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voice was stern.
'Actually, sir& I was sent to Overcaptain Haeragn for reassignment& but& "
'She's in Faitel, and Undercaptain Sulkyn knew I'd been complaining, and she
handed you to me until the over captain returns."
'Yes, sir."
'You were good with both blade and rifle, as I recall. Very good."
Alucius was more than a little surprised that Jesorak remembered.
'That means he was one of the best," Heltyn added. "You wouldn't recall
otherwise."
'He's good," Jesorak admitted. "Doesn't mean he'll be a good instructor."
'I can see you haven't changed, sir."
'Not a bit." Jesorak smiled. "You have, though. Let's get your gear and get
you settled. We can talk over what you'll do at supper." He glanced at Heltyn.
"We'll come back for you."
'I won't wait for them to rebuild Elcien," Heltyn replied.
Jesorak snorted "You wouldn't wait for a pretty girl with a gold purse and a
calligraphed invitation."
'You're right. I'd be long gone."
Nodding to Alucius, Jesorak said, "We'd better get moving. You can tell me
about what's happening in the south."
'It's been a long year, sir& "
'None of that ""sir" business except when others are near. Now& go on."
'First there were raids and ambushes& " As he talked, Alucius walked alongside
Jesorak. He'd liked Jesorak when he'd been a captive, and was glad to find
that he still did.
After supper with both Heltyn and Jcsorak, and a
long discussion that ended up with a joint decision by the two to try Alucius
as an assistant to both squad leaders at different times of the training day
Alucius walked out into the courtyard.
He stopped to let a messenger ride out from the stables. The man was a full
squad leader uniformed like Alucius, but with the addition of a purple sash.
The leather dispatch case was slung under his left arm, held in place by a
wide leather strap that went from each end of the case and over his right
shoulder.
Alucius watched as the rider went out through the gates alone. As the echo of
hoofbeats on stone died away, Alucius crossed the courtyard and made his way
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up along the narrow and unrailed stone steps onto the top of the western wall
of Eltema Post. Like all the walls of the post, it was unguarded, an
undefended rampart that unlike the gates and the southern wall felt ancient.
He wondered if the old wall had been part of a Duarchial outpost that had been
later restored and rebuilt when the Matrite post had been constructed.
He stood there in the silence, first looking back down at the courtyard and
the orderly buildings within the wall, each structure in its place, from the
massive domed indoor riding arena to the overlarge training building.
Then he turned to watch the sun, just setting, moving until he stood against
the smooth redstone parapet. From there he looked out across Hieron, first to
the north, then the west, and finally to the south. In the fading orange
light, under a darkening silver-green sky, the stones of the buildings glowed
as if by an internal amber illumination of their own, but that illumination
faded as did the sun, if more slowly, as though the stone had caught and
delayed the departure of the sunlight.
Once the sun had dropped completely below the western horizon, and as the
twilight darkened, Alucius looked westward, not just with his eyes, but with
his
Talent, trying to sense all that he could.
The weave of color assaulted him, and he staggered, putting out a hand and
steadying himself on the wall. Fine pink threads from everywhere converged on
the Matrial's residence, so much so that the grounds seemed lit with a
purplish pink light. The pinkish cast was unseen and unfelt, he knew, except
to those who could see it with Talent, but that was the first impression that
swept over
Alucius. The second impression was one of a subtle weave that filled the
entire darkening skies, the warp and weft of life webs that seemed to
intertwine, and yet never touch. Against the soft and warm and subtle and
living web, the purplish pink was shudderingly wrong, an oppressive web
spinning out of the
Matrial's residence, rather than the tapestry of life formed by the softer
life webs.
Could he do anything about that pink web? Was that what the wood-spirit had
alluded to? And why him? Surely, others had seen what he was seeing. He
couldn't have been the first herder, the first Talented man seeing what he
saw.
Or could he?
He repressed a shiver.
Then he straightened and studied the pinkish threads of that web again.
Perhaps& perhaps if he could do something about it, difficult as it seemed, it
might make his escape far easier.
He paused. Was that the problem? All he had been thinking was about escape,
and, just as the pinkish web felt wrong, so did the idea of mere escape.
Yet& what could he do?
Enter the Matrial's grounds? He'd been discovered by the first Talent-officer
he'd run across, and surely there would be more experienced guards or officers
with Talent surrounding the Matrial. Then, would anyone expect anything from a
lowly squad leader in uniform?
He could escape& without doing anything. He could remove his own torque and
ride to the northeast, and with what he knew, it would be hard for anyone to
find him or catch him. But& he would know. And if he ever did return to the
stead, on all the rides below the plateau, he would indeed recall that he had
seen true evil and turned away.
He looked back at the Matrial's grounds and the shocking wrong-ness of the
purplish pink spider web that so few could see. He studied the interweaving
and converging threads for a long time& until true deep evening fell across
the city.
Then, he took a long and slow deep breath, before turning and taking the
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narrow stone steps back down to the courtyard.
The rifle training came late in the afternoon, which made a sort of sense to
Alucius, because most of the time, troopers weren't fresh when they had to use
their weapons at least that had been his experience, both in the militia and
with the Matrite horse.
In his second day as an instructor, Alucius watched as the trainees filed into
their positions on the range. A Matrite rifle was laid out at each firing
position, already loaded. That was one of the setup chores that went with [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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