Darknesses

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  After a half glass of silence, Alucius eased back away from the ledge and stood. “Twenty-first Company…back to barracks!”

  “Fifth Company…” echoed Feran.

  “Eleventh Company…” came from Koryt. “Fourth and fifth squads, hold. First, second, third squads, back to barracks until the next watch…”

  Alucius paused, waiting until the troopers passed him. He looked up into the night sky, still puzzled by an attack without the pteridons. Was it too difficult to fly in darkness, or was there some other reason? As he pondered, his eyes took in the greenish half-disc of Asterta, the moon of war and of the horse goddess. Did the nomads feel she favored them? Did it matter? He wondered how many more attacks there might be—and whether there really was another way out of Black Ridge. He hoped the scouts could find one, even as he considered, fitfully, how they might be able to attack and evade the nomad hordes.

  61

  After the attack, Alucius did not sleep well, even though there had not been another attack, and he ended up rising before dawn. He doubted many had slept that well. There were circles under his eyes as he ate a breakfast moments after dawn, a breakfast prepared by the Deforyan cooks. That they had been left behind didn’t surprise Alucius, but little about the Deforyans did any longer.

  He ate silently, with Koryt, since Fifth Company was manning the ledge posts, and since Heald and Third Company were still on station manning the defenses on the trail to the north. He hadn’t even finished when he saw a trooper outside the mess room, looking at him. Leaving his platter, he hurried out.

  “Sir…Overcaptain sent me…lots of nomads on the old road to the north of Third Company…maybe ten or twelve companies.”

  As the messenger spoke, Draspyr appeared at Alucius’s shoulder, but the majer said nothing.

  “Thank you. Get yourself something to eat, then be ready to ride back. The majer and I will let you know what we’re doing.”

  “Yes, sir.” The round-faced trooper nodded, then hurried away, toward the troopers’ mess.

  “They’ll need reinforcements,” Draspyr said.

  Alucius had a feeling that the pteridons might well be used in the north—or in both places, but he couldn’t be in both places. After a moment, he replied. “I’d recommend that I take Twenty-first Company to support Third Company, and that Twenty-third Company and Eleventh Company remain here to support Fifth Company.”

  Draspyr gave a wry smile. “I thought that might be your answer. It would have been mine.”

  Alucius thought about explaining and decided against it. “We’ll be on our way as quickly as possible.”

  Draspyr nodded.

  Longyl was waiting as Alucius neared the barracks area. “Sir?”

  “Have them saddle up. We’re headed north to reinforce Third Company. They’re under attack.” Then he laughed, ruefully, at the inanity of the remark. They were under attack everywhere.

  In less than a quarter glass, the company was on the trail northward, with several packhorses, as well, carrying ammunition, water, and some rations. As he rode northward, with the sun barely clearing the sandstone escarpments to the east, Alucius kept scanning the skies, but he had not seen the pteridons. Twenty-first Company had covered slightly more than a vingt when his Talent-sense warned him. He glanced up, and to the west of the cliff, barely visible, were three pteridons flying overhead.

  Alucius nodded. He had been able to sense the purplish feel that underlay the pteridons, that strange similarity to the crystal that had powered the torques of the Matrial. Yet he knew the Matrites had not had any connections to the nomads. Was it just that certain kinds of Talent-use were shaded into the purple, and others into the green and black? Why? And was there any connection with the destruction and disappearance of the purple crystal and the appearance of the pteridons?

  “There they are, sir!” said Longyl, from behind Alucius.

  “Let’s hope Heald can get his men under cover.” Alucius urged Wildebeast into a faster walk, but he wasn’t about to move that much more quickly on the narrow way.

  One of the blue-winged creatures swooped downward, and a line of blue light flared from the metallic lance held by the rider. Alucius couldn’t see where the pteridon was headed, because his view was blocked by the way the trail curved, but he had no doubts that the creature was attacking Third Company.

