L. Modesitt - Cyador’s Heirs

That means horsemen!

Lerial looks across to Shaskyn. “Fifth company! Withdraw! Now!” Then he watches as Shaskyn’s squads cease shooting and begin to withdraw.

“Second company! Strike and light! Last volley! Fire!” Lerial checks to make sure that all the fifth company squads are clear and headed north before he orders, “Second company! Stow bows! Turn and withdraw! Turn and withdraw! Deliberate speed!”

Even as he issues the command, he can see horsemen in brown uniforms surging up the road.

“Withdraw now!”

Second company needs no further urging, but Lerial hangs back to make certain all his rankers are accounted for. He takes a quick look south, but it is hard to tell what the toll may have been on the lead elements of the Meroweyan force. Finally, as fourth squad canters past him to the north, Lerial swings in behind them, but he keeps looking back over his shoulder, watching as the Meroweyan horsemen ride down the middle of the road, then narrow to single file through the barricade and over the open ditch-only to have the first two plunge into the second covered ditch.

If only we had more war arrows . But they don’t. We don’t have enough of anything.

Lerial keeps checking over his shoulder, but the Meroweyan advance has slowed, not quite come to a halt-and even if it had, it would have been a very temporary one, Lerial knows.

By the time he reaches the turn to the eastern lane, he sees uniformed riders moving forward once more, and several carry burning torches.

Should you have stayed and tried to remove more of them?

Much as he knows what will happen to Nevnarnia, once the Meroweyans have gotten through the barrier and over the ditches with any force, second company would have still had to withdraw- retreat -or take terrible casualties in blade-to-blade fighting. And it wouldn’t have done anything to stop them.

As he rides up the eastern lane to the north and east road back to the main road, Lerial looks at all the dwellings-all shuttered and empty. At least, he hopes they are empty. Then he rides forward to the front of second company. He cannot help but wonder what will happen to the older couple whose argument he had overheard the day before. Will they perish as well in the flames that will sweep through Nevnarnia? Or die shooting arrows at overwhelming Meroweyan forces? Or will they escape into the woods, pursued by flames or angry Meroweyans?

Lerial keeps a close watch on the main road behind second company as they ride northeast toward the meeting point described by Altyrn, especially since he does not recall the creek or the bridge mentioned by the majer. Shouldn’t you? His first thought is that there is no reason he should, since it had been almost a season ago and since, until today, he has only ridden this section of road that one time. Yet he suspects that Altyrn remembers all aspects of a road after riding it just once. Does his father? Or Lephi? About their recollections, Lerial has his doubts.

All he can do now is try to keep track of the distance they cover, but in the end it does not matter- this time -because once they pass over a bridge after what he thinks have been five kays, he sees that fifth company has already reined up several hundred yards past the bridge, and that Shaskyn is talking to a squad leader. He halts second company and rides forward to join the other two.

“Captain,” offers the squad leader, “Majer Altyrn sent me to lead the way to Ironwood.” The young Verdyn Lancer grins. “It’s not hard to find. Three more kays on the right side of the road.”

“Do you know what happened with the majer’s company this morning?”

“No, ser. Not really.”

That doesn’t sound all that promising to Lerial. “And the majer?”

“He’s in Ironwood, ser, with first and fourth company. We got there around midday.”

“How is Undercaptain Kusyl?”

“He’s there with the majer, ser.”

Since Lerial can see that the ranker doesn’t want to say more, he nods and says, “Lead on. We’ll follow behind fifth company.”

Lerial cannot help but worry about what may have happened to the two companies that Altyrn used for his attack on the Meroweyans. But if Altyrn and Kusyl are in Ironwood … All he can do is wait.

The road is completely empty except for the Lancers, although Lerial can see cart and wagon ruts, and signs of heavy traffic-something he has not seen on the roads of the Verd before. There is also a continuing acridity in the air, although Lerial has no idea whether that is a remnant of earlier burning caused by the Meroweyan wizards, the result of more recent wizard-caused fires, or both.

Slightly more than a glass later, the column turns onto a side road. Ahead about two hundred yards are a set of stone posts, one on each shoulder. Lerial has barely passed the stone posts flanking the road, on one of which is chiseled the word “Ironwood,” when a ranker rides up.

“Captain, ser, the majer sent me to show you your company’s quarters.”

Quarters? Since when do we get quarters? “Lead the way.”

“Yes, ser.”

The road continues through the woods for another four hundred yards or so before the trees thin, and a score of yards past that point it splits into four lanes. The ranker takes the westernmost lane. Lerial can see that Ironwood is laid out in similar fashion to Nevnarnia, except that the dwellings and structures are located along four lanes, rather than three, and the plank siding of all of the buildings has been stained with a gray oil. As in Nevnarnia, the few dwellings Lerial can glimpse on the more easterly lanes are shuttered. When they turn onto the western lane proper, the buildings are unshuttered, and he sees mounts on tie-lines. The dwellings appear to be occupied, or are being prepared to be occupied, by the Verdyn Lancers.

Halfway down the lane, fifth company moves off to the side, and the ranker rides back to Lerial. “The majer says that your company is assigned the next four dwellings-the ones starting after the covered ditch. The fifth one is for him and you and the other officers.”

Once the ranker leaves, Lerial assigns the squads to their respective dwellings and stresses that they are to treat them with care-the Meroweyans might burn them, but his rankers aren’t going to damage them. Only after he is satisfied does he lead his gelding to the dwelling serving as the officers’ quarters. After unsaddling and grooming the gelding, and tying him securely to a brass ring on a stone post, with enough rope to let him graze on what grass there is, Lerial carries his gear into the dwelling. He finds Altyrn there in the main chamber with his maps. He glances around, noting that there are no small items in the chamber, and no furnishings that he would call fine … or costly.

“Good afternoon, Majer.”

“Good afternoon, Lerial. What do you have to report?”

“We followed your orders. We used almost all the fire arrows, and between us and the barricade and the ditches, they might have lost half a company, possibly more. They reacted better than I thought. The white wizards burned gaps in the barricade and after they lost half a score of shieldmen, someone ordered the others to use their shields to flatten the stakes and then scoop the earth with shields and pile the shields and dirt up to allow the horsemen through. The second ditch took down five or so, maybe more. They sent two companies through the woods, but I couldn’t tell what happened there…” When Lerial finishes, he immediately asks, “Might I ask what happened with your attack?”

“We had similar results,” Altyrn says, his eyes straying to the map on the small table behind which he is seated. “We took casualties, though. How is your ability to handle order?”