Scepters (53 page)

“Yes,
sir. But thank you, sir.”

With
Skant holding the keg, Alucius refilled all three bottles and replaced them in
their holders.

Within
a quarter glass, the three companies were riding south on the ring road. As he
rode southward, Alucius took out the maps and studied them once more. Unlike
the northern section of the ring road, or the western and southwestern
sections, the ring road to the east and south was much lower, rising less than
ten yards above the arid rolling plains to the east. Even the lands inside the
road were almost equally fiat. That gave whoever held the road a tremendous
advantage.

No
matter how he looked at it, Alucius could come up with only one plan. He turned
to Feran. “Do we still have spades?”

“About
ten in the ammunition wagon.”

“That
will do.”

“Earthworks
won’t stand for long against the spear-thrower. You know that.”

“I
know. But they’ll last just long enough.” Alucius went on to explain. “I want
enough lancers to be firing at the Matrites that they don’t study what’s off to
the side of the road where it looks clear.”

“You’re
thinking of being out front? “

Alucius
shrugged. “I can’t see anything else that will work. Can you?”

“One
of these days, someone’s going to shoot you.”

“They
already have, you might recall. Several times.”

“You
might not survive it the next time.”

Alucius
laughed. “Anything else I can come up with means they get more shots at me.”

They’d
ridden slightly less than a vingt when they saw about ten lancers moving slowly
toward them in single file. All were wounded and splattered with blood.

“Waris…
if you could find out how far from here the fighting is?”

“Yes,
sir.” The scout rode ahead to meet the retreating and wounded lancers before
they reached Alucius and his companies.

Waris
returned shortly, as the wounded lancers moved single file on the west side of
the road past Alucius’s forces. The scout turned his mount to ride alongside
Alucius and Feran.

“The
Matrites are a little more than three vingts ahead, according to the
roadstones,” Waris reported. “There’s a Southern Guard force of about four
companies maybe a vingt and a half in front of us, near the next set of sentry
boxes.”

Alucius
checked his maps. “That should do.” He wondered who was in command of the
Southern Guard forces.

A
vingt later, Alucius found out.

The
dark-haired colonel who rode toward the column looked familiar—Hubar. Alucius
held in a tight smile. He shouldn’t have been so hard on the man. Now, he’d
probably end up paying something in return. At least, it wasn’t Sarthat. That…
that would really have made things difficult.

“Colonel
Hubar.”

Hubar
looked at Alucius, taking in the majer-colonel’s insignia on Alucius’s tunic
collar. “So… you think you can pull this out, Colonel?” The contempt in the
older man’s voice was barely veiled.

“I
won’t know until we try, will we?” Alucius paused but briefly, then added, “We
did manage to destroy the other crystal spear-thrower at around dawn this
morning, and we’ve been making our way here ever since.”

Hubar
studied Alucius and his uniform. “I suppose that explains the blood.”

“We
also managed to kill about five companies of Matrites.”

Hubar
looked at Alucius. “What do you want from us? I’d prefer no frontal charges,
sir.”

“I
don’t want any. They’d just get lancers killed here.” Alucius gestured to the
small stone watch posts on each side of the road. “We’ll be setting up a line
of earthworks here, ten yards on either side of the road. A trench deep enough
to protect a lancer from stray bullets.”

“That
won’t—”

“I
know. It won’t stop the spear-thrower once it gets within a few hundred yards.
But my lancers will be firing at a greater distance than that.” Alucius turned
in the saddle and gestured to the low rise to the west and back north almost a
quarter vingt. “I’d like most of your force formed up on that knoll—in a way
that’s visible for at least two vingts.”

Hubar
frowned.

“I
don’t want them to attack. I want the Matrites to be watching them. I’d like
your men to fire at the Matrites near the edge of your range and keep it up
until my lancers start firing. Then your men can pull back. They can use the
back side of the knoll as cover and circle back to the ring road, if necessary.
If we’re successful, though, they should be prepared to join our companies in a
full attack on the remaining Matrites. The Matrites should be disorganized, and
the more lancers we can bring to bear, the fewer survivors they’ll have.”

