L. Modesitt - Mage-Guard of Hamor

"I've found a solid start south, just to the left on the far end of the orchards there." Rahl gestured.

Drakeyt nodded, as if that were to be expected.

"How do you think this will work?" Rahl asked Drakeyt.

"You're asking me, Majer? You're the mage."

"You've got the experience," Rahl replied, adding dryly, "Captain."

"We won't run into any rebels for a while." Drakeyt gestured toward the lines of pearapple trees comprising the orchard around the makeshift ferry landing. "If they were anywhere near, they'd have known about this, and they would have attacked the engineers who set this up."

"So we should have at least five kays before we run into trouble?"

Drakeyt shrugged. "Three or thirty… who knows?" He turned in the saddle. "Quelsyn, have all the squad leaders reported ready?"

"Here comes Lyrn, ser. He's the last."

"We'll ride out as soon as he reports."

"Yes, ser."

Once Third Company left the orchard and deployed along the lane, heading south-southwest and roughly parallel to the river, Rahl felt more than a little handicapped because he could not use the screeing glass, and that limited how far he could sense ahead. Even so, he could tell that initially, Drakeyt was right. There were no rebel forces nearby.

In fact, as Third Company made its way southward, neither Rahl nor the scouts or outriders ran across any rebel forces. In some ways, that did not surprise Rahl, because he was leading Third Company along what amounted to back lanes rather than on the paved main highways. Had the rebels pulled back all the forces to key points? Was there a larger force stationed on the south side of the river at Selyma?

Rahl kept wondering that, but even by the time they needed to turn back some three kays north of Selyma, Rahl had found no trace of any large rebel forces and only a few scattered small patrols-and those had been only at the edge of his ability to order-sense.

When Third Company returned to the ferry point on the south side of the Awhut River on threeday night, Rahl and Drakeyt had mapped out a fairly direct route southward from lane to lane to a south road, and one that intersected the paved road southeast to Sastak less than a kay outside of Selyma. In three places, though, they would have to ride through fields or orchards to get from one lane to another, but none of those sections was more than half a kay in length, and they did not have to cross more than one small brook in doing so.

Bivouacking on the south side of the Awhut River on threeday night was among the most miserable experiences Rahl had undergone in at least several eightdays, if not far longer. The mist of twoday and threeday had turned into a light rain by twilight, a rain that continued well into the night. There were absolutely no real quarters anywhere, and the lean-tos created in the pearapple orchards with the tarp Drakeyt had carried was only enough for the two officers and did not keep all the rain off either. Rahl couldn't help but worry about both men and mounts, and when he did doze off, his sleep was fitful at best.

Third Company moved out early on fourday, riding down the lane beyond the orchard under a hazy sky that Rahl sensed might well clear by midday, or at least by midafternoon. Even by midmorning, Rahl had neither seen nor sensed any rebel forces, nor had he felt anyone using a screeing glass. He rode back from the outrider's position and turned the gelding so that he was riding beside Drakeyt.

"There's no sign of anyone. No one's even looking with a glass for us. I can't help but wonder if they're just waiting somewhere."

"That could be, but if they're waiting, they're not reinforcing the defenses on the other side of the river."

"Why aren't they scouting or looking?"

"They may be. We only know that they're not scouting where we are. That makes sense, in a way. You don't move large forces on narrow roads or lanes, and you don't do it without supply wagons and logistics support," Drakeyt said.

"I can see that for the longer distances we've had to cover," replied Rahl, "but we're only talking about riding one day away from the main body, crossing a river, and riding one day back."

"They can't cover everything. The old road swings north of the lake and swamp, according to the maps, and that's an additional fifty kays out of the way. Then there's the eastern route over the bridge at Bhucyra, and that's another sixty or seventy kays going the other way. Both of those are good roads, much better suited to armies. If you were their marshals, would you be sending scouts down every side road? Remember, these lanes don't really connect. Up ahead, we have to ride for half a kay through some fields, and later, there's that apple orchard."

Rahl nodded. Even a glass wouldn't show a direct route along the river, and why would anyone try to guess at where a part of Second Army might go when it didn't take the roads?

"The overcommander's thinking like a light-horse commander," added Drakeyt. "It wouldn't work with the whole army, or if it had kept raining."

Had Taryl been able to sense that the weather would change days before it had? Just how much magery had the overcommander mastered? Rahl realized that he really had no idea, for all the time he had studied with Taryl-and that was another lesson, of sorts. But then, how long would it be before he knew enough that he wouldn't always be learning something else that proved he'd either made a mistake or barely escaped making one?

"It feels like it's going to keep getting clearer. We're done with the rain-or anything serious, anyway-for a while."

"Then by later today, they'll have more patrols out," suggested the captain.

Rahl nodded. Drakeyt was doubtless right about that, too. "I'm heading back up with the outriders." He urged the gelding forward.

Sometime after midafternoon, Rahl began to get a sense of rebels-or riders-ahead, but they had to be at least a kay beyond the end of the road that Third Company traveled. He eased his mount back to where Drakeyt was riding at the head of first squad.

"Rebels, Majer?"

"There are some ahead. More than a kay, I think. It might be several squads, or a company. It's not any more than that. From what I can sense, they're patrolling the area where in a kay or so, several lanes join the main road into Selyma."

"Or out of it and to Nubyat or Sastak," Drakeyt pointed out. "We need to send a messenger back to the commander." He turned in the saddle. "Sienyr… forward."

The lean trooper drew his mount up beside the captain.

"You're to report to the commander personally that we have a rebel patrol force somewhat more than a kay ahead. Tell him that we await his orders."

"Yes, ser." With that, the trooper turned his mount and began to ride back down the lane toward the main body of the regiment.

"We need to slow to a slow walk," Drakeyt added to Rahl. "A slow and quiet walk."

"I'll bring in the scouts and outriders somewhat," Rahl replied.

The company had covered less than a kay when Rahl sensed the return of Sienyr and another rider.

"Hold here!" he told the scouts and outriders, before turning the gelding back to find out what the commander had ordered.

The courier had already reined up in front of Drakeyt by the time Rahl reached the captain. "Captain, ser, the commander requests that you circle behind the rebels. You are to hold off meeting or engaging them for as long as possible, but you are not to allow any of them to gain the town. He is sending Eighteenth Company to reinforce you, but requests that you make haste to take the main road behind the rebels so that they cannot cross the river and report to their commanders."

"Convey to the commander that Third Company has received orders and is complying."