Mage-Guard of Hamor

LXII

Oneday found Third Company on the road once more, if a different road, under a hazy late-afternoon sky that created a feel of more chill than actually was present.

On eightday, Taryl had summoned Drakeyt and Rahl. His briefing had been direct and simple. They were to take the side road, also paved, and almost as well traveled as the main road, as far as the town of Undmyn, some fifteen kays to the west-southwest. Third Company was to discover if there were any sizable forces in the area and to check the status of the mines just short of the town and determine if they were being protected by rebel forces. If the mines were not defended, Rahl and Drakeyt were to suggest to whoever might be in charge that any shipments of copper to rebel forces or to areas currently controlled by the rebels would be considered treason and dealt with accordingly. They were not to enter the town itself, nor were they to initiate any combat, but only to defend themselves were Third Company attacked. If the town and surrounding areas were free of rebel forces, Third Company was to continue onward, taking the road farther until it returned to the main road, where the company was to rejoin Second Army.

After the briefing, Taryl had transferred another twenty-five troopers to Third Company, from one of the companies so decimated by the battle that those twenty-five were all who were left alive and unwounded. One was Dhosyn, the new squad leader for first squad, a small and compact man with old scars across both cheeks and his forehead.

For some reason, Dhosyn reminded Rahl of Khalyt, the first engineer Rahl had met in Nylan, although they looked not in the slightest alike. Was it the quiet competence? Rahl wasn't sure, and he wondered exactly why he'd thought of the young engineer. Then, Deybri had that same quiet competence, and a quiet warmth that he missed even more, as much as he told himself that there was no help for it. He had tried to write her about the battle, but, in the end, he'd torn up that part of his continuing letter. He might tell her…

Rahl shook his head and shifted his weight in the saddle. When would he see her to tell her in person? Would he even receive another letter for seasons?

He turned his eyes to the way ahead.

The road to Undmyn didn't look that much different from the road from Lahenta to Thalye. There were steads everywhere, with fields, meadows, and woods. The grasslands south of Thalye had already begun to give way to lush and fertile fields, and the air was warmer, so much so that, although it was but a few eightdays past the height of winter in Merowey, Rahl was only wearing his riding jacket in the early morning or well after sunset. The tilled fields were showing green sprouts, doubtless because the area was warmer and the danger of frost had passed earlier in the year. The older wooden fences held a greenish shade, as if they harbored moss all year round.

The other similarity was that no one was in sight when Third Company rode by. There might be a woodpile with a stack of fresh-split wood chunks, but the splitter had vanished. There might be laundry half-hung on a line between two trees, but no sign of anyone who might have hung it.

Less than a kay before, Rahl and Alrydd, riding behind the scouts as outriders, had passed a kaystone whose worn characters had indicated five kays to Undmyn. Outside of a grittiness in the air, and a faintly acrid and metallic odor, there was no sign of either the mines or the town, and Rahl had not yet sensed the presence of large numbers of people-either troops or the grouping that suggested a town or hamlet.

"Hard to believe there's mines ahead, ser," offered Alrydd.

"Sometimes, there are more than a few things that are hard to believe," replied Rahl. Such as what had happened in the fighting at the edge of the swamp.

As hard as Rahl had tried to recall exactly what had happened when he and first squad had battled the rebel troopers coming out of the swamp, he did not remember much in the way of details beyond images of his truncheon striking troopers. But he could not believe he had killed all that many, and he had trouble crediting the stories he'd heard-or the belief by troopers that he broken the attack himself.

Yet… whenever he thought about the truncheon or let his order-senses touch it, Rahl could feel the difference. While it had been crafted from dark oak, that oak had been part of a staff. Rahl had to wonder if the staff had been one given to an exile from Recluce. There was enough order within the oak that the staff was strong enough to stand up to steel. He'd examined it more than once since the battle, and there were no marks at all on the smooth surface. It couldn't have been that way earlier, because Khelra couldn't have crafted it. Could she?

Rahl shook his head. He hadn't sensed that kind of order-crafting in the cooper, good as she clearly was as a crafter. So what had happened to the truncheon? Had he done something to it in the heat of battle? The odds were that he had, but what, he didn't know and couldn't recall.

"Another disadvantage of being a natural ordermage," he murmured to himself.

"Ser?"

"Just thinking out loud, Alrydd."

At that moment, he could feel the faint and distant chill, not in his body, but in his thoughts, that he had come to recognize as the hallmark of some mage using a glass to scree for him. Although Rahl could sense screeing attempts, he had followed Taryl's advice and kept holding stronger shields-which was getting easier with each day-and he could sense that the mages seeking him were not finding him-at least not in more than a general sense.

Still, he had to wonder whether the Third Company's patrol to Undmyn was really necessary, except as a tactical maneuver to keep the rebel mages off guard as to what Taryl and the marshal were actually doing.

Whatever the reason might be, Rahl reminded himself, he needed to concentrate on the road and the areas beside and beyond it, and for the next kay or so, he said nothing, just kept trying to see or sense anything that might pose the slightest threat to Third Company. He could detect nothing.

"Ser?"

"Yes, Alyrdd."

"I been wondering, ser. You know, at Thalye, we beat up the rebels pretty bad, but the overcommander didn't pursue them. Well, not right away, and he's a pretty crafty one."

"You'd like to know why?" Rahl chuckled. "He didn't say much about that when he briefed us, but he did say that only about one in five of their troopers escaped being captured, wounded, or killed, and they scattered every which way. I'd judge that there wasn't much way to pursue them without splitting up our forces."

"Makes sense, ser, but I wasn't sure."

There was another reason, too, if not more, from what Rahl knew of Taryl. One well might have been that Taryl wanted word to circulate about the immensity of that rebel defeat.

Ahead to the right were several low hills, and beyond them, Rahl could make out a number of brick chimneys. But as he rode closer, Rahl could tell that those stacks were cold-not the slightest trace of smoke issued from any of them.

He turned in the saddle. "Mines ahead!"

Drakeyt immediately rode forward to join Rahl. "The chimneys beyond those hills?"

"I'd judge so. I'm not sure there's anyone there… but I can't tell yet."

"I'll have the company ready weapons, just in case." Drakeyt turned his mount back toward the main body.

Rahl and Alrydd kept riding.

Even before he rode fully clear of the hills flanking the smelter below the mines, Rahl could tell that the structures and the mines were empty. The buildings hadn't been burned, but Rahl could sense that no one was there.

As he rode even closer, he could see recent tracks in the side lanes and could discern a feeling of recent inhabitation. There were also no hauling wagons in sight. Doubtless, the rebels had hauled away all the copper stock or ingots or sheets and shut down the mines and smelter when they had learned Second Army was headed to Undmyn.

Had that been one of Taryl's goals?

At the moment, Rahl honestly couldn't have said he knew what any of the overcommander's objectives were, except to put down the rebellion for the Emperor… and the Empress.