Darknesses by L. E. Modesitt Read Free Book Online

Alucius
hadn’t been certain that the young squad leader would mature fast enough to
keep holding the position, but with Alucius’s help, Zerdial had grown into the
job—as had Anslym, the second squad leader. His other three squad
leaders—Faisyn, Egyl, and Sawyn—were seasoned veterans.
    “They’re
already back across the river,” Alucius said. “They crossed, went west as far
as Tuuler. They turned back there and came this way to somewhere ahead. Then
they retraced their path along the road and crossed back into Lanachrona.” He
had a good idea of why the riders had gone farther east, but he wanted to see
if he happened to be right. He did not Talent-sense anyone close by, besides
his own men, and he would have been most surprised if they had found the
riders.
    “The
scouts did report that there were tracks both ways on the ice, sir.” Zerdial
frowned. “They didn’t raid Tuuler.”
    “There’s
little enough to raid, and the houses are stout stone,” Alucius pointed out.
“Most folk here have militia rifles.”
    “But…why…”
    “They’re
not here. Let’s just see if they went so far as the second cataract.” Alucius
gestured to the road ahead. “It’s not that far.”
    “Yes,
sir.”
    The
first two weeks after Twenty-first Company’s return to duty had gone by slowly,
very slowly, each ten-day week feeling twice as long. The third week had begun
the same way, and while Alucius had not accompanied every squad he had sent out
on patrol, he had accompanied about half the patrols, and on one other
occasion, the patrols had found the tracks of riders who had crossed the frozen
section of the River Vedra from Lanachrona, then returned.
    As
first squad continued to ride eastward, Alucius studied the road and the
scattered trees between the road and the fields to the north. To his left, on
the south, was the river, less than fifty yards wide. The ice, which farther
downstream had been thick enough to support a wagon team, was clearly thinner,
and less than a half vingt ahead, Alucius could see breaks and cracks in the
ice, and even one small spot of open black water.
    On
the north side of the road, beyond the trees, the snow-covered fields were
untracked, unmarked by man or mount. Only the road and, at times, the shoulder
held hoofprints. Half a glass passed, and Alucius could hear a low rumbling in
the distance, coming from upriver, somewhere beyond where the river curved
northward for a time before turning back eastward. The center of the river was
largely clear of ice, although the edges and banks were ice-encrusted, but the
black water was so smooth it almost looked like a dark mirror.
    The
tracks of the riders continued eastward, and so did Alucius and first squad,
along the banks of the river. Only traces of ice remained near the banks, and a
steamy fog rose from the black water.
    “Sir?”
ventured Zerdial. “Why would they keep going eastward, then turn back? Past
here, there’s no ice and no way to cross.”
    “Think
about it, Zerdial,” Alucius said.
    As
the column rode around the gentle curve, where the road followed the river, the
low rumbling turned into a far louder roaring that filled the air, with enough
force that the branch tips of the scattered junipers along the river road were
already bare of the snow that had fallen the day before.
    “Sir!”
Zerdial gestured to the pair of scouts ahead, who had ridden off the road and
almost down to the edge of the river.
    When
the squad reached the scouts, Alucius nodded to Zerdial.
    “Squad
halt!” ordered the squad leader.
    Alucius
glanced upriver, even as he urged Wildebeast to the right and down to the
riverbank, where the scouts waited.
    Less
than a vingt upstream was a rocky escarpment, over which jet-black water
steamed as it dropped a good hundred yards into the pool below. For more than a
hundred vingts above the falls and for a good four vingts below the cataract,
the river was ice-free, running rapidly over the rocky