Scepters (47 page)

“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.

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.”

“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 south-east 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 dose 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. Finally, 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.”