“Fewer
survivors?” Hubar’s mouth remained slightly open.

“Neither
the Lord-Protector nor Marshal Alyniat nor I want to fight this war again
anytime soon. Wars are hard to fight without troops.”

“Yes,
sir. That’s
if
you and your men destroy or disable
the spear-thrower. “

“That’s
correct. You can watch Overcaptain Feran.”

“What
about you?”

“I’m
part of the team assigned to destroy the spear-thrower. It takes a herder, and
I’m the only one left around here.”

Hubar
nodded slowly. “Well form up now.”

“Thank
you.”

Hubar
nodded brusquely, then rode back toward the ranked companies. Shortly, they began
to angle down the slope on the western side of the road.

Alucius
turned to Jultyr and Deotyr. “You see what Colonel Hubar’s doing?”

“Yes,
sir.”

“There’s
a similar rise out to the east, but it’s forward of where we are. You’re to
place your companies in staggered firing order there. As soon as the Matrites
come within the edge of your range, I want you to start firing on them. At that
distance, I know you won’t hit many, but I want you to keep firing until it
looks like they’re about to turn the spear-thrower on you. Then pull back about
half a vingt and take what cover you can behind that next rise. If everything
goes as before, something will happen to the spear-thrower, and that’s when you’ll
join with Fifth Company and charge the survivors. Is that clear?”

“Sir…
did you mean that about slaughtering them all?”

“I
should have been more clear. If someone’s down, disarmed, and disabled, don’t
bother with them. But no quarter for anyone who’s fighting. There’s no need to
slaughter anyone who can’t fight or isn’t fighting.”

“Yes,
sir.” Deotyr looked relieved.

“I
told Hubar that because without those kinds of orders he won’t understand the
kind of battle we’re in. Captains, go ahead out to that rise and form up.”

“Yes,
sir.” Jultyr and Deotyr replied almost simultaneously, then turned their mounts
back toward their companies.

“Now,”
Alucius continued, “I need two spades. Dhaget, get the spades and join Fewal
and Roncar and me farther south on the road.” He turned to Feran. “Overcaptain,
can you get the trenches dug here? Do you think that two lines will be enough?
Staggered so that the lancers firing won’t get hit by the ones behind them?”

“We
can do that, sir.”

“You’ll
start firing, slowly at first, once the Southern Guard companies pull back. I
want the Matrites worried about rifle fire. But make sure you pull back before
that spear-thrower can reach you.”

“Yes,
sir,” Feran replied. “How long after that… ?”

“I
don’t know. I don’t know its range. It’s less than a vingt, but how close it
will have to get, that I don’t know.” Alucius looked southward past the stone
sentry boxes. “We’d better find what we need.”

He
urged the gray forward, riding roughly half a vingt farther south before
reining up. From the inner shoulder of the ring road he studied the ground,
using his Talent, finally finding a spot on the slope about twenty yards to the
west of the road, and as the ground slanted, perhaps three or four yards lower
than the edge of the ring road. He dismounted, handing the gray’s reins to
Fewal and walking down the slope. Finally, he nodded.

He
only had to wait a few moments more before Dhaget rode up with the shovels.

“There’s
some rock here, but dig right behind it, only about a yard and a half wide and
two yards long.”

“How
deep, sir?” asked Roncar, who, along with Dhaget, had dismounted and brought a
shovel down to where Alucius stood.

“I’d
like at least a yard.”

As
his messengers dug, Alucius watched the road to the south, where in the
distance he could see riders and a darkish blob above a wagon, most probably
the spear-thrower. Occasionally, he heard the sound of a rifle, but that could
have come from anywhere.

It
was almost half a glass later before the slit trench was finished to Alucius’s
satisfaction. He pulled out the top rifle from the saddle case and looked at
the three messengers. “Same as before. Once the spear-thrower’s gone, and it
looks halfway clear, see if you can get to me with a mount.”

“Yes,
sir.”

“Now,
you need to get back before the Matrites get close enough to see exactly where
you are.” Alucius settled into the trench, listening as the sound of hoofs
receded.

