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before, and one after. Squad leader Gorak had already moved the replacement
troopers in front of the first regular Matrite squad, in a column by twos.
Alucius and Sazium were in the second rank, behind Kymbes and Murat.
Alucius patted Wildebeast on the shoulder, and projected calm as he listened
to Gorak.
'You replacement troopers will act as one squad under my command. You'll all
start up front with me. Once we're clear of Hieron, half of you will be in the
van with Squad Leader Chanek," announced Gorak, a short and muscular man,
clean-shaven with lank brown hair. He wore the two crimson chevrons of a full
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squad leader, but not the three of a senior squad leader. "There's one change
from what Jesorak told you. You'll pick up your rifles at the armory in Salcer
when we get there. You won't be needing them until then, but you might after
that."
'Squad leader!"
Gorak turned his mount to face the trim older woman who had reined up just
inside the gates. "Yes, captain?"
'Are your men ready?"
'We stand ready^ captain, but the teamsters say that they need a quarter
glass."
'So I heard." Captain Sennel's voice was hard, yet her tone conveyed a rueful
acceptance, tinged with irony.
A second and younger female officer rode through the gate and halted her mount
beside the captain. "Captain."
'Squad Leader Gorak, this is Undercaptain Porlel."
Undercaptain Porlel looked to be younger than Alucius. Her short hair was
reddish blonde and tight-curled to her head, and she had a generous nose
between deepset eyes. Her shoulders were broad, and despite her youthful and
awkward appearance, she projected a confidence that suggested she was older
than she appeared. From the few green flashes that his senses revealed as he
studied her covertly, Alucius had the feeling she had at least some Talent.
Alucius could not sense any Talent in the captain, but he was uncertain
whether
that was because she had none, or because she had enough ability to conceal
what she had. There was still so much he did not know.
'We'll be picking up ten more wagons at the depot on the south side of
Hieron. They're supposed to be ready." Sennel's voice conveyed some doubt.
'Yes, captain." Both the squad leader and the undercaptain spoke
simultaneously.
A lanky woman wearing a plain forest green tunic and trousers walked toward
the two officers and the squad leader.
'Lead Teamster Sandjin, captain. We're loaded and ready."
'Thank you, Sandjin," replied Sennel. "As soon as you're on your wagon, we're
moving."
The teamster turned, the iron taps of her boot heels clicking on the courtyard
pavement.
Within moments, the captain commanded, "Column forward."
Alucius took his station on Kymbes, and watched Gorak as the squad leader
rode, alone, behind the two officers.
Once outside the redstone walls of the post, the column turned west until it
reached the ramp up to the ancient high road, and then turned south on the
eternastone paving. Alucius studied the park of the Ma-trial. Once they were
on the raised high road, Alucius realized that the thin pink Talent-threads
from the torques led to the long stone dwelling, not in a way that he could
have proved, even though he felt it. He also had a greater sense of an unseen
evil around the dwelling. Were the torques the sole key to the power of the
Matrial or just part of a larger set of Talent-powers she wielded?
A wry smile crossed his face and vanished, as he considered that he was acting
as if there were something he could do when he was yet a captive of one of
those torques, and when he had still to regain full control over his Talent.
Second, as he looked from the elevated road to the park and then southward, he
understood what he had felt and had not been able to articulate when he had
first come to Hieron the city had been built entirely after the
Cataclysm, and it had been built around a place where all the old roads had
intersected. That was why there were ramps everywhere to access the roads.
That also pointed out how close Hieron was to the ancient vanished cities of
Elcien and Faitel because such a crossroads would certainly have been a place
for a city, unless there had been much better sites not that far from where
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Hieron now stood.
The column traveled a good three vingts southward on the high road until the
dwellings abruptly ended. There was a space of close to half a vingt of meadow
between the last dwellings and the depot. The depot was surrounded by
three-yard-high stone walls that formed a square five hundred yards on a side.
Within the walls, as they approached on the ancient high road from the north,
Alucius could see more than forty warehouses, each close to a hundred yards
long and twenty in width.
'More stores there than in all the traders' warehouses in Dekhron," Sazium
murmured.
Alucius wouldn't have doubted it, but he had no way of knowing, except that
most of Iron Stem would have fit within the walls of the depot.
Contrary to the captain's doubts, all ten wagons were loaded and lined up just
inside the fifty-yard-wide opening in the walls an opening that was too large
to qualify as a gate and that was without fortifications, except for a small
guardhouse set just inside the walls. Two guards in green, not troopers, but
gray-haired women, stood beside the slate-roofed stone-walled guardhouse,
watching.
Alucius could sense Talent there, and quickly decided against probing with his
own Talent senses. Instead, he watched as the captain talked with two other
teamsters.
Then the captain turned her mount and rode back toward the troopers.
'They're ready to roll, squad leader."
'Yes, captain." Gorak turned his mount. "First two ranks and the next man,
replacement troopers, forward! Squad Leader Chanek, forward!"
Since Alucius was in the second rank, he and Sazium rode forward to meet with
Gorak and Chanek. Chanek was a tall and thin junior squad leader with jet
black hair and a short-square-trimmed black beard.
'Here are your five troopers for the van," Gorak announced.
Chanek glanced over the group, then nodded. "Yes, sir." After a moment, he
addressed the six. "We'll be riding just thirty yards before the main column
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