The Autumn Republic (27 page)

“W
hy didn’t you tell me?” Taniel asked.

He rode alongside Gavril on the western road, trying desperately not to think about Vlora. She still loved him, Gavril had claimed, and she had not denied it. The revelation had been a shock – something that Taniel hadn’t even considered. She’d bedded another man, hadn’t she? That meant that she no longer wanted him, didn’t it? Feelings he’d spent the last six months trying to bury were suddenly bubbling to the surface. Until last night the whole situation had been cut-and-dried. He’d dealt with it and moved on, only to find that he’d never had the facts straight in the first place.

It was confusing and it made him want to shoot something.

The big man beside him sat slumped, looking half-asleep and almost ready to fall out of his saddle. It was a misleading posture. He was watching the road, and he read the wear of hooves in the mud like a scholar might read a long-dead language.

“Eh?” he rumbled. “Oh, you mean back on South Pike?”

“Yes.”

“I was drunk.”

“You sobered up pretty quick.”

“Well, that’s the odd thing. I kinda assumed you knew.”

Taniel peered more closely at the big Watchmaster. “What?”

“It didn’t actually occur to me that Tamas wouldn’t tell you that I was your uncle. Not for a while, anyway, and when it did, there wasn’t a good time to tell you. We were in the middle of a rather violent siege, after all. And I thought he probably had a reason for not telling you that the South Pike Mountainwatch drunkard was your uncle.”

Taniel couldn’t help but feel some indignation at that. “So you weren’t going to actually tell me? I’ve thought – for years – that Tamas was the only close family I had left.”

“Really?” Gavril straightened in his saddle. “You know, every time I think I’ve come to terms with the shit your father does, I find out about something like this. He didn’t even mention me?”

“I have vague memories,” Taniel said. “Of being told
about
my uncles. Nothing more. No names.”

Gavril grunted and tugged gently on his reins. “I’ve been a fairly reprehensible drunk since your mother died. Maybe Tamas didn’t want me to meet you. Or maybe the memories of another family were too much for him.” He snorted to show what he thought of that.

“Too much? I don’t think the man has emotions.”

“You’d be surprised. Your other uncle was Camenir, my little brother. He was just a boy, not much older than you when we went after Ipille. He’s buried in Kez.” Gavril held up his hand for a halt and pointed at the ground. “Riders. Around sixty came through here yesterday. They rested here. If memory serves, we’re getting pretty close to the Counter’s Road, the north-south highway. We’ll want to slow our pace, prepare for anything. If there’s going to be another ambush, it’ll be soon.”

Taniel stowed the questions he wanted to ask Gavril in the back of his mind and tried to ignore the surge of confused emotion caused by the sight of Vlora coming back down the road toward them. She had been on scouting duty with one of the Riflejacks. He could tell by the urgency with which she leaned forward in the saddle that she had found something.

“We’re about a half mile from the intersection,” she said as she reached them. “And the grenadiers have laid a trap.”

“How do you know?” Gavril asked the question before Taniel could.

“They’re waiting about a little under two miles to the south, flanking the road. I got just close enough to sense the powder and get a feel for their positioning and came back.”

Taniel asked, “Any Privileged?”

“None that I could see with my third eye.”

“Perfect. Their Privileged must have left them behind to deal with us. We have the advantage because we know their positioning. We can turn their trap back on them.”

“Better than that,” Vlora said. “I can just detonate all their powder. Take out the whole lot in one go. Few enough powder mages can do it at a distance.”

“Few enough? There’s just you.”

Vlora gave him a grin. “So they won’t be expecting it.”

“They might have Ka-poel.”

“Not if the Privileged aren’t there,” Gavril said. “They’ll have taken her on ahead if they know what she’s carrying.”

Of course. They would keep her close as they fled. But… but what if they didn’t? Vlora could detonate all their powder, killing her right along with the grenadiers. “I can’t risk it.”

“Can she be seen in the Else?” Vlora asked.

“She has the glow. It’s hard to tell, for most.”

“But
you
can tell?”

“Yes.”

“Then come with me. The two of us can get close enough, make sure she’s not there. You can put a bullet through any Privileged they may have and I’ll detonate the powder. Our Riflejacks can stay back half a mile and come in to mop everything up.”

Taniel checked his pistols to be sure they were loaded. “That’ll work.”

They continued on until they reached the T-intersection, where their highway ended in the Counter’s Road. Vlora stayed out front with the scouts, and Taniel hung back with Gavril. He wanted to ask the big Watchmaster about his mother, but his mouth didn’t seem to want to form the words. Vlora was still in love with him, his own lover was still held captive by the Kez, and they were about to ride straight into half a company of grenadiers.

“Taniel,” Gavril said, bringing him back to the present. “Bad news.”

“What is it?”

“Someone’s ridden north, here at the intersection.”

“What do you mean?”

Gavril dismounted and spent a few moments examining the ground of the intersection, mumbling quietly to himself. “Eight, maybe ten split off from the main group. They’re heading north. Everyone else went south.”

“Can you be sure?” Taniel asked, feeling a sudden fear. What if the Kez had planned a second ambush? Taniel’s company would turn south along the road and try to spring the first trap while a second group of them came down from behind. He reached out with his senses, pushing them to their limit to try to feel something else out there – Ka-poel, a Privileged, powder. There was nothing.

“Not completely, no,” Gavril said. “It could be travelers. It could be Adran patrols, unaware that the Kez are even in this part of Adro. Pit, it could be Mountainwatchers, down from the peaks to cut wood or get supplies.”

Of course they weren’t going north. That would be preposterous. There was nothing to the north but Adro for hundreds of miles. They could try the high passes for Deliv, but the Deliv were on the warpath after Alvation. No Kez would make it through their lands alive.

