L. Modesitt - Mage-Guard of Hamor

The marshal frowned, then shook his head. "Words…"

"Do you wish the assistance of the mage-guards?" Taryl's voice remained calm, but each word was like iron.

"You are not on Triad anymore."

Taryl smiled. "No, but do you think I relinquished the abilities with the title?"

The oldest commander tried to conceal a wince.

"Do what you will." Byrna snorted and gestured toward the table, taking a seat at one end.

Taryl took his seat at the other end. After noting that the senior commander sat to the marshal's right, Rahl took the chair to Taryl's right.

"Before we begin the briefing proper," Byrna said, irritation still in his voice, "I'd like a clarification of what services the mage-guards will provide."

"We're detailed to provide a certain level of protection for you and your staff against rebel mages."

"Except to protect me and my staff, what other services do you provide?"

"An earlier knowledge of where the rebels are placing their chaos-mages, where they have explosives, and, in the case of storms, how long they are likely to last and where they are most likely to have the greatest effect. Also, where their largest concentrations of forces may be." Taryl inclined his head just slightly.

"Helpful, but hardly decisive," snorted Byrna.

"We do not claim to be decisive. We claim to be helpful and useful. Past marshals and emperors have found us so."

"We'll see." Byrna turned. "Commander Eswyt, if you would begin.."

"Yes, ser. At the moment, it appears that the rebels hold all the possible deep-water ports from just west of the south Heldyn Cliffs to a point close to due west of Jabuti and Alsenyi. They have fortified and reinforced the ports. A direct coastal assault would be close to suicidal for those involved. Prince Golyat's chaos-mages would be able to concentrate on individual vessels and boats… Most important are the facilities at Nubyat and Sastak. The Jeranyi are supplying the rebels, as well as raiding commerce in the area, and there have been sightings of ships reported as bearing Sligan and Spidarlian ensigns, and those are usually vessels under the control of Fairhaven, but the white wizards have been careful to date to keep their warships away from our coasts…"

The commander went on to detail the positions of the Hamorian fleets before concluding, "… our principal advantage is the loyalty of the navy. To our knowledge, not a single naval vessel supports the rebels."

"Commander Surrylt?"

"Unfortunately, we are not faring nearly so well in terms of troops. Prince Golyat has a minimum of fifteen thousand men under arms, and this does not include irregulars or those locals who may be conscripted and armed. Within a season, we may be facing more than thirty thousand armed men. Currently, our entire army is only thirty-odd thousand, and there are only another three thousand naval marines…"

When Surrylt concluded, the marshal glanced toward the older over-captain. "Beltryx."

"We have five river steamers that we can use to transport our forces to Kysha. Farther south than that the Swarth River is not navigable. Even so, there will be considerable delays in using the locks around the second and third cataracts. Three of the steamers were requisitioned and refitted quickly, but the Fyrador and the Syadtar had always been used for supply and company transport. They can each carry four hundred men and their field equipment. The other three are limited to somewhat fewer, around three hundred men each. The trip upriver will take a minimum of five days and the return slightly less than four days. Consider the need for a day at each end …"

Rahl tried to calculate the time and requirements. As he figured the numbers, it would take most of a season to move even ten thousand men.

"… mitigated by the fact that we already had five thousand men in Kysha, and the steamers are now returning from transporting yet another two thousand men, but it must be noted that even by the main roads, which are paved, it is almost seven hundred kays from Kysha either to Nubyat or Sastak, and yet they are each two hundred and fifty kays apart. That means that either we must have two large forces or we must proceed first to one port, then the other…"

Not for the first time, it came to Rahl just how big Hamor was. The senior officers were talking about a rebel administrative region that might amount to a tenth of Hamor, and yet probably comprised an area five times that of all Recluce.

When the overcaptain finished, Taryl asked, "How much control do the rebels actually have outside of the ports and the larger towns?"

"Very little, we think," replied Commander Eswyt. "Most of the local Imperial administrators are still reporting and sending their tariffs to Cigoerne. At this point, the regional garrison at Dawhut is still in our hands, and that's halfway to the coast. We've already sent transport wagons and horses to Kysha, enough to transport half the force."

"Is there any way you could use the navy to land forces on the coast?"

Marshal Byrna shook his head. "No way at all. Ships aren't designed except to port, and we don't have enough boats to row or sail troops into land. They could pick off our men easily with their chaos-mages. Now… once we take Nubyat, we can pour men and supplies in." He looked hard at Taryl. "What about your mages? How many are there in Merowey? How many are loyal?"

"There were somewhere over a hundred mage-guards in the area claimed by the rebels," Taryl replied. "Of that number, close to thirty are ordermages in smaller towns. We have no way of determining what, if anything, has happened to them, but only a few would have skills of use to the rebels even if they were so inclined, and such inclinations would be extremely rare among ordermages…"

At that moment, Rahl realized that his friend Talanyr was one of those thirty, but he could not imagine that Talanyr would throw in with the rebels.

"… most of the remainder are patrol mages in the larger towns, and half of those are split between Sastak and Nubyat. There are perhaps twenty who have sufficient talents and capability to inflict more than minor harm to our forces. Of that number, seven have already escaped the area and reported their safety outside the rebel area. Reports indicate that about ten are supporting the rebels."

"Half of them! That's insufferable," declared Byrna.

"That's one in ten, Marshal, and not to be unexpected among chaos-mages, who have an exceedingly high opinion of themselves. Nine out of ten of all the mage-guards appear to be loyal to the Emperor, and that is a far higher proportion than among the army troops in the port cities, it appears."

"I would certainly hope so."

For some time, questions and replies continued.

"What is the largest chaos-bolt you would expect, and how many men would it harm…?"

"It is unlikely that any of the mages in Merowey could affect more than a squad at a time, a foot company, perhaps, if they were in a tight formation, fewer from a cavalry or mounted heavy infantry company…"

"How many such bolts could they throw…?"

"How long will it take for a sizable force to reach Dawhut…?"

It was well past midafternoon when Rahl followed Taryl back to the waiting carriage.

Taryl did not speak until the coach was well away from the grounds of the High Command and headed northwest on the ring road back toward the Mage-Guard Headquarters. "What do you think of the marshal?"

"I've never met one before," Rahl temporized.

"Don't sound like the functionaries around the Emperor, Rahl."

"I don't think he ever likes to change his mind once he's made it up," Rahl said quietly, "and I feel he's the type to decide before he knows everything that he should. That's just what I feel."

"His history would suggest you are not far wrong. One of the problems the Emperor faces is that the most able officers are in the navy. Our navy has always been Hamor's bulwark. That's because Hamor was unified early by the Cyadoran refugees. That makes it unlike Candar, where most of the fighting is hand-to-hand, rather than vessel-to-vessel. Marshal Charnyat was most capable, and relatively young. After his untimely, and most expected death, Cyphryt and Triad Fieryn both pushed for Byrna to succeed Charnyat as the one in charge of the campaign. So did Triad Dhoryk-he's the senior mage-guard in the High Command."