  As Alucius and Twenty-first Company neared the beleaguered troopers, he could see that the pteridons—four of them—continued to circle and swoop, and send streams of the blue fire downward. He hoped that meant Heald had his men under cover.

  Another half glass passed, and, as Alucius rode around another curve, he could clearly see the promontory—clear of troopers, except for two blackened figures halfway down the slope. Heald had been careful enough to watch the skies, and his troopers were lined up flush against the sandstone cliff—safe from the pteridons but unable to cover the road.

  While the blue flame from the skylances splashed around the top of the cliff and fifteen yards from the base, the pteridons had not been able to fly close enough to allow their riders a direct aim at the troopers. But the troopers could not fire at either the pteridons and their riders, or at the nomads farther to the north, who were doubtless moving southward.

  Alucius also saw Third Company’s mounts, in a long line southward, against the cliff wall, also shielded from direct fire from the riders on the pteridons and watched by a handful of troopers. The last of the mounts was only a hundred yards ahead of Alucius. From where they circled high above, if trying to stay out of rifle range most of the time, swooping occasionally, the pteridons or their riders had not yet seen Twenty-first Company.

  “Company halt!” Alucius dismounted, and handed Wildebeast’s reins to Longyl. “Have them wait here, but have them ready rifles.”

  “Yes, sir. Ready, rifles.”

  After taking both rifles from their holders, Alucius walked another fifty yards northward along the narrow road-trail, keeping as close to the cliff wall as he could.

  Once he was far enough north so that he could get a clear sight, at least part of the time, on the pteridons, he took his time, watching the patterns, waiting—and infusing the cartridges in the magazine with darkness, the kind of darkness that came from him, from the stead, and from the healthy lifewebs of Corus.

  Then, he fired. Crack.

  The first pteridon tumbled out of the sky, careening downward, before striking the canyon to the north and the right of where Alucius stood. A flare of blue flame erupted—the heat reaching Alucius.

  He ignored the flame and concentrated on the second pteridon. That was harder, because the riders immediately changed their pattern and began to climb, circling upward and searching for the source of the attack on them.

  Alucius emptied the magazine of the first rifle and had taken two shots with the second weapon before a bullet struck the lowest and trailing pteridon. The wide blue wings folded…but Alucius could not see where the beast fell.

  A cheer rose from the troopers under the cliff to the west of the promontory. Alucius and Twenty-First Company watched as the pteridons headed southward.

  Before the cheer even died away, Heald called out, “Back to positions and ready to fire!”

  One of the troopers went down from the nomads’ fire as they scrambled back into position.

  “Twenty-first Company! Forward!” Alucius ordered.

  As Longyl rode forward, leading Wildebeast, Alucius put one rifle in the holder and mounted quickly.

  “Good shooting, sir.”

  “Very fortunate shooting,” Alucius acknowledged. “We’ll have to take our mounts past those of Third Company, probably all the way to where the wagon blocks the trail.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Alucius couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy as they rode past the Third Company mounts, because he was close enough to the edge of the way cut from the solid and ancient lava that he could easily look down, and “down” was several thousand yards of
a sheer drop. He pulled Wildebeast in right in front of the first of the Third Company horses, where he dismounted and looked to the young trooper from Eleventh Company.

  “I’ll watch him, sir.”

  “Thank you.” Alucius climbed up the slope enough to be clear of the trail, then moved eastward, well below Heald’s troopers, who were firing almost continuously, then continued eastward, waiting until Twenty-first Company came to a halt below. “First and second squads! Dismount and take your rifles. Up the slope to reinforce Third Company!” Alucius looked at Longyl. “Hold the others here until I see what we need and where.”

  Longyl nodded.

  Alucius scrambled up across the sandstone, but carefully. The entire trail was filled with nomads—on foot—and the first handful was less than fifty yards from the wagon. He knelt just below the crest of the natural stone rampart. “Twenty-first Company! First squad on me! Prone position!” He waited only until the troopers scrambled into position. “Take out the lead nomads! Fire!”

