In turn, Waleryn smiled, and concentrated.
A miniature image of the grid that he had called up moments earlier appeared, seemingly deep within the Table. Waleryn looked at the image in the Table—that of Trezun—and made a gesture.
Trezun nodded and extended a long-fingered hand. The grid shimmered and vanished.
Both figures smiled.
Then the Table blanked, returning to its silvery reflective surface.
Waleryn took a long, deep breath, then blotted his forehead, before turning away from the Table, which continued to glow after he left the chamber.
83
After leaving Zalt, Alucius and the three companies rode for another five days. As they crossed the warm and dry grasslands southwest of Zalt, lands that verged on desert, he was glad that he had insisted on taking an extra day of rest at Zalt for the lancers—and their mounts. He was also grateful for the maps and his studies of them, because he was able to plan their stops to take advantage of the former Matrite way stations—and their wells. Both way stations and wells were useful in the lands to the southwest, especially during fall, because, as Alucius recalled, the early weeks of autumn were especially dry. The rains would not come until close to the turn of the new year—and winter.
In the late morning on Tridi, Rakalt came riding back down the high road, pulling his mount in beside Alucius.
“What is it?” asked Alucius.
“Looked to be Southern Guard scouts, sir. Except it’s a full squad, almost a road patrol.”
“It probably is. They may be worried that the Matrites are coming this way. We’d better bring out the banners, fly them up front in the van.” Alucius turned to Feran. “I think it would be best if Fifth Company moved into the middle, and we brought Thirty-fifth Company to the fore. Best we have Southern Guard uniforms up front and in the rear.”
“What happened to the trusting young officer I once knew?” asked Feran.
“He vanished about five injuries ago,” replied Alucius. “He also still doesn’t fully trust the intelligence of some Southern Guards.”
“That’s wise.”
“Column, halt!”
The order echoed back. Shortly, Thirty-fifth Company had taken the van, and Jultyr rode beside Alucius. The two standard-bearers were a good fifty yards ahead, and Alucius had pulled back the scouts to only two hundred yards before the standards.
Before long in the distance on the high road, Alucius could see riders. Their approach was slow, and cautious, and it was a good half a glass before the Southern Guard squad leader reined up short of Alucius, who had halted his companies. The squad leader, with a fifteen-man squad drawn up farther back, was plainly confused at seeing both the Northern and Southern Guard banners, and a Northern Guard majer at the head of a Southern Guard force.
“Majer Alucius, squad leader. I’ve been dispatched personally by the Lord-Protector to report to Marshal Alyniat with these three companies.”
“Sir…I’m sure you’ll be more than welcome.”
“I’ve fought here before. That’s one reason why the Lord-Protector sent me,” Alucius said. While his words weren’t totally accurate, he didn’t feel like trying to explain in detail.
“Yes, sir.” The man still looked bewildered.
“I’m the one who fought the barbarians in Deforya several years back. Because I’ve worked with the Southern Guard, and there aren’t any more Southern Guard lancers to send besides these companies, the Lord-Protector sent me.” Alucius used his Talent to project reassurance.
The squad leader glanced to Jultyr, and his face relaxed, probably even before the Talent fully affected him.
“We just finished putting down the revolt in Hyalt, Kisner,” Jultyr explained. “The majer took out over a hundred by himself. Dropped a mountain on them. Set the charges and took ’em out.”
“The revolt’s over?”
“It’s dead. So are about a thousand rebels,” Jultyr pointed out.
“Good to hear one problem’s out of the way,” Kisner said.
“What does it look like ahead?” Alucius asked.
“The Matrites are pouring south from everywhere in the north.”
“Where is Marshal Alyniat?”
“We’re just a road patrol, sir. Out here to make sure they’re not flanking us. Last time we heard, the marshal was at the Fola high road fort. That’s about fifteen vingts north of the city.”
Thirteen and a half vingts, according to Alucius’s calculations. “Then that’s where we’ll be heading. Is the northeast ring road still clear?”
