Scepters

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  “Most probably don’t, but they haven’t seen the alternatives. There are problems in Lanachrona. There are problems everywhere, but there seem to be far fewer here than in other lands. That’s one reason why we’ll need to be very cautious in approaching Hyalt.”

  “Because you don’t think there should have been a revolt?”

  “From the few reports we have, it isn’t really a revolt. It’s more like a local invasion by the True Duarchists. Most of the local people had to flee, but no one else has since then. That suggests either a number of armed rebels or local support—or both. The duarchists had rifles and blades and the training to use them. They struck at a time designed to take the local garrison by surprise. That doesn’t sound like discontented subjects so much as someone trying to make it seem like a revolt.”

  “Who would…the Regent of the Matrial, you think?”

  “That’s the most likely possibility, but we won’t know until we can scout out the situation.” Alucius didn’t want to mention the missing scouts. Not yet.

  “How do you…what do you plan?”

  “To do what they don’t expect, where they do not expect it, and in ways that they don’t.”

  “That sounds…difficult, sir.”

  “It will be. It’s better than the other approaches. They’re impossible.”

  “Can you give us some idea…?”

  “We won’t be riding in on the high road, not for the last twenty vingts or so. We’re also going to try to create doubt about the abilities of the duarchists. All kinds of doubt. If we do, that will make our job much easier.” Alucius smiled politely. “I’ll be going over the details with all of the officers together as we get closer to Hyalt, and some of the training exercises we’ll be doing along the way are designed to work with the tactics we’ll be using.”

  Deotyr nodded slowly, as if at least some of what Alucius said were new to him and needed further consideration.

  That was what Alucius wanted. He shifted his weight in the saddle, a saddle that would get harder than he liked before they arrived near Hyalt, and reached for his water bottle. Early in the day as it still was, it was hotter than he would have liked. Then again, everywhere south of Dekhron was warmer than he preferred.

  46

  On Tridi midafternoon, Alucius was riding at the head of Thirty-fifth Company with Captain Jultyr. The fields on both sides of the road, beyond the wooden rail fences, held growers and their hands and families, all of whom were involved in harvesting a range of crops—from maize to some sort of beans, and a type of oilseed. They were busy enough that only a handful of youngsters even bothered to look at the passing lancers.

  “You’ve seen quite a bit in your time with the Guard,” Alucius said. “You came up through the ranks.”

  “Yes, sir.” Jultyr did not quite look at Alucius, as seemed to be the case on most of the occasions when Alucius had ridden with the older captain.

  “How long did you serve with the forces against the Matrites?”

  “About four years, sir.”

  “What did you think of their abilities?”

  There was a pause before Jultyr spoke. “Some were good. A company here or there was real good. Most weren’t as good as we were.”

  “You have any thoughts on why that might be?” Alucius found himself waiting and forcing himself to be patient while Jultyr considered his answer.

  “Couldn’t say for sure, sir, but they seemed to do better on the squad level. Thought they had better squad leaders than officers. Some of their auxiliary companies were good, too.” Jultyr looked to Alucius. “You think that might be so?”

  “They don’t have any officers who are men. So the highest a good man can go is senior squad leader. Some of those I knew were very good. Their officers…a handful were good, but the best ones were more likely to get killed. Their strategy was generally better than either that of the Northern or Southern Guard, but their tactics and battlefield leadership weren’t so good.”

  “You think we have better officers and better tactics…they have better squad leaders and strategy?” questioned Jultyr.

  “Overall…probably. Both have officers who are good, and both have officers not so good, though. We know that’s true in any fighting force.”

  Jultyr nodded.

  “According to your record,” Alucius said, “the Guard promoted you from senior squad leader to captain directly. That’s not done often, I know.”

  “It happens, sir.”

  “I know.” Alucius laughed. “I didn’t expect it when it happened to me.”

  “Suppose I had hoped,” Jultyr said after a silence. “Never think it will happen to you. Doesn’t happen often in the Southern Guard.”

  “It doesn’t happen that often in the Northern Guard, either. Overcaptain Feran and I are about the only two officers who are still serving that I know who came up that way.”

  “The overcaptain said you’d faced down the deputy commander of the Northern Guard for your men. Stood alone in front of a whole company.”

  Alucius wondered where Feran had learned that, since it was something Alucius had never mentioned to anyone outside his family. “Just did what I thought was right.”

  Jultyr nodded. Another silence followed.

  Alucius glanced back at the four supply wagons that followed the lancers, thinking about his conversation with Marshal Frynkel about the wagons. He wondered if he shouldn’t have pressed for even more supplies.

  “You think that these duarchists have any connection with the Regent, sir?”

  “I don’t know,” Alucius replied, “but I’m sure that the Matrites will take advantage of them any way possible. At the very least, I’d guess their weapons are coming through Madrien. I don’t see where else they could come from.”

  “Could be more lancers or troopers in Hyalt than you’ve heard,” suggested Jultyr.

  “That’s why we won’t be heading all the way to Hyalt. We’ll take some of the back roads and circle around the town. We need to see what we can find out before we decide on a final strategy.”

