“The subcommander thought you’d need men to clear away stuff to get into that mess, sir.”
“He’s very right. I appreciate it. I should have thought of that.”
“You’ve thought of plenty, sir.” Eslym smiled happily.
Before long, Justanan walked toward Quaeryt. “Good morning.”
“Good morning to you. How are the regimental commanders this morning?”
Justanan offered a crooked smile. “Worried. Some of them didn’t realize who you were. It will do them good.”
Quaeryt glanced around, then asked, “Nieron?”
“He’s still upset. Not so much at you. He can’t believe it. He’ll be looking closely.”
“There’s nothing to hide.”
“Interestingly enough, that was one of the few things that Myskyl said about you. He said that you had no secrets, that you did everything in the open, and that men like that were dangerous.”
Quaeryt laughed softly. “I learned that from watching him … and others.” Except you do have secrets, and some you’ve even kept from yourself.
Quaeryt turned to Eslym, who had stepped back to allow the commanders space. “If you’d have the men clear the end entryway and start up the main corridor.”
“Yes, sir.”
“If there are any bodies, leave them where they are, and leave all weapons or personal articles alone.” According to the musters of the night before, the only casualties from Northern Army were Luchan and Myskyl … but there was no way of telling how many or who from the hold staff might have perished, not with Lady Myranda and her personal retainers missing.
“Yes, sir.”
“You think others might have perished?” asked Justanan.
“It’s possible. It’s also possible that the only casualties were the three, Luchan, and Myskyl. I just want them to be careful.”
“That would be good,” said Nieron, who had clearly heard the interchange, as he joined Quaeryt and Justanan.
The three commanders moved to the entry and watched as the rankers began to clear away debris. Nearly a glass passed before the nearly thirty yards from the entry to near the officers’ salon was passable. Even so, Quaeryt and the other two commanders had to step over and around massive charred timbers and stone and masonry that had fallen in from the upper level. Finally, they reached the area outside the chamber that had been the officers’ salon.
“You can see the blunderbuss from here, or what’s left of it,” observed Justanan, stopping a good five yards from where the doorway to the salon had been. “It looks like it was loaded and the fire set off the charge.”
Nieron moved forward, stepping around a large section of what had to have been the tile flooring of the upper level, until he was within several yards. “That’s a gun port as well.” He shook his head. Then he looked down. “There are bones here. Parts of them.”
“That was where Commander Luchan fell,” said Quaeryt.
“You didn’t try to drag him out?”
“He was dead, and with everything on fire and exploding around me, I wasn’t exactly feeling charitable,” replied Quaeryt.
“I suppose not.”
“We did drag out Captain Whandyn, you might recall.”
Nieron moved to his left, bending down and moving aside a large piece of thin iron, frowning as he did so. “This looks like it was fastened inside a door, but there’s a hole in the middle. Like it had been pierced by a blade.” He moved a few more chunks of tile, then stopped. “Something shiny…”
Slowly he pulled something out from under a small pile of rubble and held it up, his mouth open. In his hand was a silvery blade, totally unmarked, except for fragments of soot that flaked away. Even the hilt and grip were silvery. The polished blade itself looked to be a little more than half a yard long.
“Erion’s dagger?” asked Justanan.
Nieron said nothing. Instead, he turned and bent, extending the blade toward the discolored iron sheet he had earlier set aside.
“It looks like the door was lined with iron and that silver dagger went through Myskyl and the iron and pinned him to the door,” observed Justanan. “Are there any bones there, or insignia?”
Nieron turned and looked down. “There’s one melted star and crescent here. It looks like that’s what it was.”
“Are you satisfied?” asked Justanan, his voice kinder than Quaeryt had heard before.
Nieron straightened, still holding the silver dagger. Wordlessly, he nodded, then handed the dagger to Justanan. “You should keep this for now.”
“For now,” agreed Justanan, although he glanced to Quaeryt for a moment. “It looks like there was another chamber, opposite where the blunderbuss is.”
Nieron turned and nodded, almost despondently.
Justanan then pointed toward what remained of the outer wall. “There’s also that.”
Nieron followed the worried-looking commander’s gesture. Where the window and iron shutter had been was an archway, with stone and metal fused all the way around the edges. Nieron turned and looked at Quaeryt. Then he shook his head. “I’ve seen more than enough. Myskyl was a fool.”
Quaeryt spoke for the first time. “I think we might return to the study and discuss what should be said at the senior officers’ meeting. We all should agree on that.”
“Might be best,” agreed Nieron.
Justanan nodded.
The three retraced their steps back out from the burned ruin. As they stepped away from the south entry Quaeryt heard murmured words from someone among Calkoran’s rankers.
“Erion’s dagger…”
Another legend to live down … or outlive. If you can … Quaeryt kept walking.
Just before ninth glass, Quaeryt, Justanan, and Nieron stepped into the officers’ mess room off the south courtyard. Every waiting officer stood.
Justanan nodded to Quaeryt.
“As you were,” Quaeryt commanded, infusing the words with a touch of image-projected authority. “Please be seated.”
The three commanders remained standing, with Quaeryt in the center, Justanan to his right, and Nieron to his left.
Quaeryt looked out at the three subcommanders and at the more than twenty majors seated at the two long tables. “I’m Commander Quaeryt. Some of you may know who I am. Some won’t. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve all been led astray.” Quaeryt image-projected the sense of absolute assurance and truth. That wasn’t hard, since most of what he was going to say was indeed the truth, with one slight amendment.
“For you to understand what happened and why, there’s one set of facts you have to keep in mind. For the entire campaign up the River Aluse, and even at the battle of Variana, Lord Bhayar and Marshal Deucalon were greatly concerned about Rex Kharst’s imagers…” Quaeryt went on to give the simplified and shortened version of what he’d told Justanan and Nieron the afternoon before, with the changes that they had suggested. Then he added, “I’d like Commander Justanan, as the senior commander here, to add whatever he would like to say.”
Justanan stepped forward and cleared his throat. “Difficult as what Commander Quaeryt has said may be to believe, it appears to be absolutely true. When Commander Quaeryt met with the submarshal yesterday, the submarshal, Commander Luchan, and three imagers who had served Kharst attempted to kill Commander Quaeryt, both with imaging and with a special blunderbuss actually built into the wall of the officers’ salon. The commander’s defenses held, and the blacklash from the imaging created the explosions and fire that gutted the hold house. During the fire, the Lady Myranda and her personal retainers fled, suggesting that she may have had something to do with matters. Commander Nieron and I physically investigated the hold house this morning, once the embers and ashes had cooled enough for us to do so. We found the blunderbuss. We also found a secret room with access to the salon with the bones of the Bovarian imagers. There are dispatches which reveal that the submarshal was requested to send the tariffs he collected to Lord Bhayar and that he never did. I feel that we are most fortunate that Commander Quaeryt merely defended himself in this deplorable situation. The three of us have met several times, and in accord with Lord Bhayar’s orders, we will be leaving one regiment here in Rivages to keep order in the area. That regiment will be Sixteenth Regiment, under Subcommander Moravan. The rest of us will be leaving on Mardi morning to return to Variana.” He looked to Quaeryt.