L. Modesitt - Imager’s Battalion

So why were there so many more closer to Ferravyl? Because of the Naedaran influence and affluence in the past? Trade on the river? Quaeryt had no idea, only possibilities.

As the time neared third glass, Quaeryt noted that the sky had turned slightly darker with thin high gray clouds.

“It’s a bit cooler,” observed Skarpa in the early afternoon. “Might get more so.”

“I’ll take the heat if it means we don’t get cold rain,” replied Quaeryt.

At a quint past first glass, a scout galloped back toward Quaeryt and Skarpa and pulled in beside the commander. “Sir! There are repaired holes on the side of the road ahead, and it looks like some of the paving stones have been replaced.”

Skarpa turned in the saddle. “Column! Halt!” Then he turned his attention to the scout. “How far ahead?”

“You see that pair of lowland pines on the right side of the road up there? Maybe a hundred yards past that … where that big lake and swamp begin, right west of the road. There are foot troopers on the flat farther along, but they’re not dug in. Didn’t see anything like cannon.”

“What about repairs?” asked Skarpa. “Are they longwise, running the length of the road, or sideways?”

“More like an angle, sir.”

Skarpa and Quaeryt studied the terrain. Farther west was a thickly forested area that seemed to stretch for milles, with but a single narrow dirt road angling south and then west from the small hamlet north of the swamp-fringed lake. The forest came to within a few hundred yards of the lake at the south end, and within a mille or so farther north, the trees were practically on the shore.

Quaeryt could also see that the narrow strip of land between the road and the river was low and open as well.

“What do you think?” asked Skarpa.

“The cannon have to be somewhere in front of the woods on the other side of south end of the lake,” suggested Quaeryt. “Maybe just inside the trees.”

“That would account for the angle of the gouges in the road that they repaired.” The commander paused. “We couldn’t ride through the road ahead or the land flanking it without taking a lot of casualties … if they have cannon.”

“Then we’ll have to see if they do and take their cannon. Once they’re gone, dealing with whatever forces are waiting beyond the low rise there shouldn’t be too great a problem.”

Skarpa motioned the scout away, waited, then turned to Quaeryt. “Subcommander, I don’t do this often, but I’m ordering you not to lead or participate in this mission. You need to recover. Lord Bhayar and I will need you even more when we reach Variana. You are to send whatever imager undercaptains necessary, but you are not to be anywhere near those cannon. Fifth Battalion will bring up the rear when we attack the Bovarian forces ahead. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I will leave the details of how you plan and staff the imager operation to you. While you do, I’m going to inform the other subcommanders.”

As Skarpa rode back along the column, Quaeryt considered, then sent for Major Arion and Shaelyt and Threkhyl.

Once the three officers arrived, Quaeryt explained, in Bovarian. “The Bovarians appear to have set up another cannon trap, and from what we can tell, they’ve ranged the guns to the road and the land on this side of the lake. The woods there are too extensive to send all the regiments that way.”

“What do you need from us, sir?” asked Arion.

“I need fourth company to escort Undercaptain Shaelyt and Undercaptain Threkhyl close enough to where we believe the cannon are so that they can remove them. If the cannon aren’t there, of course, you’ll just return the way you came.”

“We stand ready, sir,” replied Arion.

“Good. Once I brief the undercaptains, they’ll join you.”

“Yes, sir.”

After the major rode away, Quaeryt addressed the two undercaptains in Tellan. “Shaelyt, your duty is to shield the company with a concealment from the time you leave the river road until you can get close enough for Threkhyl to take out the cannon.”

“Yes, sir.”

“How am I supposed to do that?” demanded Threkhyl.

“The same way I did yesterday. You image hundreds of tiny pieces of white-hot iron into the area where the cannon are. You keep doing it until one of them hits the powder and everything starts to explode. You’re a very strong imager, Undercaptain Threkhyl, and I have no doubts that you can do that.”

“Yes, sir. Who’s in command?”

“You’re both under Major Arion’s command, but Shaelyt is in charge of concealment, and you decide when and where to image against the cannon. Just don’t get any closer than necessary. That’s for your own protection. Now … go join Major Arion and fourth company.”

Quaeryt watched as the two rode back past first company, then second.

Skarpa returned shortly, and saw Quaeryt watching as fourth company prepared. “You have to send them out on their own.”

“I’ve sent them out before.”

“Not on anything like this, I’d wager.”

Quaeryt knew the wager was rhetorical, but he didn’t have to like it, much as he knew sending the undercaptains out without him near was something he’d have to do more and more-even if the battle for Variana happened the next day and Bhayar won. That would be part of what imagers supporting Bhayar would have to do. You can’t do everything yourself.

“Subcommander, if you’d order your battalion off the road so the others can move up…”

“Yes, sir.”

Once Fifth Battalion cleared the road, Quaeryt watched as fourth company vanished from sight. Then he waited … and waited.

Nothing seemed to happen. Shaelyt held the concealment. The Telaryn forces remaining in formation on the river road did not move, and neither did the Bovarians, suggesting that the defenders had far too few troopers to attack … and were there only to force the issue by not allowing the Telaryn troopers to gallop through the gap between the lake and the river single file and widely spaced.

Close to a glass passed. That worried Quaeryt. Shaelyt had never had to hold a concealment that long, but the young undercaptain apparently was managing, because neither Quaeryt nor Zhelan could catch sight of fourth company.

“There!” said Zhelan, even as Quaeryt saw a small flare of light in one spot before the forest, much farther north than Quaeryt had estimated.

The first point of light was followed by several others, and then by explosions and a roar like muted thunder as a section of forest some hundred yards wide disintegrated into broken trees and saplings, with smoke billowing up. Even as Quaeryt watched, flames began to lick what were likely dead trees or limbs.

From the front of the column came a horn signal, and Third Regiment moved out at a quick trot. In time, the last squad of Fifth Regiment began to ride northward.

A section of the forest was in full flames by the time Quaeryt nodded to Zhelan, and the major ordered, “Battalion! Forward!”

Quaeryt kept glancing across the lake, but he saw nothing except smoke everywhere.

Before that long, even Fifth Battalion had ridden north of the area that the cannon had ranged … and never fired at again. Quaeryt kept looking across the lake and to the south, but between the almost imperceptible slope and the smoke, he could make out nothing.

When they reached a point near the north end of the lake, east of where the Bovarian foot had been formed up, there were few signs of the Bovarians, only the troops of Third and Eleventh Regiments. Peering at the fields farther to the west, just at the edge of the forest, Quaeryt could see a handful of Bovarians sprinting toward the woods, pursued by Telaryn troopers. Those who reached the trees survived, because the Telaryn forces obeyed the orders not to break formation and did not enter the forest.