  The first volley was nearly instantaneous, and most of the nomads in the first wave dropped. By the third, and far more ragged volley from first squad, none of the lead nomads were moving.

  “Second squad! To my left! Interlock with Third Company!”

  Heald raised his hand, then smiled. “Welcome!”

  “We’ve got more ammunition below.” Not enough. Not nearly enough, Alucius thought, but the nomads didn’t have to know that. Not yet.

  62

  Alucius slowed as he, Heald, and Third Company neared the last fifty yards before the trail turned the bend onto Black Ridge. He didn’t like leaving Longyl, but it was unlikely that the pteridons would attack in the late, late afternoon, especially after their hasty retreat, and he needed to find out if any of the scouts had returned—and if there was any other way out of Black Ridge. They had used all too much of their ammunition, and Alucius had no doubts that the attacks would continue. He also had not seen the pteridons circling to the south…and he had to hope that Black Ridge had held out against any nomad attacks.

  The four troopers standing guard at the bend that led onto the black lava ledge looked at the two officers and the riders behind them.

  “Sirs…how are things to the north?”

  “They’re holding back the nomads for now,” Alucius replied.

  “Sir…there were pteridons here.”

  “Are they still here?”

  “No, sir. They only came by once—this morning. Then they went south. Been two attacks by the nomads since then.”

  In one way, Alucius didn’t like that at all. “How many pteridons?”

  “Just two. They didn’t stay long, but they got some of Fifth Company. Captain Feran got most everyone clear, then got ’em back in time to stop the attack.”

  “Thank you.” Alucius rode around the last narrow curve and out onto the flat black expanse of Black Ridge. He could see more blackened patches on the ground along the edge of the ledge. After a moment, Feran came hurrying toward him on foot. Alucius pulled Wildebeast to the side and reined up short of the older captain. “How bad was it?”

  “Could have been worse. The pteridons only came by once, and there were only two of them. Came in out of dives, and ran a quick flame across the ledge. Almost impossible to get a shot off. Still lost half a squad. Been three attacks from below today. Last two were more just to make sure we were watching.”

  “Do you know if any of the Twenty-first Company scouts are back yet?”

  “There were a couple of riders that came in maybe a half glass back,” Feran replied. “One was wounded. That was just after the last nomad attack. I wasn’t watching too closely…” He shook his head.

  “Thank you. I need to see what they found.” Alucius hoped they had discovered something. “If they did.”

  “You thinking there might be another way out?”

  “Hoping,” Alucius admitted. “But I don’t know where.”

  “If anyone could find it, you can. Let me know.” Feran gestured toward the ledge. “I need to check on them.”

  “I will.” Alucius worried, once more, about leaving Twenty-first Company and Longyl…but…if he didn’t come up with something, they were all likely to be dead anyway.

  He made his way to the stone archway that gave access to the barracks bays where Twenty-first Company was bunked.

  Waris and Dueryn were in the first bay, where one of the Deforyan cooks was binding a dressing over Waris’s left shoulder.

  “Sir…they said…”

  “Twenty-first Company’s still out. I came back to find out if you’d discovered anything.”

  “Sir…” Waris glanced down at the dressing on his shoulder as the Deforyan stepped back.

  “How’s that wound?”

  “Not too bad,” the scout lied.

  Alucius could sense the waves of pain. “Let’s see.” He reached out, his fingers barely touching the dressing, and let a trace of his own Talent run over the torn muscle. “That will take a while to heal, but it will.” He paused, almost afraid to ask. “Did you find anything?”

  “Sir…you were right…there’s another road…but there’s no way to get to it. Leastwise not that we can see.”

  “Go ahead,” Alucius said.

