L. Modesitt - Arms-Commander

“Ser?” asked Klarisa, riding beside her, “What’s happening?”

Between Klarisa’s worried question and Saryn’s own unsteady control of the nodes, the order-linkage collapsed, and hot sunlight flooded back over Saryn and the squad leader…and the first riders in fourth squad.

“Ser?” repeated the squad leader nervously.

“I’m trying to work on how to deal with white mages,” Saryn said. “You might notice some strange things.”

“Yes, ser. I’m sorry, ser.”

“That’s all right. I should have warned you.”

“Do you mind if I pass it back, ser?”

“Just tell them that I’m working on a better defense against mages.”

Klarisa turned in the saddle. “Don’t worry if you see strange things around the arms-commander. She’s practicing defenses against the white mages. Pass it back.”

Saryn wasn’t about to correct the idea that she knew the defenses and was merely practicing them. She just hoped that she could come up with something that worked.

Once she was sure that all the guards had had time to get the message, she concentrated on rebuilding the order-lattice that connected the tiny unseen nodes in the air around her. Once again, the light around her dimmed, but she had the feeling that the lattice she had created was more like a net than a shield. And nets didn’t stop targeted energy. That she’d learned in the darkness between stars.

She released her hold on the net/lattice, and full sunlight flooded back over the squad. She took a deep breath.

What else can you do? What had she done-exactly-in dealing with the Suthyan hedge mage?

For a moment, she let her thoughts drift back to the fight with the raiders who had attacked Lord Spalkyn’s crofters and how she’d dealt with the small fire-bolts. She’d slid them, using a combined flow of order and chaos. Flow? Is that the key?

After extending her senses, as she continued to ride southward, for a time she just watched/sensed the flows in the air between the order nodes and those between the chaos nodes, noting that the changes between order nodes were patterned and infrequent, while those between chaos nodes were much faster and unpredictably irregular. Chaotic . She smiled at that thought.

Now…could she meld the flows so that they would block a chaos-bolt and slide it away? Could she extend those flows so that they covered both squads?

She began by smoothing the chaos flows between two nodes that seemed to jump from place to place-as did all of the chaos nodes. Then she extended the smoothing to a third node…and a fourth. She could feel a certain pressure, and she tried to link in the nearest order node. A tiny star flared in the air.

That doesn’t work. What about the idea of flow circuits…or something?

She began to connect order nodes, then tried to tie the linked chaos nodes to the linked order nodes…smoothing the “space” between them. Her “smoothing” tinged the white of the chaos with gray, and the black of order faded toward gray…but the flow seemed stronger, like a curtain of unseen gray light.

At the same time, the white sunlight falling around her out of the hot and hazy green-blue sky seemed to shift toward the red, toward a faint amber. Cutting off the blue end of the spectrum?

She linked in more of the order nodes to the order “circuit,” but, then, the curtain seemed to stiffen, as if it might crack or buckle-if something she could not see or feel could do either. So she extended her links to more of the dancing chaos nodes, and noticed that with each added chaos node, those nodes danced around less, although it felt to Saryn as though they were oscillating, or vibrating, within themselves.

Balance…the flows have to balance.

The sunlight darkened into a deeper red, and she glanced around, seeing that the reddish light shadow covered all of fourth squad, but only Yulia and the first rank of second squad.

Saryn concentrated on extending the area of the parallel melded flows, weaving her order-chaos flow curtain farther behind her, trying at the same time to strengthen it, to thread in more order and chaos nodes.

The sunlight darkened yet more, giving a slight cooling to the air around her, yet sweat poured off her forehead and into her eyes, and tiny flashes of light flared across her vision. She felt herself swaying in the saddle.

Finally, she had to release her hold on the gray light-curtain. White sunlight flowed back over the squad. She inhaled deeply, then exhaled, then did so again, even though she hadn’t been holding her breath.

Murmurs drifted forward from behind her.

“…scary…”

“…most stuff she does that saves your rear is scary…better get used to it…”

Am I really that frightening? Saryn was afraid she knew the answer to the question, much as she pushed it away, but her answer raised a second question, one to which she had no answer. Why does it have to be that way?

She eased her water bottle out of its holder and took a long swallow. She’d have to rest before she tried to gain better control of the shield flows. But she couldn’t stop working, not until she had them under control. She’d just have to pace herself…for as long as it took.

She took another swallow and corked and stowed the bottle.

According to the maps, the border to Tryenda lay another fifteen kays ahead. She could rest and eat some biscuits and try again.

The lands of northern Tryenda held the same kind of rolling rises as Cardara and the area south of Lornth, but the ground itself seemed less fertile, with occasional rocky outcrops, more meadows with sheep and scattered cattle, less cropland, and far more forested areas. The air was heavy and damp. Saryn kept blotting her forehead, face, and neck, and her undertunic was soaked through by midday on fourday.

Part of that was because of her own extra efforts in trying to find better ways to fuse the flow of order and chaos in the air into a flowing, sliding curtain that would hold against the chaos-bolts of the white mages. She could now shield both squads, but not for all that long, at least not without exhausting herself. Since she doubted that any chaos-mage she might face would conveniently go away when her flow curtain failed, she’d begun to work on her technique to put it together. At least, if she could raise it quickly, she might be able to hold it just long enough to deflect fire-bolts and then raise it again…if she could develop the proper technique. Or…she might be able to raise it just where the fire-bolt was aimed.

While she took several long swallows of water and rested, she studied the road and the fields and scattered woods through which they were riding. After a time, she realized that she had seen few tracks on the road, except those of her own outriders, for the last five kays, but she also hadn’t sensed anyone around-not closer than two kays, at least. Abruptly, it hit her, and she wanted to pound her own forehead.

“Squads! Halt!” she ordered.

As soon as the guards came to a stop, she dismounted, then knelt and studied the sandy, dusty surface of a road whose spring ruts had long since been softened by a hot summer and the passage of hoofs, feet, and wagon wheels. Close inspection showed only traces of one set of cart wheels and two set of hoofs. The dust showed faint wavy lines…covering deeper imprints.

Saryn frowned… They dragged branches. But why bother? The roads always have some horse men…unless there are lots of riders…

The entire situation screamed of ambush…but how exactly should she handle it?

Klarisa glanced down at Saryn.

“They hid their tracks. It’s hard to tell, but I’d guess several companies rode this way. Not today. Yesterday or the day before. The locals must know, because there haven’t been many riders or carts since then. They’re keeping their heads low and hoping things blow over.” Like Zeldyan has been, but some troubles don’t ever blow over. They just get worse.