L. Modesitt - Mage-Guard of Hamor

"That's fine. If you'd wait," Taryl told the driver, "I shouldn't be that long."

"Yes, ser."

Rahl kept a faint smile to himself as he lifted his much lighter gear bag from the wagon. The driver was not about to go off and abandon the ranking mage-guard, indeed the ranking officer in Kysha, but by making his requirement a gentle statement, Taryl was avoiding arrogance.

Rahl moved forward until he caught the eye of a trooper who was grooming his mount. "Trooper… if you could point the way to Third Company…"

"Oh… yes, sers!" The trooper stiffened to attention as his eyes caught sight of the overcommander's insignia on Taryl's collar. "Third Company-they're two over, that way."

"Thank you."

"Yes, ser."

Rahl could sense the man's consternation. While captains might trudge through a bivouac area, overcommanders clearly did not. That observation bothered Rahl, although he wasn't about to say anything with as little as he knew about military operations.

Captain Drakeyt wasn't hard to find because he was walking away from the tie-lines where mounts were held. He was half a head shorter than Rahl, with gray eyes, wavy light brown hair that was showing streaks of silver, although Rahl doubted that the captain was even ten years older than Rahl himself. Drakeyt was thin and muscular, but not wiry, and his smile was warm, as were the feelings behind the expression as he stepped forward. "Overcommander, Captain, welcome to Third Company, such as we are."

"Thank you." Rahl and Taryl spoke almost simultaneously.

"As a courtesy," Taryl began, "I've brought your orders to you. Captain Rahl has been assigned to you as well." He extended the envelope.

"Thank you, ser. We'd wondered when we'd be issued orders."

Despite Drakeyt's smile and politeness, Rahl could sense the captain's puzzlement as he took the orders from Taryl. The puzzlement increased as Drakeyt slowly read the orders before him. Then he studied the authorization. Finally, he looked up. "We're to leave immediately and begin scouting the main route to Dawhut. Ser, can you tell me what prompted this? Last eightday, Majer Felenyr was saying it would be another eightday before anyone was sent out."

"I can only surmise that the submarshal has been convinced that matters are more pressing than he originally perceived, Captain. But since Rahl has been my assistant, I wanted to see him off, and thought I could expedite matters by bringing your orders with me."

"Yes, ser." Drakeyt's eyes went from the overcommander to Rahl and back to Taryl.

"Now that I have," Taryl continued, "I will leave you, Captains, to your preparations." He nodded to Drakeyt, then Rahl, before heading back toward the wagon.

Drakeyt turned to face Rahl directly. "Welcome to Third Company." His smile was crooked. "We'd better get things moving. The men will be glad to get out of here, but the quartermaster will complain." He paused, then added mildly, "I didn't know we were getting a mage-guard over-commander."

"The Emperor appointed him. He used to be a Triad."

Drakeyt laughed softly. "I think we'll all be happy to get on the road." He eyed the long truncheon at Rahl's belt. "That's…"

"I guess you could call it a riding truncheon. A regular truncheon's too short for horseback."

"It's better than nothing, I suppose," Drakeyt acknowledged.

Rahl had to force himself not to say what came to mind-that he'd killed men with a truncheon. Instead, he nodded. "I think it will prove useful."

"How are your riding skills? Pardon my asking, but most mage-guards aren't trained to ride."

"Slight, but I do have some little ability to deal with mounts. I can probably keep one in line." That wouldn't be the hard part, Rahl knew.

"We can probably find a mount that's not too spirited." Drakeyt frowned. "Are you a healer, too?"

Rahl shook his head. "I have been given some instruction there, and I can do a few things, like keep chaos out of a wound if the wound isn't too severe. I can tell when a bone is set right and when it's not, but I've only set one or two, and that was with a trained healer looking over my shoulder."

"That's more than most field healers."

"I can also sense people in hiding, if they're not too far away, and I have a little ability to tell what the coming weather might be like."

The captain's puzzlement continued, and he frowned. "Can I be a bit more direct?"

Rahl had an idea of what was coming. "Go ahead."

"Most battalion commanders would kill to get a mage-guard with your abilities. Do you have any idea why you're being sent out with a recon company?"

"I don't know, but I have some thoughts." Rahl paused, then went on as Drakeyt nodded. "The overcommander wants good reconnaissance reports. He also feels that I need to learn more."

"There must be more," suggested Drakeyt.

"It's better if I don't stay in Kysha at the moment," Rahl admitted.

Drakeyt frowned, then slowly nodded, as if he had realized something. "It's not my business, but one of the messengers said that there was trouble at headquarters, and that someone took a crossbow to a mage-guard and three officers were dead, and no one was saying anything."

How much should Rahl say? After a moment, he replied, "I'd prefer not to go into details. A trooper did take a shot at the overcommander, and when I deflected it and restrained the trooper, his captain and the captain's overcaptain objected. So did a traitorous mage-guard-a chaos-mage. Let's just say that none of them will be causing more trouble, and that the submarshal is more than happy to send out a reconnaissance company."

"With that… truncheon?"

"No. I used a standard short one."

Drakeyt shook his head, then smiled, more warmly. "We need to get you a mount and a bedroll… and lean on the quartermaster. If we both tell him that the overcommander delivered the company orders, he might cut us some slack and add a few things."

Rahl could see that possibility. He just hoped they wouldn't run into trouble before he learned more about riding.

In the end, by midafternoon, Rahl found himself in the saddle of a chestnut gelding near the front of Third Company, riding southwest on the narrow stone highway that led to Dawhut-some three-hundred-odd kays to the southwest. Drakeyt rode to his left, and the vanguard was close to a kay ahead on the straight road. Kysha was some five kays behind them.

A space half a kay back from the road had been cleared years before, and small holdings periodically dotted the open area, with fields empty of much except browned grass and vegetation. The forest behind was partly evergreen and partly broadleaf hardwoods, but the leaves of the hardwoods were in winter gray.

"Does it snow here?" asked Rahl.

"Some, they say, but I couldn't say from experience," replied Drakeyt. "I'm from Elmari originally. I'd wondered if you knew more about the area, but…"

"I don't sound like I'm from around here?"

"Sastak, maybe, or Atla, but not here. They talk flatter."

"My last duty station was as a harbor station mage-guard in Swartheld." Rahl smiled, even as he wondered whether he could have said more about where he was from. He'd tell Drakeyt sooner or later, but he worried about saying too much too soon because he couldn't help but like Drakeyt. "Where do we start the reconnaissance patrols?"

"We've been running patrols as far as five, sometimes ten kays this way out of Kysha. We haven't seen any signs of the rebels in those sweeps. The next town-one that's more than a hamlet-is Troinsta. It's about fifteen kays from Kysha. We'll set up there. If there are rebels around, there'll be some signs. While we're setting up, you and I will talk to some of the locals. Can you get some idea of whether they're telling the truth? I know some ordermages can."