown larger, stronger, and quicker. And you don't like it. You like giving favors. You don't like having to receive them."
"Me?"
"You." She laughed. "You said you loved me for my terrible honesty. I'm being terribly honest. He's made sure we could have a son; he's removed Madrien and Aellyan Edyss as threats and gotten rid of that terrible Enyll. He saved Southgate for you, and he's rebuilt the Northern Guard for you. And now, instead of taking your throne, he's leaving you alone." Her eyes fixed on him. "He's also a reminder that you'd better act thoughtfully and carefully, and for that you should be most grateful."
"For that?"
"For that," she repeated. "You don't want to end up like Waleryn or the Matrial, do you?"
Silence stretched out between the two of them.
"I suppose I should be grateful for all that," Talryn finally conceded. "But I don't feel grateful."
Alerya rose from the love seat. "I am. You should be. You will be." She took his hands in hers. "We owe him. Let him be."
Talryn nodded, then smiled warmly, as she bent forward and her lips brushed his cheek.
Chapter 162
« ^ »
In the twilight, Alucius and Wendra reined up outside the headquarters building of the Northern Guard.
Alucius turned in the saddle. "Noer, if one of you would see my wife to the quarters… Then you can return to your duties."
The lancer looked at the gray-haired figure who had led the half squad from Fifth Company back from Salaan—and the woman beside him. In the dim illumination of twilight, both stood out, almost as if the faintest of light-torches shown from within them.
"Yes, sir." Noer nodded.
Alucius dismounted and tied the borrowed mount to the post. "I need to spend a few moments with Majer Feran."
"I'll be in the quarters," Wendra replied.
Alucius climbed the steps effortlessly and opened the door, stepping into the building and closing the door after him.
"Colonel! You're back!" Roncar jumped to his feet.
"Like a clipped coin," replied Alucius dryly.
Feran appeared at the doorway of his study. A half smile crossed his face.
Alucius gestured. "We have a few things to discuss."
"I imagine." Feran followed Alucius, closing the study door behind him.
Alucius settled into the chair behind the table desk and waited for Feran to sit down. Then he looked at Feran. "Congratulations, Colonel. Or Colonel-to-be."
"You're still colonel."
"Not for much longer. I'll be writing my letter of resignation. It's better this way. I never wanted to be colonel. I just want to go back to the stead. You can blame all the bad decisions on me, and everyone will be far happier with a solid career officer at the head of the Northern Guard. You can serve for another five or ten years, get a good stipend, and probably find a lovely woman in the process. And the only truly daunting chore you'll have is to train a successor. Since we got rid of the worst of the captains and overcaptains…"
"You herders…" Feran shook his head.
"Do you really think anyone wants me back?" Alucius asked. "Besides you, maybe?"
"You're a hero. I don't know what you've been doing, but whatever it was, I'd wager it worked."
"Oh, it worked," Alucius admitted. "You won't have any trouble with any of the traders or the Talent-twisted. The Lord-Protector has agreed to let you move the Guard to Iron Stem. The torques of Madrien don't work, and they won't ever work again. The Lord-Protector has promised not to change the customs in Lanachrona. Lustrea and Deforya are still a mess… but they're far enough away that they won't be a problem for a while. Oh… and none of the Tables work, and they won't."
"How did all this come to pass?" Feran's tone was dry and detached.
"It just happened," Alucius said blandly.
"I don't think so. You're the hero. The one in the old poem."
"I doubt that," Alucius replied. "But even if I were, heroes don't make good commanders. Neither do herders. We're loners by nature, and everyone can tell that. I've created enough unrest. After we finish, I'll write out my resignation as colonel, and my recommendation that you succeed me. It will be accepted. If you have trouble… send me a message."
Alucius saw no point in saying that the Lord-Protector had already agreed.
"Just like that?"
"Just like that," Alucius replied.
Feran laughed, a sound rilled with humor, irony, and sadness. "You've done great and terrible things, Colonel. You've done them in ways that no one who wasn't there will ever believe."
"That's probably for the best," Alucius replied.
"What will you do?"
"Run the stead, and whatever else needs to be done." Including exploring and learning from the Hidden City. And spending time with Wendra and Alendra.
"I suppose it really is for the best," mused Feran. "For you, too. You're changed. I can see it. Whatever you've done, even just what I've seen, being a mere colonel would be a letdown." Feran smiled sadly. "In a way, I suppose it's almost a tragedy."
