L. Modesitt - Arms-Commander

In the deep darkness before the sun would rise over the hills west of Suedara on sevenday, Saryn had a far better idea why no one really wanted to deal with the Jeranyi. Four days of following tracks, sleeping in dusty barns and sheds, and sensing the riders who could only be Jeranyi scattering away through the bush-covered hills had left her feeling more than a little frustrated and very much more understanding of why Lord Sillek had just had his mages drop fire-bolts on what ever Jeranyi he’d been able to find.

Saensyr had just said, “One wastes shafts trying to use bows, and horses chasing them.”

Was that another reason why the Lornians didn’t use archers in battle? It couldn’t be the only reason, could it?

At the same time, she’d also come to realize that her ability to use the flow of order and chaos in the areas around her had extended. She could now reliably sense riders and large animals at close to two kays. Part of that had to have been because of the more open terrain, but some also had come from having to use her senses so much-because there didn’t seen to be any other way to discover the raiders.

She’d also discovered that the Jeranyi liked to move into position well before dawn, then strike when there was just enough light to see. That was how two more small hamlets had suffered. It was also why she was leading the three squads through the darkness along a trail well away from and west of the main narrow road. If they’d used the main road, the Jeranyi certainly would have noticed all the hoofprints. Suedara wasn’t a hamlet, but a small town, with not only cots and crofters, but even a few houses of more than one room-and it was the only town with easy access from the trails leading from the West Pass that had not suffered from the raiders, and that was doubtless also why many had fled there from devastated hamlets.

While it looked to Saryn as though the Jeranyi were trying to scare everyone into Suedara for more concentrated pickings, she certainly couldn’t prove that, nor could she explain why she thought the Jeranyi would make their raid into Suedara on sevenday. She’d just told the squad leaders that attempts to find the Jeranyi later in the day had failed and that Suedara offered the raiders better pickings.

“How much farther, ser?” asked Shalya through the darkness.

“About a kay before Caeris takes position. About a half kay after that, you’ll take first squad up onto the rise on the right and set up with the archers out of sight from the main road…the way we talked about last night. Once you’re in position, I’ll move back with the Lornians.”

Based on their early ride through the town on the way to Westara, Saryn had picked a spot more than a kay southwest of the town itself…for several reasons. First, she didn’t want a pitched fight in the town. Second, she wanted to surprise the Jeranyi away from the town, and third, there wasn’t any terrain she liked better anywhere else along the route that she thought the Jeranyi would take.

A low rise topped out some hundred and fifty yards west of the road leading out of Suedara to Westara, a road that eventually swung due west until it reached the West Pass. On the east side, opposite the ridge, lay soft and marshy ground, but that did not begin until close to a hundred yards off the road. The marshy sections bordered a small swamp that fed, if intermittently, the stream that supplied Suedara. The area Saryn had picked did not appear as confined as it was in fact.

“Do you think the Jeranyi know we’re after them?” asked Shalya.

“They must know someone is after them, but I’d be very surprised if they knew there were Westwind guards among their pursuers.”

They rode in silence for more than a quarter glass before Saryn eased the gelding back along the shoulder of the narrow trail until she reached the Lornian squad. “Squad leader?”

“Yes, Commander?” replied Caeris through the darkness that might have been lightening ever so slightly. Saensyr rode beside him.

“Just ahead is where I want you to take your position, in the low area behind the last slope down to the main road. You’re not to move to where you can be seen…unless, of course, you come under attack, but I doubt that will happen. Remember…you’re not to close off the road until the Jeranyi are under attack from first squad.”

“Yes, ser.”

“You understand your task?”

“Yes, ser.”

Saryn rode with Caeris for another hundred yards and made certain that the Lornians were in position before riding back up the slope to the trail and joining Yulia and second squad.

“Commander,” offered the squad leader.

“Squad leader. Your task is simple, but it won’t be easy. You’re just to block the road so that the Jeranyi can’t reach the town and hold as long as you can. First squad will be attacking from the Jeranyi rear. Keep the squad together as much as possible. The Jeranyi like to pick off riders who get separated.”

“Yes, ser.”

Saryn did not accompany second squad all the way to their position, concealed behind the north end of the same ridge behind which Shalya and first squad were readying themselves, if almost half a kay farther from the town. But Saryn did not rejoin first squad until she could sense that Yulia had her recruits in place.

Then, while the sky slowly lightened, and the night sounds of various insects began to be replaced by another set of sounds, and the night breezes died away into an uneasy stillness, it was a matter of waiting. Before all that long, Saryn began to sense riders-far more than she had expected, more than her three squads, and possibly close to a group the size of an entire company. She checked the position of first squad again-just below the top of the ridge where they could not be seen from the road.

“Bows ready,” she ordered.

“Bows ready,” echoed Shalya, quietly. “Pass it on.”

Saryn waited until the Jeranyi were less than two hundred yards south of the point on the road just opposite the guards. “Forward and into position.”

“Forward…”

The twenty guards rode forward, not quite to the top of the ridge, but far enough that they could see the road before and below them.

Saryn could not only sense, but see, the oncoming Jeranyi, riding three abreast on the main road. None of the raiders were talking, and they rode quietly. She also sensed the Lornian squad beginning to move-too soon-despite her orders not to reveal themselves and not to take the road until first squad actually opened fire on the Jeranyi raiders.

So far the Jeranyi had not seen the Lornians.

“Squad leader…have your archers aim at the rear of the Jeranyi for the first volley, then at the leading riders for the second.” Saryn hoped that might confuse the raiders…if they even saw the Lornian squad.

“Archers…first shafts at the rear ranks. Second shafts at the head of the column. Pass it on.”

At the moment when Saryn could actually see the first Lornian armsmen coming down the slope to hold the road behind the Jeranyi, she said, “Loose shafts. Now!”

“First shafts away!”

After a moment, Shalya added, “Second shafts!”

Saryn watched with eyes and senses. For several moments after the first shafts ripped into the rear of the raiders, nothing happened.

Then there was a faint cry of “Archers!”

Almost immediately after the second shafts struck down some of the leading riders, one of the Jeranyi was pointing in the direction of first squad.

“Rake the lead riders again!” Shalya ordered.

Two more volleys followed, then a third, before the Jeranyi started toward the ridge.

“Bows away! Forward!” snapped Saryn. The guards needed to get up the ten yards in front of them to take the higher ground.