  “Sir…how soon in that match before you knew you were a better blade than Majer Fedosyr?”

  “I had some doubts about his ability,” Alucius said slowly, “when I heard that he was opposed to using rattan wands.”

  “He never meant it as a practice match.”

  “No.”

  “You knew that?”

  “Not for certain until I saw his sabre. Then it was pretty clear. He had it polished and the edge ground to razor sharpness. That’s a duelist’s blade, not a working lancer’s blade. Then, I had my doubts he’d ever really been a working lancer.” Alucius forced a laugh. “I haven’t spent as much time in the field as you and Feran have, but I know that, and that’s why I try to listen to experienced officers and squad leaders. But all the years I have spent in service have been in the field. I’m sure you notice which senior officers understand and which don’t.”

  For the first time, Jultyr laughed, softly and briefly. “Yes, sir.”

  Alucius continued to ask gentle questions, continually reminding himself to allow the captain time to reply and not to hurry him, trying also not to say too much about his own past.

  47

  Tempre, Lanachrona

  In the indirect light of late afternoon, the three marshals sat in straight-backed chairs upholstered in deep blue and trimmed in gold. Facing them across the severe dark oak table desk was the Lord-Protector. The polished desktop was bare.

  “Why don’t we know what is happening in Hyalt?” The Lord-Protector’s eyes traveled from marshal to marshal, from Frynkel to Wyerl to Alyniat, before snapping back to the arms-commander.

  “We have no recent information, sir,” admitted Wyerl.

  “No one has left Hyalt since the last of the traders and their families fled almost a season ago,” added the blond Marshal Alyniat. “Not that we’ve been able to find, under the circumstances.”

  “And you have sent no sco
uts?”

  “We sent several,” Wyerl said slowly. “None of them returned. While we would have preferred to provide Majer Alucius with more information, it seemed imprudent to keep sending men to their deaths for nothing. We have few enough good scouts remaining as it is.”

  “You expect me to believe that no one has left Hyalt? In a season?”

  “They have blocked the roads, sir, and fortified those points. We told you that when we discovered that had occurred. You told us not to send lancers to tear down the barricades, but to leave that to Majer Alucius.” Wyerl glanced toward Frynkel.

  “Majer Alucius has yet to reach Hyalt,” offered the balding marshal. “He is within a day or two of the city, I would judge.” Both eyes blinked rapidly for a moment, and Frynkel pressed the side of his palm against the right one.

  “We guess…we judge.” The Lord-Protector snorted. “We assume, but we do not know. How can we prevail when we know so little? We have no Table. Your scouts cannot tell us what is happening in our own land, and they cannot reach us with what is happening in Madrien until it is too late to do anything.”

  “That is true, sir,” Wyerl replied. “Very true.”

  “I am supposed to rule without information? You are supposed to decide where our lancers should be when we do not know where our enemies may be or how many of them may be where?”

  “We know where the Regent’s forces are,” Alyniat pointed out, “and how many she brings to bear in each area.”

  The Lord-Protector ignored the statement and turned to Wyerl. “When do you leave?”

  “Tomorrow, unless you wish it otherwise, sir.”

  “All I wish is your success—and that of Majer Alucius—so that we may return Lanachrona to a land of not only prosperity, but peace.”

  “Majer Alucius is most likely to be outnumbered, sir,” Frynkel said quietly. “He could be badly overmatched.”

  “Thankfully, that has not been a problem for him in the past, and we must hope that it will not be one now,” Wyerl commented. “He has a very different style.”

  “I do not see it as different,” replied the Lord-Protector. “He fights only when he must, and then he does his best to destroy all of the enemy so that he does not have to fight them again. Had we been able to do that in Madrien, we would not now be fretting about where and when the Regent will strike.”

  None of the three marshals responded, but waited for the Lord-Protector to speak again.

  After the silence had dragged out, he stood. “If you would continue to keep me informed…You may go.”

  “Yes, sir.” The three marshals rose as one.

  After they had left him alone in the study, the Lord-Protector turned and walked to the window gazing to the northwest at the twin green towers, a legacy of the Duarchy.

  “Have rulers always had to act knowing so little?” he mused half aloud into the empty room.

  There was no answer.

  48

  For another week—ten long days—Alucius and the three companies rode, almost due west for the first five days. The next five days, they rode south on the eternastone road that ran from Tempre in the north to Hyalt in the south. The night after heading south, Alucius had once more dreamed about the chamber with the walls closing in, and again he woke up sweating. Clearly he felt hemmed in, but there was little enough he could do besides being aware and doing his best.

  On Quattri, just as the sun had almost reached its zenith, Alucius realized what had been nagging at him for the past few glasses. They had seen no one heading north the entire morning. Not a soul. While the road was supposedly less traveled than many others, it was part of the trading “square” of high roads that linked the five major cities in western Lanachrona.

  On either side of the high road was a vingt or so of low scrub brush, little of it over knee-high. Each bush or plant was surrounded by an empty area of reddish sand. To the east, the brush gradually gave way to rolling grasslands, but the harvest tan grass was sparse, and in places the brownish red soil showed through. To the west were hills that rose no more than fifty to a hundred yards above the high road. A patchwork of reddish sand, brush, and junipers covered the slopes.

