Scepters (74 page)

In
time, Alucius and Feran finished their meal and their ale.

As
he rose from the table in the tavern that was becoming more crowded with faces
he didn’t recognize, Alucius glanced out through the narrow window onto the
darkening and chill street outside the Red Ram. He left another copper on the
table, then began to walk toward the doorway, followed by Feran.

Alucius
nodded and moved aside as two well-garbed men he did not recognize stepped
inside the tavern.

Elyset
appeared from the other side of the foyer and smiled at Alucius. “Have a good
evening, Colonel.” She offered a broader smile to Feran. “Majer.”

“Thank
you, Elyset.” Both officers inclined their heads.

As
Alucius stepped outside he could hear part of the exchange.

“Colonel…
didn’t expect to see him here… just him and the majer…”

“…
say he’s brave…”

“There’s
brave, and there’s foolish…”

The
words didn’t exactly help his feelings or his mood as he began to walk back to
his too-empty quarters and a night when he would sleep restlessly at best,
worried about all too many matters, and especially about Wendra.

Novdi,
as an end day, was a half day at headquarters, but Alucius was still in his
study in early afternoon. Earlier, he’d inspected Fifth Company, the barracks,
the armory, then spent some time with Feran discussing the possibilities for
changing the basing positions of Northern Guard companies, especially those
around Harmony and those that might be able to provide reinforcements, if
necessary.

He
kept checking the wristguard. From what he could tell, Wendra was fine, but the
uncertainty nagged at him.

At
Dhaget’s knock on the doorframe to his study, where he had left the door open,
Alucius stiffened.

“There’s
a young fellow here to see you, sir. Says his name’s Korcler.”

Alucius
could feel a chill run through him, down to his bones. “Have him come right in.”
He stood.

The
brown-haired youth, a young man almost old enough for conscription, hurried
into the study and began to speak even before he lurched to a stop on the other
side of the desk. “I said I’d come, Alucius. I’ve been riding since well before
dawn. Brought two mounts. Your grandsire insisted. That’s because…”

“What
happened to Wendra? You wouldn’t be here otherwise, would you?”

“No,
sir. No one knows, sir. She’s just gone. Royalt and Grandpa Kustyl… they’ve
been searching everywhere. They said you’d know if she was all right.”

“She’s
alive and healthy, but something happened yesterday morning,” Alucius said. “Before
midmorning. No one knows where she is?”

“No,
sir. Your grandsire, he took the flock yesterday,” Korcler said. “Wendra’d been
out the two days before. Said she didn’t see anything, not even a sandwolf.
Your ma, she came to town. When she got back in the afternoon, Wendra was gone.
So was little Alendra. No mounts missing. No tracks. Only thing they found was
a bottle, filled with ground quartz, for that lamb born in midwinter. It was
lying on the porch of the equipment building. No goat’s milk with it, just the
quartz.” Korcler stopped, catching his breath. “Your grandsire said no one else
had been there. Leastwise, there were no signs. Her herding jacket was still in
the house. She… she just… vanished.”

Alucius
stepped forward and put a hand on Korcler’s shoulder. “Thank you. I’d worried.
I didn’t know. I appreciate the long ride, and your coming to tell me.” He didn’t
know what else to say. Wendra gone? Vanished? Without a trace? But how? The
questions swirled through his scattered thoughts.

“I
didn’t want to be the one, but… there wasn’t anyone else.” Korcler looked up at
Alucius, then fumbled inside his jacket, coming up with a folded paper. “Your
grandsire wanted you to have this.”

Alucius
took the paper. For a moment, he looked at it blankly, before he finally
unfolded it, and began to read.

Alucius—

By
now, Korcler has told you of Wendra’s disappearance. I wanted you to know that
it is most unlikely that she was kidnapped or taken by riders. There are no
hoofprints in either the snow or the dirt, or even the dust on the porch where
she vanished—just some smudges. There are no signs of boots, and nothing is
missing. I cannot tell you where to seek her, or how, save that it appears most
unlikely that she remains nearby, and likely that Talent will be required.