"A tragedy?" questioned Alucius.
"It is when you've been covered in glory, saved three lands, and defeated every foe in battle, and probably done more that I don't know, all before you've turned thirty years."
"You mean before I had a chance to truly grow up?" Alucius's words held
gentle irony. "It may be better that way. I don't have to spend the rest of my life seeking glory… or whatever." He smiled at Feran. "You don't either, you know? Just be solid in the way you are."
Feran smiled in return. "I can always threaten to call you back." He paused. "For Fifth Company, maybe for all the Guard, I'll be Colonel Feran. You'll be 'The Colonel.' "
Alucius shrugged helplessly. "After I write the resignation, we'll get Wendra and go over to Elyset's for supper."
"So long as you pay, You're still colonel until the Lord-Protector accepts that resignation." Feran grinned at Alucius.
Chapter 163
« ^
Twilight had just fallen across the Iron Valleys when Alucius, Wendra, and Alendra reached the point on the high road where they turned off onto the lane leading to the stead. When Alucius and Wendra had stopped at the cooperage in Iron Stem, Kyrial and Clerynda had been glad to see Wendra and Alendra, and even Alucius. But there had been a reserve, far more than with Feran… or with the Lord-Protector. Alucius had considered that reserve as they had ridden northward on the ancient high road, and finally he spoke. "Your parents were relieved to see us, but almost as relieved to see us off."
"Of course… they never thought their daughter would marry the hero or the lamaial. They just thought you'd be a good herder who would give back the heritage of the land to their daughter, and that we'd just be a good little herder couple. They don't know what happened, and they don't want to know, and they're afraid they might learn. They can tell that I've killed people, and worse, and it frightens them. Daughters aren't supposed to do that." Wendra patted a complaining Alendra. "It isn't that much farther, little one, not that much farther."
"Feran said the same thing, when we met while you were tending Alendra. Before dinner. He said I was the hero. I never did understand that poem. Not really," Alucius said. "I certainly wasn't a hero. I did what I could, and I was fortunate."
"There were more than a few who wanted to be the hero, dear one," she replied. "The barbarian in Illegya, the Matrial and the Regent, the Praetor, even that ifrit…"
"Tarolt," Alucius supplied.
"That wasn't what the poem was about," Wendra continued.
"What was it about?" asked Alucius. "Besides a dream about restoring the faded glory of the past, a glory that wasn't really ever there?"
"What is a hero?" she countered.
"Heroes are the people that everyone recognizes."
"That doesn't define a hero."
"You tell me."
"Someone willing to sacrifice himself for other people. In a way, the soarers were heroes. They sacrificed themselves for us, for all of us. We didn't make any sacrifices like that," Wendra pointed out.
"What's the point of sacrificing…" Alucius suddenly broke off as he understood. "That's it."
"What is?" This time Wendra looked puzzled.
"The ifrits believed that survival justified any action, and they would sacrifice any world and any people for their way of life. The soarers believed that no sacrifice was too great to maintain life as it had been. They were both wrong."
"You're saying that the poem was wrong, too."
"Maybe… it was meant to be wrong." Alucius shifted his weight in the saddle, looking ahead toward a stead still out of eyesight. "It doesn't ever say whether the hero or the lamaial was in the right, now that I think about it."
Wendra laughed. "We won't ever know that."
"In a way, in one way, the ifrits were right," mused Alucius. "So were the soarers, and neither really saw it."
"Oh?" Wendra's tone was light.
"There's no one living who is not but a lodger upon the land. We are born, we strive, and we pass. You can only tend and pass on the land."
"So philosophical."
"So much a herder," he countered.
"That's why we're riding home, instead of using the ley lines. But, for all that, your mother was right. You are the soarer's child."
Alucius looked at Wendra. "The old song—it's Alendra's as well." Before Wendra could reply, he recited the last part of the words, slowly.
"But the soarer's child praise the most,
for she will rout the sanders' host,
and raise the lost banners high
under the green and silver sky."
"You say that well."
"You said I was a soarer. So are you. What does that make her?"
Wendra turned in the saddle, her smile and eyes bright. "Ours. The land's."
In the darkening sky to the east, just above the Aerial Plateau, both Asterta and Selena shone full across the Iron Valleys, and across the stead just ahead of the three riders. Three riders coming home.
Corean Chronicles 3 - Scepters Page 72