“Norrine,” Taniel said.

The powder mage drew her horse over to Taniel and saluted. “Sir?”

“You’re the best rider of this bunch and you’ve got sharp eyes. Go with Gavril. The two of you move north and try to sniff out a Kez trap. Vlora and I will go south and slaughter the grenadiers. It’ll be up to you two to tell us if the Kez have come in behind us. Flerrier, Doll, and the Riflejacks will take the road and be ready to guard our rear.”

“Yes sir.”

Gavril gave a slow nod. “It’s risky, splitting like this. But it’s the best way to keep them from getting the drop on us.”

“Get to it, then.” Taniel looked around the gathered soldiers and mages. “We have Kez to kill.”

Taniel dismounted and handed his reins to one of the Riflejacks, then collected his pistols, rifle, and sword. Vlora followed him, and together they crept through the forest, flanking the road on the east side by a few hundred yards. It would allow them to avoid any trickery on the part of the Kez and to sneak up on the grenadiers from the side – they wouldn’t expect mages in hot pursuit to slow down long enough for this.

Not that it was slowing them too much. He and Vlora could move through the trees more quietly than most, and they both burned powder trances, which made them move and think faster. Taniel could hear every crack of twigs and creak of trees in the forest for two hundred paces. It was a cacophony of information, but part of his training as a mage had been to filter that information into what were the animal noises of the forest and what was the movement of men.

Taniel found himself relieved that their mission required silence and the clear focus of moving quietly in the woods. He couldn’t afford to let Vlora distract him now. He was able to push those thoughts to the back of his mind, where they haunted him like a half-seen shadow.

He knew they would be back.

He let Vlora take point. Less than half an hour later she raised a fist, signaling a halt, and crouched down into the underbrush. Taniel crept to her side.

“We’re about a half mile out,” she said.

“Very close.”

“That’s about the farthest I dare try the detonation, and I have a clear sense of them all. They’re flanking the road from high vantage points.” She touched her temple and was silent for a moment, her eyes looking unfocused. “I’d guess as many as sixty of them.”

“Sounds right,” Taniel said. “Any Privileged?”

“No. I don’t sense your savage girl, either. You’d better check for her.”

Taniel took a sniff of powder, trying to ignore the way Vlora had said “your savage girl” and the accusation in her tone. He opened his third eye, steadying himself with one hand on the rough bark of a tree, and studied the Kez trap.

He focused on the area where he could sense the black powder and squinted into the trees, looking for the familiar dim glow of pastel color in the Else that indicated Ka-poel’s presence. The strength of her glow was somewhere between a Knacked and a Privileged, but several shades darker in color, which made her more difficult to see.

Several minutes passed before he let his third eye drop. He put his forehead against the back of his hand for a moment, fighting down his nausea. When he’d recovered, he said, “No sign of her. Does it seem odd to you that they have no Knacked?”

“Now that you mention it…” Vlora’s eyes were fixed on the Kez position. “Maybe they had one or two and they were killed in the attack on our camp.”

Taniel brushed off the niggling doubt he felt in the back of his head. “Probably right. Are you ready?”

“Yes.” Vlora moved several feet forward to crouch behind a fallen tree. Putting her back to the hollow trunk, she set her rifle across her knees and closed her eyes. Taniel saw a smile touch her lips and then felt her reaching out with her senses.

He felt the series of explosions rippling through his mage senses. A moment later and he heard angry bangs going off like a fusillade on a battlefield.

“Go,” Vlora said.

Taniel hopped the fallen tree and was sprinting through the forest, rifle held at the ready, eyes sharp for the green-and-tan uniforms of the Kez grenadiers. He heard Vlora fall in behind and to his right. Dry leaves crunched under his feet and branches whipped his arms and face. This wasn’t about stealth now but about catching any survivors before they could recover.

They would be confused and disoriented from the explosions – more than likely wounded – and thinking that a whole brigade of Adran troops were about to fall on them. Taniel had to reach their position quickly and take them captive or kill them before they realized they were only facing two powder mages.

He reached the top of a hill and paused to get his bearings. “Where?” he gasped.

“Next rise!” Vlora didn’t pause, racing past him and taking point. She had already fixed her bayonet. Taniel cursed and fixed his own as he chased after her.

He skidded to a stop near the top of the next rise and ducked behind a tree. He could see Vlora up ahead. She had slung her rifle over her shoulder and drawn a pistol. Slowly, she stood up.

Taniel waited for her signal to move forward and strained for the sounds of the wounded and dying. Nothing. Even with his powder-enhanced senses the forest was utterly still. No birds, no animals. Had Vlora’s powder ignition killed every single one of the grenadiers outright? That didn’t seem possible.

The moments stretched on while Vlora stood silently, and Taniel finally lost all patience. He dashed to her side, rifle ready.

The scene on the hillside below them stopped him dead in his tracks. He could see the road from this vantage, and the evidence of powder detonations all along this hill and the hillside on the opposite side of the road. Black stains marked the trees, leaves smoldered, fallen branches burned, and the scent of the spent powder hung in the air like a fog. The ground was pockmarked with small craters.

But the only victims were the trees themselves and a couple of unfortunate squirrels.

Taniel lifted his rifle further and spun around. His eyes scanned the surrounding forest, looking for a trap within a trap. Not a creature stirred.

“I don’t understand,” Vlora said. “Is this some kind of distraction? Something to slow us down?”

A nearby motion caught Taniel’s eye. Upon closer examination he found it to be the leather strap of a powder horn, the ends burned off, but the leather itself surprisingly unharmed. It swung from a branch gently, as if mocking them. Taniel felt his heart thundering in his chest as he tried to discover not how they’d been tricked, but why.