Magi'i of Cyador (65 page)

After remounting the white gelding, Lorn leads the majer's mount along the road for a time, although the stallion tosses his head more than once. After another kay, Lorn loops the reins over the saddle and then, with a yell, and he slaps the fractious stallion's rump. The bigger mount trots a distance, then slows, but continues to the southwest.

Lorn watches until he is certain the stallion will travel for at least a time before he turns the gelding and begins the ride back to the compound.

As he nears the gates, Lorn reins up and addresses the pair of guards. "Majer Maran should be back later. Tell him I'll be in my study."

"Yes, ser."

Suforis hurries from the tack room even before Lorn has fully led the gelding into the stable.

"You see? It wasn't all that long, and I never had him at more than a fast walk."

"That be good, ser." Suforis studies the gelding, then nods.

Lorn leaves his mount with the ostler and crosses the courtyard to re-enter the company study.

"Ser?" asks Kusyl.

"Majer Maran had a few words for me." Lorn does not smile. "He said he would be back later when I had a chance to consider them."

"Ah... yes, ser. I'm sorry, ser."

"We often have to do what our seniors wish, Kusyl." Lorn's laugh is harsh. "As I'm sure you know."

"Ah... yes, ser."

With a nod, Lorn closes the door to the inner study.

He looks out the window once more. From now on, even more than in the past, he must watch and weigh every action, every word. And he must anticipate.

He wishes he could talk to Ryalth, but perhaps it is better that he not, for a time.

Lorn shakes his head and seats himself at the desk, where he continues work on the patrol summary report that Maran had interrupted. He will send that off, as required, with the next Engineer firewagon. Then he begins drafting yet another request to Commander Meylyd for replacement lancers. He has completed the second draft and is reading it when there is a knock on the door.

"Ser? There be some lancers here, asking of Majer Maran."

Lorn frowns. "He hasn't come back? Have them come in." He remains seated as two lancers step into the inner study.

"Ser.... squad leader Jugyt, ser, and Shalar, ser," offers the broad-shouldered junior squad leader. "We had been expecting the majer... but none be seeing him."

Lorn offers a puzzled look. "We took a short ride. He said what he had come to say, and then said he would be back later. I came back, and I haven't seen him since. I thought he had come back and left with you, since I hadn't heard anything."

"No, ser."

Lorn fingers his chin. "The last time I saw him, he was riding the wall road, toward Westend, but we were only a few kays from here." He stands and calls, "Kusyl!"

"Yes, ser?" Kusyl re-appears.

"Do you know if anyone has seen Majer Maran?"

"No, ser."

"He said he was coming back, but his men here haven't seen him," Lorn explains.

"I don't know as anyone has seen him since he left the compound, ser."

Lorn purses his lips. "If you'd check with the guards and any of the men-or see if Juist's company saw him. They rode back in a while ago."

"Yes, ser."

After Kusyl leaves, Lorn looks at the two lancers. "All we can do is look and see if anyone saw him. I'll have my company check the area. It seems strange that he'd leave without you, but maybe he did."

"He rides alone at times, it be true, ser, but always he returns," says Jugyt.

Lorn shrugs helplessly. "I scarcely know what to say. We can check to see if there has been a tree-fall nearby, or if there are any tracks on the deadland." He glances toward the window, and gestures toward the sun that hangs just above the compound walls. "Best we hasten."

"Yes, ser."

Lorn reclaims his sabre, then heads for the stable. This time he will use a spare mount, for despite the search for Majer Maran, Second Company will still begin a patrol tomorrow. After all, Maran would certainly not to have wanted Lorn to deviate from accepted Mirror Lancer procedures.

The captain who would be more offers a brief smile as he nears the stable.

CXI

As Second Company rides slowly toward the gates of the compound at Jakaafra, Lorn looks down at his blood-splattered trousers, and then at the depleted firelance in the holder. The sun is almost touching the western horizon, outlining the silhouettes of distant orchards to the west, and casting long shadows from the walls of the compound.

