Madness in Solidar (67 page)

This time, the army cannon, four of them, were positioned on the small hill behind the mill, the same hill that Alastar had noted after the first attack. The smoke that surrounded them indicated that they had been firing for some time. Alastar's lips quirked. Desyrk hadn't put the cannon there the first time because he couldn't have sighted or directed them. He'd used the bridge as a guide.
That means, if Desyrk has returned here, he won't be with the cannon. Of course, he could be anywhere else.

Still, Alastar had the feeling that, if Desyrk didn't happen to be near Imagisle, he would be before long. He turned in the saddle and motioned Taryn forward.

Before the Maitre D'Structure could move forward, Lorien spoke. “There are hundreds of troopers there. How could this happen?”

“A regiment or more,” returned Alastar. “We'll worry about how it happened after we put an end to it.”
If we can … somehow.
He looked to Taryn, who had eased his mount around Lorien and Chelia. “I'd like you to take out the cannon. Hot iron needles, the way we did before. Do you think you can do that?”

Taryn looked at Alastar. “Yes, sir … provided you don't send Shaelyt off to do something else.”

Alastar couldn't help but smile, if briefly. He knew from where that had come. “I'll keep him close at all times.”

Taryn nodded. “Be careful, sir.” Then he eased his mount forward. After a few steps, both the maitre and his mount vanished.

“He disappeared,” said Lorien. “Just disappeared.”

“It's a concealment. That's why it's been so hard to find our renegade imager. He's also good with concealments.”

“That's why…” Lorien shut his mouth abruptly.

Unhappily, Alastar suspected he knew the general tenor of what the rex might have said, but he only replied, “Exactly.”

Lorien couldn't conceal a certain surprise.

Alastar motioned for Glaesyn and Chervyt to move forward. “You two need to maintain a concealment and shields here. Can you handle that?”

“Yes, sir,” Chervyt immediately replied.

Alastar looked at Lorien, then Chelia. “If you try to leave, it could mean your life. The officers leading these regiments”—he gestured toward the bridge—“are the ones behind the attempted assassination at the anomen. I'd strongly advise against leaving or doing anything foolish.”

“We'll stay,” declared Chelia, looking to Lorien and adding, “Won't we?”

“We'll stay.” Lorien's voice was sullenly resigned.

“Shaelyt, we need to move forward.”

The younger maitre nodded and urged his mount forward, and the two moved out across the western end of the small square toward the Bridge of Desires. Alastar kept studying the troopers and the bridge. There was suddenly something different there—a plank span having appeared to connect the end spans. Almost immediately, the timber span dropped into the river, as if cut loose at both ends.

Alyna!
She was the only imager with that precise a control, especially at a distance.
At a distance …
Abruptly, what should have been obvious struck Alastar—Desyrk had to be somewhere close, most likely somewhere almost directly in front of Alastar and Shaelyt.

“Rein up,” murmured Alastar, waiting only a moment until Shaelyt did before he imaged a blanket of dust over the troopers behind the earthworks on the south side of the causeway. For just an instant the dust formed a bubble, and in that instant, Alastar imaged an iron dart at it, one traveling as fast as a rifle bullet. Shards of metal sprayed everywhere, a few even slamming back into Alastar's shields, but Desyrk's shields held.

Before Desyrk could retaliate with something similar, Alastar clamped a second set of shields around Desyrk's shields, trying to collapse them. In the meantime, the cannon continued to fire, and troopers popped up and down, aiming at Imagisle.

No matter how hard he tried, though, Alastar could not break Desyrk's shields, even though he was less than fifty yards from the renegade imager. He could feel beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

Another round of cannon fire echoed from the south.

Alastar had to do something … something. But what?
How can you even hurt him if you can't break his shields?

Suddenly … he
knew.
“Shaelyt, you're going to have to shield us both. Ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now!” Alastar dropped his own shields, both sets, and concentrated on imaging out a huge chunk of ground a good twenty yards on each side of where he knew Desyrk's shields were. Imaging it out and directly above where it had been—a good fifteen yards higher. A dark mass appeared low in the air less than fifty yards from the two imagers … then plummeted into the chasm that had appeared simultaneously, all happening so quickly that Alastar did not even hear screams.