  The last Southern Guard way station had been two days earlier, manned by but a half squad, and Alucius had his scouts out not only on the eternastone road ahead but also on the few side roads. Another set of scouts paralleled the main road, riding through the scrub brush roughly half a vingt to each side. Not a single scout had seen anyone since they had broken camp that morning.

  “This is a trading road, isn’t it?” Alucius asked Feran, riding beside him.

  “They say it is.”

  “We haven’t seen any traders or anyone at all. There were more people on the road from Salaan to Dereka.”

  “You’re saying that there’s trouble ahead.” Feran laughed. “We knew that already.”

  “It’s not just trouble, but the kind of trouble. Everywhere else where I’ve been around fighting, people move. Some flock in to make a quick coin, and some flee. Marshal Frynkel couldn’t provide any information about this revolt. No one has found out anything since the first traders fled, and that was more than a season ago. Just how likely is that?”

  “Likely or not, honored Majer, that’s the way it is.”

  “Exactly. But it means we need to know more before we go charging into Hyalt.” Alucius looked at the road ahead and the lancer scout who was headed back toward Alucius at close to a gallop.

  Alucius turned to his left, looking at Dhaget, one of his three courier/ messengers. “Send back word for all the companies to halt and have Captain Deotyr and Captain Jultyr join me.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Alucius turned back toward Feran. “Have Fifth Company halt and take a break.”

  “Fifth Company! Column halt!”

  “Company halt!” Egyl echoed Feran’s command.

  Both officers waited until Waris reined up short of them.

  “Sir…there’s a barricade ahead. It’s a pile of stones and logs on both sides of the road, and a log set on a post so it can block the road. Troopers, or something like ’em, in maroon tunics.”

  “Did they see you?” asked Alucius.

  “Don’t think so, sir.”

  “How far ahead?”

  “Three vingts, give or take a few hundred yards.”

  “How many troopers were there?”

  “Looked to be a half squad or so. They had some merchant’s wagon. Didn’t see the merchant, though. Also had maybe ten mounts saddled and ready to go.”

  Alucius frowned. “Call in the other scouts. Station them on the road a vingt to the south to stand watch for now. Then report back here.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  While Alucius waited for the other two officers to join them, he took out the map from the top of his left saddlebag and unfolded it, studying it and checking distances, looking up and comparing what the map showed to what he saw, as he had done periodically for the last several days.

  “Sir?” offered Jultyr, riding up and halting on the edge of the road beyond Feran.

  “There’s a roadblock ahead. When Deotyr gets here, we’ll go over the next steps.”

  “Yes, sir.” Jultyr nodded.

  Within moments, Deotyr reined up beside the other captain.

  Alucius lowered the map. “The scouts have reported a fortified roadblock about three vingts ahead, with half a squad of mounted armsmen. There’s no way to tell yet if they’re actually trained lancers. We could take this barricade, possibly without many casualties. But we’d still be more than twenty vingts from Hyalt, and they’d know that we were here. I’d rather they didn’t know until we’ve learned more, and until we can make an attack with the advantage of surprise.

  “We’re going to head back north for about five vingts. We passed a road, more like a trail, back there. It runs south between the hills just west of us and another line of higher hills farther west. We’ll only take it far enough to find a go
od bivouac. Then, we’ll start scouting in earnest. I’ll tell you now, but you also need to make sure that the scouts know it. The Southern Guard lost a number of scouts here. So, at first, I don’t want your men trying to get too close. I’d rather have sketchy information than none.”

  Deotyr glanced to Jultyr, then back to Alucius.

  “You have a question, Captain Deotyr?”

  “Not exactly, sir. Ah…it’s just…wouldn’t they know the back roads?”

  “I’m certain that some of them do. But they’re expecting any lancers to come straight down the road. The way the roadblock is set up, it’s not a defense against a company of lancers. If there are any defenses, those defenses are farther south. The barricade is set up so that even if we did manage to capture everyone there, it would be obvious from a distance that it had been overrun. I’d rather not announce our presence over a roadblock and ten or twenty men.”

  “Ah, yes, sir.”

  “If you’re right, Captain,” Alucius went on, “and you well may be, we could run into larger forces on the back roads. Now…we know that they’re somewhere and armed. Right now, do they know we’re here?”

  “No, sir, probably not, sir.”

  “Not yet, I hope,” Alucius replied. “So, if we run into another force on the back roads, who has the advantage of surprise?”

  Deotyr nodded, if grudgingly.

  “If our scouts are good, we might even be able to set up an ambush for them.” And if he and the companies were lucky, Alucius added to himself. “Twenty-eighth Company will take the lead on the way back to the side road, and I’ll be riding with you. Overcaptain Feran and Fifth Company will ride rearguard, just in case we have been spotted. Once we find a defensible bivouac, we’ll send out scouts, possibly for several days.”

  Alucius’s eyes went from officer to officer, ending with Deotyr. “Is that clear?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Then let’s get moving.” Alucius gestured to Waris, who had reined up a good five yards away. “Is there any sign of the rebels?”