Lorn does not look back at a company that is now really but the size of a single full-strength squad, nor at the three mounts that bear dead lancers. They have not permitted any wild creatures to escape despite another fallen trunk, but that is due to luck, and to the renewed tendency of the creatures to attack the lancers, rather than to attempt to escape beyond the deadland.

"We getting any replacements, ser?" Kusyl asks quietly, from where he rides alongside Lorn.

"I've requested more lancers three times, Kusyl. Majer Maran never offered much encouragement, but he didn't say no, either. That's if he got back to Geliendra, but I haven't heard about that, either."

"Funny about that, ser. His men found his mount, but not him. Think the Forest got him? They say that happens, sometimes."

"It could have happened, but we didn't see any traces of wild creatures." Lorn shrugs tiredly as they near the gates. "I just wish he had sent us some more lancers. The men are accomplishing the impossible, but it can't go on."

"What if we just waited until the Engineers arrived? Before getting near the trunk, ser?" asks Kusyl.

"We'd have as many dead lancers and some dead Engineers, probably, and Second Company would have a new captain and new squad leaders," Lorn replies.

"Thought it be like that, ser." Kusyl shakes his head. "Can't be saying as I understand. Do you, ser?"

"Not totally, Kusyl. I've heard that the Magi'i are going to try something, but that was seasons ago, and nothing has happened. Maybe they just want us to hang on until they can. Or maybe it's something else."

"Whatever it be, ser, best they do something or they'll have creatures running free throughout northeast Cyador."

"The other companies are short of lancers, too," Lorn points out.

"Not near so short as Second Company."

"They don't face so many tree-falls."

Kusyl shakes his head sadly.

"Evening, ser," calls the gate guard as Lorn nears the gates. "Hard patrol?"

"Hard patrol," Lorn confirms.

He will send another request for replacements, little good as such requests seem to do, but how can he not make such requests?

His fingers clench momentarily as he considers that senior officers- Maran, and now Meylyd-are forcing him to choose between his own life and risking his lancers. Yet, were he to step aside, or let himself be killed, nothing would change.

It may not, anyway, for all that he has chosen to follow dreams.

He pushes that thought aside. He also pushes aside the desire to use the chaos glass to view Meylyd. If Meylyd is at all sensitive to its use, that will create more problems, and Lorn knows of nothing to be gained by using the glass for such a purpose.

For the moment.

CXII

Spring has come to Cyad, and the green and white awnings fill the streets to the south of the Palace of Light under a clear green-blue sky. The Second Magus and the Captain-Commander of the Mirror Lancers stand on one of the smaller western balconies of the Palace.

Kharl looks out at the harbor, where scaffolds enfold two white-hulled fireships moored at a guarded white stone pier.

Luss glances at the two ships, then at Kharl. "Matters do not look so bright for the Quarter, these days."

"Nor for the Lancers. Your casualties in the north are climbing, as are they in the companies along the ward-wall of the Accursed Forest." Kharl's green eyes shimmer with the hint overlying chaos-gold. "And... Maran is dead."

"Mirror Lancers do die in the course of duty," Luss says. "We do believe in duty, you may recall."

"You were the one who had expressed interest in Majer Maran, as I do recall."

"It should bother me that a renegade mage who posed as a lancer has died?" asks Luss.

"It might, if you consider the implications," suggests Kharl.

Luss raises his eyebrows. "Perhaps you should educate me, devious one?"

Kharl merely shrugs. After a time, he says, "The glass shows but the ward-wall... and nothing beyond-as usual." The Second Magus smiles brightly. "As I recall, he was supposed to deal with a certain captain. It would appear that the captain is clearly more experienced than some had anticipated."

"In direct combat, he has much experience," concedes Luss. "You had assured me that he has little capability and experience as a magus."

"Perhaps he used a sabre," suggests Kharl. "I merely suggest some caution."

"And how would you suggest such caution be applied, O devious Second Magus?"

"It would be best the Majer-Commander not discover this effort. Nor the Emperor, for who knows what he might ask of the Hand? Yet... that is up to you. Were I, say, a captain-commander, I might send word to Commander Meylyd that the Majer-Commander feels that unless there is some evidence of what befell the majer, evidence that the Emperor would regard as convincing, that the matter should be dropped with a quiet warning to the captain."

