Mage-Guard of Hamor

XXXV

By midafternoon on fourday, Rahl could definitely see the difference in the terrain. Instead of covering almost all the ground, the forest was much more scattered and mainly on the higher areas of the hills-except for the expanses of rocky areas-and they had passed bog meadows, swamps, and some small lakes. Some of the bog meadows had been partly harvested, but not recently.

They had lost another day, because the clouds that had been gathering had descended and pummeled them all through threeday. The road might have been clay-surfaced, but it had to have been built with sand and gravel beneath, because while it was soft on fourday, it was not extraordinarily muddy-just bad enough for Rahl's boots and lower trousers to become mud-caked.

For all of the patrols and scouts sent out, none had seen tracks near the main road, which wound and twisted around hills more than it had closer to Kysha. The older road that the rebel cannoneers had used swung much farther north, and, if the maps were correct, was more than thirty kays away at the nearest point to the route Third Company traveled. The holders in the scattered steads they had passed had seen almost no travelers at all in recent eightdays, and no one who might have been a rebel.

As Rahl rode around a long curve that followed the base of a rocky hillside that held only brush and scattered trees, he could see an expanse of rushes and cattails on the right side of the road extending for at least a kay to the west and north.

"Do you think we should have sent a patrol on the old road?" Rahl asked.

"With the two roads that far apart? What's the point? Our forces are taking this road, and this is the one we need to scout. Besides, we'd have to split our forces before we knew where the rebels might be."

Farther ahead, Rahl could see the glint of gray-blue water-a lake of some sort. On the left side, a long ridge with scattered trees climbed gradually into a high hill, largely forested, on which he could see outcroppings of dark gray rock. He had the feeling that the road swung more to the north between the lake and the rocky hill. "I suppose you're right. If there were a road, it would still take close to two days to get from the nearest point on the old road to here, and we haven't seen any lanes or roads heading north." There had been more than a few branching off to the south over the past two days, but the handful to the north had only gone a kay or less, basically to logging camps or forest steads.

"They won't mount an attack from the old road, not from so far away and from over those hills and rocks." Drakeyt pointed to the line of rocky crags to the north. "Certainly not this far away from the coast."

Rahl tended to agree with the older captain, but then, he wouldn't have expected a cannon attack on the Fyrador, either.

After they had ridden another kay or so, with the marsh to the right and downhill from the road widening every cubit they traveled, Rahl could see that the road turned almost due north to circle around the rocky hill more than a kay ahead. In fact, the road seemed to emerge from the marshy reeds and separate the hill from the lake. The road had actually been cut out of the hillside. For a moment, Rahl wondered why, until he looked north once again and realized that the middle of the lake extended all the way to an even rockier set of hills a half kay or more away. Digging the roadbed out of the side of the base of the hill ahead had probably been easier than it would have been to construct a road in the rugged terrain to the south or along the base of the rocky crags that rimmed the lake on the north. Equally important, a level road alongside a lake was easier on wagons and mounts than a route through the surrounding hills.

"Good thing it's cold," observed Drakeyt. "We'd get eaten alive by red flies in the summer."

While Rahl didn't think the day was warm, it was certainly far from what he would have called cold, and the sun was out, if under a high haze that turned the normally green-blue sky silver greenish. "I could do without flies."

"Their bites leave welts," the captain added.

"Remind me not to travel this road in summer."

Drakeyt laughed.

As they rode nearer to where the marsh narrowed to a thin strip between the road and the lake, Rahl began to study the hillside above where the road turned north. There was something about it, but he wasn't certain what it might be.

The roadbed at the base of the hill was a good five cubits above the narrow boggy area that bordered the southern edge of the lake and no more than ten cubits wide from the stone retaining wall set against the cut in the hillside to the edge of the road shoulder before it dropped off into the marsh. In addition to the retaining wall, Rahl could sense a rough stone wall on the steep hillside just above the section of the road that curved back westward. He frowned. The lower retaining wall was worked stone. Why would the upper wall be so sloppily done? Or had it been added later to keep rocks from falling onto the roadway and blocking the route? Why was it just over that section of the road?

He concentrated more. The upper assemblage of stones wasn't really a wall… and he sensed men up there. "Halt the column."

"Rahl?"

"Halt it. Quietly, if you can. There's a trap ahead." He thought it was something like that.

Drakeyt raised his arm. "Company halt!"

"Company! Halt!" echoed Quelsyn.

Rahl pointed. "Where the road swings back west, there's a big pile of boulders, and there are men up there. I can't tell how many, but it's less than a score."

"Can we get to them without coming up from below the rocks?"

"I might be able to find a way," Rahl said. "We'd have to go back a bit and follow the ridge. Then we could come around the hill from just above that line of dark gray rock there."

"That doesn't look that easy."

"Let me take first or second squad. If we can't do it, or if it's something different, we'll at least have a better idea of what else we can try."

