L. Modesitt - Mage-Guard of Hamor

"You've got them in your hand," Rahl said coolly. "Just hand them over. In the morning, you can talk to the captain and me." He could sense fear and fury within the trooper. "Don't make it worse, Cheslyn. Just hand them over."

"Yes, ser." The trooper's words were even, but the rage behind them was barely held in check. He dropped the bones in Rahl's hand.

Rahl sensed that they were the weighted bones. "Very wise, Cheslyn. Come see the captain and me first thing in the morning after muster."

"Yes, ser. I certainly will."

"Good." Even in the darkness, Rahl could sense that, had Cheslyn's eyes been crossbows, Rahl would have been spitted to the wall behind him. He stepped back, then raised the sight shield.

His disappearance cooled some of the trooper's rage. Some.

"Cheslyn… you're an idiot… he's killed officers… think he'd hesitate a moment to put you down?"

"… man's got a right to game on his own time… can't take that way…"

Rahl found no other problems with the other troopers in second squad or with third and fifth squad, but he also did not see Khasmyr-the second squad leader-or Quelsyn. That concerned him as well.

Drakeyt was waiting in the small front foyer of the Turf Inn. "How did it go?"

"I didn't see any of the squad leaders, and we had a little trouble," Rahl admitted. "Some of the troopers in second squad were gaming bones."

"You didn't see any squad leaders because Quelsyn had gathered them together over at the other inn, and gaming isn't really a problem, so long as they're quiet."

"The gaming wasn't," Rahl said. "But using loaded bones and switching them isn't something that ought to be going on."

Drakeyt looked at Rahl, almost expressionless. "So what did you do?"

"I asked to see the bones-when Cheslyn had the loaded ones in hand. Then I said that I thought I'd better keep them, and that Cheslyn could talk to us in the morning."

"Why not right then, if you were so intent on stopping the game?"

"The game didn't matter. Cheating your mates with loaded bones does. But if I called him then, there would have been trouble, and we'd lose another trooper, one way or another. This way… if you agree… I can tell him quietly that if I ever catch him cheating his mates again, he'll be the one investigating the rebel traps."

Drakeyt laughed. "For such an innocent-looking fellow, you have a devious way of thinking, Rahl. What if you catch him again?"

"I wouldn't say a word. I'd just send him into every nasty situation around, and when he finally didn't make it, I'd give the bones to one of his mates, and tell him that Cheslyn had to pay off on his wagers."

The smile drained from Drakeyt's face. "You mean that, don't you?"

Rahl shrugged. "I haven't been a mage-guard as long as a lot have, but one thing I've learned is that the people who don't heed the first warning don't heed the second… or the third-not unless they get slammed upside the head, and hard." As he finished speaking, he realized that he sounded cold, and that his words could have been applied to himself.

"What if you were Cheslyn?"

"I was," Rahl replied. "That's why I know. That's why I'm a mage-guard."

"A crooked gamer?" Drakeyt was incredulous.

"No. One of those people who didn't listen to the warnings. Once upon a time, I was a scrivener in Recluce…" Rahl ran through a quick summary that left out more than a few things, but wasn't misleading, he hoped, ending with, "… and once I got my memory back, they made me a mage-clerk in Luba."

"I thought Recluce only exiled chaos-mages."

"I'm a different kind of ordermage-the kind they didn't know how to train. So they decided I'd be better off elsewhere."

"Sounds like they thought they'd be better off if you were elsewhere."

"That, too," Rahl replied.

Drakeyt shook his head slowly. "You could have fooled me. You speak so well I just thought you were one of those Atlan merchant heirs whose family discovered he was a mage and bought him the best training possible."

"It would have been nice to have that kind of coin behind me," replied Rahl with a laugh, "but it didn't happen that way."

"We'd all like coins, but we're just poor captains of the Imperial High Command." Drakeyt paused. "Or poor mage-guards drafted to help poor captains." He yawned. "It's been a long day. I'm about to turn in."

"That was my thought," Rahl said. "Good night."

"Good night, Rahl." Drakeyt's smile seemed warmer, although Rahl couldn't have said why.

Rahl turned and climbed the creaking stairs to the second level slowly. Tired as he was, he still wanted to write at least a few lines to Deybri. Writing made him feel closer to her, and at times when he wrote, he felt she was just around a corner or beyond a door. That had to be his imagination, but it felt that way all the same. He tried not to dwell on the impossibilities of any future with her. He'd worry about that after the campaign against Golyat was over.

Drakeyt and Rahl were finishing breakfast before muster when Khasmyr appeared in the public room and crossed to the table where the two officers sat.

"Sers," began the second squad leader, "word is that Captain Rahl ordered Cheslyn to see you two this morning."

"That's right," Rahl replied. "After muster. You were meeting with Quelsyn at the time when I told him."

"Captains," began Khasmyr, "Cheslyn's a good trooper in a fight. Did well in that mess in Worrak. He doesn't always see how some things might not be wise, but…" The squad leader paused and looked at Rahl. "… gaming with friends isn't a real offense."

Rahl smiled politely and extended his hand. In it were the knucklebones he'd taken from Cheslyn. "I took these from him last night. That's all I did-except I asked him to see Captain Drakeyt and me this morning." Rahl gestured to the table beside them. "Roll them. Several times."

Khasmyr looked to Drakeyt. The older captain nodded.

The squad leader rolled the bones twice, then a third time, a fourth, and a fifth, before he looked at Rahl. "Begging your pardon, ser. I didn't know."

"I didn't want to call him out in front of the others," Rahl said. At the same time, he hadn't felt much surprise from the squad leader, almost as if Khasmyr had expected something like loaded bones.

"It might be best if you were with us, Khasmyr, when Captain Rahl tells Cheslyn that there will never be another pair of weighted bones in second squad."

Rahl appreciated Drakeyt's way of conveying what was necessary. Khasmyr should be present, but Rahl hadn't thought about that. He glanced toward Drakeyt, then Khasmyr. "I should have let you know sooner. Would you prefer to bring Cheslyn yourself after muster?"

"Yes, sers. That might be best." A faint and ironic smile followed. "If you'd excuse me, sers?"

"See to your squad," Drakeyt replied.

The squad leader nodded, then turned and left the public room.

Rahl was surprised that the squad leader felt little resentment and hoped that was because Khasmyr understood Rahl's inexperience.

Drakeyt grinned. "He's a good squad leader. He managed to let you know that you'd bypassed the chain of command without being either obsequious or offensive. You acknowledged and rectified the situation, and he accepted that."

"I won't do that again. I mean, I'd stop Cheslyn, but I'd hunt down the squad leader…" Rahl shook his head. "You told him, didn't you, and you told him how to handle it."

"Of course. It works better that way." Drakeyt rose from the table. "We might as well get saddled up."

Rahl followed him.

He had the gelding saddled and was waiting outside the inn stable with Drakeyt under a gray sky that suggested rain-but would not deliver it, Rahl felt-when Khasmyr appeared with Cheslyn.