Legacies (38 page)

“Thank you. I just might.”

As he walked toward the stall where the baker offered her wares, Alucius could feel Oryn's eyes—and concerns. For that reason alone, he bought two of the honey rolls, wrapped in a broad leaf. They did smell good.

Then he turned and began to retrace his steps to the post. He had more than a little thinking and reading to do.

The back road that seventh squad traveled ran through a stretch of high meadow south of the southwest high road. The sun had already turned the meadow grasses half gold, with most of summer yet to come. Riding in the last rank, Alucius leaned forward in the saddle, patted Wildebeast on the shoulder and then lifted his second water bottle from its holder. Even before midmorning, the back of his tunic was damp, despite the breeze out of the southeast. As full summer drew closer, each day in the saddle was hotter than the one before, and Alucius went through bottle after bottle of water.

“Glad I'm not a northerner,” said Daafl, from the left of the younger trooper.

“Does Dimor get this hot?” Alucius took a long swallow and then replaced the bottle in its holder.

“Almost…and it's damper, being on the river.”

“I guess this is better.” Alucius pushed back his felt summer troopers' hat and blotted his forehead, then eased the hat forward so that the shadow from the brim shielded his eyes. The road climbed slowly at the end of the meadow, turning downhill and through another stand of evergreens. With each step of the troopers' mounts, dust billowed upward from the dry road.

“A lot better,” Daafl confirmed.

“Fire! Smoke and fire!” came the call from Brekka, riding a good five hundred yards ahead with Venn as one of the squad scouts.

Over the trees ahead, a column of white and gray smoke rose straight into the silver-green sky, a sky with more of a silver shimmer in southern Madrien than anywhere else Alucius had seen. Mixed in with the white and gray smoke were swirls of black.

Alucius reached out with his Talent-sense. In the distance, he could feel riders, moving away. There was nothing large living near the fire—except, strangely, the creature that he had never seen that his Talent showed as brownish green. Farther away he could sense animals, similar to nightsheep, but not the same. Probably they were white sheep raised for food and wool.

“Rifles ready!” ordered Alben. “Close up on the scouts.”

Alucius slipped his rifle from its holder and checked the magazine and chamber.

As seventh squad followed the road where it entered the trees, Alben glanced from one side to the other, but there was little undergrowth, and the wide spacing between the evergreens allowed little concealment. Alucius concentrated on following the brownish green feel, which seemed to be centered in the stand on the right and below the road, but he could see nothing, although he could sense that the creature seemed to be one with a large bristlecone pine that stood almost alone in a clearing. Was there something like a soarer or a sander, except linked to trees, rather than the sands or the skies? He'd never heard a mention of that, but the Matrites had never heard of sanders, either, except as distant legends.

He shifted his eyes forward, watching as the next meadow came into view, and with it, the long and low structure from which flame poured skyward. Even from more than a hundred yards away, Alucius could feel the heat.

Beside the access road to the summer sheep station lay the body of a gray-haired woman in brown trousers and tunic, sprawled on her back. One side of her temple was gone and beneath the streaks of blood, what remained of her face showed an expression of shock.

“Squad halt! Rifles ready!”

No riders, no other people remained alive around the burning building.

Looking down, Alucius could see dark splotches in the dirt, well away from the building, indicating possibly that some of the attackers had been wounded or killed. But there were no bodies other than those of the Matrites.

“Last four—Denal, Daafl, Alucius, and Fustyl—circle around to the back!”

Alucius followed the other three, keeping his rifle ready, even though he knew there were neither shepherds nor raiders alive behind the building.

Three other bodies lay in the dirt behind the main building of the station, one older man and two women, all shot as they tried to escape the conflagration, Alucius gathered. The stable doors were wide, and the stalls empty.

“Shot anyone who tried to escape and took all the mounts,” Denal noted.

Daafl swung down out of the saddle and studied some hoofprints in the dust. He looked up. “Southern Guard shoes…got that star.”

“There was blood on the road,” Alucius pointed out, “but no bodies.”

“Didn't want to leave proof it was them,” replied Denal. “Check the stable. Alucius?”

“I'll do it.” Alucius eased Wildebeast up to the low stable with the lean-to-type roof, then dismounted and tied his mount to a post. Carrying his rifle at the ready, he stepped through the open doors.

All the stalls were empty. On a low pile of hay was the body of a young woman, scarcely more than a girl. Her body below the waist was unclothed. Her throat had been slashed. Her hair was the same color as Wendra's. Alucius swallowed, and turned, studying the rest of the stable, but there were neither any mounts, nor any more bodies. He finally stepped out.

Alben waited with the others. “What did you find?”

“No mounts. There's a woman in there. They used her and cut her throat.”