Nor
do I know if you dare to leave your duties, or if doing so will prove useful. I
do fear that all is connected, but I could not say why.

All
our hopes and thoughts are with you, and with her and Alendra.

The
signature was that of Royalt.

Alucius
lowered the message.

“What
did he say?” asked Korcler.

“What
you told me,” replied Alucius, his voice heavy. “More or less.”

“What
are you going to do?”

“What
I have to,” Alucius said. “We’ll get you settled in my quarters, and you can
ride back in the morning, once your mounts are rested.”

“You’re
not going to tell me?”

“No.
How could I? I’m not even sure.” Alucius turned and took his heavy winter
riding jacket, the one doubly reinforced with nightsilk, off the peg on the
wall and pulled it on. “We’ll get your mounts into the stable, and ready mine.
You can rest in the guest chamber.”

“I
can go with you.”

“No.
Not this time. Your horses are tired, and it wouldn’t be a good idea. Not at
all.”

“You
won’t tell me.”

Alucius
shook his head and motioned for Korcler to leave the study. “Go on out. I’m
right behind you.”

In
the main area, he looked at Dhaget. “I’ll be leaving for my quarters, Dhaget,
after we get young Korcler’s mounts stabled for the night. He’s my wife’s
brother, and he’ll be spending the night in the quarters before he leaves in
the morning. You can go now.”

“You’re
sure, sir?”

“You
spend more than enough time looking out for me.” Alucius forced a laugh. “Go.”

He
and Korcler led the two mounts to the officers’ end of the stable and stalled
them side by side. After that, Alucius took Korcler up to the quarters, where
he sat the young man at the table in the kitchen with bread and cheese and some
slices of ham shoulder.

Alucius
went to his chamber and changed into his riding uniform, with the new nightsilk
undergarments and the new vest under his tunic, and the heavy winter riding
jacket. He also took out both rifles and his ammunition belt.

“You
won’t let me go?” Korcler stood in the doorway.

“No.
It might not be dangerous, but it could be. You’re not trained for this.”

Korcler
looked down.

“I
should be back later, I’d guess around sunset, but it might be longer. Just
rest until I get back. If… if anything happens, and I don’t get back, you’re to
ride back to Iron Stem tomorrow. No matter what. Do you understand?” Alucius
projected total command. “Don’t talk to anyone about this except Majer Feran
and my grandsire. No one except those two.”

Korcler
backed away a step. “Yes, sir. I will, sir.”

“Good.
Now go back to eating. You haven’t had enough.”

While
Korcler finished eating, Alucius wrote a brief note to Feran, saying that he
was going to investigate something he had heard about Tarolt and hoped he would
not be that long. On his way back to the stable, he left it on Feran’s desk.

Then
he made his way to the stable, where he saddled the chestnut. In less than a
quarter glass he was riding out the gates.

“You’re
going out alone, sir?” asked the sentry, a lancer from Fifth Company whose name
and face he couldn’t put together.

“Just
for the afternoon.”

“Yes,
sir.”

As
he turned westward, Alucius considered whether he should have left a note for
Royalt with Korcler. He decided that his decision not to was the right one. If…
if Tarolt was an ifrit, there was little Royalt could or should do. If not,
Alucius should be back before long.

He
wasn’t certain, but he couldn’t afford to wait to be certain. He worried that
he’d already delayed too long. The more he’d thought, the more he felt that the
ifrits had to have something to do with both the problems with the prophet and
the Matrites and the torques—and with Wendra’s disappearance. The most
disturbing thought was that somehow he had created the problem. The morning
after he’d killed Halanat, Wendra had vanished. That coincidence seemed
unlikely. Far too unlikely, and that meant he had to act quickly, especially
since he hadn’t, but then, he reminded himself, he hadn’t known that Wendra had
vanished. He’d fretted that something had been wrong, but hadn’t even guessed
that.

