Imager’s Battalion

70

Despite Quaeryt’s worries, none of Skarpa’s forces encountered any opposition or even caught sight of any Bovarian forces on Meredi, nor on Jeudi morning … until ninth glass when the scouts rode back to report that a vast shallow lake covered the road ahead. Skarpa immediately called a halt, and Quaeryt and Fifth Battalion rode forward another two milles. There Quaeryt reined up and studied what lay before him.

Muddy water covered the road and the lower ground on each side, extending a half mille ahead and two hundred yards north to the raised bank of the River Aluse, but more than a mille to the south. Immediately before Quaeryt, the water was barely a few fingers deep, and he doubted that in the middle of the shallow lake created by the Bovarians the water was more than a yard or so deep, although it was difficult to tell under the high but comparatively thick gray clouds that had not reduced the harvest heat and only made the air seem stickier and damper.

There were no cots or buildings rising out of the muddy water, although Quaeryt could see wooden fences and a low hedgerow to the south, suggesting that the area might well have flooded often. But you don’t know really how deep it is, not for certain, and you don’t know what else the water conceals. After a moment a second thought occurred to him. That couldn’t have happened with a Naedaran road. They kept their roads on higher ground.

There was something about the newly formed lake. He glanced to the north, then realized that the land covered by water was higher than the river itself. The water couldn’t have come directly from the river. He looked westward again, noting the gradual slope of the land upward in the distance.

He turned in the saddle. “Undercaptain Ghaelyn, if you’d send a request for Major Calkoran to join me.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Undercaptain Voltyr, forward. Undercaptains Horan and Smaethyl as well.”

When all three faced him, he looked to Voltyr. “It’s likely that this lake was formed by some sort of breach in a stream or ditch to the south or west. I’m sending you with fourth company and Horan and Smaethyl to find and repair whatever was breached.”

“Yes, sir.”

Shortly, Calkoran rode up, and Quaeryt repeated his instructions in Bovarian, adding, “If you do encounter any large Bovarian forces, I’d appreciate prudence, Major, considering you have three regiments and a battalion behind you. I’d like to have you and your men have the satisfaction of helping take Variana.”

“Yes, sir.”

Once Calkoran and the three imager undercaptains had ridden back to second company, Threkhyl moved his mount forward, pushing Khalis’s mount to the side, in order to reach Quaeryt. “Sir? Why didn’t you send me?”

“Because I need you here to do a bigger job.”

The expression of puzzlement that was beginning to irritate Quaeryt more and more appeared on the older undercaptain’s face.

“Undercaptain … even once Undercaptain Voltyr and the others repair whatever caused this … overgrown puddle, the water isn’t going to vanish. It’s filled a big depression. Maybe it was once a lake. You and the others need to image a stone-paved top to the existing road, and you need to do it carefully and slowly, bit by bit. If you do it all at once, you’ll freeze the water, and you may well create ice between the old roadbed and what you create. By the time three regiments ride over it, the stone might crumble or break.”

Threkhyl still looked puzzled.

“Take my word for it, Undercaptain.” Quaeryt didn’t want to get into the fact that great imaging might freeze the lake solid, because it would still melt fairly quickly, leaving the same muddy water that now faced them. “Imager Undercaptains, forward!”

Quaeryt had Desyrk begin the work, and a stretch of stone running some five yards appeared. Then came Baelthm, who could only add a few yards. It had been clear to Quaeryt that the process would take some time … and the imagers were proving that. Still … after a glass, the raised section of the road extended some three hundred yards.

A little more than a glass later, Voltyr returned with second company, then rode forward to report to Quaeryt.

“Sir. As you suspected, there was extensive damage to an irrigation ditch to the south. We repaired it and strengthened it. But the ground is so flat here that there’s no way to drain the water away. If we had created a breach all the way through the ditch, it just would have flooded the other side, and then the water would have kept rising on both sides of the ditch.”

“Thank you. Somehow … that doesn’t surprise me. Now we’ll need what help you can give to raise the roadbed here.”

With all the imagers alternating, and with generous rest breaks, it took until the second glass of the afternoon before the work to raise the roadbed a third of a yard or so above the water was completed. Immediately, Skarpa’s scouts rode out once more.

Fifth Battalion moved forward behind them, beyond the lake onto the section of the road beyond the water, where the land sloped gently, barely noticeably, upward, but it was almost a half mille farther to the west before there were any cots or outbuildings near the road.

Skarpa rode forward and eased in beside Quaeryt. Zhelan dropped back, deferentially.

“Took you a while to fix that,” offered the commander. “Good job, though.”

“Building up a half mille of road takes time and effort, even for imagers. I also wanted to rest them as I could, just in case we ran into more Bovarians.”

“Good thought, but the scouts haven’t returned. So they’re not likely to be too close.”

“I’d hope not. Some of the undercaptains won’t be able to do much imaging until tomorrow.”

“I’d thought as much, but we don’t have to press that hard. We’ll stop earlier tonight. We’ve made good progress.”

Quaeryt nodded, waiting.

“We’d better hang on to all the lands we’ve taken,” said Skarpa sardonically. “Be a shame to let Kharst benefit from all the improvements you and the imagers have made.”

“I’m beginning to think more and more like that. They were his lands, and people, and he’s destroying things, and we’re supposedly conquering them, and we’re rebuilding and improving things.” After a brief pause Quaeryt added, “Except for the gates at Nordeau.”

“They were old,” rejoined Skarpa. “Besides, we need to leave reminders here and there.”

Besides thousands and thousands of dead Bovarians?

Skarpa said nothing else, and neither did Quaeryt for the moment as they continued westward toward Variana.