Alben's face froze for a moment. “Bastards! Always do that. Captain will have to know that.” He dismounted and walked past Alucius and into the stable, returning within moments. “Nothing we can do. Mount up! We'll see if we can track them.”

Alucius untied Wildebeast and mounted.

Alben led the way back to the road, as seventh squad followed the trail of the marauding Southern Guards. Alucius knew that the Lanachronans had far too much of a lead to be caught, and he had no doubts that Alben knew that also. But they had to make an effort. That was also clear.

Daafl looked at Alucius. “Matrial won't like this.”

“More patrols, you think?”

“Wager we have both companies up here within the month, with orders to wipe out any Lanachronan we find.”

Alucius nodded. He wouldn't have taken that wager, not after what he had already seen in Madrien.

Seventh squad was formed up on a section of the southwest high road, just below a crest of the road a mere ten vingts from the border with Lanachrona. All of Fortieth Company had been called out, and they had ridden northeast for four days, following Thirty-second Company, which had ridden out a day earlier.

The early summer sun beat down on Alucius, its heat going through his felt trooper's hat, enfolding his face, almost as if his face had no protection at all. He leaned forward in the saddle. After a moment, he glanced ahead at the browning grasses flanking the high road, and at the wavering heat lines that rose from the highway and from the dry and rocky hills to the northeast, the lower slopes of the coast range. The slopes on both sides of the high road were mostly rock, sand, and red dirt, with occasional patches of summer-dried grasses, scattered clumps of low pines and junipers, and occasional cacti that bore a slight resemblance to quarasote, except that their spines were shorter, and less deadly, and their color more of a bluish green.

“…what we waiting for?”

The murmur came from behind Alucius, who was in the second rank in the left hand file, directly in back of Kuryt.

“…what we always wait for…someone to make up their mind…”

The murmurs died away as Alben rode back from the front of the company and reined up before his troopers. “Seventh squad! Listen up!”

The squad leader waited for a moment. “There's a company of Southern Guards on the back side of these hills. We're going to turn back and ride just out of sight, and behind the next lower line. Thirty-second Company is already in position to keep them from riding south along the sheep road. They'll move north along the road and flush them out toward us. The first five squads of Fortieth Company will keep moving eastward on the high road until they pass the next cut in the hills. Then they'll turn and reform. That will keep the Lanachronans from retreating. Our job is to wait until the Lanachronans start westward. We'll be on the south side of the road, along with sixth squad…”

“We'll need to be ready when Thirty-second Company starts to flush them out toward us. The foot squads are already in the hidden trenches along the sheep road they'll have to take to reach the high road. We'll let them get to the high road, those that can, we'll be waiting behind these hills.” A hard look crossed Alben's face. “It's time to teach them not to raid Madrien.”

The squad leader stood in his stirrups, turning and looking back eastward. After several moments, he ordered, “Seventh squad, to the rear, ride!”

Alucius brought Wildebeast around with the other mounts, keeping station in the squad formation. As his eyes crossed Denal's, the other trooper raised his eyebrows, as if to suggest that the tactics were less than ideal. Rather than express agreement, even silently, Alucius just shrugged. Denal shook his head, minutely, before looking ahead and keeping formation.

The hill behind which sixth and seventh squads finally repaired was only seven or eight hundred yards farther west. Where they waited was bowllike, with the open side on the north adjoining the road. Just to the east, around a jutting low bluff, was a second and far shallower bowl, with a clump of juniper trees perhaps two thirds of the way around the back curve on the west side.

Alucius slowly studied the rises surrounding them. Although they were concealed, they were also open to attack on three sides from above. The steepness of the slope would keep anyone from riding up or down, but there was nothing to keep a force from climbing up on foot and then firing down. He just hoped that someone was watching the back sides of the rises. He hadn't seen anyone doing that. The half bowl just to the east would have been better, because parts of the rises surrounding the flat were gentle enough for a mount to ride up. Where seventh squad was, the only way out was by the high road.

After perhaps half a glass, he reached out with his Talent. He could sense troopers, Lanachronan troopers, because the Talent showed them as black, rather than the collar-changed gray of the Matrite troopers, and those Lanachronans had been moving closer. He frowned. He couldn't tell exactly how far to the south and east they were, not with so many troopers from both forces within a vingt or so, but the Lanachronans were so close that someone should have been giving an order for sixth and seventh companies to ride.

No order came. Alucius forced himself to take a long swallow from his water bottle, then slowly surveyed the rises. No one looked to be up there, and he could sense that the Lanachronans weren't
that
close. But they were close.

An officer—Undercaptain Taniti—galloped up the road from the west. “Thirty-second Company's pinned down. Ride east and then go south on the sheep road!”

“You heard the undercaptain!” snapped Alben. “Forward! Rifles ready.”

