Imager’s Battalion

56

Quaeryt and first company set out early on Vendrei because he hadn’t slept that long and because the days along the River Aluse got warmer and wetter as the day progressed, and he was tired of feeling hot and miserable when he didn’t have to. He had left all the imagers, with Voltyr in charge of working with Threkhyl, Desyrk, and Baelthm, and Shaelyt in charge of the newer undercaptains.

He kept looking to his right, but the road and what remained of the ancient canal continued westward in a straight line along flat land that rose or fell by no more than a yard or two at most. After a mille, the fields ended, and to the right of the road and canal swale rose woods, not thick forests, but well-tended trees, spaced well apart. By then, even with the cool morning air, Quaeryt was blotting his forehead and readjusting his cap. Ahead, the woods ended, giving way to meadows or pasture, because the ground was green, and most crops, except beans and a few others, would have turned or shriveled by the last month in harvest.

When first company reached the end of the woods and Quaeryt was surprised to see that they were roughly two milles from Nordeau, and that there were no trees at all between where he rode and the walls. Nor were there any structures at all-not a one.

“Company! Halt!” Before proceeding, he wanted to take in what he saw.

The River Aluse curved back southwest, so that the low grassy swale that had once been a canal ended in a hillock at the river’s edge less than a half mille south of the gray stone walls of Nordeau. Quaeryt couldn’t help but believe that the low hill covered some sort of ruin. He’d studied the map again before setting out, and where the river curved, northeast of Nordeau, it also narrowed, suggesting a difficult passage for boats or barges. The fact that the Naedarans had built a canal more than twenty milles long indicated to Quaeryt that they’d had a reason for it, and that reason had to be trade. That raised questions that he needed to put aside while he concentrated on the problem at hand-how to get Skarpa’s forces inside the walls.

He saw no one on the road that ran straight toward the walls, and finally he gestured for the company to proceed.

The closer they drew to Nordeau, the more obvious it was that south Nordeau was a fortress that had been built to last. While Quaeryt looked in every direction as they moved toward the walls, no one emerged from the one set of gates he saw, the ones to which the ancient road led, as straight as a quarrel.

“Do you see anyone, Ghaelyn?”

“No, sir. Scouts haven’t signaled, either.”

At slightly more than a half mille from the closed ironbound gates, Quaeryt reined up. He could see another road, also gray and apparently paved, that led from the western side of the walls that arced around the city, but because of the curvature of the walls, he could not see the other set of gates. The walls held no banners, and he saw no defenders, but since there were embrasures at regular intervals in the walls, defenders could have been watching him and first company, and probably were. He did see wisps of smoke rising from chimneys beyond the walls, enough so that it was clear that Nordeau was not deserted.

But why aren’t there sentries on the walls? Why hasn’t anyone come out to challenge us?

After several moments, he shifted his weight in the saddle and turned to Ghaelyn. “Undercaptain … we’re going to ride closer, but I’m going to try something, and I want silent riding. Not a word. Tell the men to be ready to turn and ride back at a moment’s notice.”

“Yes, sir.”

While Ghaelyn rode back and conveyed the orders to all the squad leaders, Quaeryt slowly raised a concealment shield, trying to do so in a way that might give the impression that he and first company had slowly withdrawn.

The undercaptain returned and said, “Ready, sir.” His voice was low.

Quaeryt raised his arm, then lowered it, and urged the mare forward. He’d ridden several hundred yards when he realized that holding the concealment, even over the entire company, was scarcely noticeable. He concentrated on the low gray stone walls, which had to have been built by the Naedarans, because the workmanship was similar and because the stone matched so closely that of the ancient road. Yet the stones had not come from the canal, because they were larger and cut in an interlocking pattern that made them less susceptible to siege engines-or cannon.

When they were only a few hundred yards from the gate, Quaeryt raised his arm and reined up. From there, he could see some figures on the upper level of the wall, and guards watching the road from the slits in the guard towers flanking the gates. With the interlocking stones of the walls, at first glance, Quaeryt thought imaging away the gates looked more likely, but when he studied them closely, he could see that they had iron bands at top and bottom as well as a series of heavy diagonal bands. He’d never seen walls or gates like those. Yet the walls weren’t all that high, and siege engines could easily have been built to overtop the walls.

Except Antiagon Fire would make short work of siege towers.

But what about the walls …

They’re designed to resist imagers!

It also meant that the walls had stone foundations all the way down to bedrock, and that Nordeau had been built in a place where there was bedrock near the surface. All of that indicated strongly that the only ways for Telaryn forces to enter Nordeau were either over the walls with some sort of ramps or through the gates-assuming the Bovarians didn’t have their own imagers.

Quaeryt didn’t like the idea of using the gates, because the towers surrounded the gates, and in such confined spaces it would be difficult, if not impossible, to shield troopers from boiling oil or Antiagon Fire.

After a time of studying the walls, Quaeryt turned his mount to the southwest, toward a narrow path that seemed to circle the walls, gesturing for the rest of first company to follow him. He kept looking toward the gates, but they did not open, and no Bovarian troopers appeared.

After riding another half mille, Quaeryt could see the second gate and the road leading from it. The southwest gate was closed and guarded in the same fashion as the southeast gate. The road from the southwest gate was stone paved and indeed wider than the ancient way that led to the southeast gate, but Quaeryt could see that it was not nearly so level as the older road, although it did parallel in a general way the River Aluse.

The newer road had to have been built by the Bovarians, but why had they built a road from Nordeau to Variana on the south side of the river when they had not done so anywhere else along the River Aluse, and when Villerive was larger than Nordeau with presumably more trade and commerce? Was there a similar road on the north side of the river?

He shook his head. From where he was there was no way to tell.

After more study, he turned the mare and the company and rode along a path that gradually carried them both away from the stone walls and back to the ancient road-though browning high grass and some low bushes, but not a single tree. The fact that he saw no trees-and no sign of any having been cut down-also concerned him. Was the entire plain that stretched away from the walls somehow paved under the dirt so that trees would not grow? But he’d seen trees grow through the tiniest gaps in stone.

Everything he saw raised more questions.

As he rode back toward the village to report to Skarpa, he thought over his earlier conclusions and decided he’d been too hasty. Defenses and walls usually reflected what the builders knew, not what they faced. Most likely, the Naedarans had built the way that they had because they had had trained imagers, not because they were defending against them. That also might explain their decline … if they lost too many imagers or didn’t continue to train and support them.

In turn, that raised more questions about what he planned … and how he needed to approach Bhayar about his thoughts and plans.