For
a quarter of a glass, he watched the sky, but the hazy silver green looked the
same everywhere, and the thunderclouds to the south had seemingly never crossed
the coast. Then he used his Talent to explore the ground around him. As he’d
discovered earlier, there was a “dead” layer perhaps three or four yards
beneath him, suggesting that whatever had killed everything in that section of
ground had occurred before the ring road had been built, perhaps hundreds if
not thousands of years before.

Then
he extended his Talent senses once more, noting that his Southern Guard
companies were in position, as were Colonel Hubar’s forces, and that the
Matrites were little more than a vingt to the south. Shortly, the rifles of the
Twenty-eighth and Thirty-fifth Companies opened fire, a solid series of
volleys.

The
Matrites did not return fire, but Alucius also could not sense any power in the
crystal spear-thrower. He frowned. Were they using it as a bluff? Or trying to
avoid using it too much?

The
volleys from the two Southern Guard companies continued, and Alucius could feel
the occasional wound or death from the Matrite companies flanking and following
the spear-thrower.

Volleys
began from Hubar’s Southern Guard companies, and still the spear-thrower had
not been powered up.

The
heavier bullets from Fifth Company began to fly over Alucius’s head, and Hubar’s
lancers began to pull back.

Craaackk
… Energy began to build rapidly within the
approaching spear-thrower.

Alucius
swallowed, hoping that Jultyr and Deotyr would drop back before the
spear-thrower reached full power, and the Matrites turned it northeast toward
them.

He
could sense the lancers of his two Southern Guard companies pulling back, but
the spear-thrower also seemed to be casting its deadly weapons toward them.
Alucius took a breath as he sensed the spears falling short—mostly. He could
also sense a death or two.

Hubar’s
Southern Guards continued to pull back, and Alucius hoped that they hadn’t been
too late in retreating.

He
had to ignore those and concentrate on the weapon itself, extending his own
Talent-probe in a way to avoid the shielding nimbus of unseen pinkish light
that englobed the spear-thrower—except at the point where the spears formed and
were accelerated outward.

There
he twisted his Talent-probe toward the glittering Talentlike diamond nodes that
rotated around the spear-formation point. Recalling his promise to Alyniat, he
tried to tease out one of the threads he knew were within the node, but the
node remained solid. This time, he tried to trace out the forces that propelled
the nodes, but there were no threads there, at least none that were unprotected
by the pinkish shield.

Then
he tried twisting one of the nodes, but his Talent-probe couldn’t budge it. He
tried opening it with dark lifeforce, spinning it, but the nodes kept moving,
and every so often a swath of crystal spears flew somewhere.

By
then Alucius could sense that the spear-thrower was less than five hundred
yards away and beginning to scythe its spears toward Fifth Company. With the
lancers just back of it, it wouldn’t be long before a Talent-officer spotted
him. Alucius certainly couldn’t assume that there wouldn’t be one.

With
a deep breath, he returned to what he knew worked, lending his strength to
speeding the diamond nodes in their rotation. As before, after a rotation and a
half or so, the tiniest thread spun out from one diamond node. Alucius
Talent-grasped it and tugged. The node began to unravel, then vanished in a
flashing spray of thread. The following node shifted forward, and all the nodes
began to trail threads. Alucius grasped them all and tugged with all his
Talent-force.

The
hard and previous impervious crystal of the discharge formulator sagged, and
pinkish force built behind it, followed by an even greater surge of power from
somewhere beyond poured into the spear-thrower.

Alucius
flattened himself on the bottom of his trench and dropped a greenish
Talent-shield around himself. The ground, the shield, and he were shaken
violently. A blast of flame roared overhead, with metal and crystal scything
through the late-afternoon air.

More
death and destruction followed. For a time, Alucius just lay in the bottom of
the trench, half-covered with dust and dirt that had fallen on him—or his
shield. He stayed flat until he was certain that the rain of metal and crystal
had stopped.

Then
he began to inch himself upward, letting his senses range outward.

There
were still almost two companies of Matrite lancers a half vingt south of where
the crystal spear-thrower had been. Alucius could also tell that a good half
company of Hubar’s lancers had been struck down.