The squad leader’s face again reflected surprise. “Ah…yes, sir.”
“That will make it easier to get to the marshal.”
“Yes, sirs.” Kisner nodded. “Wish you luck. We need to check farther east. Road back toward Southgate is clear. Least it was earlier, back five vingts.”
“Thank you, squad leader,” Alucius said. “Best on your patrol.”
After a last nod, Kisner and his squad headed eastward, along the shoulder of the high road and past the three companies.
Once the patrol squad was well away, Jultyr cleared his throat. “I apologize, sir, for that explanation. Seemed the only way to make it simple. Kisner’s a good man, but…he’s a fighting lancer. Known him for years.”
Alucius understood. “Thank you. It made it easier.” He had no doubts that dealing with Alyniat would be much harder, especially if he intended to keep his companies from being squandered in useless fighting.
84
Midmorning on Qattri brought Alucius and his force to the Southern Guard encampment that surrounded the southeast high road fort.
Along the way, Alucius had decided on his approach. There was no sense in merely putting himself and his companies under the command of some colonel and being ordered to destroy as many Matrites as possible. Not when the crystal spear-throwers remained. Without them, as events had proved twice, the Matrites could be handled. With them, the odds were too great that the Lanachronans would lose everything and be pushed out of Southgate—if not slaughtered in massive numbers. So Alucius and his companies had to destroy the replicas of the ancient weapons, if only to avoid being among those slaughtered by them.
That meant the companies had to get Alucius close enough that he could destroy the weapons. How? That he didn’t know, but he did know that when the sanders had attacked the Matrites in Soulend, the sanders had used Talent of some sort to destroy the first crystal spear-thrower. So it could be done. He had to hold on to that thought. The soarers had told him—and shown him—that he could do what they did, and they could do more than the sanders. His problem was that he didn’t know how…and would have to learn by trying.
According to the maps and histories that Alucius had studied, Southgate was surrounded by an irregular arc of hills, and the early seltyrs of Southgate had used slave labor to build up the low spots between the hills and create a stone ring road linking the small hillside forts set at regular intervals along the road. There were two main forts, the one where the southwest high road intersected the ring road, and the one to the west where the coastal—or Fola—high road intersected the ring road.
When Alucius and his force neared the ring road around Southgate, just about midmorning, he could see the road cut ahead. To the right, on the ridge crest, was a large stone-walled fort. To the left was a smaller one. Thick walls ran down from each fort to massive gates, ironbound gates, open for the moment, as Alucius’s force rode closer.
A single rider rode toward them, pausing and talking to the banner bearers, and then riding toward Alucius and Jultyr. The rider was a senior squad leader, and Alucius could sense his anxiety as he neared the column.
“Column, halt!” Alucius waited.
“Sir? Your orders, sir?”
Alucius rode forward, and tendered the orders.
The squad leader read them, before handing them back. “Sir…you’ll have to wait a moment. Undercaptain Girynst will be right here.”<
br />
“We’ve got a ways to go, squad leader.” Alucius could sense some apprehension, and tension, but nothing he would have considered dangerous—but he still worried.
“Yes, sir. I know, sir.”
The squad leader rode back and disappeared into the fortifications surrounding the gates, which remained open.
Alucius studied the hills or ridges that stretched northwest and southeast from the high road. The hills themselves looked like ramparts, even without walls upon them. Then he switched his attention to the gates, but nothing happened except that an undercaptain rode out toward them—alone.
“Sir, your name?”
“Majer Alucius, Northern Guard, commanding Fifth Company, Northern Guard, and Twenty-eighth and Thirty-fifth Companies of the Southern Guard.”
“Might I see your orders again, sir?”
Curbing his irritation, Alucius handed the orders back over.
The undercaptain read the orders, then checked the seals against something he carried, and the orders against something else before handing the orders back. “I apologize, sir, but orders are orders, sir.”
