Mage-Guard of Hamor (58 page)

Just as Rahl had thought that, a barrage of firebolts cascaded down into the troopers behind the barricade walls. Then a hail of arrows followed.

Another wave of deaths surged over Rahl.

“Too bad there's no easy way to put a gap in that second wall, or get cammabark close enough to blow it open.” Dhosyn's voice was low, resigned, coming from behind Rahl.

“The cammabark wouldn't be any good unless it was in a casing, like a shell or an old-style cannonball,” Drakeyt pointed out. “Then their mages would just explode it before anyone could get close enough.”

Rahl frowned. Exploding the wall…exploding the wall…He'd once exploded a part of a wall. Admittedly, that had been the black wall separating Nylan from the rest of Recluce, and it had only worked because of the additional order linked into the stone…but natural stone did have more order than soil or sand.

Shuchyl ordered the archers back into the fray, and, as their shafts lofted and fell behind the second barricade, the number of rebel arrows fell off. The firebolts continued, if only occasionally.

From the positions taken by the regimental companies, it appeared as though the commander was not about to attempt any more assaults…or not soon. Considering that Shuchyl had already lost more than a third of the regiment, Rahl could understand that decision.

Still…he glanced at the remnants of the carnage below the breached barricade wall and back toward the thinner ranks of Fifth Regiment. His eyes went back to the upper barricade. Could he do what he thought might be possible?

Finally, he squared his shoulders and turned to Drakeyt. “I think it's time.”

“You have something in mind?” asked Drakeyt.

“Yes. I don't know if it will work, but it's worth the effort to see.” He shrugged. “If it's not, no one will know.”
Except you and me,
he thought.

Rahl moved more to his left, toward the base of the cliff, but raised his sight shield before he moved away from Third Company, navigating toward the road and the barricades with his order-senses. Holding both sight shield and order shields as strongly as he could, he walked forward, then up the slope of the paved road, staying in the shadows he could not see, hugging the cliff face, and hoping that his patience had convinced the rebels that all the Imperial mage-guards were with the main forces of First and Second Army.

He had to pick his way around the troopers behind the lower barricade, then ease through the breach and back to the side of the road. He could sense an occasional firebolt, but none were hurled in his direction. His sight shield kept the light from him, and he had no way of feeling whether he was in the shade except by staying as close to the ancient chaos-smoothed stone that formed the cliff-face wall overlooking the road.

When he neared the upper barricade, Rahl could feel the presence of several mages on the walled ledge behind and uphill of the barrier. One exuded such whiteness that he had to be a white wizard from Fairhaven. Intermittent chaos-order-probes flickered around the barricade, but they felt random, almost halfhearted.

Keeping himself in the corner between the barricade and the smoothed cliffside, Rahl concentrated on the center of the barricade wall, ignoring the scores of rebels behind it, not to mention those on the walled ledge. When he had exploded the black wall in Nylan, he had merely attempted to see how the order was structured over and around the stones. Each stone had had an order framework, but that framework had been strengthened, not created, by the wall-builders. As he reached out with his order-senses and touched the crude wall before him, he knew he needed to find the knots of higher and underlying order embedded within the mixture of rock and timber.

Many of the stones were almost “dead,” with barely enough order to hold them together. Amid the mixture, Rahl found bits of what he would have called “sparkling” order, and he began to link one to the next, using a thin line of order. With each link, a knotted pattern of order built, and so did the strength of the sparkling. Was the sparkle something like order ready to release chaos? That was the closest to how Rahl could have described it.

He forced himself to work deliberately, adding links and strands one by one until he had an order-chaos structure that, if he recalled correctly, had something like the power of a small section of the black wall. As he kept adding to that structure, he began to funnel and channel the forces toward the middle of the barricade wall.

Whhhsst!

A firebolt slammed against his shields, followed by a second one, then a third.

Rahl staggered, trying to stay on his feet. So much for remaining undetected.

He couldn't keep doing what he was doing and hold his shields against a continuing barrage of chaos-bolts. Or could he? What if he linked that power into his order-chaos web? Could he?