Alucius liked it not at all. As he followed behind Kuryt, he sent out his Talent-senses again. They only confirmed that the Lanachronans were nearby, very near. Once seventh squad cleared the bowl and the low bluff separating it from the smaller bowl to the east, one with its back ridges less than fifty yards from the road, Alucius could barely keep from screaming as he sensed the Lanachronans there. Both sixth and seventh squad would be fully exposed.

As soon as the first Lanachronan lifted his rifle, Alucius snapped, “Fire on the left!”

The first shot punctuated his words.

“Wheel and fire! Wheel and fire!” ordered Alben.

Alucius winced, but obeyed, even as a volley of shots rang out from the south side of the high road.

Alben toppled out of his saddle. Beside Alucius, so did Kuryt. Alucius could sense that there were close to twenty Lanachronans there, if not more. If one of the two squads didn't do something, the losses would be enormous.

“Reverse wheel and follow!” he snapped. “Reverse wheel and follow!” As he wheeled Wildebeast, he only hoped that the rest of the squad would obey him—and the seldom-used command.

Without looking back, he led the charge up the western and lower side of the slope. Wildebeast's hoofs scrabbled on the loose soil, but the stallion lurched forward, caught his footing and carried Alucius toward the junipers.

Alucius could feel the bullets flying by him, so close were they, but he pushed away the thought and concentrated on swinging uphill behind the clump of junipers. The firing moved away from him as Wildebeast scrambled across the sandy dirt to the junipers.

“Charge and fire!” Alucius ordered, bringing his own rifle to bear as he rode from behind the cover of the clump of scraggly trees.

He fired once, kept riding, and cocked and fired again.

“Fire! Fire at will!” Alucius snapped, knowing he was repeating commands, but he seemed to be the only one shooting at the Lanachronans.

The Lanachronans, who had been concealed behind a low berm they had dug, were without mounts, and seemed to turn so slowly. So slowly that Alucius had fired three times, before the first raised his rifle. Alucius cut him down with his fourth shot.

Alucius reined up, one-handed, and resumed firing, quickly but deliberately.

Abruptly, there was silence on the back of the berm.

Close to twenty Southern Guards lay sprawled in the dirt. Alucius glanced around him, his eyes running over seventh squad. Kuryt and Alben had fallen on the road. Oryn was holding gloves, or something, against his arm, and Fustyl had been cut down on the charge.

“We'd better get back to the road,” Alucius said, as he quickly reloaded. He couldn't sense any more Lanachronans nearby, but he had no doubts that there would be more attacks. He let Wildebeast pick his own way down, using his Talent-senses to try to find other Lanachronans. So far as he could tell, all left alive were farther to the east.

As the squad reached the road, Undercaptain Taniti rode up. “Good work!” Her eyes traversed the troopers. “Who was the squad leader here?”

“Alben, honored undercaptain,” Alucius answered.

“Didn't he fall in the first volley? I saw him go down.”

“Yes, sir…undercaptain.”

“Who led that charge and took out the Lanachronan snipers?”

Alucius didn't dare look around. “I did, undercaptain.”

“Are you the most senior, trooper?”

“No, undercaptain. I was the first to see them, and when no one ordered anything, I did. I just hoped someone would follow. The whole squad did, and we killed them all.”

Taniti nodded. “You'll need a new squad leader. Until then…who's senior?”

No one answered.

“I believe Trooper Brekka is, undercaptain,” Alucius finally said.

“You knew that, and took charge?”

“He was in the last rank, honored undercaptain. I don't know that he saw what had happened, and he wouldn't have had time to ride forward.”

The undercaptain looked away from Alucius. “Brekka!”

“Undercaptain, sir.” Brekka rode forward.

“You're acting squad leader. The company's re-forming at the crest up there. We'll still have to take out the main body of the Lanachronans.”

“Yes, sir. Seventh squad! Forward.”

Once the undercaptain turned her mount and headed eastward along the high road, Brekka turned in the saddle and glanced at Alucius. “More guts than brains, Alucius.”

“What else could I have done, sir?” asked Alucius. “They would have killed most of us if we hadn't charged them.”

“That was right,” Brekka replied with a faint laugh. “I meant answering the undercaptain.”

Alucius had been afraid that was what the older trooper had meant. All he could do was shrug. “I'm inexperienced. Perhaps you could tell her that.”

“
If
she asks…or Tymal does,” Brekka agreed. He turned toward the five remaining troopers in seventh squad. “Close up. Forward to the company!”

As seventh squad rode eastward, Alucius glanced over what remained of Fortieth Company. From what he could see, almost a third of the company was gone. There were even more Lanachronan bodies, but that didn't offer him much consolation, not if seventh squad had to keep fighting the way they had.