L. Modesitt - Cyador’s Heirs

The column slows as they approach a narrow stone bridge, waiting for a horse-drawn cart to cross. When Lerial rides onto the short bridge, he looks down to see that it crosses an empty irrigation channel, although the mud at the bottom is still damp. He glances to his left, where a heavy wooden watergate, set in crude mortar and stone and similar to many they have passed on their journey, blocks the flow from the Lynaar. The channel continues for only fifty yards to the west, where it splits at a diversion gate that, in one position, sends the water to the northwest and in the other to the southwest, both heading toward orchards. Between the two orchards, which look to contain apricot trees, is another, one of olive trees, but no ditch leads to the olive orchard.

“There’s no water going to the olives,” he observes.

“They get enough from seepage,” replies Kiedron. “The trees won’t grow that fast, nor yield nearly so much when they mature, but there’s only so much water. For any lands away from the Swarth, water is a problem. You’ll learn more about that, I’m sure, from Majer Altyrn. Listen to him, because it’s something you’ll need to know.”

Know about water? Still, Lerial doesn’t question his father, because Kiedron, for all that he has upset Lerial, has never knowingly lied to him. That, Lerial could have sensed.

Barely visible beyond the fields ahead is Teilyn, which appears to have close to a hundred houses or other structures. To the west are more fields, and beyond them, sparse grasslands.

Lerial stifles a yawn. He’d not slept well the night before, even though he’d had a small sleeping chamber to himself-a chamber barely big enough for the narrow pallet bunk and a stool, with pegs on the wall. After seeing that his father and Undercaptain Helkhar occupied similar spaces and that the Lancers slept in crowded bunk rooms, he’d felt comparatively fortunate … and the pallet hadn’t been that hard. He just hadn’t slept well.

“How are you doing?” asks Kiedron.

“A little stiff, but fine.”

“Good. You’ll get over that.”

“Where is the majer’s … villa?” Lerial has to think for a moment about what his father had called the majer’s dwelling.

“It’s on the lower slopes south of town, not far beyond most of the other houses, a bit more than a kay out.”

“Will you stay with the majer or start back … or are you riding somewhere else?” asks Lerial.

“There’s an actual Lancer outpost, a real one, at Teilyn,” replies Kiedron. “It’s also south of town, about halfway to Majer Altyrn’s place. It’s the base for the regular patrols along the foot of the Wooded Ridges. The officers’ quarters there are adequate, and I wouldn’t want to impose on the majer’s hospitality.”

Lerial is surprised at the concern in his father’s voice, especially since he’s seldom heard it, especially about people outside the family. “Will you ride any patrols?”

“Not unless the post captain reports something strange. I need to get back to Cigoerne before the Heldyans get more restless.”

“Are they going to be a problem?”

“They’re always a problem,” replies Kiedron dryly. “That’s why Duke Atroyan’s father let us purchase the lands around Cigoerne. This year might be worse.”

“I hope not, ser.”

“When others depend on you, Lerial, you can’t rely on hope. Not if you want to carry on the heritage of Cyador.”

Lerial nods, wondering why so often his father’s words seemed designed to keep him from talking. Instead, he concentrates on the buildings as they ride into Teilyn.

The houses in Teilyn are largely constructed of brick, some of mud brick covered with a white coating that, in many cases, bears a pinkish tan tint, and some fewer and larger ones of fired brick of a rusty color. None of them are more than a story high, and all appear to have tile roofs. Lerial keeps looking at the dwellings and then to the Wooded Ridges, then back to the dwellings. Finally, he asks, “Why are the houses all of brick?”

“With all those trees so close?” Kiedron laughs softly. “For several reasons. First, the ground up on the ridges is rough and the undergrowth is thick and often thorny. It’s hard to get logs down. Second, the trees are a mix of all sorts, but most of the wood is soft. Third, brick houses are cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Fourth, the clay here is very good and easy to get to.”

There is a modest square located to the west of the road, which has become the main street, if the only paved street in the town, unlike all the streets in Cigoerne, and on its edge are a small inn, a chandlery, and several small shops. Farther south of the square, Lerial sees a blacksmith shop. In far less than half a glass, they are riding away from Teilyn through more fields, orchards, and scattered cots, but the road has begun to rise, so gradually that Lerial does not even realize it, until he glances back north.

Ahead are the walls of the outpost, and it is at least twice the size of the way station post at Brehaal. Even from a hundred yards away, the gate guards are obvious, although the heavy wooden gates are open and swung back. There is also a single narrow lookout tower rising another two yards above the middle of the north wall. Lerial smiles when he sees the awning above the lookout. But it makes sense, especially in summer.

As they ride closer to the outpost, he sees that, farther south, between the trees on the tall hills that comprise the Wooded Ridges, at irregular intervals, jagged spurs of red rocks jut up. Around the base of the rocky spurs the vegetation appears sparse, but elsewhere the mixed forest appears thick and almost impenetrable.

Once they have ridden past the outpost, Kiedron points south and west of the road. “There’s the majer’s villa.”

Lerial can only see a low structure barely rising above the orchards north of it, but before long, the outriders turn their mounts through a pair of yellow brick posts and onto the packed clay lane, smoother than the slightly rutted main road. The lane runs some three hundred yards to the villa, a two-story squarish structure perhaps forty yards on a side situated on the slightest of rises facing the river. On each side of the lane is a meadow of sorts, with grass perhaps calf-high, as if it had been grazed, but not recently.

When they are within a hundred yards of the villa, Lerial can see that there is no portico, only a brick-paved square some fifty yards on a side before the east entry, while the lane splits, one branch leading to the square and the other angling to the northwest and the outbuildings. Unlike the majority of houses in Teilyn, the majer’s villa is built of the yellow-tinged rusty fired brick, as are the outbuildings. All have roofs of the same reddish yellow tile as the buildings in Teilyn.

A slender man with iron-gray hair stands waiting in the afternoon shade just in front of the entry door.

“Ride forward with me,” orders Kiedron quietly.

Lerial does, and the two rein up some four yards short of the man, who wears a plain white tunic, if in the style of the Mirror Lancers, and matching trousers. His black boots are shined, and he smiles at Kiedron.

“Welcome, Lord Kiedron. I see you got here without any problems.”

“Thank you. We did indeed. I must say that you’re looking well, Majer.”

“Working hard will do that.” The majer looks from Kiedron to his son. “Welcome to Kinaar, Lord Lerial.”

“Lerial … please, ser.”

Altyrn smiles. “So be it. Welcome, Lerial. I daresay you will find life here very different from that Cigoerne. In some ways, at least. I will walk around to the stables with you.” He looks to Kiedron. “You will stay for dinner?”