Whhssst!

With the next firebolt, Rahl channeled the chaos into the barricade, holding it behind order. Two more chaos-bolts followed, and he did the same.

Then came the light flash—not that Rahl could see it behind his shields—but he could feel the power. That kind of chaos-force was so different from the firebolts that he couldn't find a way to grasp it.

“Chaos-mage below! Near the inside of the road! Just beyond the barricade!”

“Heavy crossbows! Iron bolts!”

Rahl could sense all sorts of rebels forming up, in addition to a well of chaos building above him. He had to do what he could, and he had no idea whether it would even work. He moistened his lips and concentrated, untwisting all the links he had built—all at once—then reinforced his own shields.

CRUUMMPP!

The explosion threw Rahl backward and then into the ancient smooth stone of the cliff face. Even within his shields, he was stunned, lying on his side, his back against smooth stone. He struggled to maintain the sight shield. He didn't want anyone shooting iron bolts at him, not when he doubted whether his shields would hold much longer.

Stones pattered down around him, and more death—far closer—swept over him.

Rahl's guts twisted and turned, and he kept swallowing to keep the bile down. Officers didn't retch on themselves. They didn't.

He slowly rolled onto his knees and then staggered erect. He put one boot in front of the other and began to make his way downhill, slowly, because there were fragments of rock and stone everywhere.

Below he could hear the trumpet calls of Fifth Regiment, and he forced himself to keep moving. He didn't want to get trampled by his own forces. He finally released the sight shield when he made his way through and past the breach in the lower barricade. Two troopers from first squad were already riding uphill, leading the gelding. Behind them were Dhosyn and first squad.

Rahl just stepped back against the stone of the cliff face and gestured.

Dhosyn caught sight of him immediately. “Majer's over there!”

Once Dhosyn and first squad reached Rahl, they had to hug the cliff face as troopers from Fifth Regiment companies poured up the road in pursuit of the rebels.

Rahl climbed into the saddle, slowly and awkwardly, then turned to the squad leader. “Thank you.”

“The captain and I—we thought you might be looking for a mount.” Dhosyn gestured uphill. “Specially after that.”

Rahl looked back toward the upper barricade. It wasn't there. Rather, a few loose heaps of stone remained, with fragments strewn for hundreds of cubits. Behind where it had stood, there was even less, and Rahl sensed that none of the rebels within a hundred cubits had survived. Nor had the two mages.

Rahl eased the gelding close to the stone of the cliff face to allow another company of Imperial troopers to gallop past first squad. He was in no hurry to join such a charge. He'd barely been able to mount the gelding, and his legs were shaking so much he wondered if his boots would remain in the stirrups. Even though he had made that charge possible, the fact that he was in no condition to ride out immediately galled him.

He turned and reached for his saddlebags, but he was so light-headed that he nearly lost his seat. He ate whatever he had, and slowly drained his water bottle.

By the time he thought he could stay in the saddle, most of Fifth Regiment had passed first squad, and Drakeyt had ridden up with the remainder of Third Company.

“You don't do things in a small way, Majer.”

“Some things you can't.” Rahl grimaced. He was going to be sore again. “That's what the overcommander keeps telling me. We need to follow the regiment.”

Drakeyt nodded. “Deliberately.”

Rahl understood. The company had already taken more than its share of casualties, and there was little point in hurrying into a melee where they could add little.

The sun was low in the west, and the road up the east side of the promontory was completely in shadow by the time Rahl and Third Company reached the top of the kay-long incline and came out on the flat. Park-like grounds stretched southward, surrounding the Administrator's Residence—a large villa of two levels—enclosed only by a head-high iron gratework fence. Two squads of Imperial troopers had been detailed to guard the open gates, clearly to prevent looting.

At the south end of the park was a compound with buildings and barracks. Before the gates in its low stone walls was another squad of troopers.

“No rebels there?” Rahl called out.

“No, ser. They saw us coming and rode south.”

