LE Modesitt Corean 05 Cadmian's Choice (v1.5)

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Table chamber.
He was back in Myrmidon headquarters in Elcien by the first glass of the
afternoon. Once more, he looked for Zelyert, but the High Alector of Justice
was not in, and Dainyl hurried back to headquarters.
He had only just settled behind his desk and picked up the first of yet
another stack of reports when the marshal stood in his doorway.
Sir?
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You were gone this morning. Shastylt glared.
You were busy, sir. I took a quick trip to Blackstear.
Why did you go to Blackstear? Just to see it?
I haven t been there. That s true, but I went to see if the recorder or her
assistants had noted any actions by the ancients.
In Blackstear? Despite Shastylt s dubious tone, the marshal closed the study
door.
The ancients like cold areas and high ones. The land is much higher leading
up to the Black Cliffs. And it s cold. We can t check places like the Aerial
Plateau, but I thought.it was worth a glass or two to talk to the recorder
there.
What did you discover?
There are people and livestock missing. Some of the Reillies are complaining.
There s unexplained Talent use.
Shastylt frowned, then nodded. It is a ley node, and high there.
Dainyl had no idea what he meant by a ley node and waited for his superior to
continue.
Shastylt did not and looked at Dainyl.
Do you still think they re concentrated somewhere on the Aerial Plateau?
Dainyl finally asked.
There, or high in the Spine of Corus.
If they do have a redoubt or something up in the Aer-ial Plateau, asked
Dainyl, how could we even bring an attack against them?
For the moment, we would have to wait, and attack when they enter our lands.
As the lifemass on Acorus grows and the air warms, we can employ the
road-building wag-ons and cut a highway from the south, from, say, Deforya,
one by which we can send die Cadmians against them.
I have my doubts that rifles would be effective. That was as much as Dainyl
could say without revealing his own experiences.
We would have to equip them with some variation of lightcutters, and the
casualties would be high. More trou-bling is die strategy that it appears they
are developing.
Dainyl had an idea, but decided against saying it out-right. Using attacks
against Myrmidons and pteridons to require us to draw more on the lifewebs?
Exactly. If we are required to draw on the lifeweb for shields, that will
reduce the lifeforce available before it can be built into a higher and
self-sustaining capacity.
Left unsaid was the point that too little lifeforce would certainly mean diat
die Master Scepter would have to be transferred to Efra, rather man Acorus.
Did you find out anydiing else?
No, sir. Dainyl smiled wryly. Except how cold it is in Blackstear.
Have we had any more reports from the Cadmians about Iron Stem or Hyalt?
One more predator in Iron Stem. It killed some herders, but die Cadmians took
care of it. Third Battalion is still training the new troops in Soudigate.
If anyming happens, let me know. I m off to the Hall of Justice. Shastylt
turned, opened die door, and de-parted leaving Dainyl to his reports before he
began re-viewing Dhenyr s first attempt at a logistics projection for me
coming seasons.
34
In the dimness of dawn, Mykel walked to the mirror in his quarters. He had not
slept all that well, thinking as he had about Rachyla and about what she had
said. Had he changed that much in the season since he had last seen her? Had
she? Or had his emerging abil-ity to sense the auras of people merely revealed
more of who and what she was?
He d never heard of a dagger of the ancients before going to Dramur, much
less encountered one of die an-cient soarers. He d never heard of anyone who
had met one. He had a better idea what the soarer had meant by developing his
talent, but no real guidance on how he should. The sole advice on that had
come from Rachyla, who had told him that the alectors would destroy him if
they ever discovered he was a dagger of the ancients. He d half-dismissed that
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at first. Now, especially after traveling on the alectors ship and sensing
what lay within it, he had the definite feeling she d been right, al-though he
couldn t have explained why in any logical fashion.
He also could not help but wonder how a dagger of the ancients had found its
way to Rachyla s grandsire. From what she had hinted, it had been his undoing
in some fashion, and she felt the dagger would do the same to Mykel.
Standing in the cool morning air, he looked at himself a taller-than-average
lander, with a broad fore-head under short and fine blond hair, light green
eyes, moderately wide shoulders, and short-fingered hands with large palms.
His chest still showed a pinkish scar where he d been shot, a wound that
should have been fa-tal, but had not been.
Did tihe mirror show or reflect auras?
He tried to sense what his own aura might be, but the mirror revealed nothing.
The only impression he felt was one of darkness surrounding himself. Did he
have an aura as black as Rachyla s? Or was he imagining things?
Finally, he shrugged. He certainly had no way to tell what his aura was like,
not that was reliable, anyway.
He finished dressing, and stepped outside onto the bal-cony of the senior
officers quarters. There, for a quarter glass, he stood in the long shadows
of sunrise, watching as rankers crossed the paved courtyard, trying to sense
their auras. While he had noted auras in passing, he had not taken the time to
just watch before. He had difficulty in discerning any aura at all if a ranker
was much more than twenty yards away, although there were some few whose auras
were clear from twice that distance. He had watched for only a short time
before he realized that peo-ple with black auras had to be rare. He sensed not
a single one anywhere close to as dark as Rachyla s, and only one ranker whose
aura betrayed even a trace of black. None showed the flashes of green.
He also suspected that auras indicated something about the lands where people
were born, because the ma-jority of rankers from the Southgate Cadmians had
auras centered in color around a tannish yellow, while the majority of those
from Third Battalion bore shades of browns, ranging from reddish brown to
golden brown. He still had not sensed any more of the pinkish purple shade
shown by the navigator s mate or by Hersiod. Could that coloration result from
being close to the alectors? Certainly the mate was, but why would Hersiod
show such coloration? Or could that have been a result from the time he and
Colonel Herolt had been briefed by the Myrmidon officer? Yet the colonel
hadn t carried the pinkish overshade.
Although he would have liked to confirm more of what he had observed, he
needed to eat and prepare for the
long day ahead. He walked down the narrow steps to the courtyard and hurried
toward the officers small mess.
Two local Cadmians stiffened as he approached.
Carry on. Mykel smiled.
Yes, sir.
Behind him, he caught a few words.
... Crelyot saw him on the range ... never missed...
... doesn t put up with sowshit... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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