“That would be welcome.”
“We do what we can, Captain.”
“How’s your lady, sir?”
“She’s much better. Much better, but she needs a few more days before she’ll be up to a long ride.”
Sario offered a sympathetic smile.
Quaeryt wished he could offer comfort in return, knowing that the captain had lost his beloved wife some years earlier, and still missed her greatly. You were fortunate that you didn’t lose Vaelora to the mistakes you made. But they had lost more than either had intended. “Until later, Captain.”
Sario nodded as Quaeryt turned and walked back toward the foot of the pier … and the fort. His head still throbbed, but the pain had been far worse many times before-and he had redone the pier without tariffing the other imagers, who had more than enough to do in dealing with rebuilding the trooper compound from the ruins.
2
“Now what?” asked Vaelora. She sat on the bed, wearing riding clothes, propped up with pillows, because there was little enough left of furnishings anywhere, let alone in the unruined section of the stone fort that remained the only structure in Kephria to have survived the Antiagon assault of both cannon and Antiagon Fire. In fact, all of the furnishings, except for the bed, had been imaged into being by two of Quaeryt’s undercaptains, Khalis and Lhandor, except for one chair that Quaeryt had created.
The small amount of sunlight filtering into the fort on Solayi afternoon was enough for Quaeryt to see that Vaelora had color in her face and that the circles under her eyes were not so deep as they had been when he’d first seen her on Vendrei.
“Well?” prompted Vaelora when Quaeryt did not reply.
“You’re feeling better,” he replied in the court Bovarian they always used when alone … and with a smile.
“I am. You haven’t answered the question.”
“I think we need to report back to the lord and master of Lydar. In person and with a certain deliberate haste.”
“Khel hasn’t acknowledged his rule,” she pointed out.
“I’m hopeful that in the coming months the High Council will see that discretion in negotiation is better than courage without strength in battle.”
“That’s possible … but you’re still worried.”
“Why should I be worried? Autarch Aliario has perished, and Antiago lies in the hands of Submarshal Skarpa. Presumably Submarshal Myskyl has used his forces to assure that northern Bovaria has accepted Bhayar’s rule. With the fall of Antiago and the destruction of the wall around Kephria and the devastation of Ephra, the River Laar is now open to trade … even if there are no warehouses for traders around the harbor or anywhere near.” Quaeryt let a sardonic tone creep into his next words. “Of course, our lord and master knows of none of this, and as you pointed out, he will be less than pleased that the High Council of Khel did not crawl on their knees to accept his most magnanimous terms. Seeing as the last two months have been winter, also, I have my doubts about how assiduously the submarshal of the Northern Army has pursued a campaign of persuasion in the north…”
In fact, Quaeryt had few doubts that Myskyl had already undertaken yet another effort to undermine and discredit Quaeryt, although Quaeryt had no idea in what form that effort might manifest itself.
Vaelora held up a hand in protest. “Dearest … I think you’ve made your point. When should we leave?”
“Not until three days after you think you’re ready.”
“Then we’ll leave on Jeudi.”
Quaeryt shook his head. “No anticipation. You don’t feel ready to leave today. We’ll see how you feel tomorrow.”
“You worry too much.”
No … I didn’t worry enough about you, and I almost lost you … and we did lose our daughter.
“Dearest…” began Vaelora softly. “You did the best you could do. If you’d left another regiment or some imagers, you would have failed in Antiago, especially in Liantiago in facing Aliaro.”
“I should have taken you with me, then.”
“With all that riding, the same thing might well have happened. What might have happened in Liantiago? Where would I have been safe there?”
Quaeryt had no answers to her questions.
“We both knew that seeking what we want and need would be dangerous, but unless Bhayar unites all of Lydar, that cannot be. If Bhayar fails to unite Lydar,” Vaelora went on, her voice quiet but firm, “sooner or later all will turn against him for the costs of the wars. You are the only one who can assure that he is successful.”
“No. You and I together are the only ones. Without your presence in Khel, there would be no chance that the High Council would even have considered his terms. Without your counsel, I would have made too many mistakes.” Even more than I already did.
“Dearest … I’ve made mistakes as well. Trusting Grellyana was a terrible mistake.”
“I doubt that it made much difference in the end, not with the mistakes I made,” he replied with a soft laugh.
They both smiled, and both smiles were rueful.
“What about Nineteenth Regiment?” asked Vaelora after several moments. “Will you summon Alazyn to join us?”
“I think not. Skarpa will need all the troopers he has in Liantiago. And it would take weeks for Alazyn to march here, and we don’t have the ships to transport a full regiment and its mounts from Liantiago. Also, another regiment won’t help us in returning to Variana.” Or after we get there, since resolving any problems we face won’t require large battles. “We still have Eleventh Regiment, and it is almost at full strength. First company is at three-quarters strength.”
“Of a normal company.”
Quaeryt nodded, acknowledging that first company had set out from Variana with five squads, rather than four, then went on. “I think Calkoran should accompany us, with his first company, so that he can brief Bhayar as well, but Major Zhael and Major Arion and their companies should hold Kephria and Geusyn … what’s left of them.”
“They should encourage the locals to relocate to Kephria,” suggested Vaelora. “That’s where the traders will come now.”
“I’ll make certain that they spread the word.” I’ll also make certain that they don’t allow people to build shanties or the like near the harbor. He paused. “I had thought we might find a way to use Rex Kharst’s canal boat on the return, but the Antiagon imagers destroyed it when they fired all the wooden piers in Geusyn.”
“Trying to use it would just have slowed us down.” Vaelora shifted her weight in the bed, then swung her feet onto the floor. “I need to walk some more.” She leaned forward gingerly and pulled on the low boots.
Quaeryt rose from the chair beside her bed, then extended his right hand. The end two fingers on his left still refused to move, except slightly, and then only when he tried to close the entire hand. It had been almost half a year since the battle of Variana, and he had come to the conclusion that he might never regain the use of those fingers.
Vaelora took his hand, but used it only to steady herself for a moment, before she walked toward the gun port that had been sealed for years. Quaeryt walked beside her. With each step, fine ash swirled around their boots, even though the area had been swept just glasses before.
“It’s warm enough. Let’s walk over to the pier and out to the Zephyr.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. I won’t get stronger doing nothing. I’m not bleeding, and my bruises are all healing. Sometimes this happens to women for no reason at all, and they survive. So will I.”
Quaeryt wasn’t about to argue.
Once they reached the pier, Quaeryt checked his imaging shields, making sure that they covered both Vaelora and himself. He could feel the effort, most likely because of what he had been doing earlier.