Beyond the compound, the mesa-like flat area on the top of the ridge began to narrow and slope downward. Rahl reined up.

Below, Imperial forces had encircled the rebels and surged inward, compressing the defenders so that many could hardly move. While Rahl could not see any firebolts, he could sense from the diffuse chaos that many had been thrown and that wide patches of blackened ground lay beneath the hoofs of the mounts of rebels and Imperials alike.

“The rebels had more mages than we do,” Dhosyn said.

“The more troops involved,” Rahl replied, “the less effect a mage can have.”

“You had a certain effect, Majer,” Drakeyt said.

“Only because of the way they tried to defend Nubyat,” Rahl replied. “You might recall that what I did in wide field battles was far less effective.”

“It was effective enough.” Drakeyt's words were dry.

Effective enough? For what? For the moment, Rahl watched as the Imperial forces continued to slaughter the rebels, hoping that he would not have to contribute more to what had turned into a massacre—all because of what he had managed to do with one stone barricade.

After the battle on twoday, Rahl and Drakeyt had commandeered a corner of the compound barracks for Third Company. None of the other officers in First or Second Army complained, not to Rahl, at least. Amid the confusion, from what the two officers could gather, Golyat and his senior commanders had not been captured, nor had they been among the slain. Nor did any of the captured and wounded rebels have any idea where the rebel prince might have gone.

Rahl was so tired by the time that matters settled out that he slept on a pallet in an alcove adjoining the bay that held their men. So did Drakeyt. Both arose early on threeday in an effort to restore more order to Third Company, but they had barely managed to locate fodder for the mounts and arrange for feeding the troopers when a trooper arrived with a request for Rahl to meet with Taryl at the Mage-Guard Overcommander's villa immediately after morning muster.

Rahl had to hurry to groom the gelding and make himself halfway presentable. The ride was short, less than a kay, and he almost wished he'd just walked. But he would have had to have groomed his mount anyway.

Rahl tied the gelding to one of the ornate iron posts set into stone beyond the mounting blocks for the main entrance to the “small” villa assigned to the Mage-Guard Overcommander of Merowey. The villa itself was larger than most of the merchant's mansions Rahl had seen in Hamor and was built of smooth blocks of gray basalt, with gray roof tiles, unlike the Administrator's Residence, which was gray with pinkish tiles and dwarfed the overcommander's villa. Both structures had wide windows that could be opened to catch the ocean breezes—and equally wide shutters to keep out rain and chill when necessary.

Two troopers were stationed by the entrance archway. Both bowed as Rahl approached the door.

“Majer, ser…the overcommander is expecting you. If you take the hall to the left, it goes straight to the study. That's where he is.”

“I take it that there's not much in the way of staff.” Rahl smiled.

“Not at the moment, ser.” Both troopers returned the smile.

Rahl extended his order-senses as he stepped through the open doorway and into the high-ceilinged entry foyer. Neither trooper said a word even after he had passed, but Rahl could sense both respect and acceptance. The left corridor was walled in soft white plaster, and several of the niches that had held paintings or sculpture were empty. He passed an archway on his right that opened onto a sitting room, fully furnished, if sparsely. The next archway was to the left and revealed a formal dining chamber with a long oval table of black oak. The corridor ended at a black-oak door, left half-ajar.

“You can come in, Rahl.”

Taryl remained seated behind the simple goldenwood table desk, but looked up as Rahl entered and watched the younger mage-guard. The dark circles under his bloodshot eyes attested to the strain and effort of the previous day.

“Are you all right, ser?” Rahl blurted.

“I've been better, but I'll survive. I appreciate the concern.” The overcommander gestured to the chair closest to the desk.

Rahl settled into it and waited for Taryl to speak.

“I understand from Commander Shuchyl that you sundered the upper-barricade wall. He wanted to know if it was necessary for him to lose so many troopers before you chose to act.” Taryl's voice was mild.

