Rex Regis

14

Interestingly enough, but not completely surprising to Quaeryt, was the condition of the road heading north out of Semlem. While still of clay, the surface was packed and smooth, as well as wide enough that the actual surface used by riders and wagons stretched from one original shoulder to the other, all signs that the metals mined east of the mining town continued to be valued and that they traveled north-most likely to the Great Canal and then eastward to Variana.

He was also pleased that he and Vaelora had received a nearly immediate, if brief, but pleasant reply to their missive to Patarak. The older High Holder had written that he appreciated their courtesy and their interest in High Holders, even in less frequented parts of Bovaria, and that he looked forward to the return of order across Bovaria and that the presence of Lord Bhayar’s sister boded well for all those with that hope.

“I don’t think he was too pleased with Kharst,” Quaeryt had observed. “Or he wants us to think he wasn’t.”

“That could be, but the innkeeper did say that he’d been very quiet for the last few years. His riding accident might have provided an excuse not to travel to Variana or to see Kharst.”

“That’s possible.” But anything’s possible the way Kharst ruled.

Quaeryt had thought over the missive more than once as they had ridden northward over the next four days, especially after visiting, if briefly, two other High Holders who had been all too eager to profess their allegiance to Bhayar. But then, the nearer they came to the Great Canal and Variana, the more likely it was that information about Bhayar’s victories had reached the various high holdings.

Although it was not yet midspring, by midday on Vendrei Quaeryt had long since shed his uniform riding jacket. He was also looking impatiently at the scattered cots and holdings, thinking that there should be signs that they were approaching Eluthyn. His impatience might have been partly because, in covering the last hundred milles, they had accomplished more road and bridge repairs, but mainly to strengthen existing bridges and causeways, since the road north of Semlem remained wide and in far better repair than the roads north of Daaren.

Roughly a glass before, they had seen a stone indicating that they had ten milles to go, yet Quaeryt saw no sign of the canal town or the canal.

“You’re getting impatient, aren’t you?” observed Vaelora.

“I suppose so.”

“We still have nearly a week of travel left, eight or nine days, if the weather’s bad. I worry that Bhayar’s gotten rumors about what happened, and Myskyl and Deucalon are distorting them.”

“With the state of roads in Bovaria, how is he going to find out? The only way he could get word is if someone sent a dispatch rider from Kephria … and there’s no one who could. Even if he did get word, he wouldn’t know how accurate it would be.”

Once more, Quaeryt was reminded of just how long it took for messages to travel-and travel time had been bad enough just across Telaryn.

“You have that look,” said Vaelora.

“I was thinking about how long it takes even for rulers to find things out.”

“You could have sent a dispatch rider,” she pointed out.

“That would have been worse. Imagine what problems we’d face if Myskyl and Deucalon had two weeks or more to plant ideas without us there.” Quaeryt shook his head. “Either way, it’s a problem. That’s why Bhayar needs good roads and good regional governors. And dispatch stations.” And in Bovaria, at the moment, he has none of those.

Quaeryt glanced to his left, down at the river, almost pondlike in its calm. It was definitely narrower, although that had occurred so gradually that Quaeryt hadn’t really noticed before. What called his attention to it was that, in places, there were poles planted to show the channel for the flatboats, and there wasn’t that much open water between the poles and the shore.

Ahead, above the trees, he saw the roofs of several buildings, although they looked to be to the west of the river. Then he nodded, recalling that most of Eluthyn actually lay to the west of where the canal and the river crossed, or rather where the river actually ran under the Great Canal through a culvert. The canal locks were just east of there.

“Well … finally,” he said cheerfully. “There’s Eluthyn.”

“Where else would you expect it to be,” replied Vaelora dryly.

Quaeryt thought he heard a smothered guffaw from one of the undercaptains who rode behind them. He grinned and replied, “For all I know, it could have vanished. But it does have a decent inn, I hear, although … there would have been advantages to having Rex Kharst’s canal boat.”

“Advantages for whom, dearest?” murmured Vaelora.

Quaeryt decided to refrain from commenting, at least until they were alone in the inn at Eluthyn.