“I understand.” Alucius understood that people felt that way, but had he or any inventive commander wanted to get through the Lanachronan defenses, there were far easier ways. The ring road was lightly defended most of its length, as opposed to the fortified points at the high road intersections.
“Do you know where you’re headed, sir?”
“Only generally, Undercaptain. I know we’re supposed to report directly to Marshal Alyniat, and that the ring road west will take us to the coast road fort, and that’s where he is and we’re supposed to be.”
“Yes, sir. You ride through the gates here, and then, about a half vingt beyond them, you take the stone road to the right. At the top of the hill it joins the ring road, and you turn left—that’s west—and keep going for…well, it’s close to fifteen vingts.”
“Thank you.”
“Yes, sir.”
Alucius nodded to Jultyr.
“Column, forward!”
Thirty-fifth Company rode forward, followed by the other two companies and the supply wagons. Passing the massive gates was almost like riding through a stone-walled trench, somehow oppressive, with ancient walls that had to have been built centuries before by the seltyrs of Southgate, or even by the Dramurian lords who had held Southgate before them. Alucius could sense the hidden lancers with rifles and was more than glad to have his forces through the walled road gap and riding uphill to the ridgeline hill road.
Once he reached the ridge top, and the main ring road on the northwest side of the road cut and the high road, Alucius looked back and studied the layout. The ring road split on each side of the road cut, one segment ending at a small fort on the east side of the high road, and a second segment angling gradually down to meet the high road a good half vingt to the south. The same pattern existed on the west side, where Alucius was, except that the one segment provided the entry to the larger ring road fort. The ring road itself was eight yards wide, and the stones showed signs of age, being worn down in spots, and in others showing shallow grooves from years of use by iron-tired wagons. On the flatter land below the larger road fort were tielines and tents—and mounts and men—possibly fifteen companies, if not twenty.
The hills on which the ring road had been built were covered with brown grass waving in the light breeze and occasional patches of scrub oak, but clearly, to Alucius’s eyes, they had been kept clear of trees and taller vegetation. With the two banners before the companies, after the interrogation by the undercaptain, no one at the eastern fort had even come out as Alucius had ridden past. While a respite would have been welcome, he knew all too well that some colonel would try to order him where he didn’t want to go. That would happen soon enough, Alucius knew.
The ring road from the east slowly swung from angling northwest to heading due west and then, after more than ten vingts, began to descend along a ridge toward the fort guarding the coast high road leading into Southgate. Even from more than a vingt away, Alucius could see the tents and tielines of the Southern Guard on the back side of the hill and in the valley to the south of the ring road.
“Must be fifty companies here, sir,” observed Jultyr, riding to Alucius’s left.
“And twenty to the east.” Alucius took a deep swallow from his water bottle. The afternoon sun beat down on him through a clear sky, providing a warmth that reminded him just how far south he had come.
As they neared the fort itself, Alucius saw that the ring road again followed the same pattern as with the more eastern fort. The thick walls overlooked a road cut where the high road passed between two sides of the ridge. The stonework and fortifications that ran down the sides of the cut to the massive gates—as well as the gates themselves—had obviously been built after the high road, since none of their construction was eternastone.
Alucius and his force were no more than two hundred yards from the stone gates to the road fort when several riders made their way up the angled section of the ring road from the camp area below the ring road and to the left. A captain and a colonel were followed by two lancers.
“You want to stop, Majer?”
“Not until they’re almost on us.”
They only covered another fifty yards before Alucius ordered, “Column, halt!”
Then he waited as the colonel reined up five yards away.
“Good to see you, Majer. Colonel Hubar. You’ll be under my command, and—”
“No, sir,” Alucius smiled politely. “My orders place me directly under the marshal and no one else. If Marshal Alyniat is not here, or is unable to command, I’ve been accorded equal command status with the remaining senior officer.” Alucius held out the sheet with the orders. “These are very specific.”
