L. Modesitt - Arms-Commander

The hidden tracks suggested that a number of riders had used the road, but it couldn’t have been too many because there were no obvious marks on the shoulders and no deep wagon traces. No wagons meant few supplies, and few supplies implied that whoever was riding either intended to live off the land or wasn’t hostile. Given the intrigue and double-dealing that Saryn had already seen, she suspected the former…but suspicions were only that.

“Call in the outriders!” Saryn swung back up into the saddle.

After the three outriders had returned and gathered around Saryn, Klarisa, and Yulia, Saryn cleared her throat. “There are armsmen somewhere ahead of us. There could be several companies. Whenever you near a ridge or a higher place in the road, I want you to slow down and move up just enough to see what lies beyond. If you see any sign of anything that looks out of place or any sign of armsmen, slip back down and make your way back here. Don’t raise any dust in doing it. Is that clear?”

“Yes, ser,” came the chorus.

“We’ll also need a place to rest, or to bivouac, where there’s clean water.”

Once the three had headed out again, Klarisa looked to Saryn. “How far away do you think they are?”

“More than two kays, but less than eight, because that’s about how far Tryenda is from here. That’s a bit of a guess, though.”

“Would they not be closer? I cannot believe they would sweep the road for ten kays.” Klarisa raised her eyebrows.

“They might, if they were told some women were after them…and they’d get a certain…pleasure…or reward, or something like that. Besides, they’d want quarters in the town.”

“They would.” Klarisa nodded, but there was a certain anger behind the gesture.

That was fine with Saryn.

Given what awaited them ahead, there was no point in pushing the horses, and Saryn slowed their pace to an easy walk. Even so, they covered almost two kays before the outriders returned, and Saryn halted the squads to confer with the scouts and the two squad leaders.

“What did you find out?” she asked.

“It’s hard to tell for certain, ser, not without being seen,” offered Chayara, the stocky older outrider-from somewhere in Gallos, as Saryn recalled. “There’s a woods on a rise to the right of the road, and there are cots below it. There’s no one in the cots, and it’s harvesttime here. That doesn’t seem right. There’s no one on the road, either.”

“How far do you think the town is?”

Chayara shrugged. “I couldn’t say, but I’d be guessing it’s less than a few kays beyond where the road turns west beyond that wooded ridge.”

“Is there anywhere we can make camp out of their sight?”

“There’s a tiny stream over the next rise, and it winds sort of west…” offered Leisi, the youngest outrider. “There’s a big woods there.”

Saryn turned to Klarisa and Yulia. “I’m going back with Chayara and Hanira. You take Leisi and the squads along that stream and behind or around the first rise. If there’s no place suitable to make camp, just wait there. Otherwise…that’s where we’ll stay. No fires. None.”

“Yes, ser.”

Saryn nodded to the outriders. “Lead on.”

They covered slightly less than two kays before the road angled to the left around a slightly larger rise covered in scrub and grass that looked to have been overgrazed.

“The road’s too open,” said Chayara. “We just went uphill here, by that path next to the stone fence there.”

“Thank you. Follow me.” Saryn extended her senses before she reached the top of the rise, but she reined up the mare short of the crest once she saw how open the ground was there. She closed her eyes and concentrated, building up a better picture from what she was sensing.

Chayara had been right. There were empty cots in the vale below the rise where Saryn had halted. Above those cots were armsmen and mounts-possibly two companies, although all were concealed in the trees, which comprised more of a managed woodlot than a true forest.

Could all the armsmen be there for a reason besides rebellion…or an ambush?

She considered what she knew. Lord Mortryd had been very clear in his missive to Zeldyan that he had barely a company of armsmen to his name. The tracks she had sensed were for far more than a single company, and that suggested several more companies’ worth of armsmen waiting somewhere beyond. She very much doubted that Mortryd would send all his armsmen kays away from his hold if he were under attack.

So…Mortryd was under attack by those waiting in ambush, and those waiting wanted to ambush any forces sent to relieve Mortryd…or good Lord Mortryd was part of the rebellion, and the missive to the regents had been a ruse. Saryn would have bet on the latter. Either way, it didn’t make much difference so far as those armsmen the outriders had sighted were concerned. Saryn and the guards needed to deal with them.

Saryn continued concentrating, trying to relate the exact positions of the armsmen who guarded the road. There was one squad drawn up in readiness-or semireadiness-just behind the first line of trees on the ridge overlooking the road that led into the town of Tryenda, and behind them, under cover, was at least a company.

Still, there had to be others…but where? Most likely, they were quartered in the town, another kay or so to the southwest…if her maps were correct.

She opened her eyes and looked to the outriders. “We can head back to the others.”

“Yes, ser.”

Saryn turned the mare, urging her back down the east side of the rise, thinking about how they could deal with the armsmen.

The woods weren’t that thick, more like a woodlot, and she thought that, if she attacked before dawn through the woods, hitting the sentries with the archers, then the camp itself, that might be enough to scatter the first company. Then…if she moved her squads across to the other side of the ridge…

She nodded. It should work.

And if it didn’t, they had the high ground and a way to retreat-even if she really didn’t want to think about that possibility.

Saryn awoke in the darkness, jerking awake from a dream in which chaos-bolts had rained down upon her and the guards from all directions, and no matter what direction she lifted her shield, chaos flew in from another angle and turned guard after guard into flaming charcoal, then ashes.

She sat up on her thin bedroll and blotted her steaming forehead with the sleeve of her undertunic. Let’s hope that’s not prophetic. After reaching for her water bottle and uncorking it, she took a long swallow. Then she corked it and looked eastward at the starry sky. Above the hills she caught sight of a fast-moving star-except stars didn’t move that fast. Had that been the Winterlance ? Or just a slow meteor? Did she want to lie on the hard ground and try to rest for the little time left before she’d need to prepare? She shook her head. All that would do would be to make her more uncomfortable. She pulled on her boots, then her tunic, and stood, thinking.

There might be as many as three companies in different positions, poised to close in and surround whoever took the road that led into the town of Tryenda. Saryn pushed that thought away. One objective at a time, and the first one is to crush and scatter the company guarding the road before they know they’re under attack.

During the last battle, using the chaos-knife wedge had prostrated her after a single effort. Even if all three companies were in one giant formation, there was no way she could create a chaos-knife big enough to encompass all of them…not and stay conscious.

Does the energy required for using order-chaos flows increase arithmetically or geometrically with the size of the application? She couldn’t help but smile at the pedantry in her mental question. But still…could she just use a smaller chaos-order-knife at a key point? Or several of them? Without totally exhausting herself?