  “Black Ridge…it sits…it’s a big long point of stone, and there are canyons on both sides. I managed to get up a ways. The nomads caught me coming down, didn’t realize they were so close, but they didn’t know what I was doing. Thought I was spying on them, and they were shooting from below to the east. Anyway, to the west in places…you can see a road-trail, just like the one we came in on, but it’s so sheer…you couldn’t climb down. It looks to run along the west side, just like the one we used runs the east side.”

  Alucius frowned. The upper west end of Black Ridge was a solid sandstone cliff—wasn’t it? “You’re sure about this?”

  “Yes, sir…” Waris winced again. “Goes a long way, but you can’t see it from the east except from real high and in the afternoon…”

  Alucius nodded. “Thank you. Just rest for now. You might have to ride later.” He glanced at Dueryn. “If you’d come with me…”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The two slipped out of the barracks bay and walked along the corridor and out onto the ridge, where Alucius headed west, walking swiftly.

  From somewhere, Heald appeared. “Mind if I join you? You look like you have something in mind.”

  “The scouts say that there’s another road to Black Ridge. But they couldn’t say how it got here.”

  “I haven’t seen another road. Have you?”

  “I have the feeling we weren’t meant to see it.” Alucius stopped short of the sandstone escarpment that blocked the west end of the flat lava ledge. The sandstone rose more than a thousand yards above him, and it looked solid. More important—it felt solid even to his Talent, as he slowly walked its curving length back toward the stable entrance.

  He looked up, his eyes taking in the sweep of the stone above, noting the indentation in the top of the cliff to his left, almost over the westernmost archway—the one for the western stables. Whoever had created the tunnels and stone-hollowed rooms had done so symmetrically, so symmetrically that, from the first time he had seen Black Ridge, the lack of a second access had bothered Alucius. He had ignored that feeling, but now he had to follow it. He turned toward the stable archway and walked swiftly to and through it, to the end—the westernmost part of all the tunnels. There, he began to study the back walls, both with Talent and with his eyes.

  He could sense the puzzlement from both Heald and Dueryn.

  One area—although it looked the same—felt different. Alucius took out his belt knife and scratched the wall. At first, just sandstone plaster fell away, and then, a reddish white powder, and then a huge clump of mortar covered with sandstone. He continued to scrape until he had uncovered the outline of a sandstone block, set amid others.

  He turned to Dueryn. “I need four men, with s
hovels, picks, anything they have or can find.”

  “Yes, sir.” Dueryn hurried out.

  “You herders…” Heald shook his head.

  Alucius continued to scrape away the mortar covered with the red sand, a good imitation of the sandstone itself.

  “Overcaptains? What are you doing here? And in the back of the stables?” Majer Draspyr’s voice carried more than annoyance.

  “Trying to see if we have another way out, where we don’t have to fight through thousands of nomads.”

  “In the stable?”

  “I sent out scouts this morning…” Alucius went on to explain, ending up, “If there is a road on the west side, it had to have been concealed for some reason, and it has to be on this end of the tunnels.” He pointed to the stones he had uncovered. “There’s no mortar around them, just over them. That’s almost as if they were meant to be removed quickly. I’ve sent for some troopers…and then we’ll see.”

  “You left your company?”

  “For just a bit. Twenty-first Company is holding the position. Longyl is a good senior squad leader, but he doesn’t know what to look for in something like this. This morning, and early this afternoon, the two companies pushed back the nomads. Third Company had been out there for a solid day, and they’d lost some men to the pteridons. We did manage to down two, and the others left, but that didn’t stop the nomads for long. They backed off, and we brought back Third Company. I came back to check to see if the scouts had discovered anything and to arrange for more ammunition for Twenty-first Company.”

  “There’s not that much left,” Draspyr pointed out.

  “That’s why this is important.”

  “Sir?” came a voice from behind the officers.

  The four troopers who followed Dueryn back into the stables had two short shovels, a pick, and an iron bar a yard and a half long.