At that instant, he convulsed, struck by darkness deeper than night … and a chill that turned his bones to ice.

The
Namer's sowshit!…

*   *   *

Alastar's head was splitting … and when he opened his eyes, the light burned them. He squinted. He found he was still in the saddle, if partly supported by Shaelyt, who had moved his mount so that the two horses were as close as they could be.

“I'm all right…” managed Alastar, slowly straightening up.
You think.
“Did I get him?”

“Yes, sir … ah … and a little bit more.”

Alastar's head was slowly spinning, enough that he couldn't make out more than blurred images around him. At least, that was the way it felt. “The cannon?”

“They're gone…”

Alastar reached back gingerly for one of the water bottles, but it slipped from his hand, dropped to the pavement, and shattered. “You'd better get the other one. I'm … shaky.”

Without a word Shaelyt extracted the other water bottle, uncorked it, and handed it to Alastar, who took it in both hands before slowly drinking. He lowered it slightly and peered out toward the river. Everything looked white … and his breath was a white fog. The air was bitter cold, but then for a moment, a gust of warmer air washed over him, warmer only by comparison. “What happened?”

“You … you imaged a chunk out of the riverbank and then dropped it on Desyrk and all the troopers around him. The river flowed into the hole—”

“What about—” Alastar broke off what he was about to ask. There wasn't really a river wall on the west side of the Aluse, only on the east side and, of course, all the way around Imagisle.

“The river covered everything. Then there was a big bubble that sort of popped, and more water flooded in, except the air was so cold it burned, and everything for almost a quarter mille on each side froze. It was cold enough around us, but there…” Shaelyt shook his head. “It froze the troopers, too. Then Taryn blew up the cannon.”

“How is he?”

“He's with the rex and the thirds.”

Alastar took another long swallow of the watered dark lager. The spinning feeling in his head had begun to diminish. “How long before I recovered?”

“Less than a quint, sir.”

“Thank you. What about the other troopers?”

“Ah … sir … between you and Taryn … and the imagers on the isle, there weren't very many left.”

“You mean that the ones who survived tried to flee and they got picked off?”

“Not all of them. Maybe half of them. Fifty or sixty escaped. That's a guess.”

Out of over two thousand.
Alastar looked toward the Bridge of Desires. Outside of the missing middle span, it appeared fine. The only problem was that now that ice covered what was likely a muddy marsh, if not worse, between the end of the square that was also the West River Road and the causeway leading to the bridge.

Even as Alastar watched, the white ice in front of him began to crack and shift. He took another swallow of the watered lager and slowly turned in the saddle. Some twenty yards behind him were Taryn, the three junior imagers, and Lorien and Chelia. He looked back toward the river and the bridge

More of the ice was cracking.

“We'll have to rebuild a bridge somewhere, or the causeway here, even to get back to Imagisle.”

“I think they've already started, sir,” said Shaelyt, pointing to the Bridge of Desires, where the middle span had already been replaced.

“Then we'll wait for them to come to us.” That was fine with Alastar. He couldn't have imaged a soiled copper.

“What about the rex and his lady?”

“They can wait, too. They'll be safer on Imagisle for now. At least, until we can sort out what happened at the Chateau D'Rex and with the army.” Alastar took another swallow of lager. Much as he hated to admit it, there definitely were times to wait.

 

39

More than three glasses passed before Alyna, Cyran, and the imagers on Imagisle were able to image away mud and water and not only rebuild the causeway, but create a solid stone foundation beneath it. At that point Alastar was more than tired of avoiding answering Lorien's questions, partly because he had no answers to many of them and partly because he didn't want to reply to some of those for which he thought he might have answers. One answer he did have was who had been in command of the regiment, verified to be Chesyrk, who had clearly not died earlier, and whose body had been found frozen solid just south of the crater created by Alastar's imaging. Two captive troopers had also claimed that Chesyrk had led the attack.