From
Elyset’s directions, he could doubtless find Tarolt’s place—but then what could
he do? He wasn’t certain, but the puzzlement that Halanat had expressed was a
good indication that the ifrit-possessed trader had been surprised at Alucius’s
appearance. That, in turn, suggested that he had not known about Wendra’s
disappearance—or had not connected it to Alucius. But Halanat had clearly
recognized Alucius. Then again, Alucius had no idea whether Tarolt was also
ifrit-possessed, although it seemed likely, but from what Alucius had gathered,
Tarolt was the real power behind the traders, and he might well not have told
anyone if he had acted against Wendra, nor talked about anything else he might
have done.

There
were so many unanswered questions. What if more than the one ifrit had been
behind the attempted assassination after Alucius had first left the Northern
Guard? What if Tarolt had also been involved? But what if he hadn’t? Then who
else could have been, and how could Alucius discover who the others were? What
if they were not responsible for Wendra’s disappearance?

He
shook his head. There had to be a link… somewhere… somehow.

Perhaps
he could learn more by following Tarolt, at least for a time, or by spying on
his actions or his household.

He
continued to ride westward. After a quarter vingt or so, he turned the chestnut
left onto another street, continuing southward. He rode less than half a vingt,
past a mixture of older dwellings and shops, until the street ended at the
river road.

He
followed it westward, along the southern edge of the low bluffs overlooking the
River Vedra, and before long, on his right, the houses gave way to cots, and
then the cots vanished. Beyond were overgrazed and snow-dotted meadows with
sparse and scattered trees, lands that sloped downhill in rolling rills to the
north. To his left were the rugged and rocky slopes that dropped to the river.

Almost
a vingt ahead he could see the point of land that Elyset had mentioned—a
triangular bluff that jutted southward into the path of the river, so that the
river curved around it before once more returning to its westward course. The
road did not follow the edge of the bluff as before, but cut directly across
the flat. A second road, more like a lane, veered to the left and toward the
single walled dwelling set just north of the apex of the point. From the rear
of the dwelling, Tarolt must have had a marvelous view of the river, which lay
a good fifty yards below, and of the lower hills on the far side of the Vedra.
Another half vingt beyond the walled complex were the blackened remains of
another large dwelling.

As
Alucius rode closer to the point, he glanced around, searching for some
position from where he could observe the bluff and the single dwelling, one
where he could rest the chestnut and from which neither he nor his mount could
be seen. More than a hundred yards ahead, Alucius could discern a line of scrub
bushes and several low, winter-bare trees, possibly lining the sides of a wash
or dry streambed. While it was farther from Tarolt’s than he would have
preferred, there did not look to be anything closer that offered any cover.

The
vegetation that rose out of the scattered snow and winter-browned grass did
indeed mark a dry streambed nearly ten yards wide in spots and three to four in
depth. Unfortunately, Alucius had to follow it almost fifty yards north of
where it ran under a narrow timber bridge to find enough cover for both him and
the chestnut. After tethering his mount to a thick root in a flatter section of
the wash, Alucius took a swallow from a water bottle—one of a pair—before
slipping one of the heavy rifles from its saddle holder and easing his way back
southward along the wash. He found a spot some twenty yards north of the main
road, where he could peer through the sparse branches of a scrub oak and see
both the road and Tarolt’s dwelling.

As
he studied the dwelling, the portion of it he could see above the stone wall,
Alucius could sense a haziness to the air, a purplish fog unseen to the eye but
all too clear to his Talent-senses. The intensity of the purpleness suggested
to him that either Tarolt was ifrit-possessed or that there were others in the
dwelling who were.

After
perhaps a quarter glass he shifted his weight, wondering if his vigil would
prove fruitless. How long should he wait? Finally, he decided that, if no one
left the dwelling, once darkness fell, he would move closer to see what else he
might be able to discover.

Just
as he reaffirmed that decision mentally, he saw the gate in the wall
surrounding the dwelling open. Four men rode out, and a pair of guards on foot
closed the gates behind them.

Alucius
waited as the four riders came northeast along the lane, and then turned
eastward on the river road back toward Dekhron. As they neared the bridge over
the small wash, through the branches of the scrub oak, Alucius could see that
only one wore black and was white-haired—presumably Tarolt, although the black
was that of a heavy coat.