“Necessary?” Rahl snorted. “I didn't figure out how it might be done until most of those had been lost. I also was following your advice about not getting involved until I could make a significant difference.” While Rahl understood Shuchyl's feelings about the deaths incurred in assaulting the rebel position, he couldn't help but be irritated. He hadn't seen Shuchyl anywhere close to the action in any of the battles.

“How did you feel about that?”

“I didn't like it,” Rahl admitted.

“Good.” Taryl nodded. “There is a danger for mage-guards, especially for commanders and administrators, either to risk themselves when they should not or to avoid such risk all too readily by rationalizing that they are too important to hazard themselves.”

“If I might ask, do you know what happened to Prince Golyat?”

“I do.” Taryl offered a wan smile. “He was nowhere near the battle. He was in the Residence, and when he heard that Fifth Regiment had broken through, he took the cliffside steps down to the cove on the seaward side, and he and his most senior commanders, as well as Ulmaryt—he's the former overcommander of mage-guards—embarked on a steam-powered sloop with shallow draft. I imagine that he's well on his way to Sastak by now.”

“What about the fleet?”

“They have to sight him to give chase, and that's unlikely with Ulmaryt accompanying him. Even if they did, they'd have to try to shell something they can't see from a distance because their draft is so much greater.”

“So he'll just…escape?”

“For now, and if you call Sastak escape.” Taryl shrugged. “I'd like to catch him, but that's less important than restoring Merowey to the Emperor's control. We've destroyed half or more of the traitor mage-guards as well as all of the white wizards sent from Fairhaven.”

“How do you know that…ser?”

The overcommander offered an ironic smile. “Golyat and Ulmaryt wouldn't trust a white on that small a vessel with them, and none of the rebel mages left behind survived. You destroyed four when you exploded the second barricade. There were almost half a score with the defenders to the south.”

Rahl wondered how Taryl had dealt with them.

“With old age, one learns techniques that the young spurn in favor of flash and strength.” An enigmatic smile followed.

“What happens next, ser? What do you need from me?”

“First, the troops and their mounts need time to rest. Second, you and I and the remaining faithful mage-guards need to screen the captives to see who truly opposed the Emperor and who was pressed. Then we need to ready Nubyat as a port for some of the fleet vessels, so that we can receive supplies and reinforcements. After that, we proceed to wipe up the rest of the revolt. The first stage will be to send Commander Shuchyl north to recover Elmari.”

Elmari? When Golyat had headed south? “Is that so that there are no rebels at our back when the marshal has to face Golyat, ser?”

“Elmari is lightly held.” Taryl's tone was even.

What was Rahl missing? Taryl hadn't responded to the reference to the marshal. Rahl tried again. “Ah…the marshal…he wasn't terribly pleased with the way we dealt with the officers and others at Selyma.”

“No…he wasn't, but he wasn't feeling that well, and he's asked to be relieved and stipended for reasons of health.”

Rahl had the definite feeling that the marshal's request was not exactly voluntary. “Then you're acting marshal?”

“For as long as the Emperor wishes, and only that long.”

Rahl would have added “the Empress” to that statement, but he said nothing.

“One other thing…Third Company has been reassigned as the Mage-Guard Overcommander's support company.” Taryl smiled. “That means you'll have to move to the small barracks adjoining this villa. I don't imagine that the men will complain, except that it's a longer walk to the mess.” He straightened. “We'll meet first thing after muster tomorrow morning. By then, I'll have a better idea of what you'll be doing. That all depends on who else I can trust.” He paused. “I would like you to take a squad and look over the harbor, though, so that you can report on that tomorrow.”

“Yes, ser.”

Taryl stood. “I do appreciate what you did yesterday. It saved us hundreds of troopers, if not more.”

And cost thousands of rebels their lives, not to mention the Imperial troopers who died because I couldn't figure out matters more quickly
. “Thank you, ser.” Rahl could sense that Taryl was withholding more than he had told Rahl, but Rahl did not sense anything that suggested Taryl was upset with him. But would he have known unless Taryl wanted him to sense that?

“I'll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, ser.” Rahl stepped back, then turned.

As he left the study, once more, he had to wonder what Taryl was hiding…and why.