Once the bridge and causeway were verified to be solid, Maercyl led the way, with Alastar and Lorien and Chelia riding side by side over the span and onto Imagisle.

There were craters in the ground here and there, and one in the shoulder of the road. When they neared the Maitre's house, he could see more craters, but no apparent damage, not even to the shutters of glass. Farther south, however, a number of the cottages had suffered some damage, as well as the infirmary, and he could see a haze of smoke from where the stables were.
Or used to be.
He could only hope that too many people had not been wounded or killed. The anomen looked to be untouched.

Alastar did not stop until they reached the Maitre's dwelling. When he reined up, he turned to Lorien. “You and your lady will share the guest quarters on the second level. You will be quite safe there. In perhaps a glass, we will have dinner.” He looked to Dareyn, who stood on the steps to the front porch, with Alyna and Akoryt waiting on the porch slightly to the side. “Please escort the rex and his lady to the larger guest quarters.”

“Yes, sir.” Dareyn waited until the pair had dismounted. “This way, Your Graces.”

Alastar dismounted after the regial pair. His legs were a trace shaky, but he managed not to stagger when his boots hit the stone pavement. He looked up to Alyna. “I'm very glad to see you.” He would have liked to say more, but not with so many people around.

“Are you all right?”

“I am now, so long as I don't do much imaging for a while.” Alastar took the steps and stood beside her.

She looked to Taryn and then to Shaelyt.

“He seems to be, maitre,” answered Shaelyt.

“Shaelyt kept me from falling off my horse,” Alastar admitted.

“What about Desyrk? Do you know?” asked Akoryt.

“Chesyrk was in command of the regiment, and Desyrk was with him. They're both dead. Let's go into the study, where I can sit down, and I'll tell you all about it. There's a lot to tell. Taryn, Shaelyt, you need to come, too.” He offered a plaintive smile to Alyna. “And maybe we all could have a lager or two?”

She shook her head. “I'm certain that no one will deny the Maitre his wish, even if it isn't his last.” Her smile was forced, and almost under her breath, she added, “Thank the Nameless.”

After everyone was settled in some fashion in the study, Alastar took several swallows from the beaker of dark lager that Jienna brought in on a tray. While she was serving the others, he belatedly wondered if he shouldn't have suggested the dining room. Once Jienna left the study, he began, “I should have realized that the clunky brass rope holders in the anomen were big for a reason.” He paused as he could see the puzzlement on several faces. “I'll explain…” And he did, telling almost everything from the time he, Taryn, and Shaelyt entered the anomen until they rode back across the re-imaged Bridge of Desires. “Now, Taryn, if you would tell about how you took out the cannon.”

Taryn flushed slightly. “It really wasn't that difficult. I just used a concealment to get close enough. I reined up behind one of the mill walls and then kept imaging red-hot iron darts until things started exploding. I waited until there was nothing else to explode. There weren't any troopers to stop me, or not many after that, and they couldn't see me anyway. Then I rode back and helped the thirds make sure that the rex and his lady stayed safe. When you all finished repairing the bridge and the causeway, we rode over it.”

“I'm certain it wasn't that easy or uneventful,” said Alastar.

“Ahhh…” ventured Dareyn from the door. “I didn't want to interrupt, but Maitre Khaelis has been waiting to deliver a message.”

“Besides,” added Khaelis as he moved toward Alastar, “I wanted to hear what happened. We only saw what happened near the bridge.” He handed the envelope to the Maitre. “An army trooper delivered this. He rode up under both a parley ensign and a white flag of surrender. He was shaking in his boots by the time he reached the bridge. He said that it's from Acting Marshal Wilkorn to whoever's in charge. He's waiting outside for a reply. Maitre Cyran didn't give him much choice.”

“Good thought by Cyran. That way we don't have to send one of our imagers out there.” Alastar opened the envelope, sealed in green wax, but with no imprint, and began to read aloud.