"You think that wise?"

"Very wise... the captain will fight to survive. If he is attacked by another officer, such as your Overcaptain Hybyl, Hybyl will also die, and then this Lorn will flee... or cover it up. Either way, the Majer-Commander will discover what has occurred. He will need to blame someone, perhaps someone rather high in the Mirror Lancer Court in Cyad... someone he does not like. It is better that this not come to light yet... until later, and then it will appear that he ordered it to be suppressed."

"Meylyd will try to find something," suggests Luss.

"I am certain he will attempt such. If he does, the problem is resolved. If he does not, there will be another field commander skeptical of the Majer-Commander, and one willing to tell the Emperor that the Majer-Commander attempted to cover a murder. Since the murder cannot be proven, the rumor will be more effective."

Luss nods slowly. "Devious as you are, that makes much sense. But what of the captain's future?"

"He appears to have developed certain skills... in anticipating or avoiding certain uses of chaos. To deal with him at Jakaafra would make the effort, shall we say, rather obvious. Then, if the First Magus is successful in the effort to put the Forest to sleep, any effort against the captain would become even more obvious." Kharl smiles. "Were I a senior lancer officer, I would promote him to overcaptain and then transfer him to where there is much... conflict."

Luss shakes his head. "A third such tour? For the son of the Fourth Magus? That would come to Rynst's eyes before the captain reaches Assyadt, and then the Majer-Commander would look far deeper. I think something like a port detachment, say in Biehl. For a short time, until he is forgotten. He also may encounter... certain difficulties there...." Luss smiles. "Then, if necessary, a tour in Assyadt, after another promotion, so that he will be most inexperienced and also less... conditioned to combat. Also, if he is transferred now, before a full turn of duty... his time in Cyad will be limited."

"Best he be in Cyad for but a short period now, rather than a longer time later," Kharl agrees. "And best he be away from the Accursed Forest while the sleep barrier of the First Magus is created."

Both men nod.

"If he should survive yet more conflict, then he should come to Cyad as an aide to the Majer-Commander... say, when it is most appropriate," suggests Kharl.

"After certain other events?"

"Exactly."

Without another word, the two turn away from the view of the harbor and from the striped awnings whose unfurling heralds spring in Cyad.

CXIII

Sitting behind his study desk, Lorn looks at the pen holder, and then at the open window, and the low clouds that promise rain that has not yet arrived. Second Company has completed another full patrol, encountering only shoots from seeds, and Lorn must write another patrol report, and a summary, and decide whether to again request replacement lancers-and sit and wait to see how Commander Meylyd will react to Maran's disappearance.

Finally, Lorn picks up the pen and begins to detail the last report. He has barely written three lines when Kusyl steps into the study.

"Yes?"

"Ser! There's a firewagon here, and Commander Meylyd. He's coming this way."

Lorn finds a sardonic smile on his lips. "Perhaps he will tell us about our replacement lancers, then."

"Ser?"

Lorn shakes his head, standing quickly.

At the sound of voices, Kusyl steps back and holds the door to the inner study as the Commander enters, followed by a smaller officer, an overcaptain. The squad leader closes it gently but firmly as he leaves.

Meylyd does not take a chair, but addresses Lorn directly. "Captain... I am sure you know why I am here. This is Overcaptain Hybyl. He was Majer Maran's deputy."

Behind two officers, Kusyl opens the door and slides in a chair and then silently closes the door once more.

"I am afraid I do not." Lorn offers a polite but confused expression. "I must admit I cannot honestly say I know why you are here, saving for my continual requests for replacement lancers."

"You cannot say?" Meylyd now offers a quizzical expression. "Majer Maran indicated he was not pleased with you before he left. And you pretend you don't know that? When he disappeared immediately after meeting with you? At a meeting outside the compound where no one but you two happened to be present?"

"No, ser. I knew that the majer was displeased. He took me for a quiet ride, where none would hear, he said. And he told me that while you were pleased with my results in containing the wild creatures, he was not happy with the strategies I had adopted. He said they were against patrol doctrine."