“I don’t think you understand, Majer. All officers are directed to report to the marshal. You should know that. But seeing as you’re from the Northern Guard…”
“Sir, I’d like to suggest that you read these orders.” Alucius tried to project a sense of reasonableness he didn’t feel.
“Majer, I’ve read orders for years. They’re all the same, and I really don’t have time to debate about it. You’re under my command.”
“No, sir. In the north, we read orders before we decide.” Alucius smiled pleasantly.
“Majer…I must insist.”
“Colonel, I must defer. I’ve read my orders, and you haven’t.”
“You’re subordinate…and you’ll behave…”
Alucius reached out with his Talent and squeezed the colonel’s lifethread, very gently.
The man turned red, then blue. After a moment, he looked at Alucius, fear and anger warring on his face.
“I’m not arguing, Colonel. I’m carrying out the Lord-Protector’s orders. Now…can you direct me toward the marshal?”
“You…”
“For what it’s worth, I’m the third most senior officer in the Northern Guard. We’re not exactly blessed with colonels and marshals. The Lord-Protector knows that, and he personally requested my presence here. Now…Marshal Alyniat?”
“You can’t take Southern Guards…”
“I also hold a commission in the Southern Guard. Would you like to see that?” Alucius’s voice was like ice, and he projected absolute power and authority.
The colonel looked coldly at Alucius. “I suppose you have some experience.”
Alucius sighed, loudly. “I’m Majer Alucius. For what it’s also worth, I’m the one who destroyed Aellyan Edyss. I’m the one who got the last Star of Honor from the Lord-Protector, and I’m the one who just squashed the revolt in Hyalt. And if you put up one more objection, you’ll be answering to both the marshal and the Lord-Protector—if there are enough pieces of you left for either to find.” Alucius couldn’t quite contain the rage he was trying to suppress, despite his efforts to remain civil.
The colonel’s face turned ashen. For a moment, he just swallowed. Final
ly, he spoke. “I apologize, Majer. I spoke in haste. We’re very hard-pressed here.”
“I understand,” Alucius replied, far more gently. “That’s why we made haste to get here, and that’s why we were given a special assignment. I doubt you or your men would want it. Marshal Alyniat?”
“He’s…” The colonel took a deep breath. “He’s in the fort. Second level.”
As they rode on, Alucius could hear a few of the low murmurs, first from the captain,
“…who…he think he is?”
“…just who he said…be either dead or untouchable in a week…”
Alucius suspected the first was more likely, but death was certain if he did not stick to his own plans.
Then came the murmurs from Thirty-fifth Company, so low that he could not have heard them without Talent.
“…never seen that before…colonel turned white…”
“…beginning to see why they sent him…”
“…colonel…he’ll never forgive…”
“…last majer and colonel tangled with him…one’s stipended…other’s dead…”
Alucius had to wonder how someone in the ranks knew that Jorynst had been stipended out, but then, as a ranker, he’d known more than a few things officers had wished he hadn’t.
“The Northern Guard doesn’t like fools, does it?” asked Jultyr.
“We’ve had our share of them,” Alucius said dryly. “That’s why I don’t care for them. That’s also why I left active service.”
“Is it true…you’re the third highest officer in the Northern Guard?”
“Actually, I was talking faster than I thought,” Alucius admitted. “I’m the fourth most senior.”
Jultyr chuckled. “That’d make you a majer-colonel or a submarshal in the Southern Guard.”
“We’re a little smaller. Just twenty companies of lancers.” Alucius considered. “But the Iron Valleys were only about a quarter the size of Lanachrona before the union.”
The west road fort had not been built to house large numbers of lancers or their mounts. Even before he reached the gates, Alucius could tell that the stables could not have held more than a company, and the narrow barracks perhaps twice that. The walls were of an old graystone, and there were more than a few places where stones had been replaced. Then, as Alucius recalled, at least three different lands had ruled Southgate in the past five centuries.
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