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. Alu
cius 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.
The sun had not yet cleared the timber-covered ridge to the east of the former logging camp where half of Fortieth Company was now stationed in the first week of its three-week rotation, a series of rotations begun in midsummer of the previous year when one more company had been shifted to Zalt. Alucius walked quickly toward the stable.
He found it hard to believe that he had been at Senob Post for over a year, that he had been on more than fifty patrols, and that he'd lost count of the number of raiders and Lanachronan troopers he'd shot and killed, and that seventh squad was now on its third squad leader—Solat. Solat seemed to have more tactical sense than Alben had. So had Kelt, but Kelt had just been unlucky on the patrol before the last one.
Alucius took a deep breath as he stepped into the stable, then nodded as he passed Oryn, who was already checking his mount.
'You think we'll find anyone today?" asked Oryn.
'Some tracks, not much more. They've been avoiding us lately."
'Could be they're getting ready for a big attack, try and push through to Southgate?"
'Who knows? Everyone says they want Southgate. Lot of folks in Zalt ran from Southgate when they could. From what the women in the market tell me, the seltyrs use the Dramuran mercs to keep everyone a serf, except a handful of traders."
'Matrial should have taken it years ago."
'Why didn't she?" asked Alucius.
'Got me. Kelt told me that both Dramur and Lanachrona said they'd attack Madrien if the Matrial tried."
'The Lord-Protector's attacking anyway," Alucius pointed out. "And neither one offers much trade." Or any way to send messages, he'd discovered.
Oryn laughed. "They call them raids. That way…"
Alucius shook his head and headed for the stall holding Wildebeast. Even before he stepped up beside his mount, he could sense the residual soreness in Wildebeast's left front pastern. He had no idea what had caused it, unless it had been a stone thrown by another mount, because they'd only been riding the logging roads and not going crosscountry after the Lanachronans.
He bent down and spread his fingers across the bone, letting his Talent enfold the skin, sinew, and bone under his fingers. "Easy, fellow… easy. This should help."
Alucius had done the same the night before, and his healing had clearly removed most of the damage. Healing his mount wasn't something that would be obvious, and Wildebeast wasn't about to tell anyone.
Wildebeast remained calm, almost as if the stallion understood that Alucius was trying to help him. Finally, Alucius stood, smiling faintly to himself, then patted his mount on the shoulder. In the two glasses before they would begin patrol, there would be more healing, enough so that Wildebeast shouldn't have any trouble.
"Halt!" ordered squad leader Solat.
In the early afternoon, under a hazy silver-clouded spring sky, seventh squad reined up at the junction of the two rutted logging roads. As he waited in the second rank, Alucius patted Wildebeast. His mount had recovered fully from whatever had caused the soreness in his pastern.
Solat studied the dusty road, then looked up. "No signs of tracks here. Alucius… you take Venn, Oryn, and Astyl, and follow the tracks on east fork. We'll take the west road. Whoever gets first to where they rejoin waits for the other group."
'Yes, sir." Alucius eased Wildebeast forward, waiting for the other three to fall in beside and behind him. One reason Solat picked him to take half the squad was that Alucius wouldn't say anything about it. There wasn't anything in the regulations about patrols smaller than a squad. It just wasn't done—except two patrols could cover more ground than one. Since they knew the area around the old logging camp well, it was certainly faster with two patrols.
Venn slipped his roan up beside Alucius.
Neither said anything until they were a good three hundred yards away from the fork. Then, Alucius turned in the saddle. "Let it open up until we're about ten yards apart."
'Got it," replied Oryn.
Astyl, who had only been with seventh squad two months, glanced from Alucius to Oryn. Alucius let Oryn explain.
'In a small patrol, we don't want to be too close together."
Alucius kept scanning the woods on each side, not only with his eyes, but with his Talent-sense. The only scents were those of dust and men and mounts, so dry had the weather been in recent weeks. By the time they had covered almost a vingt, he could sense that there was something—or someone—out there, even if there weren't any hoof-prints in the road dust. He paused, then raised his hand. "Halt!"
Venn just waited as Alucius dismounted and studied the road.
Alucius nodded to himself, then mounted again. "Keep your eyes open."
'What did you see?" Venn asked. "There weren't any tracks."
'There weren't any tracks at all. None, not game, not birds, and there were some faint lines."
'That's what—oh. You think they're close?"
'No. Not yet. The dust has settled. You can still hear birds and insects farther back in the tr.ees. Also, there's no undergrowth here, and no low trees. It's too exposed." Alucius pointed more than a vingt ahead to where the old road swung more directly eastward and around a rocky ridge. "When w
e get near there… then we'll see."
After another four hundred yards or so, Alucius could feel the blackness of troopers, Lanachronan troopers, farther ahead, waiting in ambush. There weren't that many… and if his little squad took them by surprise…
'Halt!" He reined up, then gestured to a boulder almost the height of a mount at the shoulder on the right side of the road. "We'll go over there."
Oryn and Venn nodded. Astyl just looked puzzled as the four eased their mounts to the flat area between a fallen fir and the boulder.
'I can't be sure," Alucius said, "but I think the Lanachronans have set up an ambush up there, right below that ridge. It looks right down on the road. So we're going to see if we can do the same to them."
'Shouldn't we…" Astyl closed his mouth abruptly as Oryn glared at him.
'If we try to get help, they'll move," Alucius pointed out. "If we ride past, we get shot. If we go back and around, the other half of the squad might decide to come after us, and they could get ambushed from that side."
'Oh…"
'Astyl?" Alucius asked.
'Sir?"
'We're going into the woods and climb up behind them. I want you to wait here, right behind this boulder. Once we're out of sight, I want you to count to four hundred, and then fire one shot into the trees on the east side of the road—just across from you. Then I want you to count to two hundred and fire once more. Do that once more, and then reload and wait. If any Lanachronan troopers ride down the road, shoot them. Just make sure they're Lanachronan."
'Ah… yes, sir."
'We'll ride to the base of those rocks, and then we'll climb the back side. I'd wager that the Lanachronans are on the flat rock below. It's slanted, and they can't be seen from the road."
'How do you know that?" asked Venn.
'Maps," Alucius answered, less than completely truthfully. "There are lots of them in the library at Zalt. That's the only spot for an ambush, and they swept the road so that they could set it up."
Astyl looked puzzled.
'Dragged a pine branch behind their mounts or something like that." Alucius turned to Oryn and Venn. "Let's go." He looked back at Astyl. "Don't start counting until we're well out of sight. And count slowly."
Legacies Page 36