Drakeyt cocked his head and looked at the road ahead, then at the hillside above it, and finally at Rahl. "You lead the way, but when you get there, let Roryt handle the charge."

Much as that thought irritated Rahl, he knew Drakeyt was probably right. He'd never commanded anyone in a real battle. "I'll turn command over to him at that point."

"Squad leader Roryt, forward."

Once he eased his mount up beside the two officers, Roryt looked from Drakeyt to Rahl, then back to the older captain.

"Captain Rahl believes that the rebels have set up some sort of ambush on the section of road ahead, between the steep hillside and the lake, and that they have piles of boulders up there."

Roryt's eyes flickered westward for just a moment.

"There aren't that many rebels there," Drakeyt continued, "and the captain will lead you there. Once he's explained where they are, you'll lead first squad to take them out."

"Yes, ser."

Rahl could sense the squad leader's stolid acceptance of the order and situation.

"We'll stand by here, as if we're taking a break. Captain Rahl will fill you in on the way."

"Yes, ser."

In the end, Rahl and first squad had to retrace the path a half kay before they found a slope the mounts could climb. After that, there was enough open space, in and around the rock outcroppings and the scattered trees, that Rahl was able to find a semblance of a trail westward and upward. As they rode up the back side of the long ridge toward the hilltop overlooking the road, Rahl explained as well as he could what they faced. "… and it just looks like a crude retaining wall from below, but there are far too many rocks and boulders behind it."

"Roll enough big rocks down a slope, you could hurt a lot of troopers," offered Roryt.

"And we couldn't attack back from that part of the road."

"Nasty business."

The sun was hanging low in the western sky by the time Rahl reined up on the eastern side of an angled slope that rose another ten cubits over perhaps a hundred. He leaned toward Roryt and spoke in a low voice. "They're just over this rise, and down about twenty cubits. I think there are only about ten of them, and they're not looking in this direction." Not yet, Rahl thought to himself. "The slope over the rise is open, and the boulders are lined up on the right."

Roryt gestured for first squad to form up, although the space clear of scattered boulders and intermittent low pines was only wide enough for three mounts abreast.

Then the squad leader dropped his arm, and the troopers moved forward at a fast walk. Rahl let them all pass and swung his gelding in behind them, trying to stay close. He managed that well enough until they reached the top of the rise and charged downhill.

"Impies! Pull the releases!"

THRuummm…

Even though he was mounted, Rahl could feel the entire hillside shaking, and a cloud of sand and dust rose into the air as well as cascaded downhill.

Through the sandy dust, he could see figures in maroon jackets running toward a narrow ravine. One made it. Most of the other rebels were cut down, and by the time Rahl reached the area where the boulders had been piled, there was a single rebel standing, surrounded by mounted troopers.

"Won't tell you bastards nothing!"

Rahl reined up, slightly in back of and between two of the troopers' mounts. "Maybe you'll tell me something, then."

"Won't tell…" The rebel stopped saying anything as he recognized the sunburst insignia on Rahl's visor cap.

"You've been out here more than half a season, haven't you?"

"Not saying anything."

Despite the rebel's protest, Rahl got the sense that the rebels had been in the area less than half a season.

"Or was it just three eightdays?"

The man did not speak, but Rahl got a sense that his estimate was close, and he asked, "They sent out a whole company and set this up-and left a half squad of you to drop the boulders on the first full company that came down the road, didn't they?"

Rahl kept asking questions until he realized that the sun was almost touching the horizon. He turned to Roryt. "We'd better head down before it gets too dark. I'll lead the way." He paused. "There weren't any other prisoners?"

"No, ser. One of 'em got away, and another slipped in the ravine, fell fifty cubits. The others, well…" The squad leader shrugged. "We found their mounts and some supplies."

Twilight was shifting to evening by the time Rahl and first squad rejoined the rest of Third Company.

"You lose anyone?" asked Drakeyt.

"No, ser," replied Roryt. "We brought back one prisoner."

"We lost one outrider and one mount. I had some of the scouts farther forward." Drakeyt shook his head. "He thought he was far enough back, but one of those big boulders came this way. He didn't even see it."

"How many were there up there?" asked Drakeyt.

"Ten or twelve," Rahl answered.

"Just ten?" Drakeyt's tone was dubious. "Ten men couldn't have set up all that rock."

"They didn't," Rahl replied. "They had a full company up here for several eightdays, setting this up. They left half a squad to set them off. There's a trail up top, and it leads to the west."

"We brought back twelve mounts," Roryt added. "Sorry beasts, but they can carry supplies."

"Any tools up there?"

"We didn't see much. Why?"

"That section of the road's blocked for almost two hundred cubits. Some parts aren't that bad, but we'll have to clear it. It'll be a real bitch."

Rahl just nodded. He would have liked a little appreciation from Drakeyt for keeping the company from suffering what could have been significant casualties in both troopers and mounts.