He glanced down the table at Battalion-Captain chan Gayrahn. The youthful Bernithian was working hard to improve their knowledge and understanding of the Arcanans. Many of the POWs who’d been moved farther up-chain after Prince Janaki’s arrival at Fort Salby had since been returned to Traisum, now that it was securely held. The others had continued their journey towards Sharona, but it had been evident to chan Geraith-and approved by higher authority-that it was essential at least some of them be kept where chan Gayrahn and the Voices and Mind Speakers available to the 3rd Dragoons could work with them. The men at the sharp end of the sword needed the best available information as quickly as they could get it, and quite a few useful nuggets had already emerged from the Talent-assisted interrogations.
A lot of what chan Gayrahn was learning about the Arcanan military, or about the Andaran culture which seemed to permeate that military, at least, seemed hopelessly at odds with the Arcanans’ observed actions, however. Indeed, quite a few of their prisoners flatly refused to believe Sharonian claims about how the rest of their military had conducted itself. They were less inclined to reject the notion that the Union of Arcana had reacted to the initial clash between itself and Sharona by launching an attack, but they indignantly denied that the Arcanan Army would have been guilty of simply shooting civilians out of hand. Chan Geraith ought to have found that at least somewhat reassuring, and yet…
I wish I had a copy of these “Kerellian Accords” they keep talking about, he thought now, moodily. However much I hate to admit it to any one else, I can actually understand how a military force with no equivalent of Voices might be do whatever it took to shut down our Voices. For that matter, it’s hard to see how they had any other choice, and it fits exactly with Sharonian military policy before the protocols for shutting down the Voice Talent were devised. It’s a bit difficult to demonize them for doing exactly what our ancestors did, especially when they don’t have any Voices of their own or any way short of shooting them to neutralize them.
Of course, the fact that those protocols had been available for well over fifteen hundred years meant it had been a while since any Sharonian military organization had found itself in the quandary the Arcanans currently faced. It was unreasonable to expect even the minority of Sharonians who studied such ancient history in the first place to let present day Arcanan “atrocities” pass simply because their own great-great-whatever-grandparents had done the same thing seventy or eighty generations ago, and he expected public opinion back home to demand accountability and punishment. For that matter, chan Geraith wasn’t exactly prepared to give the Arcanans a pass himself. Yet what worried him much more was the Arcanan commander’s refusal to return any Sharonian POWs taken before his repulse here in Traisum.
From Regiment-Captain chan Skrithik’s reports about the magical translating ability of their crystals, it seemed likely that Arcanan interrogators must have already gotten any vitally important military information their prisoners might have had. That was what bothered chan Geraith. If Commander of Two Thousand Harshu wasn’t hanging on to them for the intelligence they could still provide him, logic suggested he was hanging on to them because of the intelligence they might have provided to chan Geraith. There were all sorts of things Harshu’s enemies might have found it useful to know about the Arcanans, and it was reasonable to assume he’d prefer they didn’t find out what those things were. Yet it was also possible there were things Harshu didn’t want his enemies to know about how the forces under his command had dealt with the survivors of the Sharonian units they’d overrun on their way to Fort Salby.
And it’s also possible you’re indulging your own paranoia, he reminded himself. The fact that the bastards killed Crown Prince Janaki’s likely to predispose you to think the worst of them in every conceivable way, now isn’t it? And if it makes you feel that way, what do you think it’s going to do to all the men under your command when they find Arcanans in their sights?
“At least we have all of the division as far forward as Salym, Sir,” Regiment-Captain chan Kymo pointed out.
“Yes, we have,” Brigade-Captain chan Kartan said rather sourly, and chan Geraith grinned at him.
“Someone has to mind the store here in Traisum, Shodan, and you’re already on the spot. Don’t worry too much about it, though. When the Twenty-First gets here, Division-Captain chan Jassian will be taking over Traisum. He’s got more manpower than a dragoon brigade to begin with, and given all of the Bisons we poached off of him to get the Third on its way, he wouldn’t have the mobility for his entire division to keep up with us, anyway.”
Chan Khartan’s nod might have been just a tad short on enthusiasm, but he knew he didn’t really have a lot of room to complain. He’d still be on the road to the Renaiyrton wharves in plenty of time to catch up with the division’s spearhead. Assuming chan Geraith’s entire strategy didn’t come crashing down in ruins, of course.
“I know you’d like to come along with us as well, Regiment-Captain,” the division-captain said now, glancing down the table to where Rof chan Skrithik sat. Taleena waited on the sturdy perch erected for her, motionless with the patient stillness people unfamiliar with imperial Ternathian peregrines always found profoundly unnatural. “Unfortunately, Fort Salby’s your command responsibility.”
“I understand, Sir,” chan Skrithik replied, and chan Geraith was fairly confident the regiment-captain really did.
It had to be galling for chan Skrithik-and, for that matter, Markan and Garsal-to be left behind after they’d fought so magnificently to hold Salby in the first place. But neither chan Khartan’s dragoons nor the infantry brigade which would relieve them here sometime in the next three or four weeks was going to be staying in Traisum. Assuming chan Geraith’s plans worked, chan Khartan would be following the 12th Dragoons and the rest of Renyl chan Quay’s 1st Brigade down the Kelsayr Chain quite soon now. Chan Jassian’s 21st Infantry Division would also be moving out-probably very rapidly indeed-down a rather different axis of advance sometime in the next two or three months, and there were still all those nasty political considerations to bear in mind. Chan Geraith couldn’t very well order chan Skrithik to join the advance from Traisum without taking Markan and Garsal along as well, unless he wanted to offer the Uromathian emperor a mortal insult by depriving his personnel of the honor of the advance after they’d fought so gallantly at chan Skrithik’s side. But neither could he let them come along without offering Chava an equally useful pretext for taking offense by taking Uromathian units under Ternathian command without prior approval.
Why can’t at least part of this frigging operation be at least remotely simple? he wondered. For that matter, why can’t the Arcanans be the only opposition I need to worry about?
“In the meantime,” he continued more briskly, “I’m rather relieved by the reports from Battalion-Captain chan Yahndar, Master Yanusa-Mahrdissa and Master Banchu. I especially like Yanusa-Mahrdissa’s plans for getting heavy equipment forward, and we damned well should have thought about sending chan Yahndar the Mules from the get-go.”
A grimace of disgust accompanied the second half of his last sentence as he castigated himself once more for not having had the same thought in time. Mostly, he supposed, because he’d been so focused on the Bisons and their massive towing capacity, but he still ought to-